Silk Road Spirit will prevail over zero-sum mentality

The "Silk Road Spirit" could become a guiding principle in solving complex regional and international issues.

Peace and cooperation, openness and inclusiveness, mutual learning and mutual benefit, form the core values of the Silk Road Spirit, as proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping at the sixth Ministerial Conference of the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum (CASCF).

In the ancient time, it was through the Silk Road that the Chinese inventions of paper-making, gun powder, movable type printing and compass were spread to Europe via the Arab region and that the Arab astronomy, calendar and medicine were introduced to China.

In the present time, China, located in the East Asia, and the Arab countries, which are mainly located in the West Asia and North Africa, are carrying forward the Silk Road Spirit and deepening cooperation in political and economic fields.

China and Arab countries will also jointly build the Silk Road economic belt and 21st century maritime Silk Road. The two concepts were put forward by Xi during two separate visits to Central Asia and Southeast Asia in 2013.

When the Cold War ended, the international security situation remained complex. Both East and West Asia are facing up to traditional and non-traditional challenges and threats. To make matters worse, a certain individual country persistently promotes its own value and political systems and "zero-sum" mentality, complicating the regional situation.

To be different, the Silk Road Spirit means peace and win-win cooperation. When addressing the opening ceremony of the sixth Ministerial Conference of the CASCF, Xi said "We want to achieve development for ourselves and we want to enable others to grow as well."

Xi also pledged to work with Arab states to encourage dialogue as a way to find the greatest common denominator on issues of concern to all parties, and provide more public goods for the proper settlement of regional hotspot issues.

It's obvious that China hopes the "win-win cooperation" principle could prevail over "zero-sum" mentality and become an important principle for handling state-to-state relations.

The Chinese president have made many diplomatic proposals with the core spirit of peace and cooperation. Apart from the Spirit of Silk Road, Xi called for a common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security strategy for Asia, when he delivered a keynote speech at the fourth summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) in Shanghai in May.

Perhaps it will take some time for the world to accept and put more trust in China's standpoints and hopefully, the cooperation between China and Arab countries could be a good example and solid evidence for China's win-win cooperation resolve.