Full Text of Foreign Minister Wang Yi's Speech on China's Diplomacy in 2014(2)

2. The call for building a global network of partnerships. Another major diplomatic vision expounded by President Xi Jinping at the Central Conference on Work Relating to Foreign Affairs is to make more friends and build a global network of partnerships while abiding by the principle of non-alignment.

Building partnership is a distinctive feature of China's diplomacy. After the end of the Cold War which was marked by the confrontation between alliance of nations, we drew on the experience and lessons of history in a timely way and succeeded in developing a new approach of forming partners instead of allies. China has established 72 partnerships in different forms and at different levels with 67 countries and 5 regions or regional organizations, which cover all the major countries and regions in the world. President Xi Jinping's call for building a global network of partnerships is an incisive summary and enrichment of China's successful diplomatic practices over the past two decades and more. It has increased the strategic and global dimension for our efforts to build partnerships.

The partnerships that we are building have three basic features. First, equality. Countries, regardless of their sizes or levels of development, should respect each other's sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity as well as each other's choice of development path and values, treat each other as equals, and show mutual understanding for and support each other. Second, peace. What makes such partnership different from military alliance is that it does not have any hypothetical enemy nor is it targeted at any third party, thus keeping relations between countries unaffected by military factors. It aims to handle state-to-state relations with a cooperative rather than confrontational, and a win-win rather than zero-sum approach. Third, inclusiveness. The partnership we have initiated seeks to go beyond differences in social systems and ideologies to maximize common interests and pursue a common goal. As President Xi Jinping puts it, "Those who share the same vision and follow the same path are partners. Those who seek common ground while shelving differences can also be partners." On the other hand, partnership does not mean giving up principles. China will continue to follow an independent foreign policy of peace in international affairs, and take position and make its judgment on an issue based on its merits.

3. The call to pursue the Asia-Pacific dream. President Xi Jinping first called for pursuing the Asia-Pacific dream and elaborated on it during the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting. He stressed that this dream is about fostering a sense of the Asia-Pacific community and shared destiny, jointly working for the prosperity and progress of our region, and driving global development and making greater contribution to the well-being of mankind.

The pursuit of the Asia-Pacific dream was put forward against the following historical background. First, while there are turbulences in many regions of the world, Asia-Pacific has increasingly become the anchor of global stability and prosperity. At the same time, as various powers have increased their involvement in the Asia-Pacific, the regional architecture is undergoing profound transformation; and the international community is closely following the evolution of the Asia-Pacific. Second, as various bilateral and multilateral mechanisms with different goals have emerged in the Asia-Pacific, we need to work to build consensus on how to advance the all-round cooperation in our region. Third, as China is the most dynamic economy in the Asia-Pacific and the host of this year's APEC meeting, the world is watching how China will lead the development of the Asia-Pacific.

Against this background, President Xi Jinping called for pursuing the Asia-Pacific dream during the APEC meeting in Beijing. He put forward a four-point proposal on shaping the future through Asia-Pacific partnership, building an open economy in the Asia-Pacific, exploring new drivers for economic growth and drawing a blueprint for comprehensive connectivity. This has addressed the concerns of various parties, set the direction for cooperation in our region, thus playing an important role at a crucial time for the Asia-Pacific's development.

4. The vision of Asian security. President Xi Jinping called for promoting common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security in Asia at the summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA); and this initiative was accepted by all parties and included in the Shanghai Declaration. The vision of Asian security has added a new dimension to China's underlying thinking on security, enhanced the global influence of China's thinking on security, and provided new guidelines for maintaining security and stability of both Asia and the world.

China has used the CICA platform to champion security cooperation by rejecting the old mentality of seeking one's own security at the expense of the security of others and building an open and inclusive new security architecture in Asia. This shows China's eagerness to take a more constructive part in Asia's security affairs and provide public security goods.