“As a responsible major country, China has something to say” — Chinese President Xi Jinping made his resolution public during his 2018 New Year’s speech. To his nation as well as to the whole world, he vowed that China will be the keeper of the international order.
On December 31, Xi’s speech was broadcast across the country by China’s state news TV station, CCTV, on prime time. In the meanwhile, China Global Television Network (CGTN) — China’s major mouthpiece abroad — also broadcast his speech with full English subtitles — an obvious signal showing Xi’s increasing confidence on the international stage.
During his speech, Xi reviewed China’s “great achievements” both domestically and internationally in 2017. Regarding international affairs, he said that China had hosted a series of diplomatic events, including the first summit of the Belt and Road Initiative, the summit of BRICS leaders in Xiamen, and various high-level dialogues between the Chinese Communist Party and the world’s political parties.
Particularly, Xi mentioned that he himself had participated some important multilateral conferences in the world.
“On those various occasions, I have had an in-depth exchange of views with all parties concerned, and all of them agree to jointly promote the building of a community of shared future for mankind for the benefit of all peoples in the world,” Xi said.
As The Diplomat noted earlier, “building a community of shared future for mankind” and “new type of international relations with win-win cooperation” are the two pillars of Xi’s vision for China’s foreign policy. While the idea of “new type of international relations” failed to strike a chord with the majority in the international community, China has been trying to instill the other, seemingly more benign, concept into the global dictionary by constantly repeating it in all China’s diplomatic speeches. In fact, the United Nations wrote the exact words into two UN security resolutions recently.
In his latest speech, Xi specially mentioned China’s support for the United Nations again. He said:
China will resolutely uphold the authority and status of the United Nations, actively fulfill China’s international obligations and duties, remain firmly committed to China’s pledges to tackle climate change, actively push for the Belt and Road Initiative, and always be a builder of world peace, contributor of global development and keeper of international order. The Chinese people are ready to chart out a more prosperous, peaceful future for humanity, with people from other countries.
Notebally, most of these aspects Xi mentioned were more or less denounced by U.S. President Donald Trump before and after he came into office.
Without singling out the United States, Xi has sent a clear message to the global audience that Beijing is ready to replace Washington to lead the world in the new year.