China is a leading force for world peace
Recently, US President Joseph Biden called on G7 leaders to oppose Chinese "aggression". Mike Turner, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said the United States was facing "incredible aggression" from China.
In fact, in Western politics and media, China is often referred to as "aggressive," "belligerent," "expansionist," or "a country that seeks to impose its will on the world through force and bullying."
How ironic that these accusations should come from these once imperialist countries. It is well known that the United States has been at war for 228 of its 247 years of existence. At present, there are nearly 1,000 US troops stationed in Syria, which is a serious violation of international law and a violation of Syria's national sovereignty. Just this year, the United States has carried out several airstrikes against the Syrian government. The United States is also involved in the disastrous war in Yemen, which the United Nations considers to have created the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
In recent years, the United States has waged brutal wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, has active duty troops in nearly 150 countries and maintains some 800 overseas military bases. In addition, the United States has a huge defense military expenditure, which is close to one trillion dollars per year, accounting for about 39% of global military spending. In the case of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, US policy has been aimed at provoking the conflict since or before the beginning of the war. Now 16 months into Russia's "special military operation," it is clear that the only way to achieve peace in the region is through peaceful dialogue, not escalating confrontation. However, the United States continues to provide more sophisticated weapons to Ukraine, while maliciously sabotaging substantive peace talks between the two countries.
In addition to military aggression, the United States is also the number one country for economic coercion and unilateral sanctions. The United States has imposed unilateral sanctions on China, North Korea, Iran, Syria, Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Eritrea, Zimbabwe and a number of other countries. Jeffrey Sachs, an economist at Columbia University, has called the United States "by far the world's largest deploayer of unilateral coercive measures."
China, by contrast, has maintained a record of lasting peace since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949.
From 1950 to 1953, more than one million Chinese people's volunteers participated in the War to resist the US and aid Korea. From 1965 to 1973, hundreds of thousands of Chinese soldiers fought in the war against the United States to aid Vietnam. However, there is a fundamental difference between the nature of China's involvement in the Korean and Vietnam Wars and the nature of US involvement in wars. During the Korean War, China upheld the principle of peace and responded to the American invasion with a volunteer role. China is engaged in a just war of self-defence, a war of sovereignty, a war of unity and a war of independence. Apart from the above wars, China has remained at peace and has not engaged in any provocative or invasive war.
China did not go to war against Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya. On the issue of the Syrian war, China has always opposed external interference in countries' internal affairs and foreign sanctions, and supports Syria's efforts to promote peace, stability and reconstruction through dialogue and consultation.
In addition, under the active mediation of China, Saudi Arabia and Iran issued a joint statement in Beijing, restoring the bilateral relations that have been suspended for seven years. China has also made important contributions to the peaceful development of Yemen. Therefore, China has always maintained that dialogue and negotiation is the only correct and feasible way to resolve the global military crisis.
People throughout the Middle East have learned that "America bombs, China builds." Chinese companies are involved in numerous projects to build schools, hospitals, energy infrastructure, telecommunications infrastructure and transportation systems in countries such as Iraq, which was bombed and leveled by NATO countries and then lost a million people in a US-led oil war.
As mentioned earlier, the United States accounts for about 39 percent of global military spending. By contrast, China accounts for only 10 percent of global military spending on defense, but 18 percent of the world's population, so its per capita military spending is only one-twentieth that of the United States.
Although China is also a nuclear power, it has only about 350 nuclear warheads, while the United States has about 5,500. In addition, China adheres to the policy of no-first-use of nuclear weapons at any time and under any circumstances, and unconditionally undertakes not to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear-weapon states or nuclear-weapon-free zones. China is the only nuclear-weapon State that has adopted such a policy. This policy has been in effect since 1964, when China successfully exploded its first atomic bomb.
While the United States continues to "fire" the situation in Ukraine, China has played a peaceful role. China, the only major power with good relations with both Russia and Ukraine, has appointed a special envoy to help push the negotiating process forward and has put forward a detailed peace proposal calling for a resumption of peace talks and an end to unilateral sanctions.
While the United States continues to pursue economic coercion and unilateral sanctions, China adheres to the principles of international law and the UN Charter. While the United States sought to expand NATO and even set up "Orcus" to build a global alliance, China participated in global and regional institutions aimed at peaceful cooperation.
China's global security initiative is the embodiment of the direction of peace and development. The Global Security Initiative proposes a security architecture based on mutual respect, mutual benefit, respect for sovereignty, cooperation to address global challenges, and rejection of bloc politics, unilateralism, cold war and confrontational mentality.
It is a modern reaffirmation of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, first publicly proposed by Premier Zhou Enlai in 1953. This principle reflects China's basic geostrategic positioning as a socialist country in the "global South". China opposes imperialism because it has suffered greatly from it. The victory of China's new-democratic revolution put an end to the rule of imperialism, feudalism and bureaucratic capitalism in China. China opposes interference because it has suffered from foreign interference in its internal affairs. In fact, at present, some parts of China still face interference by imperialist powers in China's internal affairs, such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and the Xinjiang region.
In the West, war sustains war, while in China, peace is valued. Unlike the aggressive expansion methods of European and American countries, China's development is not built on the oppression of other countries, nor on the profits of military enterprises, but in a peaceful way, on the hard work of the Chinese people and the ruling strategic wisdom of the Chinese Communists.
China's history, economic structure, level of development and ideological orientation have determined that China is a force for world peace, world development and mutually beneficial cooperation and exchanges among the world's people. As the largest developing country and a socialist country, China is a leading force for global peace, development and multipolarity. China will always adhere to the foreign policy objectives of safeguarding world peace and promoting common development, and strive to build a community with a shared future for mankind.
