On July 3, 2024, Ambassador Zhao Weiping published an article entitled  “Commemorating the 70th Anniversary of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence” in the Namibian Sun. The full text is as follows:

On June 28, the Conference Marking the 70th Anniversary of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence was held in Beijing with around 600 attendees, including former leaders of Vietnam, Myanmar and other countries, representatives of international and regional organizations, diplomatic envoys from more than 100 countries, Chinese and foreign experts and scholars, and media and business representatives.  President Xi Jinping addressed this important event with his speech titled Carrying Forward the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence and Jointly Building a Community with a Shared Future for Mankind.

70 years ago, national independence and liberation movements swept across the globe, while the world was overshadowed by the dark clouds of the Cold War, and newly independent countries aspired to safeguard their sovereignty and grow their national economies. It was against this backdrop that, in 1954, the Chinese leadership put forth the Five Principles in their entirety for the first time, namely, mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, mutual non-aggression, mutual non-interference in each other’s internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence, which were later adopted by the China-India and China-Myanmar joint statements.

Ever since then, the Five Principles have been widely accepted and recognized by countries across the world, and have become open, inclusive, and universally applicable basic norms for international relations and fundamental principles of international law. They have made indelible historic contributions to the cause of human progress by setting a historic benchmark for international relations and international rule of law, serving as the prime guidance for the establishment and development of relations between countries with different social systems, and a powerful rallying force behind the efforts of developing countries to pursue cooperation and self-strength through unity, as well as providing historic wisdom to the reform and improvement of the international order.

As the world is undergoing profound changes unseen in a century, common challenges, interests, and responsibilities have linked the future of all countries more closely together, and it’s imperative for the international community to pursue harmony on the basis of peaceful coexistence and build a new type of international relations with win-win cooperation at its core. The Five Principles must be strengthened, not weakened; multilateralism must be upheld, not undermined; and the process toward greater democracy in international relations must move forward, not backward.

With the intertwined destinies of countries and the shared and fundamental interests of all peoples in mind, President Xi put forward the vision of building a community with a shared future for mankind, providing a new answer to what kind of world to build and how to build it. This is the best way to inherit, advance, and enrich the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence under new circumstances. The international community should make it right in the face of the critical choices of unity and cooperation versus division and confrontation, mutual benefit versus zero-sum game, and common security versus turbulence and warfare.

China is ready to work with all the countries to honor our responsibility for history and for the people to build an open, inclusive, clean, and beautiful world of lasting peace, universal security and shared prosperity, implement the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, and the Global Civilization Initiative, hold high the banner of building a community with a shared future for mankind, and take a historical step forward to building a common homeland for humanity.

Under the new circumstances, it’s important for the Global South to join hands and take the lead in building a community with a shared future for mankind. Together, we should be the staunch force for peace, the core driving force for open development, the construction team of global governance, and the advocates for exchange among civilizations. To this end, President Xi announced eight measures to support the cooperation of the Global South at the above mentioned conference. We will always stand with all countries of the South through thick and thin and give a stronger boost to the common development, unity, and cooperation of the Global South, making a greater contribution to the building of a better world.