The five principles of peaceful coexistence

A few days ago, China solemnly celebrated the 70^th anniversary of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence in Beijing. Chinese President Xi Jinping attended the celebration and delivered an important speech. He expounded on the essence of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence and their relevance for our times, pointed the direction for building a community with a shared future for mankind amid major global transformation, and voiced a strong message of the Global South to work with people around the world for a better future.

Seventy years ago, the Chinese leadership advocated 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. The Five Principles were included in China-India and China-Myanmar joint statements, which called for making them basic norms for state-to-state relations. In 1955, more than 20 Asian and African countries attended the Bandung Conference. They proposed ten principles for handling state-to-state relations on the basis of the Five Principles, and advocated the Bandung spirit of solidarity, friendship and cooperation. The Non-Aligned Movement that rose in the 1960s adopted the Five Principles as its guiding principles. The Declaration on Principles of International Law adopted at the 25^th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in 1970 and the Declaration on the Establishment of the New International Economic Order adopted at the Sixth Special UNGA Session in 1974 both endorsed the Five Principles.

China has been a proactive advocate and steadfast practitioner of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. The Chinese civilisation is the only continuous and enduring civilisation in human history, and its core spirit is the concept of peace and harmony. Historically, the Chinese nation has always upheld the values of “peace is the most precious thing” and “harmony and diversity”, and has always been in pursuit of the principle of “one family under heaven”. As a founding member of the United Nations and a permanent member of the Security Council, China strives to maintain lasting global peace, stability and prosperity, contributing Chinese solutions to global problems and demonstrating its role as a responsible great power. Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China 75 years ago, China has never initiated a war or occupied an inch of another country’s land. China is also the only country that has enshrined the path of peaceful development in its constitution and is the only nuclear-armed country that has pledged not to use nuclear weapons first. Based on the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, China has established diplomatic relations with over 180 countries worldwide.

The Five Principles have been widely recognised and observed by the international community. The Five Principles were initiated with the purpose of protecting the interests and pursuits of small and weak countries from power politics. They categorically oppose imperialism, colonialism and hegemonism, and reject belligerent and bullying practices of the law of the jungle. They have laid an important intellectual foundation for a more just and equitable international order. They fully conform with the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, with the evolving trend of international relations of our times, and with the fundamental interests of all nations. They offer a new path toward peaceful settlement of historic issues and international disputes, triumphing over obsolete, narrow-minded, antagonistic and confrontational mindsets such as bloc politics and sphere of influence. Inspired and encouraged by the Five Principles, more and more countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America have voiced and extended support to each other, stood up against foreign interference, and embarked on an independent path of development. The Five Principles have also boosted South-South cooperation, and improved and further developed North-South relations.

Today, the world has entered a new period of turbulence and change, with the international situation in turmoil and chaos, the world’s unprecedented changes accelerating, geopolitical conflicts, ideological confrontation and other challenges jeopardising global peace and stability and human society facing unprecedented challenges. Under this new historical juncture, with the intertwined destinies of countries and the shared and fundamental interests of all peoples in mind, President Xi Jinping 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. China has been ready to work with all sides to draw wisdom from the history of the Five Principles, gather consensus and strength to address today’s global challenges, honour 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.

Pakistan is an important country in the Global South and a faithful practitioner of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. Over the past 73 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations, China and Pakistan have always actively developed bilateral friendly and cooperative relations guided by the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, regardless of how the international situation and the two countries have developed and changed. In particular, over the past decade, the all-weather strategic cooperative partnership between China and Pakistan has continuously deepened. President Xi Jinping has emphasised that, standing at a new historical starting point, the Global South should be more open and more inclusive, and join hands together to take the lead in building a community with a shared future for mankind. China is willing to continue to advance the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence with Pakistan and other Global South countries, promote an equal and orderly multipolar world and a universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalisation, and make continuous progress toward building a community with a shared future for mankind.