This year marks the 70th anniversary of the proclamation of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. On June 28th, a grand commemoration ceremony was held in Beijing.
Reflecting on this milestone, Professor Huang Huikang from Wuhan University's Institute of International Law provided insights in an exclusive interview with Yangcheng Evening News on how the international community can better promote the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence today.
Huang Huikang: In promoting a world of multipolarity based on mutual respect, equality, and order, sovereignty, and equality remain fundamental principles governing relations between nations under international law. Upholding sovereignty entails mutual respect for each other's independence, territorial integrity, and political autonomy. It involves respecting nations' rights to choose their own development paths and social systems and acknowledging their efforts to maintain political security and social stability. It also means respecting countries' endeavors to promote economic and social development, enhance public welfare, and autonomously resolve disputes. In a context of equal multipolarity, all nations, regardless of size or strength, are equal under the law, with equal rights, opportunities, and adherence to rules, enabling them to equally participate, enjoy rights, and play roles in the multipolar process. Ordered multipolarity entails adhering to the principles and purposes of the United Nations Charter and universally recognized norms in international relations, fostering cooperation in global governance processes.
Striving for mutually beneficial cooperation, we advocate for inclusive economic globalization. As a community with a shared destiny, cooperation for mutual benefit should guide countries' basic policy orientations in handling international affairs. It requires embracing new concepts of win-win outcomes, rejecting zero-sum thinking, and upholding principles of fairness and justice to safeguard a fair and rational international economic order. Inclusive globalization means addressing imbalances in global resource allocation that affect countries internally and between nations, ensuring that the benefits of economic and social development reach all peoples. It supports countries in choosing development models based on their national conditions, opposing unilateralism and protectionism that harm others without benefiting oneself, and rejecting all forms of de-globalization.
To achieve peaceful coexistence and support inclusive cultural diversity, it is essential not only to respect the various civilizations that have evolved from different histories, national conditions, ethnicities, and customs but also to promote their mutual learning and integration through dialogue and inclusivity. Upholding an ethos of equality, mutual learning, dialogue, and inclusiveness in civilizations fosters their creative development and opposes theories of "clash of civilizations" or notions of cultural superiority. It rejects the exclusion or repression of dissenting voices and opposes imposing democratic or liberal values in ways that intensify confrontation. Furthermore, it opposes associating terrorism with specific ethnic or religious groups.
Building upon the foundation of international rule of law, democratic governance of international relations is crucial. The international rule of law not only represents a collective human aspiration but also serves as a vital safeguard for democratizing international relations. Strengthening international legislation promotes global governance, ensuring the equal participation of all nations in rule-making processes, and ensuring international rules reflect rights, obligations, and responsibilities equitably, balancing national interests with global common interests. It aims to uphold and develop the universally recognized international legal framework based on the UN Charter. Upholding impartial international justice, international judicial institutions should adhere to objective and fair principles, interpret and apply international law comprehensively, accurately, equally, and consistently within their authorized mandate, avoiding overreach or expansion of authority. Countries should also create a conducive international environment for independent performance and non-interference in each other's affairs. Enhancing law enforcement and judicial cooperation under recognized international law is crucial for cross-border extradition, asset recovery, combating drug trafficking, cybercrime, and terrorism, while staunchly opposing actions that infringe on sovereign rights under the pretext of crime prevention.
To champion multilateralism and firmly establish a fair and just image of a great nation, it is crucial to recognize that today's world is interconnected, with shared destinies and common challenges. Collaborative efforts and mutual benefit are essential in navigating these challenges together. Countries must steadfastly uphold the authority of the United Nations (UN) and unequivocally oppose closed-group politics disguised under the banner of multilateralism. They should resist attempts to impose the domestic laws and norms of a few countries on the international community and reject attempts to ideologize multilateralism. It is imperative to uphold international law based on the UN Charter and guard against remnants of hegemony and colonialism that undermine universally recognized international laws and basic principles of international relations. This entails using universally applied international law to guide international relations practices consistently.
Source: Yangcheng Evening News
Interview with Huang Huikang: How should the international community better inherit and promote the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence?
This year marks the 70th anniversary of the publication of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. On June 28, the 70th anniversary of the promulgation of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence was held in Beijing.
Today, 70 years later, how should the international community better promote the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence? In this regard, Huang Huikang, a distinguished professor of the Institute of International Rule of Law of Wuhan University, accepted an exclusive interview with Yangcheng Evening News.
Huang Huikang: On the premise of mutual respect, we should advocate an equal and orderly multipolar world. Sovereign equality remains the most important norm and the basic principle of international law governing relations between States. On the basis of sovereign equality, all countries should respect each other, including each other's sovereign independence, territorial integrity and political independence, respect the development path and social system independently chosen by the people of all countries, respect the efforts made by all countries to safeguard their own political security and social stability, respect the practice of all countries in promoting economic and social development and promote people's livelihood and well-being, respect the right of all countries to choose their own dispute settlement methods, and respect the legitimate security concerns of all countries. Equal multipolarization means that all countries, big or small, strong or weak, are equal subjects in law, have equal rights, equal opportunities, equal rules, and participate in the process of multipolarization, enjoy rights, and play a role on an equal footing. Orderly multipolarization means jointly abiding by the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, jointly adhering to the universally agreed basic norms governing international relations, and cooperating with each other in the process of global governance.
It is necessary to pursue win-win cooperation and promote economic globalization that is inclusive and inclusive. Mankind is a community with a shared future, and win-win cooperation should become the basic policy orientation of all countries in handling international affairs. It is necessary to establish a new concept of win-win, multi-win, and win-win, abandon the old thinking that you lose and I win, and the winner takes all, adhere to the correct concept of justice and interests, and maintain a fair and reasonable international economic order. Inclusive globalization means properly resolving the imbalance in development between and within countries brought about by the global allocation of resources, so that the fruits of economic and social development can benefit the people of all countries. Inclusive globalization means supporting the development model that countries choose independently based on their national conditions, refraining from unilateralism and protectionism that harms others and themselves, or even harms others and themselves, and opposes all forms of "anti-globalization".
We should aim for peaceful coexistence and support the diversity of civilizations based on inclusiveness and mutual learning. We should not only respect the different civilizations nurtured by different histories, national conditions, nationalities and customs, but also work together to promote the mutual learning and integration of different civilizations in exchanges, and adhere to the concept of civilization based on equality, mutual learning, dialogue and inclusiveness, so as to promote the creative development of human civilization. We oppose the "clash of civilizations" and "the superiority and inferiority of civilizations", oppose the exclusion and suppression of dissidents, oppose the export of "democracy" and "freedom" values to intensify confrontation, and oppose linking terrorism to specific ethnic groups and religions.
It is necessary to rely on the international rule of law to promote democracy and the rule of law in international relations. The international rule of law is the common pursuit of mankind and an important guarantee for the democratization of international relations. It is necessary to strengthen international legislation, promote global good governance with good international law, ensure that all countries participate in the formulation of rules on an equal footing, ensure that international rules comprehensively, balance and fairly reflect the rights, obligations and responsibilities of all countries, and balance the interests of all countries and the common interests of the international community, so as to continuously consolidate and develop a universally recognized system of international law based on the Charter of the United Nations. In order to impartial international justice, international judicial institutions should uphold an objective and impartial position, interpret and apply the rules of international law in a comprehensive, accurate, equal and uniform manner, carry out judicial activities strictly within the scope of the authorization of the international community, and avoid exceeding their powers or expanding their powers. States should also continue to create an international environment in which they can perform their duties independently and without interference. To deepen law enforcement and judicial cooperation, all countries should carry out cross-border pursuit of fugitives and recover stolen goods in accordance with universally recognized international law, crack down on drug crimes, cyber crimes, terrorist crimes, etc., and resolutely oppose acts that infringe on the sovereignty of other countries under the pretext of fighting crimes.
It is necessary to take multilateralism as the banner and firmly establish the image of a fair and just major country. The evolution of the international situation has repeatedly shown that sharing a common destiny and being closely related is the greatest reality in today's world, and that solidarity and win-win cooperation are the only way to meet challenges. All countries should firmly uphold the authority of the United Nations, take a clear-cut stand against the practice of closed bloc politics under the guise of multilateralism, or the imposition of "family laws and regulations" on the international community by a few countries, and personally resist the ideologization of multilateralism. We should firmly uphold international law based on the Charter of the United Nations, guard against the erosion of universally recognized international law and basic norms governing international relations by the remnants of hegemonist and colonialist international law, and use uniformly applicable international law to guide the practice of international relations.
Text丨Reporter Dong LiuTranslator丨Liu Jiahui