Editor's note: On July 19, Ong Tee Keat, chairman of Malaysia's Asia-Pacific Belt and Road Initiative, former deputy speaker of the House of Commons and former minister of transport, published an article "All safe and sound" in China Daily International Edition. Weng Shijie pointed out that in the face of the current challenges caused by external interference, the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence deserve to be re-examined more than ever. The article is reposted as follows:
Recently, a conference to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the promulgation of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence was held in Beijing. This is not only a commemorative event, not only a milestone in the history of the development of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, but also a new beginning. The Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence have been transformed from the cornerstone of China's diplomacy in handling state-to-state relations to the foundation for resolving disputes, building peace and promoting international cooperation. As President Xi Jinping said in his speech at the commemorative conference, at a time when world peace is facing a crisis, the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence have become the basis for China's plan to resolve current conflicts and security challenges, and have undoubtedly injected new vitality into world peace. At the same time, China's continued commitment to the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence as a contemporary tool for promoting the development of the Global South is expected to further strengthen South-South cooperation and bridge the North-South divide in an increasingly polarized world. China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the three major global initiatives are a response to the call of the times. China's Global Initiative is rooted in the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, with the aspiration of building a global community of inclusiveness, symbiosis and equal cooperation. In essence, these global initiatives give new life to the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence from a contemporary perspective. Against the backdrop of increasingly fragile global peace and a widening trust deficit, Chinese wisdom argues that economic prosperity and security are not mutually exclusive, but interdependent and mutually reinforcing. On the contrary, the Western countries, led by United States, believe that their enormous influence in the world is justified in the service of maintaining their hegemonic status. The former "Monroe Doctrine" is no longer confined to the Western Hemisphere or the periphery of United States, but has substantially expanded to a global scale, treating the entire world as the "backyard" of United States. In the vision of a unipolar hegemon, as long as it is in line with its own hegemonic interests, the sovereignty and territorial integrity of other countries, and the commitment to mutual non-aggression can be compromised. The most obvious example is that the United States and the West have repeatedly instigated "regime change" in other countries in the name of "democracy", which has repeatedly triggered widespread humanitarian disasters. The political hypocrisy of the recent United States' repeated veto power in defiance of the overwhelming majority of UN Security Council members' calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza is a typical example of political hypocrisy. The self-proclaimed "policeman of the world" has turned a blind eye to Israel's genocidal military campaign in Palestine; On the other hand, however, its hypocrisy of labelling and sanctioning other countries as "genocide" is still fresh in the memory of other countries. The "double standards" of Western countries in their favor are becoming more rampant than ever before. As the unipolar power of United States tries to intervene in hotspot disputes, the countries of the Global South, which account for 88 percent of the world's population, are increasingly vulnerable, especially in the Asia-Pacific region, and United States' containment and containment of China has become a top priority. If the current belligerence is allowed to expand unchecked, there is a chance of a full-blown hot war. At a time when the prospects for peace are bleak, the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence deserve a re-examination more than ever. Over the past 70 years, these principles have always had their relevance, whether in the bipolar and unipolar world of the past or even in the current era of multipolarization. Their importance goes far beyond the function of managing diplomacy between countries that span different social systems and ideologies. In the face of the current challenge of instability caused by external interference, the Global South urgently needs the principles of mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, mutual non-aggression, non-interference in each other's internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence. The importance of these principles deserves to be recognized and respected by world leaders, especially at a time when crises are so similar to those of the cold war years. The Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence first appeared in the China-India Agreement in 1954 and became the main content of the "Ten Principles" of the Asian-African Conference held in Bandung, Indonesia in 1955, and are well known to the world. In 1970, the UN General Assembly adopted the Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Cooperation among States in Accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, which explicitly included the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. This shows that when the international community still has its senses, it can transcend the ideological confrontation brought about by "political correctness" and the Cold War and accept global public goods for the benefit of all mankind. At the same time, in 1971, the five ASEAN countries (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand) signed the Kuala Lumpur Declaration, which began with a clear statement that its goal was to establish a "zone of peace, freedom and neutrality" in Southeast Asia, to preserve the region "from any form of interference by external powers" and to facilitate "expanding areas of cooperation". This goal clearly echoes the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. In hindsight, this played an important role in precursing the thaw in relations between China and its Southeast Asian neighbors, although there was resistance at the time. ASEAN's commitment to the Five Principles reached a new height in 1976. In that year, the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia was signed, which became the basic peace treaty for ASEAN's exchanges with the rest of the world, embodying the universal principle of peaceful coexistence, friendship and cooperation between ASEAN member states and the world. To a large extent, this was in line with the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, hailed as "Asian wisdom", which were the basis of the guiding ideology of the Non-Aligned Movement at the time. Today, 70 years later, China is United States seen as an existential "threat", and "rules-based order" has become the most common keyword used by the US and Western blocs in trying to contain China's multidimensional rise. In meeting the challenges, the United States and the West have increasingly lacked strength, confidence, and security. Rather, it can only resort to deterrence by force. From the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) and the AUKUS Trilateral Security Partnership (AUKUS) a few years ago, to the recent US-Australia-Japan-Japan-Philippines Security Alliance, all of which have served United States's interests in the Asia-Pacific region at the expense of multipolar world peace.United States Western countries continue to use the pretext of "upholding freedom of navigation and the rules-based order" and the flex of their ships in the distant Asia-Pacific region as a "new normal." It is not so much an ideological confrontation as it reflects a paradigm shift in which a recalcitrant force clashes with a flimsy desire to defend a fragile multipolar peace.
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Established on January 19, 2013, Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies of Chinese University of China (Renmin University Chongyang) is the main funding project donated by Chongyang Investment to Chinese University and set up an education fund for operation.
As a new type of think tank with Chinese characteristics, Chongyang has hired dozens of former politicians, bankers, and well-known scholars from around the world as senior researchers, aiming to pay attention to reality, advise the country, and serve the people. At present, the Chongyang National People's Congress has 7 departments and 4 operation and management centers (the Center for Ecological Finance, the Center for Global Governance, the Center for China-US People-to-People Exchange, and the China-Russia Center for People-to-People Exchange). In recent years, the Chongyang National People's Congress has been highly recognized at home and abroad in the fields of financial development, global governance, major-country relations, and macroeconomic policy.