Page 158 - 《国际安全研究》2021年第3期

Journal of International Security Studies

Abstract

3 “Standing Together with Mutual Assistance amid Difficulties”:
Theoretical Innovation and Practical Path of Xi Jinping’s Security
Concept

ZHANG Ying
[Abstract] President Xi Jinping proposed the security concept of “standing together
with mutual assistance amid difficulties” in 2013. The ensuing eight years has
witnessed continuous enrichment and development of its connotations and
extensions that cover peripheral security, financial security, public health security,
global governance, interstate relations, regional and sub-regional cooperation, etc.
Since the outbreak of Covid-19, President Xi Jinping has been repeatedly advocating
this key security concept that can be classified into three levels: good neighbors,
good brothers, good partners. Accordingly, the security-related issues can be
examined from such different perspectives as peripheral security, common values
and global partnership. This security concept has embodied and highlighted the
principles of defensiveness, internationality and intercommunity in China’s security
outlook. The pathways to the realization of “standing together with mutual
assistance amid difficulties” include strengthening political trust, establishing
collective security mechanism, rendering mutual support in the international
community and meeting each other’s security demands through cooperation. This
security concept vividly expresses China’s security strategies, clearly demonstrates
the implications of the concept of “community with a shared future for mankind”
and fully reflects the integration of the intrinsic needs of major-country diplomacy
and national security strategy with Chinese characteristics into the overall situation
of China’s development. China’s open thinking regarding security issues can not
only be applied to the security field but also to the political and economic domains,
which plays an exemplary and positive role in solve international issues.
[Keywords] standing together with mutual assistance amid difficulties, community
with a shared future for mankind, Xi Jinping’s security concept, China’s
international security concept, overall national security concept
[Author] ZHAGN Ying, Professor and Doctoral Supervisor, School of International
Relations and Diplomacy, Beijing Foreign Studies University; Specially Appointed
part-time Professor of African School, Beijing Foreign Studies University; Deputy
Director of the Editorial Department of International Forum; Director of the
Editorial Department of Area Studies and Global Development; Deputy Director of
the Research Center for Pacific Studies (Beijing,100089).

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