CHINA’S diplomatic outreach has gained remarkable momentum in recent months. Starting from May, heads of state from Tajikistan, the United States, Russia, Pakistan and Serbia have paid successive visits to China. Over the past half year, leaders from France, South Korea, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Vietnam and many other countries have also travelled to China.
This vibrant diplomatic activity spans major Western countries, Global-South nations, neighbouring states and partners across the globe. The surge in high-level exchanges involving China has emerged as one of the most prominent trends in current international diplomacy.
International media commented that China now plays three pivotal roles on the world stage: a diplomatic bridge connecting different parties, a provider of development frameworks and a stabiliser for global strategic dynamics. For months, leaders across the globe have been paying visits to Beijing. These trips are motivated by both commercial interests and the search for a reliable partner in an uncertain world. Generally speaking, foreign media interpret this diplomatic momentum from a co-operation perspective and regard China as a trustworthy and steady partner.
Such widespread recognition is no coincidence. It reflects both a growing international consensus and the accumulation of tangible results. The willingness to co-operate is important, but the ability to turn that willingness into concrete outcomes matters even more. China’s robust co-operation capability lies precisely in its ability to transform shared aspirations into practical achievements, and the continued stream of foreign leaders visiting China once again demonstrates that capability.
This capability is rooted in the steady momentum of its development. This year marks the beginning of China’s 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030). While advancing high-quality development, China is also expanding high-standard opening up, presenting the world with a clear and growing list of opportunities.
During the meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump, Xi encouraged U.S. business leaders accompanying Trump to strengthen co-operation with China, and stressed that China will open its door still wider.
According to the latest edition of the American Business in China White Paper released by the American Chamber of Commerce in China, 52 percent of U.S. companies operating in China expect to turn a profit in 2025, up six percentage points from the previous year.
This year has also seen a constant influx of foreign business executives into China, alongside a string of major foreign-invested projects breaking ground nationwide. For many global companies, investing in China is no longer simply an option; it has become a strategic necessity. A stable and steadily developing China is creating ever more opportunities for businesses worldwide.
China’s capacity for co-operation also stems from its philosophy of seeking harmony without uniformity. In front of the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests at the Temple of Heaven, Xi explained to Trump the traditional Chinese concept that Heaven is round and Earth is square and the view on the universe and guiding philosophy of the Chinese people.
At the Huaigu Pavilion in Dujiangyan, southwest China’s Sichuan province, Xi and visiting French President Emmanuel Macron enjoyed tea by the waterside, drawing insights on relations among major countries from the Chinese wisdom of achieving harmony between human and nature embodied in ancient water-management practices.
China does not pursue bloc confrontation or draw ideological lines. Instead, it builds bridges of understanding through dialogue among civilisations, enabling countries with different systems and cultures to reach co-operation through mutual respect. This approach, transcending differences while focusing on win-win outcomes, is precisely the kind of certainty China brings to an increasingly turbulent world.
China’s capacity for co-operation is further reflected in its commitment to multilateralism and its sense of responsibility as a major country. Today’s world faces mounting instability, with unilateralism and hegemonism posing serious threats and raising the risk of a return to the law of the jungle in international relations. Under such circumstances, solidarity and co-operation have become necessities for the international community.
More than ever, the world urgently needs major countries to uphold equality, the rule of law, co-operation and good faith, and firmly safeguard the international system with the United Nations at its core and the international order underpinned by international law.
China and Russia recently issued a joint statement on promoting a multipolar world and a new type of international relations. The two sides also reached 20 co-operation agreements in other fields, underscoring the two countries’ commitment to maintaining global strategic balance and improving the international relations system.
China has consistently practised true multilateralism, firmly upheld the international order and contributed to improving global governance through good governance at home. The wave of foreign leaders visiting China reflects growing international recognition of China’s clear position and responsible role. Such co-operation not only stabilises bilateral relations, but also benefits the world.
Across the globe, “looking East” has increasingly become a prevalent consensus. China’s capacity for co-operation has become a much-needed global resource, and the opportunities China brings through co-operation have become valuable, rare global public goods.
Facts speak for themselves: partnering with China means embracing opportunities; standing with stability means standing on the right side of history. In this era marked by turbulence and transformation, China will stay committed to openness, inclusiveness, and mutual benefit and win-win co-operation, providing the world with greater stability and positive energy through its own steady development.
2.
China’s call for revitalising, strengthening UN wins support
As mounting conflicts, geopolitical divisions and humanitarian crises continue to test the post-war international order, China has reiterated its firm support for the UN Charter and multilateralism at a high-level United Nations Security Council meeting, where the country has also called for revitalising the UN-centred international system and strengthening global governance mechanisms.
China’s consistent emphasis on defending the UN framework has drawn wide support, with Chinese observers noting that the international community is increasingly looking for stability and support for a more just and equitable global governance system.
The stance was reflected during the United Nations Security Council High-Level Meeting themed, “Upholding the Purposes and Principles of the UN Charter and Strengthening the UN-centred International System” held Tuesday at UN headquarters in New York.
Chairing the meeting, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, put forward five proposals, calling on the international community to stand united and act together to defend, revitalise and strengthen the UN.
Together with China’s previously proposed global-governance initiative, Beijing’s advocacy for multilateralism and support for the UN-centred system also received backing from figures including UN Secretary-General António Guterres and foreign ministers from multiple countries.
Reinvigorating the UN system
“We are gathered here at a time when the international situation is undergoing the most complex and profound changes since the end of World War II. The dark clouds of war keep gathering and the law of the jungle is resurging. The giant ship of human civilisation is sailing into dangerous waters, and world peace and development is [sic] at a crossroads,” Wang said at the UN Security Council meeting in New York, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry release posted on its website on Wednesday.
Wang stressed that the challenges confronting the world today test the international community’s conviction to safeguard peace, its resolve to uphold justice and its courage to pursue reform and innovation. “We must stand united and act together to defend, revitalise and strengthen the UN,” he said.
Against the backdrop of intensifying global tensions, Wang made five proposals, calling for revitalising the UN Charter to demonstrate stronger leadership, revitalising the authority of the Security Council to demonstrate stronger capacity for action; revitalising global development co-operation to harness stronger mobilisation capabilities; revitalising global governance platforms to foster stronger execution capabilities and revitalising the effectiveness of the UN system to cultivate greater vitality.
He also said the root cause of the chaos in today’s world is not that the Charter’s spirit is outdated, but that the international order and the basic norms governing international relations, both set out in the Charter, are not being effectively upheld and observed.
Certain countries have successively withdrawn from multiple international organisations, raising widespread concerns that international legal norms and the existing international order are facing the risk of fragmentation. Against such a backdrop, China, as a key pillar of multilateralism, has proactively taken up the banner of safeguarding multilateralism and revitalizing the authority of the United Nations, Mao Ruipeng, a Senior Research Fellow of Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, told the Global Times on Wednesday.
This not only reflects the common expectations of the international community, but also demonstrates China’s commitment to fulfilling its responsibilities as a major country, Mao Ruipeng added.
Mao Ruipeng said China’s five proposals at the United Nations clearly outlined China’s position and approach regarding the role of the UN. Reaffirming and strengthening the authority of the Security Council at the current moment, he noted, is aimed at calling on the international community to uphold principles such as multilateralism and non-interference in internal affairs, while improving global governance and resolving disputes through peaceful means and safeguarding regional and global peace and stability.
Wang’s remarks come at a time of heightened international turbulence and escalating conflicts worldwide. Speaking at the same meeting, Guterres warned that “we are witnessing a dangerous erosion of respect for international law,” adding fundamental principles such as sovereignty, territorial integrity and the prohibition on the use of force being “challenged or ignored.” He also cited the highest number of conflicts since the founding of the United Nations.
Guterres’ concerns echo ongoing crises across multiple regions. The conflict in the Middle East, which began in February, and the Russia-Ukraine conflict, which erupted in 2022, remain unresolved.
Whether it is the conflict in the Middle East, the Russia-Ukraine conflict, terrorism, climate change or public-health crises, all these issues ultimately need to return to the framework of the United Nations and international law for effective resolution, which requires strengthening the UN, while opposing power politics, unilateralism and exclusive alliances that treat might as right, Li Haidong, a professor at the China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times on Wednesday.
Even as Guterres voiced his concerns at the UN, conflicts and humanitarian crises continued unfolding across the world. According to reports from France 24 and Al Jazeera, Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon on Tuesday killed 31 people and wounded 40 others, while intensified strikes and forced displacement warnings targeted towns and villages in the south and east.
Meanwhile, disease outbreaks and armed conflict are also ravaging parts of Africa. The BBC reported Wednesday that the World Health Organization (WHO) warned Ebola-hit DR Congo faces a “catastrophic collision” of disease and conflict. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said eastern DR Congo had become the centre of a “catastrophic collision of disease and conflict” amid the Ebola outbreak in Ituri province, noting that WHO “cannot build community trust or isolate the sick while bombs are falling.”
Facing such challenges, foreign ministers attending Tuesday’s meeting also stressed the need to defend the UN system and peaceful dispute resolution.
Russia’s Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said, “Our duty is to cherish the Charter,” while also pointing to what he described as “remilitarisation” in certain countries. He said the countries defeated during World War II are now seeking “plausible pretexts for rewriting its outcomes.”
Mohammad Ishaq Dar, Pakistan’s minister for foreign affairs, described the UN Charter as the “moral foundation of the international order” and called for peaceful settlement of disputes. “Diplomacy is not weakness,” he insisted, noting that “peaceful settlement is not an option of last resort.”
Concrete actions
The Chinese foreign minister noted that over the 55 years since the restoration of the lawful seat of the People’s Republic of China in the United Nations, China, as a permanent member of the Security Council, has actively participated in and advanced the cause of the UN.
“Amid international turbulence and transformation, China holds its banner high. Amid global development impasse, China empowers and enhances. Amid major public crises, China races to help. When multilateralism runs into headwinds, China steps up to its responsibility,” Wang said at Tuesday’s meeting.
He noted that China has translated its commitment to multilateralism into concrete action worldwide, including assisting Africa in combatting Ebola, promoting peace talks amid frequent global conflicts and initiating mechanisms such as the International Organization for Mediation and the World Data Organization.
Such contributions, observers noted, are increasingly recognised by the international community. During his meeting with Wang, Guterres expressed his gratitude to China for its consistent commitment to upholding the UN Charter and international law.
The UN chief also noted that China is the most reliable partner for sustainable development and a robust contributor to UN peacekeeping operations, adding that the UN commends the series of global initiatives put forward by China in fields such as security, peace and development, and looks forward to working together to resolve conflicts, to ensure that peace, international law and multilateralism prevail, according to the Xinhua News Agency.
Such recognition is not isolated. During his meeting with Wang, Thai Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow, thanked China for its efforts in mediating the border dispute between Thailand and Cambodia. They added that the world needs rules rather than unilateralism, and stressed the urgent need to jointly safeguard the UN’s authority.
According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry latest data, the Global Development Initiative put forward by China has mobilised funds amounting to over $23 billion, supported over 1,800 co-operation projects, delivered over 10,000 capacity-building programmes for developing countries, and trained over 200,000 professionals in different fields, giving a strong boost to the development and vitalisation of the Global South.
“Over the past 55 years, as the permanent member of the UN Security Council, China has been actively participating in and advancing the cause of the UN. At the new historical starting point, China will continue doing more things for greater good, championing multilateralism and pursuing greater solidarity to build a more just and equitable global governance system and move towards the goal of building a community with a shared future for humanity,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a regular press briefing on Wednesday.
Mao Ruipeng said China has continued to use its major initiative as a platform to advance international development co-operation, which also explains Beijing’s emphasis on revitalising global development co-operation at the UN meeting.
As the primary channel for global governance, the United Nations remains central to such efforts, Mao Ruipeng said, adding that China’s call to reinvigorate global governance platforms and enhance the effectiveness of the UN system sends a clear message of support for UN reform, stronger international co-operation and its global governance vision.
