Book hailed for fostering understanding

Experts, scholars and diplomats have stressed the importance of gaining a better understanding of China, highlighting the country's well-recognized role as a key stabilizing force and an anchor of certainty amid shifting global dynamics.

They weighed in on the international situation and China's diplomacy at an event in Beijing on Thursday, marking the release of International Situation and China's Foreign Affairs (2024-25), a blue book authored by the China Institute of International Studies.

The annual publication is divided into two sections: one analyzing new trends in international dynamics, regional and country-specific situations, and China's relations with the world, and the other presenting new achievements and initiatives of China's diplomacy.

Chen Bo, president of the institute, said the blue book series "aims to analyze the international situation from China's perspective, help Chinese readers understand the world, and assist the international community in understanding China's diplomacy".

In a turbulent world, certainty is an invaluable resource, and China serves as a major source of stability and certainty, Chen said.

Looking back at 2024, she said China made valuable contributions by upholding diplomatic principles of openness and inclusiveness, fairness and justice, and win-win cooperation; advancing major initiatives it had proposed; advocating an equitable and orderly multipolar world; and promoting inclusive economic globalization.

Martin Mpana, Cameroon's ambassador to China, said the book "has become a window for the world to understand China".

He said he believes its spillover effect will enhance positive interactions, deepen understanding between China and the rest of the world — particularly Africa — and foster stronger momentum for China's story to be told and understood across the world. It will also accelerate the creation of a multidimensional framework for global peace, he added.

Mpana said he was not surprised the book includes a dedicated chapter on China-Africa relations, given the "long-standing and fruitful relationship built on mutual respect, cooperation and economic ties "between the two sides, which continues to deepen.

Levente Horvath, director of the Eurasia Center at John von Neumann University in Hungary, said the blue book series "not only presents Chinese best practice on global efforts, but also opens a space for dialogues".

Horvath, who first came to China in 2005 for his studies and has been engaged with the country ever since, said "the China in the Western media is very different from the China I have experienced during the last two decades". That is why he is committed to sharing reliable insights into China's economic, technological and cultural development, he added.

The blue book, first released by the China Institute of International Studies in Chinese in 2006, has been available in both Chinese and English since 2009. About 100 participants attended Thursday's event.