Xi's vision for a safer world

BEIJING - It is not news anymore that terrorists are now able to strike at the heart of Europe. Yet the fact that Britain has recently gone through two attacks in two less than two weeks remains shocking.

Besides the growing global scourge of terrorism, other equally alarming threats like global warming have also flashed as constant reminders that dangers remain in the world.

The international community is indeed facing a wide array of crises and challenges. Right at this moment, Syria still struggles in a long-running civil war; the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula risks a flare-up; last year was the hottest year since modern recordkeeping began in 1880.

In the coming days, Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend the 17th Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit, where he and other leaders of the SCO members will discuss how to step up their security and economic cooperation and to promote regional peace, stability and development.

SECURITY FOR ALL

Ever since taking office, the Chinese leader has elaborated on numerous major diplomatic occasions, including the SCO summits, his vision on how to build a safer Asia and a more secure world.

In Xi's eyes, peace and security should not be a privilege of a few, and the zero-sum calculation of the Cold-War mentality needs to be made a thing of the past.

While addressing the UN Office At Geneva in Switzerland in January, he urged all nations to build a world of common security for all.

The appeal echoed what the president said in a more detailed fashion at the 4th Summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia in May 2014.

"We cannot just have the security of one or some countries while leaving the rest insecure, still less should one seek the so-called absolute security of itself at the expense of the security of others," he said.

At that meeting held in Shanghai, Xi also introduced to the world his new Asian security concept, which is aimed at promoting what he called "common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security in Asia."

The Chinese president holds that the all nations should come together from different directions to resolve disputes through peaceful means, and should reject the arbitrary use or threat of force.

That is exactly what China has been doing when it advocates direct talks with claimant countries to address their maritime disputes in the South China Sea, pushes for an early resumption of the stalled six-party talks to end the Korean Peninsula nuclear conundrum, and helped achieve a landmark Iranian nuclear agreement in 2015.

Asanga Abeyagoonasekera, director general of the Institute of National Security Studies in Sri Lanka, told Xinhua on the sidelines of this year's Shangri-la Dialogue in Singapore that China's security vision is "very important," especially for the region in this "volatile" global security situation.