Xi urges Peaceful China efforts

Initiative should constantly enhance sense of fulfillment, happiness, security

President Xi Jinping has called for efforts to build a more secure China by comprehensively promoting the implementation of the Peaceful China initiative.

Efforts should be made to constantly enhance people’s sense of fulfillment, happiness and security, said Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission. Xi made the call in an instruction on the implementation of the initiative.

He called for a greater focus on prominent problems affecting national security, social stability and people’s tranquility on the basis of pursuing collaboration, participation and common interests.

Xi stressed efforts to make implementation of the initiative more scientific and raise its levels of public participation, rule of law and intelligence.

“Security” has also become a watchword in the proposals for China’s 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) and long-range objectives, adopted at the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee at the end of last month. The proposals called for developing a more secure China in a comprehensive way amid changes in the world and society.

With years of effort, China has become one of the safest countries in the world. The 2020 Global Law and Order report, released by the Washington-based organization Gallup last month, shows that China ranked third in the latest global poll on people’s perceptions of their personal security.

From January to September of this year, criminal cases across China saw a 4.5-percent decline, and the number of cases involving eight types of violent crimes, including intentional homicide, rape and robbery, saw an 11.6-percent drop over the same period, according to the Commission for Political and Legal Affairs of the CPC Central Committee.

“Security is people’s unchanging expectation and their most basic need for their livelihood. But with the historical changes in the main contradictions of our society, people’s requirements for security have also become more diversified,” Guo Shengkun, a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and head of the commission, said on Tuesday at a meeting on the implementation of the Peaceful China initiative.

He said people’s desire for security has widened from traditional areas of security, such as in their personal life and property, to more areas such as stable jobs, communities, health and psychology.

“We’re also facing a complicated situation as the world is changing quickly and various conflicts coexist. Challenges in traditional and nontraditional security sectors are rising,” he said.

All the challenges have meant higher requirements for implementing the Peaceful China initiative, Guo added, highlighting the significance of building a complete security chain to ensure “comprehensive security” in the country.

He called for political and legal agencies to prevent financial risks by taking flexible and various measures to help enterprises overcome difficulties as well as by increasing coordination with financial institutes and supervision departments to prevent financial risks from becoming social problems.

Guo also called for related authorities to take the initiative to evaluate and handle risks and conflicts with an early warning awareness, as an effort to curb them from the start and at the grassroots level.

Psychological assistance and intervention mechanisms need to be set up and improved to prevent individuals from taking extreme actions, he said.

Guo also clarified the importance of fighting crime and violations in cyberspace, such as gun purchases, pyramid schemes, drug trafficking and online pornography. Protection for data and information security must be strengthened.

Guo emphasized that each step of progress in the initiative must be done within the rule of law, and conflicts and problems should be solved in legal ways.

“When we intensify law enforcement in production safety, ecological security and food and drug safety, we should also encourage and guide people to solve their disputes and protect their rights through civil litigation,” he added.

Xinhua contributed to this story.