Africa -China Review Africa -China Cooperation and Transformation
Published: April 25,2023
One year after the Global Security Initiative (GSI) was put forward, the Chinese proposal has promoted world peace and security, injecting stability and positive energy into the world, Zimbabwean experts have said.
China has been an indispensable player in preserving global peace and security at a time when the world has gone through profound changes, said Gibson Nyikadzino, an international relations analyst. In April 2022, China proposed the GSI, which aims to create a new path to security featuring dialogue over confrontation, partnership over alliance, and win-win over zero-sum. It provides a new course and approach to addressing the root causes of international conflicts and solving security challenges facing humanity. “The Chinese are not militaristic in terms of their foreign policy as opposed to the West. China has not shown any incentive driven by militarism,” Nyikadzino told Xinhua.
While the Western security initiatives are largely in favor of military intervention to resolve disputes, China’s proposal is pro-peace and contributes to maintaining global security, said Nyikadzino. He lamented the West’s militaristic foreign policy which has caused suffering in many countries, such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Libya, saying that such foreign policy was meant to “benefit the military-industrial complex and has made the world much more unsafe.” Although the GSI is essential in addressing the urgent needs and difficulties of the world, the West is still “trying to frame China as an aggressor instead of a peace-maker or peace-builder,” said Nyikadzino. “Unfortunately, as the United States and the West think in military terms, they see China’s initiative as one that is asserting its hegemony in the world. Yet China has no plans to dominate the world but create win-win situations,” the expert said.
Nyikadzino’s view was echoed by Zimbabwean economist Paul Musodza, who told Xinhua that the GSI has boosted world peace and sustainable development. Musodza, also chairman of the Zimbabwe Students in China Association, said the initiative stresses the need to bring the global community together in a peaceful environment. “The good significance of China’s initiative is that global peace is only possible when all world economies are growing and benefiting world citizens,” Musodza said.
Besides the GSI, China has proposed the Belt and Road Initiative, the Global Development Initiative, and the Global Civilization Initiative on different occasions. All those have enriched the Chinese vision for a community with a shared future for mankind and provided practical pathways toward it. Musodza said these initiatives are good, as the world, and Africa in particular, can benefit from the Chinese wisdom. “The Chinese way of life and doing things must be understood by the world. That is, how it has grown its economy” into the world’s second-largest one, Musodza said. “So, African countries will be engaged too. It will be good for Africa,” he said.
Xinhua
