GLOBAL SECURITY INITIATIVE

GLOBAL SECURITY INITIATIVE

Chinese President Xi Jinping has come up with a new global security proposal questioning implicitly the logic of the Indo-Pacific strategy, as well as the Quad involving Australia, Japan, India, and the United States. Xi proposed a new “Global Security Initiative” at the Boao Forum for Asia’s annual conference in China, while calling out Cold War mentality, hegemonism, and power politics as issues that would “endanger world peace” and “exacerbate security challenges in the 21st century.”

Key Principles

• Common Future: Stay committed to the vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security, and work together to maintain world peace and security;
• Sovereignty: Stay committed to respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries, uphold non-interference in internal affairs, and respect the independent choices of development paths and social systems made by people in different countries;
• UN Charter: Stay committed to abiding by the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, reject the Cold War mentality, oppose unilateralism, and say no to group politics and bloc confrontation;
• Indivisible Security: Stay committed to taking the legitimate security concerns of all countries seriously, uphold the principle of indivisible security, build a balanced, effective and sustainable security architecture, and oppose the pursuit of one’s own security at the cost of others’ security;
• Dispute Resolution: Stay committed to peacefully resolving differences and disputes between countries through dialogue and consultation, support all efforts conducive to the peaceful settlement of crises, reject double standards, and oppose the wanton use of unilateral sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction;
• Mutual Benefit: Stay committed to maintaining security in both traditional and non-traditional domains, and work together to address regional and global challenges such as terrorism, climate change, cybersecurity, and biosecurity.

Chinese Rationale

1. Countering QUAD: Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi elaborated, saying that the initiative “contributes Chinese wisdom to make up for the human peace deficit and provides Chinese solution to cope with an international security challenge.”
2. Countering American Hegemony: China has stated it would oppose the destruction of the international order under the banner of so-called rules.
   • Fact: The point is directed towards US-based unilateralism in the world and its growing threat to Chinese interests.
3. Redefining Chinese Diplomacy: It is quite possible that the Global Security Initiative (GSI) will start to play a prominent role in Chinese public diplomacy and foreign policy posture, so it is worth taking seriously.
4. Global Power Play: GSI is a clear attempt at promoting power politics in a manner beneficial to China. Many of the proposals in the GSI are a thinly veiled effort to compete with the United States and its partners and allies.
5. Securing Chinese Borders: Chinese leaders have consistently highlighted issues like terrorism, and extremism in Central Asia at regional security forums.
   • Fact: China believes that the resurgence of extremist groups following the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021 risks spilling over into China’s Xinjiang region.
6. Asian Domination: The essence of many of the proposals in the GSI comes down to the presumption that Asian affairs should be managed by Asian countries, which conveniently gives China an absolute position because of its size and power.
7. Indivisible Security: A concept with its root in Europe, starting with the 1975 Helsinki Act, “indivisible security” essentially means that security is a collective concept and if actions by one state threaten the security of another, it marks a breach of indivisible security. Hence, no state should be able to make itself stronger at the expense of another.

Impact/Implications Global

1. Bipolarity: The initiative legitimises global bipolarity and threatens to create a wider gulf between the 2 major power poles eg: USA and China.
2. Consolidates Chinese Ambitions: GSI is not detached from China’s strategic objectives. It comes on the back of three significant initiatives: the Belt and Road Initiative (2013), the Health Silk Road (2017), and the Global Development Initiative (2021).
   • Fact: China aims to consolidate its economic, strategic and political strength throughout the region.
3. Marginalising the US in the Indo-Pacific: If China deems actions by the U.S. and its allies on Taiwan or the South China Sea as disregarding its security concerns, it could evoke the concept of ‘indivisible security’ to claim the moral high ground in retaliation.
4. Chinese ambitions: By proposing the GSI, China is trying to show that it has practical ideas for the world, now in a new sphere. China has no shortage of ambition, and at a time the world is facing a multidimensional crisis, Beijing sees an opportunity.
5. New Cold War: The Initiative can cause a series of contesting interests between US and China especially when both are contesting for the same hegemony in the International domain.
6. Asian NATO: The concept of Asian NATO has emerged out of this context especially when the “Indivisible Security” doctrine has been proposed by the initiative as a counter to NATO’s collective security.
   • Example: Russia and China claim that the escalation of the Ukraine crisis is majorly due to the expanding borders of NATO for the sake of “Collective Security”
7. Strengthening African Networks: The African region is another target. Against the backdrop of existing security partnerships with African countries that adhere to the non-interference principle,
   • Fact: Many African governments are likely to see “indivisible security” as well aligned with their views on international security.

On India

1. Marginalisation: There could be a warning for New Delhi in these efforts, that others are stitching up formal, institutionalized security cooperation that leaves India out.
   • Example: India is also not part of the BRI, with the GSI India could be even more alienated from its neighbourhood.
2. Polarise the Region: Global bipolarity especially in a region (South Asia) dominated by China can also disincentive India’s trade and political relations.
   • Example: India may emerge as the only US-aligned nation in the neighbourhood either aligning with China or having strategic autonomy.
3. Lack of Trust: For India to buy into China’s initiative, India needs to have a clearer idea of how China’s principle of “indivisible security” would play out in relations with India itself.

Way forward for India

• Strengthen Diplomacy: India must take up intensified diplomacy with global powers so that Asian Century can be defined in terms of peaceful co-existence and global interest.
• Resolve long-standing issues: India acknowledges the Chinese rise and thus knows its future in the region is on the rise hence it is important to resolve the issues at the border to ensure a basic engagement with China does not threaten national security.
• Reforming QUAD: At the same time, the QUAD must be more formalised to tackle any threats posed by China and its initiative.
• Russian Engagement: India must also try to leverage its relations with other Chinese allies like Russia, to ensure the group still has considerable Indian influence.
• Multilateralism: India can promote new multilateralism under the aegis of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam which relies on restructuring both the economic order and societal behaviour for equitable sustainable development.