Book offers insider's guide to nation's security policies
(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-10-29 10:22
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Xiong Guangkai's The International Situation and Security Strategy provides a military angle to examine the current state of international affairs and its prospects based on the requirements of China's diplomacy in the new era.
The former chairman of the China Institute for International Strategic Studies, with the military title of general, was a senior consultant to national policy making. He understands how China's leaders interpret world events and how national security policies are formulated.
The book looks closely at the formulation and evolution of China's diplomatic security policy on the basis of its national security concerns, elaborating the distinct diplomatic philosophy of China.
"This is a significant piece of work," says Yang Wenchang, former vice-minister of the Foreign Ministry.
"It reflects deep-level research on evolving world affairs from the perspective of a senior Chinese army man."
General Mi Zhenyu, senior consultant of the China Institute for International Strategic Studies and former vice-principal of the Academy of Military Science of PLA, calls the book a "comprehensive and profound research of the international security situation and China's security policy in the last decade".
He says it firstly asks the question, "What does the contemporary international strategic situation look like?" and stresses that the international security situation is generally peaceful and stable, but is influenced by increasingly unstable and uncertain elements.
While traditional threats to security are waning, non-traditional ones are spreading. As a result, "Chinese armed forces should devote greater efforts to lift their capability in dealing with various threats to security and in fulfilling diversified military tasks according to the demands of the 'grand security concept'".
In the second part of his book, Xiong explains the evolution of China's diplomatic security policy, paying special attention to contemporary national security policy against the backdrop of the changing international order.
China has initiated a new concept of security that mainly relies on mutual understanding and cooperation among nations, which differs from other major powers.
The last part of the book looks at the possible and feasible prospects for international security. The author points out that peace and development will remain the two major themes of the century, and China will face more opportunities than challenges.
Xiong says that China's current focus is economic growth, thus its military building is purely "defensive" and needs the full cooperation of the international community.
"China needs a lasting peaceful and stable international environment," he writes in his book. "Its approach of sticking to the road of peaceful development embraces both developing itself by way of safeguarding world peace and promoting world peace by means of developing China itself."