Chinese experts envisage new world order in Munich

The old mindset should be modified and full respect should be paid, especially to the appeals of developing countries, in order to revamp the world order and make it fair and reasonable, Chinese experts have suggested during the 60th Munich Security Conference (MSC).

A reflection on the world order was under the spotlight at the MSC which kicked off on Friday. The "2024 Munich Security Report" released recently shed light on the "obvious flaws" of the existing international order.

The report underscores the conspicuous deficiencies in the existing international order, under which developing countries in the Global South are dissatisfied for not receiving their due benefits while developed countries that used to champion the order also build grudges as finding their benefits are diminishing.

The "zero-sum" mentally centered on "relative gains" has plunged the world into a dilemma of "lose-lose," the report highlighted.

"Today's global order is not working for everyone. In fact ... it's not working for anyone," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said at the MSC, "Our world is facing existential challenges, but the global community is more fragmented and divided than at any time during the past 75 years."

In light of these observations, scholars and experts from China attending the conference proposed the establishment of a fair and reasonable international order.

If the West has come to acknowledge the "mutual loss" dilemma, a recalibration of mindset, especially the perception of global order, is imperative, argued Cui Hongjian, professor of the Academy of Regional and Global Governance at Beijing Foreign Studies University, who is also vice president of the Chinese Association for European Studies.

The point at issue is the world's distribution mechanism which needs to be changed to give a fair share to developing countries, observed Sun Chenghao, a fellow at the Center for International Security and Strategy (CISS), Tsinghua University.

The West believes that changing the distribution mechanism to allow developing countries to share more benefits means that developed countries in the West will get less, Sun said. However, actually the West does not think about how to make the pie bigger but just focuses on the amount of distribution, which is the root cause of the "lose-lose" dilemma, Sun added. 

The report suggests that growing the pie could assuage the discontent of the existing global order. But Ghanaian President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo said that countries in the Global South believe that the problem they are facing is not how to make the pie bigger, but how to share it more equitable.

Amidst headwinds against economic globalization and rising protectionism in international trade, China remains steadfast in advancing globalization, Cui pointed out.

Through initiatives such as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), China continues to contribute to global economic recovery and development, Cui said, adding: "The West should also truly return to the direction steered by development and cooperation."

Regarding how to build a better international order, Sun said that the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative and the Global Civilization Initiative that China has put forward and cooperation mechanisms such as the BRI have taken into account the needs of all parties, and complemented and improved the existing international order.

In the future, all parties should adhere to the principle of extensive consultation and joint contribution, fully respect each other, especially the security concerns of developing countries, and strive to establish and improve a fair and reasonable international order, said Liu Zuokui, deputy director of the Institute of European Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Inaugurated in 1963, the MSC is an international platform for high-level discussions on global security issues and a venue for diplomatic initiatives to address security concerns.

(With input from Xinhua)