Full Text of Foreign Minister Wang Yi's Speech on China's Diplomacy in 2014

2. The call for building a global network of partnerships. Another major diplomatic vision expounded by President Xi Jinping at the Central Conference on Work Relating to Foreign Affairs is to make more friends and build a global network of partnerships while abiding by the principle of non-alignment.

Building partnership is a distinctive feature of China's diplomacy. After the end of the Cold War which was marked by the confrontation between alliance of nations, we drew on the experience and lessons of history in a timely way and succeeded in developing a new approach of forming partners instead of allies. China has established 72 partnerships in different forms and at different levels with 67 countries and 5 regions or regional organizations, which cover all the major countries and regions in the world. President Xi Jinping's call for building a global network of partnerships is an incisive summary and enrichment of China's successful diplomatic practices over the past two decades and more. It has increased the strategic and global dimension for our efforts to build partnerships.

The partnerships that we are building have three basic features. First, equality. Countries, regardless of their sizes or levels of development, should respect each other's sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity as well as each other's choice of development path and values, treat each other as equals, and show mutual understanding for and support each other. Second, peace. What makes such partnership different from military alliance is that it does not have any hypothetical enemy nor is it targeted at any third party, thus keeping relations between countries unaffected by military factors. It aims to handle state-to-state relations with a cooperative rather than confrontational, and a win-win rather than zero-sum approach. Third, inclusiveness. The partnership we have initiated seeks to go beyond differences in social systems and ideologies to maximize common interests and pursue a common goal. As President Xi Jinping puts it, "Those who share the same vision and follow the same path are partners. Those who seek common ground while shelving differences can also be partners." On the other hand, partnership does not mean giving up principles. China will continue to follow an independent foreign policy of peace in international affairs, and take position and make its judgment on an issue based on its merits.