Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday said that Beijing would never impose its will on the rest of the world and instead wanted to “abandon the old mindset” and strive for global peace.
Speaking at a forum in Beijing, Xi, who is widely expected to succeed Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) next year, sought to reassure other countries that the rise of China, which in 2010 became the world’s second-largest economy, was not something to be feared.
“Even when China becomes developed in the future, it will never seek hegemony,” Xi told the World Peace Forum. “China is always committed to economic development, world peace and common development of mankind.”
Photo: AFP
“We must abandon the old mindset and approach that has been rendered obsolete, we must keep pace with the times, forge ahead with innovation and foster a new security concept,” he added.
China has been pushing for emerging powers to take a bigger role in international institutions, such as the IMF, where Beijing is playing a leading part, and Xi said this trend would continue.
“China will actively participate in the reform of the international system for governance with a view to move toward a more just and equitable international political and economic order,” he said.
Besides its growing economic power, China’s increasing military might has also irked other countries, especially its regional neighbors and the US, which has realigned its forces to address Beijing’s buildup.
Le Tuan Binh keeps his Moroccan soldier father’s tombstone at his village home north of Hanoi, a treasured reminder of a man whose community in Vietnam has been largely forgotten. Mzid Ben Ali, or “Mohammed” as Binh calls him, was one of tens of thousands of North Africans who served in the French army as it battled to maintain its colonial rule of Indochina. He fought for France against the Viet Minh independence movement in the 1950s, before leaving the military — as either a defector or a captive — and making a life for himself in Vietnam. “It’s very emotional for me,”
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) Central Committee is to gather in July for a key meeting known as a plenum, the third since the body of elite decisionmakers was elected in 2022, focusing on reforms amid “challenges” at home and complexities broad. Plenums are important events on China’s political calendar that require the attendance of all of the Central Committee, comprising 205 members and 171 alternate members with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at the helm. The Central Committee typically holds seven plenums between party congresses, which are held once every five years. The current central committee members were elected at the
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi reaffirmed his pledge to replace India’s religion-based marriage and inheritance laws with a uniform civil code if he returns to office for a third term, a move that some minority groups have opposed. In an interview with the Times of India listing his agenda, Modi said his government would push for making the code a reality. “It is clear that separate laws for communities are detrimental to the health of society,” he said in the interview published yesterday. “We cannot be a nation where one community is progressing with the support of the Constitution while the other
CODIFYING DISCRIMINATION: Transgender people would be sentenced to three years in prison, while same-sex relations could land a person in jail for more than a decade Iraq’s parliament on Saturday passed a bill criminalizing same-sex relations, which would receive a sentence of up to 15 years in prison, in a move rights groups condemned as an “attack on human rights.” Transgender people would be sentenced to three years’ jail under the amendments to a 1988 anti-prostitution law, which were adopted during a session attended by 170 of 329 lawmakers. A previous draft had proposed capital punishment for same-sex relations, in what campaigners had called a “dangerous” escalation. The new amendments enable courts to sentence people engaging in same-sex relations to 10 to 15 years in prison, according to the