I. The International Political Situation Gets Developed Profoundly in the Changing Process

The Changing Global Evolution Gets Rapidly Deepened: A Series of Perspectives from Some Leading Scholars of International Relations

I. The International Political Situation Gets Developed Profoundly in the Changing Process

By Zhao Kejin

Director and Professor of the Department Of International Relations

School of Social Sciences, Tsinghua University

In the year 2019, the international political situation developed profoundly in the changing process, di-globalization and unilateralism continued to ferment, the competition among major powers became heated significantly, and global governance faced the competition between multilateralism and unilateralism.

For China, external risks and development opportunities are rising at the same time. China and the United States reached the first stage of economic and trade agreement. Relations between the United States and Russia remained at a low level, and the situation of global arms control was grim. The United States continued to hit its allies, the rifts in the NATO summit increased, and the trend of diplomatic independence of Japan and Europe saw some developments. The competition between major powers had put pressure on small and medium-sized countries in various regions, and their willingness to "refuse to choose a side" among major powers is increasingly obvious. The declining willingness of individual major countries to participate in global governance had led to difficulties in governance cooperation such as climate change and the multilateral trading system. The Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization had encountered "suspension", and there was lack of consensus among various parties. The regional hot spot issues became more difficult to govern, and in the Middle East, the situation in Iran and Syria was tense, internal and external contradictions were intertwined, and the situation was still chaotic. In some countries and regions, populism had deepened its internal political and social unrest, and street riots had occurred frequently.

Today's world is undergoing profound changes unseen in a century and facing the key choice of how to govern multilateralism and unilateralism. In the course of these profound changes, China is promoting the building of a community with a shared future for mankind, construction of the Belt and Road, pushing forward the breakthrough of regional comprehensive economic partnership agreement and bringing a warm breeze to global governance.

(Edited excerpts of the article in People’s Daily 26 December 2019)