Chinese president Xi Jinping struck a conciliatory tone at the World Economic Forum’s virtual Davos Agenda meeting on January 17, 2022, a little more than a year ago. You can watch his speech here and read his speech here. In one section of his speech that stood out, he advocated for countries around the world to seek “win-win outcomes.”
I thought that this was a noteworthy part of his speech. Here’s the transcript of what he said:
“Fourth, we need to discard Cold War mentality and seek
peaceful coexistence and win-win outcomes. Our world today is far from being
tranquil; rhetorics that stoke hatred and prejudice abound. Acts of
containment, suppression, or confrontation arising thereof do all harm, not the
least good, to world peace and security. History has proved time and again that
confrontation does not solve problems; it only invites catastrophic
consequences. Protectionism and unilateralism can protect no one; they ultimately
hurt the interests of others as well as one's own. Even worse are the practices
of hegemony and bullying, which run counter to the tide of history. Naturally,
countries have divergences and disagreements between them. Yet a zero-sum
approach that enlarges one's own gain at the expense of others will not help.
Acts of single-mindedly building ‘exclusive yards with high walls’ or ‘parallel
systems,’ of enthusiastically putting together exclusive small circles or blocs
that polarize the world, of overstretching the concept of national security to
hold back economic and technological advances of other countries, and of
fanning ideological antagonism and politicizing or weaponizing economic,
scientific and technological issues, will gravely undercut international
efforts to tackle common challenges.
“The right way forward for humanity is peaceful development and
win-win cooperation. Different countries and civilizations may prosper together
on the basis of respect for each other, and seek common ground and win-win
outcomes by setting aside differences.”
In these challenging times, I hope that world leaders can consider taking this to heart.
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