Harald Brüning says last week’s military parade was a ‘beautiful’ but necessary show of force.

The launch of another global initiative and two major international events, held in Tianjin and Beijing last week, have reaffirmed China’s role as a leader in global peace and development efforts.

President Xi Jinping proposed the Global Governance Initiative (GGI) in a speech at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Plus meeting in the northern port city on Sept 1.

“I look forward to working with all countries for a more just and equitable global governance system and advancing toward a community with a shared future for humanity”, Xi said, pointing out that while this year marks the 80th anniversary of the victory in the World Anti-Fascist War and the founding of the United Nations, “80 years later, … the Cold War mentality, hegemonism and protectionism continue to haunt the world. New threats and challenges have been only increasing. The world has found itself in a new period of turbulence and transformation. Global governance has come to a new crossroads”.

READ MORE: Xi unveils Global Governance Initiative at SCO

Well, indeed. Considering the global bedlam on various fronts, such as the troublesome economic repercussions of abruptly altered tariffs and military hostilities resulting from willfully ignoring perceived opponents’ legitimate security interests, the terms “turbulence” and “transformation” sound almost like diplomatic euphemisms.

In his proposal, Xi raised five core concepts:

“First, we should adhere to sovereign equality. … We should… increase the representation and voice of developing countries.

“Second, we should abide by the international rule of law. … There should be no double standards, and the house rules of a few countries must not be imposed upon others.

“Third, we should practice multilateralism, … featuring extensive consultation and joint contribution for shared benefit. … We should firmly safeguard the status and authority of the UN.

“Fourth, we should advocate a people-centered approach. … We should … better narrow the North-South gap and better safeguard the common interests of all countries.

“Fifth, we should focus on taking real actions. We should adopt a systematic and holistic approach … and strive for more visible outcomes.”

A concept paper, issued by China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Sept 1, elaborates on Xi’s GGI proposal. It underlines the “serious underrepresentation of the Global South” and warns that “unilateral sanctions … have violated international law and disrupted the international order, (and) governance gaps exist in new frontiers such as artificial intelligence, cyberspace, and outer space.”

According to Kishore Mahbubani, distinguished fellow of the National University of Singapore’s Asia Research Institute, “It is certainly true that 88 percent of the world population lives outside the West in what is now called the Global South.

“Arguably, many Global South countries across Latin America, Africa, and Asia are no longer passive participants on the world stage, instead acting independently of the West in many ways.

“Signs of this emerged more than a decade ago when America, as the world’s most powerful country, led a global campaign to persuade countries not to join China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Yet more than 140 countries did just that.”

The term “global governance” is relatively new. It emerged in the mid-1990s, as far as I know, and only began to be widely used at the beginning of the 21st century. For instance, the first, 1996 edition of the Oxford Concise Dictionary of Politics, which I bought in 2000, still did not include an entry on “global governance”.

Now, only some three decades later, China is one of the main proponents of further developing the concept.

As the concept paper points out, the GGI is another major initiative proposed by China, following the Global Development Initiative (GDI, launched by Xi at the UN General Assembly in 2021), the Global Security Initiative (GSI, launched by Xi at the Boao Forum in 2022), and the Global Civilization Initiative (GCI, launched by Xi in a speech in 2023).

The GDI focuses on promoting international cooperation on development, the GSI on encouraging dialogue and consultation over international discord, the GCI on promoting exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations, and the GGI on the direction, principles, and path for reforming the global governance system and institutions.

The concept paper underlines that the four initiatives have their respective priorities and can be pursued simultaneously, while the five core concepts of the GGI stem from the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, “and respond to the shared aspiration of most countries”.

I am sure that virtually all countries in the Global South do agree with Xi’s four global initiatives, and I wish that even the Global North, i.e., the West, would finally get on board, such as Portugal, Spain, Slovakia, and Serbia, known for their markedly amicable approach toward China. Even Brussels should think about joining them — it would help strengthen its currently rather weak strategic autonomy.

The concept paper underlines that within the GGI ambit, China will “give priority to areas where (global) governance is in urgent need and scant supply, such as the reform of the international financial architecture, AI, cyberspace, climate change, trade, and outer space, and to firmly uphold the authority and central role of the UN.”

Xi proposed the GGI at the largest-ever SCO summit in its 24-year history — and the proposal came a mere two days before the country marked the 80th anniversary of its arduously won victory in the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45) and the World Anti-Fascist War.

The SCO summit was attended by leaders from more than 20 countries and heads of 10 international organizations.

Kin Phea, director-general of the International Relations Institute of Cambodia, said the SCO offers “a compelling alternative to zero-sum thinking”, emphasizing “listening over dictating, solidarity over supremacy, and shared growth over isolated gain”.

Addressing the summit, Xi invited countries with relevant capacities to take part in China’s International Lunar Research Station project.

The organization, which has grown from its six founding members in 2001 to 10, is now the world’s largest regional organization, with cooperation covering more than 50 areas and a combined economic output of $30 trillion, Xinhua News Agency reported last week.

US President Donald Trump has described last week’s grand military parade in Beijing as a “beautiful ceremony”. My local friends, not just those from the media, told me that while they have hardly ever agreed with what Trump has said, about China in particular, since he returned to the White House in January 2025, this time he hit the nail on the head.

While holding its massive V-Day parade in the national capital, China pledged its firm commitment to peaceful development in a world still fraught with turbulence and uncertainties.

Addressing the grand gathering — which consisted of the military parade and a large-scale reception for guests from all over the world — Xi said that the Chinese nation’s ongoing rejuvenation was unstoppable.

Noting that the 1945 victory was achieved under a national united front against Japanese aggression advocated by the Communist Party of China, Xi said that the Chinese people made a major contribution to the salvation of human civilization and the defense of world peace with immense sacrifices in the war — a significant part of the World Anti-Fascist War.

Regrettably, China’s important — and extremely harrowing — role in defeating World War II militarism and fascism is still widely ignored, or even downplayed, by the West. That’s a shame.

China’s war of defending itself against imperialist Japan began with the Mukden Incident (the September 18 Incident) in 1931, eight years before Nazi Germany’s blitzkrieg in Poland — many in the Global North still think that World War II began in 1939. In an interview with Chinese State media on the sidelines of the SCO summit in Tianjin, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres rightly pointed out this historically significant fact of how World War II erupted. I thank him for that.

For over a decade preceding the Pearl Harbor attack by Japan, China faced the Japanese invaders virtually all by itself. China refused to capitulate, despite the 1937 Nanjing Massacre and the relentless bombing of the country’s wartime capital, Chongqing.

Historians have pointed out that China’s grueling resistance bought critical time for Allied rearmament and decisively shattered Japan’s hubristic plan for a three-month conquest of China. Japanese military archives show that between 1937 and 1945, some 70 to 90 percent of its army divisions were committed to the Chinese mainland.

One can only shudder when thinking about what would have happened if the bloodthirsty armies of Nazi Germany and Japan had been able to meet up in the Caucasus to rule the major part of our planet. Whole nations would have become slave states, and genocide would have continued for who knows how long. Thanks also to the Chinese people’s heroism in World War II, the Holocaust came to an end before the “final solution” could reach its absolutely depraved aim of exterminating the Jewish people (without whose extraordinary contributions, by the way, German culture and science are unthinkable) in Nazi-ruled Europe.

Considering that China’s resistance thwarted the nightmare scenario of the Nazis and Japanese militarists dominating the world, we Europeans — Germans in particular — should be eternally grateful to the Chinese people’s excruciatingly painful fight for their independence and freedom.

China and the Soviet Union sustained the greatest number of victims killed in World War II. Without them, and the other allies, that evil moron hiding in a bunker in Berlin and the vile militarists in Tokyo could have come out victorious.

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Lamentably, senior political figures from Europe were conspicuous by their absence from last week’s grand gathering in Beijing. What a missed opportunity!

Their argument that they couldn’t attend because of the presence of a certain country’s leader is an inane point.

It’s like someone saying that they can’t attend a certain event or function, such as a wedding party or funeral, because of the attendance of someone they do not like. It reminds me of kids saying they won’t attend a friend’s birthday party because they dislike one of the guests. That’s kindergarten stuff, unworthy of any state representative.

The 20 million Chinese who perished in World War II would have deserved better.

Well, we can always learn from our mistakes, can’t we?

Last week’s events and Xi’s speeches in Tianjin and Beijing have shown that China has become a leading force for global peace. Of course, peace must be defended — and that’s why last week’s military parade was a “beautiful” but also necessary show of force.

The author is a director of The Macau Post Daily.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

(This is an abridged version of the author’s article published in The Macau Post on Tuesday.)