Does Xi Jinping use the ‘vision of Sino-Vietnamese relations’ for everyone?

Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly online on September 22, 2020, President Xi Jinping used the concept of ‘shared destiny’ to propose world leadership to China.

Immediately, Western newspapers said that this was the “vision” launched by the Chinese Communist leader to oppose the “isolated, confronted” doctrine of US President Donald Trump.

For the Vietnamese, the concept of “shared common destiny” that Mr. Xi raised sounds familiar.

Because in the Sino-Vietnamese relationship, Chinese leaders have repeatedly spoken about the “common destiny” of the two countries, prompting many different comments.

But first, let’s see what Xi said at the last UN forum.

It not only promotes peace and development, it also emphasizes democracy, freedom, and justice:

“Let us join hands to preserve and strengthen the values ​​of peace, development, equality, justice, democracy and freedom that we all share, in order to build a kind of international relationship.” new, for a community that shares the common future of humanity. Together, we can create a better world for everyone. “

According to an assessment by Shannon Tiezzi in The Diplomat (September 23), the notion of community sharing the future or “community of common destiny” mentioned by China always contains words. break America’s alliance system.

But looking closely, this is not a new vision, and it is certainly not President Xi’s theoretical work.

Chinese texts have talked a lot about the concept of ‘Human Destiny, Community Unity’ (人类 命运 共同体) for many years.

In fact, according to Richard Rigby and Brendan Taylor in a study on Chinese diplomacy, the statement about “common destiny” did not come from the mouth of the current Chinese leader, but first from TBT Hu Jint. Dao bred in 2005.

Some even say that this idea comes from the vision of Australian leaders before speaking about the need to build a ‘harmonious and stable Asia-Pacific community’.

In China in 1991, as soon as the normalization of relations with Vietnam was normalized at the Chengdu conference, then-Chinese leader President Jiang Zemin spoke 16 golden words, including a phrase about ‘destiny’. correlation’.

“Water-based paint,

Ideal for interoperability,

Similar culture “.

Critics of the two communist parties in Vietnam and China often argue that the above phrases are “spells” to ensure that the two parties rule with a certain coalition.

But in fact, the “fate sharing” formula has been adopted by China with all its neighbors.

According to a study by Zhang Dengan (Zhang Dengan), initially, the ‘common destiny’ was proposed by China “to its neighbors to heal strained relations over territorial disputes.”

In 2018, Xi said the same about relations with Japan and the countries of Northeast Asia, and when visiting Moscow in 2020, he also reiterated the theory of ‘shared destiny’ with Russia and, in general, humanity.

Only in the 21st century, the aforementioned concept “will become part of China’s long-term strategy in international relations.”

Chinese author Truong Dang An also claimed that the concept of ‘common destiny’ is promoted to “seize the opportunity for peace in the first two decades of the 21st century” that China desperately needs to develop. developing.

According to him, it is difficult to accept this concept internationally because it does not have enough transparency, commitment and concrete action on the part of the Chinese government.

Right now, President Xi’s speech at the UN forum in September this year (via video) is seen as a euphemism against President Donald Trump’s ‘America first’ slogan.

In 2018, Xi said the same about relations with Japan and the countries of Northeast Asia, and when visiting Moscow in 2020, he also reiterated the theory of ‘shared destiny’ with Russia and humanity in general.

However, it must be said that Xi Jinping expanded the definition of shared destiny community.

In 2015, it only had five elements, including ‘political association, security, economic development, cultural exchange and environmental protection’.

Now, sharing a common destiny forces humanity to focus on “globalization, combating climate change and strengthening the governance of global governance” (global governance reform).

By stating that China “never dominates” and “has no intention of opening a Cold War or a Hot War with any country,” the Chinese president also pledged to lead the war against Covid-19.

The vaccines that China is developing, testing, will have priority for developing countries, he said.