Establishing a Rule-based International Order is a Difficult and Long Process

By Yu Hongjun

Vice President of the CPAPD and Former Vice-Minister of IDCPC

In recent years, the complex and changeable world situation has become particularly prominent, and the trend of international relations, especially the major country relations is uncertain, which is of great concern.The establishment of a new international order based on new rules is becoming the focus and gravity of study of international relations.

The history of human society, in the final analysis, is from irregularity and disorder to rules and order, and to the establishment of new rules and new order, and is a lasting cyclical process.In the 14-13 century BC, the Egyptian empire in North Africa and the Hittite Kingdom that ruled the Syrian region, after fighting for hundred years for hegemony, finally signed a treaty of friendship aimed at creating endurable peace and harmonious coexistence with each other, creating an ancient example of the great powers practicing self-restraints and seeking common security.However, it was impossible for human society to establish universally accepted norms of interrelationship and universally binding norms of conduct.After the advent of the Egyptian-Hittite Peace Treaty,human society still lives under the law of jungle.The path of human development and progress is repeatedly disrupted by the struggle for hegemon among great powers and the inevitable rivalry for hegemony by strong powers.

After entering the stage of capitalist development, the Europeans who experienced thirty years of religious war felt the necessity of delimiting boundaries, establishing rules and maintaining order among different nation states,so the famous Westphalia Peace Treaty came into being in 1648.From then on, an international order takes shape basically with the mutual equality of state sovereignty as the important premise, the non-interference in internal affairs as the basic principle,guaranteeing the inviolability of state territory and independence as the common criterion as well as the multilateral conferences as the dispute settlement mechanism.

More than two hundred years later,European and American countries began seriously considering the issues of common security and common development.Their focus was first on the issues of human life and dignity,which are generally concerned by human society, and secondly on the issues of technological progress and management that are of common concern to all countries.In the year 1863, the International Committee of the Red Cross was established.In 1864, 12 countries including Switzerland and France, etc.signed the Geneva Convention and care for the sick and wounded in war.In 1865, the International Telegraph Union was founded.In 1874, more than 20 countries in Europe and the United States established the General Postal Union, which was upgraded to the Universal Postal Union in 1878.In 1889, the Inter-Parliamentary Union came into being in the world.In 1899 and 1907, European and American countries held two international peace conferences in Hague, Holland, .The conference adopted not only the Hague Convention with the main content of the Convention on the peaceful settlement of international disputes, but also set up the first Permanent Court of Arbitration in the world.

Back then, the understanding of international relations and international order by human society was relatively naïve, and in the process of implementing the peace treaty,the parties concerned did as they wished, and sometimes behaved unorthodoxly.The Westphalia peace treaty system is still not enough to cope effectively with the new challenges brought about by the changes in international power balance and restructuring relations among major powers.The accumulation of contradictions in the capitalist era, especially the formation of the two major groups of countries in Europe, finally triggered the First World War in 1914.

The First World War brought great destruction and terrible consequences.Thus,under the leadership of the victors such as the United States, Britain and France, the famous Paris Peace Conference was held in 1919, and then the Washington Conference was held.There were the Treaty of Trianon and Versailles system, there were new multilateral cooperation organizations such as the International Committee on Global Navigation.There were even the Non-War Convention, the League of Nations, the Permanent International Court of Justice, and Interpol, then known as the Interpol Commission.Then, the international community rejoiced over the establishment and operation of these intergovernmental organizations.The major powers like the United States and Europe were proud of their dominated international relations and world order.

However, the United States, then as a strong world power, refused to participate in the League of Nations initiated by the United States because its intention to dominate the world was not fully reflected.The Soviet Union was excluded from the League of Nations for many years because its social system and ideology were different from those of the West.The United States, Britain and France kept major reservations to the Non-War Convention in order to maintain the right to military operations overseas.In 1932, the World Conference on Disarmament died short of life due to the withdrawal of Japan and Germany.It was precisely because the United States was absent from the League of Nations and the Soviet Union was excluded from the League of Nations, so the Non-War Convention became a waste paper.The world disarmament conference became a fond dream, and the Versailles system and the League of Nations were rather weak.Facts also fully prove that the Versatile system and the League of Nations did not contain the rise of fascist Germany,Italy and Japan, and failed to restrain the appeasement policy of Britain and France.The Second World War broke out across the board in 1939.The fierce fighting and the painful casualties far exceed people's imagination and endurance.The international community begun to reconsider the issue of formulating new norms of international relations and building broader intergovernmental cooperation organizations.In the autumn of 1944,the Dumbarton Oaks conference outlined the general blueprint for the United Nations.In February 1945, the Yalta Conference of the leaders of the United States, the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom made a final decision on the post-war world pattern, the distribution of the interests of major powers, the arrangement of international order, especially the establishment of the United Nations, etc..

In October 1945, a United Nations organization, totally different from the old League of Nations, came into being.The Charter of the United Nations, a historic document symbolizing the new international order, was solemnly signed.Since then, a large number of agencies and related organizations of the United Nations system have emerged.Many of them, such as the International Court of Justice, GATT, WHO, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, UNESCO and IAEA, etc.have played an undeniable role in establishing and maintaining the post-WWII international political and economic order,promoting the process of peaceful development,addressing major issues and crises, and responding to global challenges.

To adapt to these developments, the international law instruments already in existence before World War II, such as the Geneva Convention and the Hague Convention,become an important part of the new international law system after being amended and supplemented.A series of new international law instruments under the guidance of the Charter of the United Nations, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, are born one after another.These new documents,which reflect the characteristics of the times and conform to the direction of human progress,have been widely recognized, and their coverage is much more extensive than that of the Versatile system and the League of Nations.This is a precious result of the mutual efforts of the international community.

However, in the early post-WWII period,the world was divided into two camps, the East camp and the West camp.Because of its unique comprehensive national strength, the United States had a very prominent position in the United Nations system and other multilateral organizations.The Western values and international political thinking represented by the United States still play a dominant role in international affairs.In the late 1940s, the European Recovery Plan, i.e.the Marshall Plan implemented by the United States, accelerated the division of Europe.The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the Paris Coordinating Committee and the short-lived Southeast Asian Treaty Organization and the Baghdad Treaty Organization, etc.had blown the Cold War to the entire world.The United States is probably to be blame for all these.

After the Second World War, the Soviet Union, which became the second superpower,acted independently and defiantly as a equal with the United States and created the Warsaw Treaty Organization and the Economic Mutual Aid Committee.The two sides competed strategically not only in the United Nations system, but also across the world.In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the dramatic changes in Eastern Europe, the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the collapse of the Warsaw Treaty Organization led to the breakdown of the Yalta system, which guided the development and changes of international relations in several decades after WWII.Under such circumstances,international relations need to be readjusted, the international legal system needs to be renewed urgently, the international community calls for a new political and economic order, and the world security structure should have new arrangements.The global governance need to be innovated and developed from concept to practice.

Unfortunately, during the great transition period of international strategic pattern from bipolarity to multi-polarity, deepening development of economic globalization,increasing diversity of social system and path options, the phenomenon of "one super power"emerged unexpectedly.Over the past three decades, the Cold War mentality of an individual major power is serious, so power politics and hegemonism have developed further.As a tool of the Cold War, NATO not only refuses to step down from the stage of history with the end of the Cold War but has expanded eastward, and also participated in the U.S.-led Kosovo war.Russia's relations with the United States and Europe have entered another complicated process different from that of the past, and the European security pattern and situation still remain deadlocked.As a result, the turmoil in the Middle East is spilling over, terrorism has become a public enemy of mankind, and the imbalance of development becomes even more prominent.The extreme trends of thought such as isolationism,unilateralism, populism, racism, extreme nationalism and others rise and fall from time to time, like turbid waves surging high.

Currently, human society is at a very important historical juncture.How to adjust the existing norms of international relations, how to improve the international law system mainly based on the Charter of the United Nations,how to build a stable and developing major power relations, and how to build a new world order meet with different opinions, and various regional and global conferences and forums are springing up like grass after a rain.The increasingly multiplied and active multilateral mechanisms cover all fields of human activities,and the incomplete Yalta system is repaired to a certain extent.

Since the end of the Cold War, China has always advocated transcending ideological differences and different social systems, and jointly promoting the healthy development of the world's multipolarization and economic globalization, and promoting the establishment of a fair and rational new international political and economic order.President Xi Jinping put forth the new concept of building a community with a shared future for humankind and the new idea of establishing a stable, balanced and developing major country relations framework,forming a new concept of the times, a new concept of civilization, a new concept of development, a new concept of cooperation and a new concept of security, which show both Chinese political wisdom and the spirit of the times as well as extensively recognized by the international community.Through vigorously promoting the construction of the Belt and Road, China is leading the world to linked development, to share weal and woe, as well as future and destiny.

It is precisely because of the active participation of China and the developing countries that the reputation and role of the United Nations are markedly strengthened after the Cold War, and the status and influence of the United Nations agencies become more apparent.There is also a new development since the GATT was reorganized into the WTO.The APEC Leaders' Informal Meeting plays an important role in promoting regional cooperation, and the Group - 20 becomes the"Economic UN" that the international community has high hopes for.As far as this is concerned, the traditional major powers and the emerging major powers joining hands with the whole international community have made some achievements and contributions in collectively building new international rules and new world order.

Over the past two years, the complex and changeable international situation has become more prominent.The U.S.international strategy and foreign relations are drastically readjusted,and the international community is facing unexpected shocks and challenges in building a new order based on new rules.In view of the special responsibility of major powers for the peaceful development of mankind, mutual respect, inclusiveness, mutually beneficial development, common pursuit for security,carrying forward the cause into the future and weeding through the old to bring forth the new should be the common choice for major powers to build a new system of international relations,i.e.a new order based on new rules.History and practice will eventually prove that this is the only option that countries around the world,especially major countries, can take on the occasion of changing world landscape.In this regard, we should have overall in-depth thinking strategically as well as prepare for a difficult and tortuous long-term game-play.