BLUF
On 21 April 2022, President Xi Jinping of the People's Republic of China (PRC) announced by video conference at the annual Boao Forum for Asia (held in Boao, Hainan Province) a new Chinese Communist Party (CCP) -led "Global Security Initiative" (GSI) based on "six commitments." In the following months since the announcement, Beijing has taken measures to actualize Xi's GSI vision by diplomatically reaching out to the Russian-led military alliance Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in June as well as 48 African nations via the China-Africa Peace and Security Forum in July.
Analysis
Xi says GSI is based upon “six commitments”: (1) commitment to "common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable [global] security," (2) commitment to "respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries,” (3) commitment to the purposes and principles of the United Nations (UN) Charter, (4) commitment to the "legitimate security concerns" of all nations, (5) commitment to resolving inter-state disputes via peaceful dialogue, and (6) commitment to maintaining "traditional" and "non-traditional" security domains. To date, Beijing’s messaging remains ambiguous regarding the Russian Federation’s (RF) overt kinetic war campaign in Ukraine. The CCP is likely to invoke GSI in diplomatic discourse during the coming months and years.