China’s Xi wants bigger global role after Saudi-Iran deal

BEIJING (AP) – President Xi Jinping has called for China to play a bigger role in managing global affairs after staging a diplomatic coup by hosting the Beijing talks. Agreement between Saudi Arabia and Iran to resume diplomatic relations.

Xi said this after a legislative session on Monday Establish a government of loyalists To tighten its control over the economy and society.

China should “actively participate in the reform and construction of global governance” and promote “global security initiatives,” Xi, the country’s most powerful leader in decades, said in a speech after the annual meeting of China’s official legislature.

It will “add positive energy to world peace and development and create a favorable international environment for our country’s development,” Xi said.

Xi gave no details of the ruling Communist Party’s ambitions, but his government has pursued an increasingly assertive policy abroad since taking power in 2012. It has pushed for changes at the International Monetary Fund and other bodies Beijing says fail to reflect their needs and wishes. Developing countries.

Beijing has built on China’s growing growth as the second-largest economy to boost trade and construction initiatives that Washington, Tokyo, Moscow and New Delhi worry will expand its strategic influence in their sprawl.

The Xi government upset the United States and Australia in early 2022 when it signed one Security Treaty with Solomon Islands This would allow Chinese naval vessels and security forces to be stationed in the South Pacific island nation.

Foreign Minister, The Qin Gang warned Washington last week Conflicts over Taiwan, human rights, Hong Kong, security and technology are likely “conflicts and conflicts” if the US does not change the course of relations.

Xi’s speech on Monday called for rapid technological development and more self-reliance in a speech peppered with nationalist rhetoric. Eight times he referred to “national revitalization,” or the restoration of China to its rightful historical role as an economic, cultural, and political leader.

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On Friday, Xi was named to another term as formal Chinese president after breaking with tradition in October and awarding himself a third five-year term as general secretary of the ruling party, putting himself on course to become leader for life. The The session of the National People’s Congress cemented Xi’s dominance A decade of change supported the appointment of his loyalists as prime minister and other government leaders. Xi has sidelined potential rivals and loaded the ruling party’s top brass with his supporters.

Xi said that before the ruling Communist Party came to power in 1949, China had “become a semi-colonial, semi-feudal country, subject to oppression by foreign countries.”

“We have finally washed away the national humiliation, and the Chinese people own their own destiny,” Xi said. “The Chinese nation has risen, grown rich, and grown stronger.”

Xi also called on the country to “unswervingly achieve” the goal of “national reunification”, a reference to Beijing’s claim that Taiwan, a self-governing island democracy, is part of its territory and that Forced to unite with China if necessary.