China’s political season in 2025 is entering an important phase, with the “Two Sessions,” the most prominent political event, attracting attention both domestically and internationally. The Two Sessions are the annual meetings of the National People’s Congress (NPC) and the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the country’s top legislative bodies. Each serves for five years, with their annual meetings held almost in parallel.
As China enters the “Two Sessions” period, the expectations for its economy have become a global focus. Many foreign media outlets anticipate that China will continue to set a growth target of around 5% this year. This target means a lot for the external world, especially for countries in the Global South like Egypt. Especially the global South countries, including Egypt, are looking at a new era of major power diplomacy with Chinese characteristics with countries in the Global South, based on the philosophy of neutrality and a community with a shared future for mankind.
Since coming to power, President “Xi Jinping” has outlined the path to leading the sound progress of major-power diplomacy with Chinese characteristics, focusing on a community of shared future for mankind and the philosophy of neutrality to achieve comprehensive and just cooperation with all parties, and promoting the establishment of a model of relations featuring peaceful coexistence, overall stability and balanced development. This year marks the 11th anniversary of President Xi Jinping’s proposal to build a community of shared future for mankind. Global South cooperation is an integral part of major-power diplomacy with Chinese characteristics. As a model member of the Global South, China has established strategic partnerships and comprehensive strategic partnerships with countries in the Global South. China-Global South relations have entered a new era, combining an economic framework based on mutual benefit, a political framework based on reshaping the current world order toward a community of shared future for mankind, and a philosophy of neutrality to build an international community of just, comprehensive, and sustainable peace.
The term “Global South” emerged in the 1960s as an alternative to terms such as “Third World” and “developing countries”, and was used to emphasize the independence of these countries and challenge the dominance of Western countries in international politics and economics. Today it is used to refer to low- and middle-income countries, including countries in Africa, Latin America, and Asia, and to highlight global inequalities between the North and the South.
China has not hidden its dissatisfaction with the current global order, which it describes as a system based on Western hegemony and treating other countries with double standards and a condescending view, and stresses that this system has failed to resolve international crises, stressing the need for a new, more just, and effective system.
China indicates that the current global order is “unfair and excludes the interests of developing countries,”، as it describes it, citing economic disparities, political interventions, and the imposition of Western standards on the majority of countries in the world.
In recent years, China’s statements calling for reshaping the international order to be consistent with its values and interests and to resolve international crises more justly and effectively have escalated.
The United States Is aware of this, as US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said in September 2022 that the world is on the cusp of a new era of relations and competition to determine the shape of the global order, and that the ties of countries have become more intertwined than ever before.
In his speech at the World Forum in Davos, Counselor Sullivan explained that a fierce competition has begun, entitled “the right to determine the shape of the new world order,” and he indicated that the United States is mobilizing the world not to abandon the global economic order, but rather to adapt it to “the challenges of today and tomorrow.”.
In 2023, India held the G20 summit in New Delhi to discuss the “Voice of the Global South,” and the “Global South” was mentioned in the report issued by the Munich Security Conference “Global South” several times in a row, and Japan held the “Global South” summit, and during the G7 summit in Hiroshima, some “Southern countries” were specially invited to attend, and the Global South was included in the summit topics. The concepts launched by major power diplomacy with Chinese characteristics have led the countries of the Global South, which have strategic influence covering 130 countries, to intensify interactions between countries of the South, and the Northern powers are also competing for leadership of the Global South. The distinction between the South and the North is not geographical but in the political and economic dividing discourses. From a political perspective, it includes building global governance based on the concepts of fairness and equity, insisting on political independence and the global non-aligned powers, which are the global powers committed to participating in the reform and construction of the global governance system. These concepts are the cornerstone of major power diplomacy with Chinese characteristics, which determines relations with countries of the Global South primarily from the perspective of the position of the South in the global community and the community of shared future for mankind.
The outlines of major power diplomacy with Chinese characteristics and its new concepts have contributed to promoting the concept of the Global South, especially the great role played by the “Belt and Road” Initiative in connecting the world with land and sea networks to promote trade, political and cultural cooperation in the context of “mutual benefit,” as well as China’s leading and responsible role in the UN international peacekeeping forces, and the “Chinese vaccine diplomacy” during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, all of these contributions of the outlines of major power diplomacy to promoting international conferences to promote the Global South.
