If you are searching for a counterpoint to the current drift in global politics, you only have to look at China's diplomatic calendar over the past weeks. Against the backdrop of a sharply escalating Middle East crisis — where some actors have blurred the line between conflict management and conflict expansion — Beijing has been pursuing an intense pro-peace, pro-development diplomatic agenda.
At a moment when some parts of the international system appear to be "crumbling" — due to maverick transactional coercion and lawless leverage — China is upholding rules, institutions and dialogue. The latest demonstration of this approach came on Tuesday, when President Xi Jinping met Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates, and Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez respectively in Beijing. In substance, the bilateral engagements offer something of broader significance: signals about China's stance toward the conflicts in the Middle East and its relations with Europe, and its upholding of the rules-based international order.
In his meeting with the crown prince, Xi put forward a four-point proposal on promoting peace and stability in the Middle East.
Noting that it is imperative to promote the building of a common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security architecture for the Middle East and the Gulf region, Xi called for adherence to the principle of peaceful coexistence.
Saying that the safety of personnel, facilities and institutions of all countries should be effectively safeguarded, he urged adherence to the principle of national sovereignty, stressing that the sovereignty, security and territorial integrity of countries in the Middle East and the Gulf region should be fully respected.
He also called for adherence to the principle of international rule of law, saying that the authority of international rule of law should be upheld to prevent the world from falling back into the law of the jungle.
And calling for all parties to work together to create a favorable environment for the development of countries in the Middle East and the Gulf region, he said that regional development and security should be coordinated.
The proposal aligns closely with the five-point initiative China had put forward with Pakistan. Taken together they present a consistent policy line: de-escalation, respect for sovereignty and international law, and development as the imperative for security. These are mutually reinforcing pillars.
Xi's talks with Spain's prime minister underscored joint efforts to strengthen the long-term architecture for stable China-Europe relations and safeguard global supply chains and multilateralism.
Xi said that China and Spain should work together to oppose any regression toward a world governed by "the law of the jungle", uphold genuine multilateralism and safeguard the international system centered on the United Nations and the international order based on international law.
A common thread running through both meetings is that rules are not optional and power needs to be wielded responsibly. Peace and development remain the central themes of the modern world, but they require a shared willingness to subordinate narrow-minded advantage to broader stability to deliver their promise.
This is where the contrast between Beijing's approach and that of others becomes stark. While Beijing is emphasizing ceasefires, dialogue and institutional frameworks, some actors are pursuing policies that conflate conflicts, expand alliances into war zones and attach economic penalties to political alignment. The result is the accumulation of risk to potentially unmanageable levels.
It is imperative to jointly uphold order in a world tending to disassemble by supporting true multilateralism, reinforcing norms of sovereignty and legality, and integrating security with development.
There is also a domestic dimension to this approach that should resonate with China's partners. The country is entering its 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30) period, continuing a long-standing practice of aligning long-term strategy with pragmatic policies and measures. The plan makes clear that China intends to continue to provide the world with opportunities and certainty at a time when these are in short supply.
China's longtermist self-improvement and its commitment to world peace and development reject a world subject to the superpower's will in favor of a rules-based order centered on the UN.
China's approach offers something valuable: the possibility of durable peace and shared prosperity; the other approach promises quick gains for a privileged few.
The former is aligned with the long arc of history, while the latter is a temporary digression.