China cements role as global mediator

"The fact that the Chinese government decided to appoint me as the special envoy to the Middle East shows China's concerns about the Middle East issue and its support for a Middle East peace process."

Whether China's mediating efforts contradict its principle of "non-interference in internal affairs" has been questioned not only in the Middle East but also in Africa.

Liu Guijin served as the first special envoy of the Chinese government on African affairs from 2007 to 2012 and witnessed the independence of South Sudan in 2011.

Liu responded to such a question during an online interview with Xinhua News Agency, saying there is no contradiction between China's mediation efforts and its non-interference policy in the process of the independence of South Sudan.

"Adhering to the non-interference principle doesn't mean that we cannot give suggestions to Sudan and analyze the situation with relevant parties," Liu said.

"What's more important is that we are not doing this with big sticks. We didn't threaten them with stopping trade or not doing business with them if they didn't do what we said. We never do that," Liu said.

China's relative absence from contemporary international mediation initiatives since its founding in 1949 is "likely a consequence of the non-interference principle", said Wu Xiaohui, former associate of the international security program at Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University.

However, driven by its "increasing international status, coupled with the intensification of unresolved and newly emerging conflicts that are threatening its own as well as world security", gradual changes have taken place in its growing mediation efforts, Wu wrote in an article published in the Conflict Resolution Quarterly.

A Confucianism and Taoism-based value system, to which the concepts of relationship and "harmony and cooperation" are fundamental, are the wellsprings of China's mediation culture, she said.

"China opposes hegemonism and power politics in all their forms, does not interfere in other countries' internal affairs and will never seek hegemony or engage in expansion," said President Hu Jintao in the report at the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in November.

"China will continue to keep in mind both the interests of the Chinese people and the common interests of the people of all countries, get more actively involved in international affairs, play its role of a major responsible country and work jointly with other countries to meet global challenges," Hu said, setting out a vision for future leaders of China.

Contact the writer at chengguangjin@chinadaily.com.cn