As 2025 draws to a close, China’s Diplomacy can be read not only as the projection of a “new China,” but also as an attempt to outline a new configuration for the wider world. Over the year, President Xi Jinping’s diplomatic engagements increasingly reflected a turning point: a shift toward a more assertive posture as a would-be “global stabilizer,” seeking to balance intensified competition with the West while further institutionalizing China’s influence across the Global South.

The year was marked by turbulence and transformation. Conflicts intensified, and uncertainty deepened, leaving humanity at a crossroads. Nevertheless, China continued to advance its development agenda, while repeatedly elevating concepts such as South–South cooperation. President Xi’s messaging consistently framed the global choice as one between unity and division, dialogue and confrontation, and win-win cooperation and zero-sum competition.

Landmark Proposals to Improve Global Governance: Toward New Institutional Pillars

In 2025, President Xi advanced a set of proposals to reshape global governance. At the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Tianjin in September, he introduced the Global Governance Initiative (GGI)—a move widely portrayed as a major trajectory shift in China’s external strategy.

The Tianjin summit was the largest in the SCO’s 24-year history, attended by leaders from more than 20 countries and heads of 10 international organisations. President Xi presented the GGI as grounded in core principles such as respect for sovereign equality, adherence to international law, practical multilateralism, and a people-centred orientation focused on “real actions.” In Beijing’s framing, this emphasis on outcomes stands in contrast to what it characterizes as Western-led “bloc politics.”

The GGI was also described as an expansion of China’s overarching global framework: alongside the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, and the Global Civilisation Initiative, the GGI was positioned as an additional institutional pillar supporting the vision of building “a community with a shared future for mankind.” While not presented as an alternative to the United Nations, the initiative was framed as a complementary platform intended to strengthen fairness and equity in global governance.

Recognizing that artificial intelligence is likely to become a significant determinant of global change, China also sought to demonstrate sectoral leadership. In this context, 2025 saw the launch of the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization, presented as a mechanism to promote........

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