China's security commission conducive to world peace

The plenum of the Communist Party of China (CPC), which concluded last week, wasn't entirely about economic reform as expected, with the formation of a new national security commission turning out to be an eye-catching part of China's ambitious reform agenda.

The national security commission and its similar bodies can be found in scores of countries all over the world, including the United States and Russia.

Though different in names and structures, they are all designed to increase coordination and integration among various wings of national security bureaucracy, split between police, military, intelligence and diplomatic services.

With the rapid development of globalization and information technology, the boundary between traditional and non-traditional security is greatly dimmed. The old and traditional way of crisis management is not as effective as expected in a more complicated global community.

Under such circumstances, the creation of the national security commission is seen by many as a "requirement of the times," a strategic imperative as well as a system innovation forced by the severe security situation, as the international community faces an increasingly complicated global political landscape and emerging domestic security concerns.

As Chinese President Xi Jinping has stated, "the variety of predictable and unpredictable risks has been increasing remarkably, and the system has not yet met the needs of safeguarding national security."

"Establishing a national security commission to strengthen the unified leadership of the state security work is an urgent need," said the president.

Experts say its establishment will greatly boost the government's efficiency in dealing with security issues in various areas.

This new commission "should make terrorist, extremists and separatists nervous," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang. And all those forces which would attempt to threaten or sabotage China's national security will indeed feel uneasy and upset.

Needless to say, the commission, manifesting China's institutional innovation rather than changes of its policy, aims to defend China's core interests and protect its peaceful development from being disrupted.

The new security concept of China, which highlights seeking common security via mutual benefit and win-win cooperation, will not change. It will continue to hold mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality and coordination as its core principles.

China is a stabilizer for world peace and security, and the new commission is like a performance guarantee for the stabilizer and will in turn bring benefits to the whole world.

"Given the growing stakes that the rest of us have in its stability," suggested Ian Bremmer, president of Eurasia Group Ian Bremmer, in the latest issue of The National Interest, "China's problems will be our problems too."

If China can be safer, the whole world will be safer as well.

Therefore, the new structure of China's national security commission bodes well for all the peace-loving people in both Asia and the rest of the world.