The Model Building Of China-West Asia NTS Cooperation

As the western peripheral area of China,West Asia holds great strategic significance for China,and is closely related to China’s national security and its long-term planning of national strategy.Since the inception of the “Belt and Road Initiative”(BRI)in 2013,the relationship between China and West Asia has further developed,while however,numerous complicated systemic non-traditional security(NTS)issues in West Asia have become increasingly prominent,which not only pose real or potential security threats to China’s national security,overseas interests as well as the process of the great rejuvenation of our nation,but also pose obstacles to the alignment of BRI with the development strategies of countries in the West Asia.In this regard,China and countries in West Asia have carried out cooperations to varying degrees in NTS fields,including anti-terrorism,cyber security,energy security,food security,financial security and public health security,etc.,nevertheless,the cooperations between China and West Asian countries have not yet formed fixed and suitable models of feasibility that can provide guidance for further deepening cooperation.To deepen the cooperation and safeguard neighboring security situation in providing favorable environment for economic development and national security of China and West Asian countries,the scientific observation of the NTS cooperation between China and West Asia from the dual perspectives is urgently needed so as to find a suitable model and practical route of cooperation.Coordinately adopting the research methods of documentary research,historical analysis,comparative analysis and interdisciplinary research,etc.,this dissertation analyzed the importance,necessity and feasibility of NTS cooperation between China and West Asia,and pointed out that deepening their NTS cooperation is imperative.Accordingly,in order to build a model which could play guidance to deepen cooperation,this research then conducted a comprehensive analysis of the history of NTS cooperation between the United States and West Asia,and summarized the characteristics,advantages and disadvantages of their cooperation model from five aspects: concepts,principles,issues,paths and forms,and argued that U.S.-West Asia NTS cooperation model cannot respond to West Asia’s special concerns about NTS threats,and is not applicable to NTS cooperation between China and West Asia.The research further assessed and analyzed the history of NTS cooperation between China and West Asia,and extracted three major characteristics of the cooperation,namely,the cooperation logic of “development cooperation-development security”,the fitness between partnership and NTS cooperation,and differential but complementary cooperation.Then the author analyzed four major defects in the cooperation between the two parties,including the differences in the cooperation concepts between China and West Asia,the “fragmentation” of the cooperation mechanisms,the lack of mandatory binding force in the cooperation under the partnership,and the lack of systematic cooperation,which may lead the cooperation into a sticky situation of ineffectiveness and lack of implementation.The author then argued that the further cooperation between China and West Asia may face challenges such as “structural difficulties,the mismatch between the willingness of the two parties to cooperate with the international political reality,lack of mutual trust,and uncertain factors.Therefore,we must give full play to the advantages and characteristics as well as avoid the disadvantages of the existing NTS cooperation between China and West Asia to build a cooperation model that meets the expectations of both China and West Asia,and is of strong maneuverability,stability and flexibility,and deepen their cooperation in the near future.Through research,this dissertation suggests that to establish a model that is highly suitable for China-West Asia NTS cooperation,the both parties must try to reduce or avoid the existing difficulties and challenges in the cooperation,and take the core interests of the both sides as the starting point,explore and expand the common interests of cooperation which needs to be embedded into the entire specific process of model building.After a comprehensive analysis of the demands,concepts,national and regional conditions of China and West Asia,it is believed that a model which could highly meet the strategic choices,consolidate the consensus,suite for the reality and meet the core demands of both China and West Asia simultaneously,needs to take “constructing a security community” as its fundamental goal,take “the new vision of security featuring common,comprehensive,cooperative and sustainable security” as its guiding concepts,take “five principles of peaceful coexistence” and independence,openness and inclusiveness,multilateralism and overall consideration as its fundamental principles.On this basis,the cooperation issues must be considered synthetically and ranked rationally so as to maximize response to the appeals of both China and West Asia.Furthermore,both China and West Asia should choose a composite path that focuses on “development cooperation” and supplemented with“limited traditional security cooperation”,defining priority cooperation issues as entry point to form a “1+N” vertical and horizontal tridimensional network of cooperation which can foster China-West Asia NTS cooperation effectively implemented.Through carrying out paradigm condensing and model discussion,this research tries to build a China-West Asia NTS cooperation model to improve the theoretical rationality of their cooperation practice to some extent,moreover,it will provide an appropriate model for deepening NTS cooperation between China and West Asia in the future.