China calls for shaping ‘favorable’ national, int'l security environment to ‘safeguard opening up’

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ISTANBUL (AA) - China’s top security body has called for an initiative to shape a "favorable” domestic and external security environment for the world’s second-largest economy to "safeguard" its “opening up,” according to local media.

The issue was discussed on Tuesday during the first meeting of China’s National Security Commission, chaired by President Xi Jinping.

The move to shape the security environment for “opening up” suggests Beijing’s push towards further integration into global business environment, including intensifying diplomatic engagements.

The commission called for “reforms” in how national security is “safeguarded and shaped” and "taking the initiative to shape a favorable external security environment for China to better safeguard its opening up and push for a deep integration of development and security,” the state-run Xinhua News reported.

It also adopted a document on “speeding up building a national security risk monitoring and early warning system and another one on strengthening public communication regarding national security.”

Besides Xi, the meeting was attended by Li Qiang, Zhao Leji, and Cai Qi, who are all members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China’s Central Committee and deputy heads of the National Security Commission.

It also called for “expedited endeavors to establish a risk monitoring and early warning system.”

Xi, also the general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, called for keeping a watch on “the complicated and challenging circumstances facing national security and correctly grasping major national security issues.”

The meeting noted that China was facing “considerably more complex” national security issues which are “much more difficult to be resolved.”

Besides calling “for reforming the approaches employed in safeguarding and shaping national security,” the meeting also urged for “dedicated efforts to safeguard political security and improve the security governance of internet data and artificial intelligence.”