A Chinese Notion of Indivisibility of Security?

Abstract

Is the InclusIon of “IndIvIsIble securIty” In chInese presIdent XI Jinping’s address at the 2022 Boao Forum for Asia a coincidence of timing with Russian military action against Ukraine or a new expression of Chinese thinking on international security? Regarding timing, the speech was made on February 21, three days before Russia initiated what it called a “special military operation” in Ukraine. Also, the vocabulary “indivisible security” is generally associated with Russian perspectives on international affairs. In terms of substance, the following statements are value-loaded: “we humanity are living in an indivisible security community” and “it is important that we . . . uphold the principle of indivisible security” caught particular international attention (MFA 2022). They seem to be a general set of principles. Answers to this and extended questions are therefore significant for appraising Chinese positions on the ongoing conflict and potentially consequential for predicting China’s security actions in the future. American and other Western reactions to the Chinese utterance range from rebuttal by diplomats to calls for dialogue toward the shaping of a common understanding “in a way that prevents it from becoming a pretext for armed conflict” (Freeman and Stephenson 2022). We deem it meaningful to approach the question by reviewing the phrase’s usage in the Chinese language, as international projection of security discourses is country-specific. In Xi’s speech, the expression is anquan buke fenge (安全不可分割), put forward as a principle (yuanze, 原则). The core elements therein are anquan (security, 安全) and buke fenge (not to be divided or separated in conceptualization, 不可分割). When used for discussing topics pertaining to national security and/or international affairs, buke fenge can be translated into English as “inalienable,” “inseparable” or “indivisible.” It is useful and