On August 11, the Center for International Security and Strategy (CISS) of Tsinghua University held the 73rd session of the Forum on Security and Strategy - Seminar on “Global South.” CISS invited more than 10 experts and scholars from Tsinghua University, Peking University, Fudan University, Nanjing University, Party School of the Central Committee of Communist Party of China (CPC) (National Academy of Governance), Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR), and other institutions to examine and discuss the origin, connotation, development direction and international influence of the concept of “Global South” and the opportunities and challenges it brought to China’s diplomacy and put forward relevant countermeasures and suggestions.

As the concept of “Global South” has continued to heat up recently, Western countries are paying closer attention to and actively striving for the relevant countries, the participating experts said. Meanwhile, China made its proposals for strengthening cooperation among Global South countries. Economically closely interdependent, China shares broad prospects for cooperation with these countries, as well as common or similar positions and pursuits on several major international and regional issues. China and Global South countries should fully use international multilateral cooperation platforms and optimize the international coordination mechanism, to promote South-South cooperation by sticking to the core principle of “jointly building peace and promoting development.” Meanwhile, the experts stressed that it was necessary to recognize the great power competition and the trend of forming camps around the “Global South” and proactively promote global development.

The seminar was chaired by Xiao Qian, Deputy Director of CISS. The participating experts included: Chen Qi, Professor of the Department of International Relations of Tsinghua University and Deputy Director of CISS, Huang Renwei, Executive Director-General of Fudan Institute for Belt and Road and Global Governance and Academic Committee Member of CISS, Zhu Feng, Director of the Institute of International Studies of Nanjing University and Nonresident Senior Fellow of CISS, Fan Jishe, Professor at the Institute for International Strategic Studies at Party School of the Central Committee of CPC (National Academy of Governance) and Nonresident Senior Fellow of CISS, Zhao Minghao, Professor of the Institute of International Studies of Fudan University and Nonresident Senior Fellow of CISS, An Gang, Senior Editor for China’s World Affairs Magazine and Nonresident Senior Fellow of CISS, Jiang Jingkui, Professor and Executive Director-General of Institute for International and Area Studies of Tsinghua University, Tang Xiaoyang, Professor of the Department of International Relations of Tsinghua University, Zhang Yansheng, former Secretary General of the Academic Committee of National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), Li Anshan, Professor of the School of International Studies of Peking University, Director of the Institute of Afro-Asian Studies, and Director of the Center for African Studies, Ren Lin, Director of Global Governance Research Division of the Institute of World Economics and Politics of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Xu Xiujun, Director and Senior Research Fellow of the International Politics Theory Research Division of the Institute of World Economics and Politics of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Hu Shisheng, Director and Senior Research Fellow of the Institute of South Asia Studies of CICIR, Sun Yanfeng, Deputy Director and Senior Research Fellow of the Institute of Latin America Studies of CICIR, and CISS Fellows Shi Yan, Song Bo, and Sun Chenghao.