Xi links ‘Peaceful China’ push to security, technology and modernization

New Delhi: The Chinese president, Xi Jinping, has called for the “Peaceful China Initiative” to be advanced to a higher level, tying security and social governance to China’s modernization drive. His instruction, conveyed at a working conference in Beijing on Monday, calls for stronger legal foundations, greater use of technology and closer coordination between development and security.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the party’s Central Military Commission, urged authorities to pursue a holistic approach to national security and strengthen the party’s leadership. He called for preventing and mitigating risks while making society more orderly and governance more effective.

According to Xinhua, Xi said that since the 18th Communist Party of China National Congress in 2012, progress had been made in building what Beijing calls a “safe China”, claiming the country had become one of the safest in the world. He said development and security should be pursued together to make people safer and more satisfied.

The initiative predates the latest instruction. A 2017 government work report linked it with crime prevention, public security, national security and social stability, while later policy has stressed community level governance, dispute resolution and risk prevention.

The initiative is linked to the “Fengqiao model”, developed in Zhejiang and promoted nationally for resolving disputes locally. In March 2025, Xi connected it with law-based handling of public complaints, crime prevention and technology for social governance.

China’s wider national security framework also covers political, economic, technological and social security.

Chen Wenqing, head of the CPC Central Committee’s Commission for political and legal affairs, called for combining punishment and prevention. Public security minister Wang Xiaohong said implementation would focus on key tasks, innovative methods and stronger foundations at the primary level.

The conference designated 60 cities and 160 counties as model areas and awarded them plaques. The official account did not specify additional powers attached to the designation.

Xinhua also said China is among countries with the lowest crime and homicide rates. A global public security index report for 2025-26, released this month in Lianyungang, gave China the highest score at 84.62 points; the result remains the report’s finding rather than an independently established global measure.