Posters: Major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics should accomplish more in 2026

In a year‑end symposium on the international situation and China's foreign relations held in Beijing on December 30, 2025, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, outlined China's foreign policy priorities for 2026. Here are the highlights:

-- First, we will provide stronger strategic support for our national development and rejuvenation. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, with China's development further engaged with global transformations unseen in a century, changes in the international situation will have a more profound domestic effect, and China's development will matter more deeply to the world.

-- Second, we will blaze new trails in forging a new type of major-country relations. Major countries are key players on the question of war and peace. The world must find a new pathway for major countries to move forward together in peace in the new era.

-- Third, we will work more actively to build a community with a shared future with neighboring countries. This is a noble goal of China's diplomacy and a historical process that requires relentless and continuous efforts. Our relations with neighboring countries play a key role in advancing this endeavor.

-- Fourth, we will foster greater synergy for the Global South's joint march toward modernization. Modernization is not a synonym for westernization. On the path to modernization, China and Global South countries will support each other, press ahead shoulder-to-shoulder and jointly open up a new bright prospect for the progress of human civilization.

-- Fifth, we will inject stronger impetus into global openness and cooperation. The 15th Five-Year Plan is the new blueprint for China's development and offers a new vision for the win-win cooperation between China and countries around the world. China will adhere to high-standard opening up, continue to share the benefits of its mega market with the rest of the world, lead the trend of global openness and cooperation to counter decoupling and isolation, and work with all countries to overcome difficulties and share opportunities.

-- Sixth, we will make greater contributions to reforming and improving global governance. Confronted with successive global challenges, the international system and institutions urgently need to reform and improve in order to keep pace with the times. President Xi Jinping has put forward four major initiatives, namely, the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, the Global Civilization Initiative and the Global Governance Initiative, calling for an equal and orderly multipolar world and a universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization. This provides strategic guidance for building a more just and equitable global governance system.

-- Seventh, we will act with a stronger sense of mission and responsibility in safeguarding national interests. Navigating a world in profound transformation, China's diplomatic service will rise to the tests of "high winds, choppy waters, and even dangerous storms" with unwavering courage. We will stand by our principles, defend our bottom lines, firmly safeguard China's sovereignty, security and development interests, and resolutely thwart any attempts to split the country. With a steadfast will unyielding to bullying, we will continue to enhance and improve our capabilities in countering sanctions, interference and "long-arm jurisdiction," and have stronger institutional safeguards in place to protect the interests of our country and people. We will stay true to our people-centered diplomacy, expedite our efforts to build a closer-knit system of overseas consular protection, strengthen risk early-warning mechanisms, and enhance law enforcement and security cooperation with other countries, to help Chinese citizens and businesses overseas feel safer, more secure and fully assured.