Xi Jinping, the president of China, said that “the strong should not bully the weak” in a special virtual address Monday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
He called for more international cooperation in the speech.
“Multilateralism should not be used as a pretext for acts of unilateralism,” Xi said.
“The strong should not bully the weak,” President Xi said. “Decisions should not be made by simply showing off strong muscles or waving a big fist.” #DavosAgenda pic.twitter.com/nkahla9f7h
— World Economic Forum (@wef) January 25, 2021
The 24-minute speech focused on China’s involvement in international, political and economic organizations.
“We should stay committed to international law and international rules, instead of seeking one’s own supremacy,” Xi added.
Xi’s tenure as president of China, which began in 2013, has been characterized by military aggression abroad and crackdowns on dissidents and minorities at home.
China has conducted multiple military exercises in the South China Sea, despite the international community’s view of the sea as international waters. China claims the South China Sea as its own, using the so-called nine-dash line to establish its sovereignty to within 50 miles of Malaysia, according to Time Magazine. (RELATED: REPORT: China Secretly Sends Missiles To Contested Islands In The South China Sea)
At home, Xi has cracked down on political and religious dissent. Figures in both the Trump and Biden administrations have called the Chinese government’s forced reeducation and sterilization campaign of the Muslim Uighur ethnic group in western China a genocide. China has also kidnapped Catholic bishops who refuse to recognize the Chinese Communist Party-led state church. Vatican officials in 2018 agreed to a deal recognizing bishops appointed by the Chinese government in a move that the former bishop of Hong Kong called “the annihilation of the real Church.”