V OLUME 24 • I SSUE 8

Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Roman Mashovets emphasized to Li that “components from third countries” are “becoming part of the weapons used against Ukrainian civilians.” Reading between the lines of the readout, Ukraine wants Beijing to do more to pressure Moscow and to restrict the ways in which it is assisting in the destruction of Ukraine, however indirectly. [...] [1] The CSFM is the “core concept” of Xi Jinping Thought on Diplomacy and “a Chinese solution to what kind of world we should build and how we should build it.” Moreover, the concept is said to embody the worldview of Chinese communists, reflect the laws of development of human society, and respond to the universal aspirations of people from all countries. [...] New Conviction to Shape Global Trends The CFAWC unveiled a shift in the Party’s longstanding discourse on “world multipolarization (世界多极 化)” and “economic globalization (经济全球化).” The former concept generally refers to the PRC and other developing countries becoming relatively more powerful in the international system, especially compared to US unipolarity in the 1990s and 2000s and to the bipolar. [...] Universal economic globalization entails prioritizing the demands of developing countries to address imbalances caused by the global allocation of resources, and being inclusive requires opposing unilateralism and protectionism, promoting the liberalization and facilitation of trade and investment, and addressing structural problems that hinder the development of the world economy. [...] But in Xi’s report to the 20th Party Congress in October 2022, he said that the PRC had entered a period in which “strategic opportunities co-exist with risks and challenges, and uncertain and unpredictable factors are rising.” This darker outlook coincides with unbalanced growth and governance problems at home, growing hostility and economic decoupling toward the PRC in the West, and the continui.