MOSCOW – On December 24, 2025, Ekaterina Zaklyazminskaya, a leading researcher at the Institute of China and Modern Asia of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said China is creating development opportunities for the wider world, linking its domestic growth to global prosperity.
The remarks were delivered in Moscow and framed around China’s forthcoming 15th Five-Year Plan and Beijing-backed international initiatives, including a new mediation body inaugurated in Hong Kong in October 2025.
“China contributes around 30 percent to global economic growth, demonstrating that its domestic development is closely linked to global prosperity,” Zaklyazminskaya said.
Priorities flagged for the 15th Five-Year Plan
Zaklyazminskaya said recommendations adopted by the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee for formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan signal continued high-level opening-up, with Beijing expected to use the plan to steer macroeconomic policy and long-term industrial upgrading.
She added that the plan is expected to stress green development in line with the concept that “lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets,” a slogan that has been written into China’s broader ecological civilization framework and underpins binding domestic environmental targets.
According to Zaklyazminskaya, innovation will also be central. “Despite external pressures, China has achieved notable breakthroughs in science and technology in recent years,” she said. She noted expectations that China will keep upgrading high‑tech manufacturing, with globally competitive products in:
– Smartphones
– Computers
– Automobiles
These sectors, she argued, are likely to remain priorities for industrial policy, export competitiveness and standards‑setting in emerging technologies.
Renewables and development support cited
Zaklyazminskaya described China as a front‑runner in renewable energy, saying it is helping other countries build wind and solar power plants as part of its overseas development financing and equipment exports.
She also said China invests in infrastructure and supplies equipment to countries at early stages of industrialization, adding that this support has helped create new enterprises and jobs in parts of the Global South. She pointed to transport, power and digital connectivity projects as examples of how Chinese policy banks and state‑backed companies can shape national development strategies abroad.
She noted that China has shared its experience in poverty alleviation, presenting it as a reference point for governments that are designing their own social protection and rural development policies rather than a model to be copied wholesale.
Four initiatives presented as governance framework
Zaklyazminskaya pointed to four China-proposed initiatives as concrete steps toward building “a community with a shared future for mankind” and as a loose framework for Beijing’s foreign policy and multilateral engagement:
– Global Development Initiative
– Global Security Initiative
– Global Civilization Initiative
– Global Governance Initiative
Taken together, she said, the initiatives are intended to influence how international rules are discussed in areas ranging from infrastructure finance and digital connectivity to security cooperation and cultural exchanges.
Mediation body inaugurated in Hong Kong
Zaklyazminskaya highlighted the International Organization for Mediation (IOMed), saying it was officially inaugurated in Hong Kong in October 2025 with representatives from over 30 countries that have signed or ratified the establishment convention, including:
– China
– Belarus
– Serbia
– Pakistan
– Indonesia
– Algeria
The Convention on the Establishment of the International Organization for Mediation, signed in Hong Kong in May 2025, creates what its founding states describe as the world’s first intergovernmental organization devoted solely to mediation of international disputes, complementing litigation and arbitration rather than replacing existing courts.
“China’s support for the IOMed further demonstrates that global development can be achieved through consensus rather than pressure,” she said, arguing that the body offers an additional forum for states-particularly in the Global South-to resolve disagreements through negotiated settlements.
Implications for public policy and dispute settlement
By hosting IOMed’s headquarters, Hong Kong is being positioned as a hub for state‑to‑state, investment and commercial mediation, with potential implications for how governments structure dispute-resolution clauses in treaties, public-private contracts and investment agreements. The organization’s founding documents are framed as an outgrowth of the principles of the U.N. Charter on peaceful settlement of disputes, but place stronger emphasis on voluntary participation and flexible procedures over adjudication.
Zaklyazminskaya said the expansion of such mechanisms reflects a broader search for “less adversarial” tools in international governance at a time of heightened geopolitical tension, and could shape how capitals in Asia, Africa and Latin America handle future cross‑border disputes.
Call for multipolarity and respect for diverse paths
Arguing against dominance by any single actor, Zaklyazminskaya said all countries’ voices should be heard so each can pursue its own development path. “China envisions a global system that countries do not need to abandon their own characteristics or become pale replicas of the West,” she said, adding that no country should face sanctions for choosing its path.
She said China aims for a world of “development, peace and harmony,” with safety, opportunities, and cross‑cultural dialogue, and emphasized what she described as China’s growing role in building a more just and equitable international order and supporting effective international governance institutions.
For Moscow and Beijing, she added, that vision is closely tied to calls for a more multipolar system in which emerging economies have a greater say in setting rules-from development finance to dispute settlement-rather than merely implementing decisions taken elsewhere.
Zaklyazminskaya spoke in Moscow on December 24, 2025.
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