Malaysia, October 27, 2025

Honorable Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim,

Colleagues,

It gives me great pleasure to attend the 20th East Asia Summit (EAS) in Kuala Lumpur. I would like to thank Prime Minister Anwar and the Malaysian government for the meticulous arrangements.

Twenty years ago, the EAS was inaugurated in Kuala Lumpur. Upon reading the declaration of the first summit, we can easily discern the EAS purpose: strengthening cooperation in the spirit of equality and partnership, observing the U.N. Charter and other norms of international law, ensuring the effective functioning of multilateral systems, and improving people’s well-being. The constructive role of the EAS on the whole in promoting the steady and rapid development of our region over the past two decades is mainly attributable to the implementation of this founding mission.

At present, the international landscape continues to undergo profound changes. The world is in a new period of turbulence and transformation, with new risks and challenges facing peace and development. Against that background, President Xi Jinping has formally put forward the Global Governance Initiative (GGI) to address changes in the world and tackle pressing problems, highlighting the imperative of adhering to sovereign equality, abiding by international rule of law, practicing multilateralism, advocating the people-centered approach and focusing on taking real actions. This is very relevant in today’s world, and is fully consistent with the EAS founding mission. China will work with all parties to ensure that this mission is observed, and take vigorous actions to promote the GGI to boost peace and development of our region.

We should continuously build extensive consensus. Absent common understanding on some very basics, countries would hardly make good progress in their communication, consultations or business exchanges. History tells us that some common values that humanity has fostered over millennia, such as mutual respect, equality, fairness and justice, underpin both people-to-people and state-to-state interactions. To address the global transformation unseen in a century, we need to have a clearheaded and sensible judgment about the trajectory of the future. Among many others, the trend toward economic globalization and multipolarity is irreversible, and the world must not slip back to the law of the jungle where the strong prey on the weak. Only when we embrace these basic understandings that are consistent with the common values of humanity and the trend of history, can we make the right decision at this critical juncture and move ahead in the right direction.

We should focus on solving prominent issues. In recent years, protectionism of various forms has undermined international economic and trade cooperation and inflicted greater losses on developing countries. Our region is home to a large number of developing countries. Growing the economy and improving people’s lives is a priority for us, and overcoming the impact of protectionism and strengthening internal growth momentum is a pressing issue we face. This means we should more firmly uphold the free trade regime, create a high-standard regional free trade network, and vigorously and effectively advance regional integration. We should also do more together to improve people’s well-being and achieve inclusive development for all.

We should reform and improve the system of norms. The world today faces increasing chaos and turbulence, which has exerted a major impact on our region. An important cause of this is the erosion of the system of international norms. The more volatile the world becomes, the more imperative it is for us to uphold the authority of international law. We should all observe rules. In particular, we should jointly safeguard the U.N.-centered international system, support ASEAN centrality in the regional architecture, and promote cooperation in our region. At the same time, we should also actively promote reform and build a more just and equitable global governance system so as to better safeguard the interests of all.

As a saying goes, when you are clear about the direction to go, you can surely reach your destination, no matter how far away it is. China is ready to work in concert and pursue practical cooperation with all parties to promote peace, development and prosperity both in our region and across the world. 

Thank you!