'Force for peace': China talks up its ambitions for global stability

• China will push for global peace, said foreign minister Wang Yi.
• Southeast Asian and Australian leaders warned against Chinese action in the South China Sea.
• China says it is a neutral party in the Ukraine war.

China will be a global force for peace and stability, the country's foreign minister Wang Yi said at a press conference in Beijing on Thursday.

"In the face of complex turmoil in the international environment, China will persist in being a force for peace, a force for stability, and a force for progress in the world," Wang told reporters.

Wang made his comments at China's largest annual political gathering, which opened in Beijing earlier this week.

The "Two Sessions" - parallel meetings of China's rubber-stamp parliament and political consultative body - offer a rare glimpse into the strategy of the Communist Party-led government for the year ahead.

This year's gathering is being closely watched for signals as to Chinese leaders' confidence in current geopolitical conditions, as tensions persist across the Taiwan Strait and Russia's war in Ukraine enters its third year.

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Wang's press conference comes after Southeast Asian and Australian leaders warned this week against Chinese actions that "endanger peace" in the South China Sea, following fresh confrontations between Beijing and the Philippines in contested waters.

This handout photo from the Philippine Coast Guard shows a China Coast Guard vessel sailing near the BRP Datu Sanday during their mission to bring supplies to fishermen near the China-controlled Scarborough Shoal in the disputed South China Sea. (Handout/Philippine Coast Guard/AFP)

This handout photo shows a China Coast Guard vessel (R) using water cannon against the M/L Kalayaan chartered supply boat (C) during a mission to deliver provisions at Second Thomas Shoal in disputed waters of the South China Sea. (Handout/Philippine Coast Guard/AFP)

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Chinese coast guard boats were accused on Tuesday of badgering a flotilla of Philippine ships sailing a resupply mission to Second Thomas Shoal in the Spratly Islands, where the countries have contested maritime claims.

China said it "took control measures" against Philippine ships' "illegal intrusion" into waters it claims, as well as accusing a Philippine ship of "intentionally" ramming a Chinese one.

Wang said on Thursday:

China's expanding political reach has sparked friction on multiple fronts, with Western powers criticising Beijing for refusing to condemn Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

China says it is a neutral party in the Ukraine war, but its strategic partnership with Russia has grown closer since the start of the war.

"China and Russia have set a new paradigm for major power relations that is completely different from the old Cold War era," Wang told reporters on Thursday, adding that bilateral ties rested on "the basis of non-alignment, non-confrontation and non-targeting of third parties".

Beijing released a paper last year calling for a "political settlement" to the conflict, which Western countries said could enable Russia to retain much of the territory it has seized from Ukraine.

China's Eurasia envoy visited Russia, Ukraine and the headquarters of the European Union earlier this month for talks on the two-year-old war between Moscow and Kyiv.