Beijing, October 25, 2025— Leading scholars and researchers convened in Beijing for the 5th Annual Conference on National Security and Governance, addressing emerging global security challenges and their implications for China’s national security. The conference, themed “New Global Security Dynamics and China’s National Security in the Context of Profound Changes” was hosted by the University of International Business and Economics (UIBE) and organized by UIBE’s School of International Relations, Institute of National Security and Governance, and National Security Computing Laboratory. Over 50 experts and scholars from institutions including the People’s Liberation Army National Defense University, Beijing Normal University, Jilin University, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, Tsinghua University, Xinjiang University, Nankai University, the Party School of the CPC Central Committee (National Academy of Governance), Fudan University, Dalian Maritime University, China Foreign Affairs University, University of International Relations, and UIBE attended the conference.

In his opening address, Professor Dai Changzheng, Director of UIBE’s Political Science Department, Dean of the School of International Relations/Institute of National Security and Governance, outlined the dual focus of the conference. He emphasized that global transformations have made geopolitical competition an unavoidable reality, while major power competition has shifted toward strategic domains including military technology and artificial intelligence. Professor Dai identified three key impacts on China’s national security: the need for continuous foreign strategy adjustments, enhanced strategic initiative following nearly a decade of U.S.-China competition since 2016, and ongoing requirements for stability and effective crisis management. Professor Dong Qingling, from UIBE’s School of International Relations, Director of the National Security Computing Laboratory, and Vice Dean of the Institute of National Security and Governance, provided an overview of UIBE’s National Security Computing Laboratory and its contributions to the discipline.

The keynote session, presided over by Professor Guo Min from UIBE’s School of Finance and Vice Dean of the Institute of National Security and Governance, featured comprehensive analyses from distinguished researchers:Professor Tang Yongsheng from the School of National Security at the National Defense University argued that current global changes reflect fundamental shifts in underlying political and economic logic. He noted that traditional frameworks of capital expansion and geopolitical competition are reaching their limits as technological revolution transforms international relations and non-state actors gain influence. Professor Tang emphasized that China seeks not to replace U.S. hegemony but to contribute stability through Chinese-style modernization.

Professor Wang Ming, Vice President of Beijing Normal University, and Professor Liu Kai, Dean of the School of National Safety and Emergency Management at BNU, presented their team’s methodologically innovative research on multi-source data fusion-driven global security risk assessment.Their work addresses global terrorist attacks, nuclear power plant safety, and catastrophic risks through interdisciplinary analysis combining engineering and management perspectives, aiming to transition from experience-driven to data-intelligence-driven approaches.

Professor Xiao Xi, Dean of the Institute of National Development and Security and School of Public Diplomacy at Jilin University, discussed the construction and dissemination of China’s national security concept amid the profound changes of a century. A Holistic Approach to National Security has close connections with the Four Global Initiatives, jointly shaping China’s national security concept characterized by internal-external integration and dialectical unity, forming a systematic security philosophy with people’s security as its purpose, coordinating internal and external affairs, and advocating pluralistic coexistence.

Professor Sun Zhuangzhi, Director of the Institute of Russian, Eastern European and Central Asian Studies at Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, analyzed the Russia-Ukraine conflict and Eurasian security dynamics. He described a stalemated battlefield where drones play a significant role, while peace negotiations face obstacles due to divergent preconditions. Central Asian countries are leveraging major power competition to promote strategic autonomy while confronting internal challenges.Overall, the regional security pattern is becoming increasingly bloc-based and fragmented, with major powers competing to expand influence, while China’s appeal in the region is steadily increasing.

Professor Fu Xiaoqiang, President of China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, argued that the world experiences trends of “the East rising and the West declining” and “the South rising and the North declining”, with a China-U.S. parallel structure gradually taking shape. He discussed intensified geopolitical divisions, major power competition, and the formation of parallel technological and industrial systems. In this context, China actively promotes global governance initiatives, advocates a multilateral order centered on the UN, builds a Community with a Shared Future for Mankind, and strengthens technological independence and industrial upgrading to forge a strategic foundation for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

The first panel discussion, chaired by Professor Dai Changzheng, addressed scientific-technological security, regional strategic dynamics, and ontological security frameworks. Professor Chen Jianguo, Director of the National Security Research Institute of the School of Safety Science at Tsinghua University, analyzed the critical position of scientific-technological security in the national security system and its risk prevention and control pathways, noting that scientific-technological security encompasses four dimensions: integrity of the science and technology system, independent control over core technologies, resistance to external scientific-technological advantages, and ensuring continuous security capabilities.Their research systematically identified internal and external risks based on innovation chains, supply chains, and industrial chains, drawing on U.S. experience to propose constructing a Chinese scientific-technological security risk monitoring and early warning system and collaborative governance framework.

Professor Han Jun, Dean of the School of Political Science and Public Administration (School of National Security) at Xinjiang University, examined strategic choices and resilience building of Central Asian countries amid geopolitical changes. Facing transformation from “imperial periphery” to “major power competition frontier”, Central Asian countries have adopted “institutionalized self-preservation” as their core strategy through legal codification of neutrality principles, multi-platform embedding, linking security and development issues, comprehensive cooperation, and regional institutional building. Despite challenges from major power competition spillover and internal governance issues, Central Asian practice provides valuable lessons for Global South countriesChina, as an “enabling partner”, has played a constructive role in supporting Central Asia’s enhancement of endogenous resilience and institutional self-consistency.

Professor Cheng Tongshun, Dean of the Institute for National Security Studies at Nankai University, discussed China’s overseas interests security, noting that these interests are massive, covering economic investment, strategic resources, personnel exchanges, and cultural dissemination. Current challenges include regional conflicts, political instability, terrorism, systematic suppression by major powers, and cultural vilification. He recommended multi-pronged approaches through diplomatic coordination, security cooperation, and corporate risk management,advocating a strategic approach of “cultivating extensive goodwill and long-term deep engagement” to systematically safeguard expanding overseas interests.

Professor Zhao Yang from UIBE’s School of International Relations analyzed how the United States, beset by intensifying domestic contradictions and loosening hegemonic identity, has fallen into ontological security anxiety, subsequently launching systematic stigmatization of China through a “treating internal illness externally” strategy.Its narrative constructs a binary “good vs. evil” opposition through romantic scripts. China responds through dual discourse and practice pathways: using ironic and comedic scripts to expose U.S. contradictions at the discourse level, while shaping a responsible major power image through initiatives like the Belt and Road at the practice level.

The second panel discussion, chaired by Professor Chen Xulong, Professor at UIBE’s School of International Relations and Executive Vice Dean of the Institute of National Security and Governance, examined multilateral institutions, the evolution of international order, and governance frameworks.Professor Fan Jishe, Vice Dean of the Institute of International Strategic Studies of the Party School of the CPC Central Committee (National Academy of Governance), noted that multilateral institutions and mechanisms face multiple challenges, including UN budget cuts and increasing deficits, difficulty reaching consensus on most issues among member states, and a crisis of confidence in multilateral institutions. Against this backdrop, global security exhibits six major trends: escalating arms races, protracted regional conflicts, rising roles of non-state actors, increasing nuclear proliferation risks, absence of rules for emerging technologies, and expanding global governance deficits. Facing a pattern of central disorder and universal fragmentation, the international community must confront long-term turbulence and uncertainty brought by systemic transformation.

Professor Liu Ruonan from UIBE’s School of International Relationsanalyzed developing countries’ evolving relationship with international order, focusing on Southeast Asian countries. After World War II, developing countries established preliminary subject consciousness following the Bandung Conference, subsequently choosing to adapt to and participate in the Western-led liberal international order. Currently, facing increasingly bloc-based international patterns, developing countries tend to safeguard interests through small-scale, identity-congruent, functional partnership networks in “Global South”discourse and practice rather than constructing unified blocs.

Professor Chen Zheng from School of International Relations and Public Affairs at Fudan Universitydiscussed pathways for constructing an independent knowledge system for Chinese national security studies, arguing that “coordinating development and security” should be the core proposition. Research should form a theoretical system with both Chinese characteristics and universal explanatory power, focusing on four key issues: unification mechanisms between regime security and people’s security, systematic and interconnected nature of security issues, action logic of internal-external security linkage, and pathways to achieving relative security and common security, thereby promoting dual innovation in empirical and theoretical dimensions.

Professor Tan Youzhi from UIBE’s School of International Relations/Vice Dean of the Institute of National Security and Governance, reviewed China’s practical exploration and conceptual evolution in cyberspace security governance. China established cyberspace sovereignty through legislation, built governance systems, and promoted digital economy strategies, achieving transformation from passive response to proactive governance. Cybersecurity has been incorporated into and enriched a Holistic Approach to National Security and the Community with a Shared Future for Mankind.He emphasized the need to adopt a pragmatic posture to address global cyberspace uncertainties.

The third panel discussion, chaired by Professor Dong Qingling, addressed historical territorial issues, regional security architecture, and defense cooperation trends. Professor Chu Jianguo, Dean of the School of Public Management and Humanities at Dalian Maritime University, argued that the Liuqiu (Ryukyu) Island issue constitutes an important topic concerning post-war order and China’s national security. Following Japan’s 1879 annexation of Liuqiu Island, Qing-Japan negotiations failed to reach final agreements. According to the Cairo Declaration and Potsdam Proclamation, “Japanese sovereignty shall be limited to the islands of Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, Shikoku and such minor islands as we determine”, with Liuqiu(Ryukyu) not included. China needs to strengthen research on sovereignty theory, international law interpretation, and regional security frameworks to address strategic pressure from Japan’s negative moves and provide theoretical support for constructing an East Asian peace pattern.

Professor Guo Yanjun, Academic Leader of the School of National Security at China Foreign Affairs University, argued that constructing an “Asian security model”requires breaking through the U.S.-dominated hierarchical alliance system and inefficient weak-constraint cooperation traditions, shifting toward a new regional architecture based on genuine regionalism coordinating security and development.By strengthening institutional constraints, advancing partnership networks, and focusing on common security narratives, this approach can resolve major power competition and internal cognitive divergence, promoting a new regional security paradigm with dynamic balance between development and security, providing Chinese solutions for managing regional uncertainties.

Professor Yang Huafeng, Director of the Graduate School at the University of International Relations, emphasized that cognitive differences between sense of security and sense of risk are widespread in national security governance. Currently, vigilance is required against governance boundary generalization and security resource misallocation, with security inputs needing dynamic adjustment based on development stages. After going through stages such as “prioritizing security”and “strengthening development”, China has now entered a new period of coordinating development and security. It is necessary to optimize security concepts and risk perception mechanisms to enhance governance effectiveness and prevent systemic risks.

Professor Liu Feng, Vice Dean of the School of Social Sciences and Professor at the Department of International Relations at Tsinghua University, pointed out that under the current geopolitical transformation, defense cooperation among countries shows new trends, with significant increases in mutual defense agreements and base access agreements. Since 2019, the world has seen over ten new agreements containing mutual defense clauses, particularly in bilateral arrangements among European countries like the UK, France, and Germany, while base access agreements are accelerating in the Asia-Pacific region. This trend reflects both enhanced autonomy among U.S. allies amid strategic contraction and anxiety among middle powers facing bipolar patterns. Such security cooperation will continue shaping the security architecture of three major geopolitical groupings, becoming an important measure for countries to respond to structural changes.

At the closing ceremony, Professor Dai Changzheng delivered concluding remarks highlighting three notable features of the conference: integration of global vision with in-depth analysis combining grand theories with specific security issues; provision of effective, high-level analysis demonstrating the political, strategic, and holistic nature of the national security discipline; and full embodiment of the openness of national security studies, achieving mutual complementarity across security fields. Professor Dai expressed gratitude for all support and participation, looking forward to joint efforts from the academic community to serve national strategic needs and contribute to national prosperity and rejuvenation.