By Niu Honglin
Peace doesn’t always fall apart because of distant rivals. Peace breaks down because neighbours stop talking.
Borders are challenged, and trust chipped away. Small disagreements fester and become permanent. In a world full of global flash points, it’s often relationships between neighbouring countries that quietly decide whether a region moves forward or stays stuck.
That idea sits at the center of one episode in a podcast series I’ve been working on about global governance and a shared future for humanity. While preparing it, I kept noticing the same pattern: when neighbours choose dialogue over pressure and cooperation over rivalry, development follows. When they don’t, stability becomes fragile. That’s why wise leaders pay closer attention to regional partnerships, and why they matter so much for lasting peace.
Why neighbours matter more than anyone else
Back in 2013, at a conference focused on diplomacy with neighbouring countries, President Xi Jinping outlined four principles that would guide China’s approach: amity, sincerity, mutual benefit, and inclusiveness. The words themselves are simple. What interested me was how they are practiced in reality.
Not long after that meeting, during a visit to Kazakhstan, Xi Jinping proposed the idea of jointly building a Silk Road Economic Belt. That moment planted the seed for what would later become the Belt and Road Initiative. Central Asia, sitting at the crossroads of continents, became one of the first to experience this neighbour-focused approach. More interestingly, countries in the region are not asked to fit into a preset model. Instead, cooperation is shaped around local priorities.
Kazakhstan offers a good example. As the country began introducing new-energy vehicles at scale, it ran into a practical problem: a lack of trained technicians. The solution became clear: training was in order for the country’s promising youths.
That’s how the Luban Workshops came into the picture. The first one, launched in 2023, focused on transportation technology. A second followed in 2025, this time centered on artificial intelligence. Teachers traveled across borders. Curricula were tailored to local labor markets.
One visiting teacher from Kazakhstan talked about how different this was from his own education years ago. Today’s students, he said, can immediately apply theory to practice. And employers noticed. Graduates from these programs are now being recruited by major companies across the country.
This is what neighbourly cooperation looks like in real life when it works. It’s not symbolic. It fills gaps, builds skills, and creates a sense that development is shared rather than imposed.
From trade to trust
Economic ties between China and Central Asia have grown quickly, but what stood out to me is how much attention has gone into building mechanisms for long-term cooperation. Regular summits were held. Foreign ministers met. Eventually, a formal China–Central Asia Summit mechanism was established.
In 2025, China and the five Central Asian countries signed a Treaty of Permanent Good-Neighborliness, Friendship and Cooperation. Treaties like this don’t make headlines the way crises do, but they matter. They lock in expectations. They send a signal that stability is a shared responsibility.
One line from Xi Jinping, spoken at a summit marking 30 years of diplomatic relations, captured this clearly. No matter how the world changes, he said, China will remain a neighbour and partner that Central Asian countries can rely on. That kind of reassurance matters most to those who live next door.
Beyond borders, the same principle applies
The idea of partnership doesn’t stop at immediate neighbours. It extends outward, but the logic stays the same.
In Africa, China’s relationships have long emphasised sincerity, equality, and mutual respect. Equatorial Guinea may be a distant country, but its story shows how trust is built over time. Roads, ports, hospitals, and training programs changed daily life. At the same time, gestures of gratitude flowed both ways, including support offered to China during times of crisis.
One moment that stayed with me was the story of a primary school in Yunnan Province, built with a donation from Equatorial Guinea’s president. Thousands of students from different ethnic backgrounds now study there. It’s a reminder that friendship between countries is often carried forward by children who never experienced the original hardship that brought nations together.
Why this matters now
What all these stories point to is a simple truth: regional peace starts with neighbours choosing cooperation over suspicion. When that choice is repeated over years, it creates space for development, and development, in turn, reinforces security.
In the podcast, these ideas come through in voices, places, and small details that don’t always translate onto the page. If this theme resonates with you, I’d recommend listening to this episode of Stories of Xi Jinping. It adds a layer of texture that writing alone can’t provide.
At a time when global tensions often dominate headlines, it’s worth remembering that lasting peace is rarely built through grand gestures. More often, it’s built through steady, patient work between neighbours who decide that growing together is better than drifting apart.
Niu Honglin is a producer and host with CGTN. She is also one of the editors of Stories of Xi Jinping.
More from the podcast series are available here.
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Cambodia and Thailand could do with some good neighbourly love right now
And the oil/gas pipelines through Myanmar to China. Initiated by China to import oil/gas through Bay of Bengal averting US naval pressures in the Straits of Malacca. Settled and agreed between Beijing and Naypyidaw and in operation 2017. China also making donations of substance to Myanmar infrastructure, including to better electrify Rakhine state.
Rubio has mooted US putting its bib in. More hostile intervention vs neighbourly love?
This article’s focus on “neighborly cooperation” stands in staggering contrast to recent events in Venezuela. While the piece champions dialogue, the U.S. recently chose a different path: the military capture of President Nicolás Maduro on January 3, 2026.
The irony is profound. A nation defined by “freedom and democracy” has bypassed international law to seize a neighboring head of state. More telling is the open rhetoric regarding the “spoils.” President Trump has repeatedly cited Venezuela’s oil as a primary objective, even stating that U.S. oil companies would “take back” what was “stolen” and use revenues to “reimburse” the operation’s costs.
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While China builds “Luban Workshops” to train local youth, the U.S. is enforcing an “oil quarantine” and promising to “run” a sovereign neighbor until it suits their interests. As the article warns: peace breaks down when neighbors stop talking; it shatters when they start invading for resources.