Cheng Enfu’s paper, read by Professor Ding Xiaoqin, developed the philosophical core of the Chinese position. The central question of our time, he argued, is “not China or the United States” but a choice between two visions of order: one based on hegemony, bloc politics and zero-sum competition, the other on sovereign equality, peaceful development and mutual benefit. Multipolarity, properly understood, does not mean China replacing the US at the apex of a hierarchy; it means democratising international relations so that the rising Global South can participate as equals. China’s initiatives – the Belt and Road, and on development, security, civilisation, global governance and AI – embody principles of sovereign equality, common development, dialogue among civilisations, common security and shared benefit. The transition will be long and contested, because hegemonic structures do not dissolve of their own accord; but it expresses an objective trend in world development whose purpose is to move beyond hegemony altogether.