At this year’s Munich Security Conference, the focus was clearly on the relations between Russia and the West and the dire consequences for international peace and security.

The Chinese policy towards the DPRK was not made purely out of ideological considerations but developed its shape today due to geopolitical factors. Unforeseen aggression and expansion by Western powers led to a popular Chinese belief that the Korean Peninsula was a ‘strategic security shield’ for China. Over the years as China's political prowess has only grown North Korea is no longer a 'shield' but rather the 'shielded.'

The US promise of promoting peace and stability in the South China Sea may sound familiar to regional players as they have heard very same slogans many times in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria. All regional countries have to make concerted efforts to maintain peace and stability in the South China Sea.

China has neither the military infrastructure nor the political will to strike IS forces on the ground in the Middle East. But China continues to build its military capacity and is by no means looking for a “free ride” in the Middle East.

Pyongyang should pay a price for its violation of Security Council resolutions, but punishment by itself will not magically solve the nuclear problem. If sanctions could not be translated into a strategic rethink, they will only add more pain to the ordinary North Koreans' already miserable life.

At a time when the conflict within Islam has sharpened between Sunnis and Shias and between fundamentalists and reformers, the House of Saud — the world’s No. 1 promoter of radical Islamic extremism — is increasingly playing the sectarian card, even at the risk of deepening the schisms. This aggressive activism carries significant implications for U.S. interests, from the Middle East to Asia.

This US defense installation would offer no real protection from the North’s usable weaponry, and would surely provoke the DPRK into a new, vicious cycle of action vs. reaction. The idea has already stirred strong protests from the Chinese and Russian governments, which believe THAAD, if deployed, will threaten their security interests. The idea of deploying THAAD on Korean soil is a bad example of how anger and angst can overpower and replace rational response.

The just concluded 2016 Munich Security Conference further deepened people's concerns over an increasing disorder in international situation. Although a war among major powers is unlikely to happen, the possibility of an escalation of conflicts cannot be excluded. Scholars expert in national security are pessimistic about the prospects of the Syria and Ukraine crises. They also harbor deep misgivings about the struggle for power vacuum in Afghanistan, Mali, Libya and Yemen, among varied non-state actors that are fueled by extremist ideology and conflicts between religious sects and ethnic groups.

The main challenges for the post-Cold War world include: Control by and challenges from international capitals, legacies of the Cold War, asymmetrical threats such as terrorism, regional and transnational conflicts. The world must find proper and effective means to cope with such challenges and manage crises in a time when the mobility and interdependence of personnel, capital, goods and ideas are increasingly enhanced.

Beijing should take effective measures to contain DPRK moves to develop and deploy nuclear weapons. China should also urge and assist the DPRK to reform, open up and pursue peaceful development, which is the right way of economic development and improvement of people’s livelihood.