Progress in China’s Endeavor to Build a Global Community of Shared Future

At present, as momentous once-in-a-century changes unfold at an accelerated pace, the world has entered a new period of turbulence and transformation. Yet the overall direction of human development and progress has not changed, the underlying dynamic of world history moving forward amid twists and turns has not changed, and the overall trend toward a shared future for the international community has not changed. 

Against this backdrop, building a global community of shared future appears all the more sound, timely, progressive, and practically imperative. It has demonstrated growing intellectual appeal for steering human society in the right direction and promoting global peace and development. 

Under the personal planning and direction of President Xi Jinping, China’s great endeavor to build a global community of shared future continues to march forward, providing a world marked by turbulence and transformation with a force for peace, stability, and progress. Notably, building such a community enables our world to achieve the following. 

Pursue lasting peace through dialogue and consultation in the face of conflict and turmoil

As President Xi has stated, “Differences and problems among countries, hardly avoidable, need to be handled through dialogue and cooperation on the basis of equality and mutual respect.” 

The vision of a global community of shared future is firmly opposed to hegemonism and power politics of all forms, as well as blocs and exclusive groups created to target particular countries. What it affirms is the notion that all countries, regardless of size or strength, deserve to have their sovereignty and territorial integrity protected, have the right to independently choose their development paths and social systems, and have the right to participate in international affairs on an equal basis. 

At the same time, all countries should abide by the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, operate within the UN-centered international system, practice multilateralism in the true sense, and jointly safeguard world peace and stability in an equal and orderly multipolar world. Major countries shoulder special and important responsibilities for maintaining international peace, and China has fully demonstrated its commitment to fulfilling these responsibilities. 

When the People’s Republic of China was first established in 1949, it put forward the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. China is the only country in the world that has enshrined peaceful development in its national Constitution and the only one of the five nuclear-weapon states that has publicly pledged that it will not be the first to use nuclear weapons. 

No matter what stage of development it reaches, China will never seek hegemony, engage in expansionism, or pursue a sphere of influence. At the same time, it will firmly safeguard its national sovereignty, security, and development interests, as well as international fairness and justice. 

Relations between major powers are crucial to overall global strategic stability. China is committed to enhancing coordination and positive interactions with other major countries, so as to foster major-country dynamics featuring peaceful coexistence, overall stability, and balanced development. 

As a developing country and member of the Global South, China firmly promotes greater unity and strength among emerging markets and developing countries and works to expand the ranks of those who seek global justice and strengthen the forces for safeguarding peace. 

China actively participates in UN peacekeeping operations and escort missions in the Gulf of Aden. As the second largest contributor to the UN regular budget and peacekeeping assessments, China has dispatched over 50,000 peacekeepers to participate in UN peacekeeping operations in more than 20 countries and regions, serving as a pillar for long-term global peace and stability.

Together build and share a world of common security in the face of multiple risks

Humanity is an indivisible security community. In today’s world, regional hotspot issues are emerging one after another, and non-conventional security threats are increasing rapidly. With the global security governance system lagging seriously behind, humans are facing myriad, unprecedented risks and challenges as a society. 

The vision of building a global community of shared future calls for implementing the Global Security Initiative and practicing a vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative, and sustainable security. It opposes the unlimited expansion of military alliances, the squeezing of other nations’ security space, and a return to the old path of the Cold War. 

It advocates for the active participation of all countries in international security cooperation, calls for the advancement of global security governance through multi-pronged approaches, comprehensive measures, and improved rules, and aims to provide more public goods that will ensure the security and stability of the international community. 

In responding to non-conventional security threats and global challenges, it is increasingly necessary to act on the principle of creating shared benefits through collaboration. This is important for drawing on our collective energies to address issues such as terrorism, climate change, cybersecurity, biosafety and biosecurity, and artificial intelligence. 

The Global Security Initiative has so far gained the support of over 100 countries and international and regional organizations, with a series of cooperative measures taking effect and bearing fruit. 

With the strong support of China, Saudi Arabia and Iran have chosen to let go of past grievances and restore diplomatic relations. China has helped facilitate a de-escalation of conflict in northern Myanmar and ensured peace and stability in the China-Myanmar border region. 

China’s positive role in seeking to end the Ukraine crisis and the Israel-Palestine conflict has also vividly illustrated the core principles of the Global Security Initiative. 

Since the Ukraine crisis began, President Xi has engaged in in-depth communications with leaders of various countries and multilateral institutions, including the UN, making it clear that China is determined to facilitate peace talks while opposing all actions that seek to escalate tensions for one’s own benefit. China has repeatedly articulated its principles and proposals for resolving the crisis and has continuously worked toward easing tensions and realizing the resumption of peace talks. 

In responding to the latest round of violence between Israel and Palestine, China has maintained an objective and impartial position. It has issued a strong call to make an immediate ceasefire the overriding priority and regard humanitarian aid as an urgent moral responsibility. 

It has stressed that the only viable way to break the cycle of conflict lies in the two-state solution and in working toward a solution to the Palestine issue that is comprehensive, just, and sustainable as quickly as possible. Meanwhile, China has also increased humanitarian aid to extend a helping hand to the people of Gaza who are in dire straits.

Jointly seek common prosperity through mutually beneficial cooperation in the face of development challenges

Development is humanity’s eternal pursuit. As President Xi has noted, “‘Cooperation brings strength; isolation brings weakness.’ Win-win cooperation should become every country’s basic policy preference in handling international affairs.” 

China advocates for actively implementing the Global Development Initiative and promoting universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization. It calls on all countries to jointly work to make the economic cake bigger and share its benefits more fairly, so as to narrow the divide between North and South and address development imbalances, thereby enabling different countries, social strata, and populations to participate in and benefit from economic and social development. In this way, we can achieve common prosperity and development. 

At the same time, China supports all countries in pursuing development paths suited to their own national conditions. It rejects protectionism and unilateral sanctions, which are both self-defeating and harmful to others. It opposes “decoupling and delinking,” the building of “small yards and high fences,” the excessive stretching of national security concerns, and attempts to politicize and weaponize economic and technological issues. Instead, it seeks to preserve the vitality and momentum of global economic growth by ensuring the stable and smooth operation of global industrial and supply chains. 

China has also actively promoted the reform of multilateral economic and financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization (WTO), worked to give full play to the role of new global economic governance platforms, such as the G20 and the BRICS cooperation mechanism, and advanced the development of a fair, reasonable, and transparent international trade and economic rules system, as well as global modernization defined by peaceful development, mutually beneficial cooperation, and shared prosperity. 

As a major world economy, China is firmly committed to a mutually beneficial strategy of opening up. It will continue to expand high-standard opening up and create new opportunities for the world through its own development. China’s contribution to global growth has held steady at around 30% for many years now, and it has become a major trading partner for more than 150 countries and regions. 

It has reduced its overall tariff level to a rate on par with the developed members of the WTO, further shortened its negative list for foreign investment access, and offers one of the highest rates of return for foreign investment in the world. 

China has also established a range of international cooperation platforms, including the China International Import Expo, the China International Fair for Trade in Services, the China International Consumer Goods Fair, and the China International Supply Chain Expo. All this has helped maintain realistic expectations among foreign investors and cooperation partners and create long-term benefits for them. 

In the more than 10 years since its inception, the Belt and Road Initiative has borne considerable fruits and developed into a pathway of cooperation, opportunity, and prosperity. 

Promote openness and inclusiveness through exchanges and mutual learning in the face of cultural estrangement

All civilizations are unique in their own way, and no civilization is superior or inferior to any other. China has proposed the Global Civilizations Initiative with the aim of promoting exchanges and mutual learning between civilizations and the progress of humanity as a whole.

It is vital that we respect the diversity of civilizations; we must let cultural exchanges transcend estrangement, let mutual learning transcend clashes, and let coexistence transcend feelings of superiority. 

To this end, China has initiated and hosted various international conferences and forums, including the Conference on Dialogue of Asian Civilizations, the CPC in Dialogue with World Political Parties High-level Meeting, the Dialogue on Exchanges and Mutual Learning Among Civilizations, the Ancient Civilizations Forum, and the Liangzhu Forum. It has also promoted the establishment of the International Day for Dialogue Among Civilizations at the UN General Assembly. These efforts have encouraged different civilizations to learn from and inspire each other. 

The common values of humanity that China advocates go beyond the narrow historical limitations of the so-called universal values touted by the West. In putting forward and promoting these values, China has helped foster mutual understanding, respect, and trust among different countries and created a stronger philosophical and values-based consensus for promoting the progress and development of humanity. 

To foster mutual understanding and friendship between people from all countries, China has boosted people-to-people exchanges and cooperation with a focus on the inheritance and innovation of civilizations. With an open mindset, China draws inspiration from all of human civilization’s outstanding achievements and strives to better present Chinese culture to the world. 

China has helped initiate and establish the Alliance for Cultural Heritage in Asia, the first international cooperation mechanism for the preservation of Asia’s cultural heritage. By the end of 2023, China had established 48 overseas Chinese cultural centers and opened Confucius Institutes and Confucius Classrooms in most countries around the world. 

China has recently introduced a series of measures, including visa-free policies and simplified entry procedures, to promote people-to-people exchanges between China and other countries. As of November 2024, local governments have established 3,054 sister city (province/state) relationships with partners in 147 countries across five continents. 

These efforts have opened a new phase in promoting people-to-people exchanges, cultural integration, and mutual understanding between countries, paving the way for the diverse cultures of the world to flourish in tandem. 

Build a clean and beautiful world through green and low-carbon development in the face of an ecological crisis

While industrial civilization has created enormous material wealth, it has also spawned an ecological crisis epitomized by biodiversity loss, environmental degradation, and climate change. The vision of a global community of shared future calls for respecting nature, adapting to its ways, and protecting it. It emphasizes the need to actively respond to climate change, accelerate the transition to green modes of development and ways of life, and build a community of life for humanity and nature. 

The international community must come together to engage in global action, response, and cooperation based on its commitment to the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities. We must make concerted efforts to heal the wounds inflicted on our environment and find a balance between economic development and environmental protection in order to safeguard our blue planet.

China has incorporated climate action into every aspect of its overall strategy for economic and social development and is actively yet prudently moving toward peak carbon emissions and carbon neutrality. 

Close to half of the world’s installed photovoltaic capacity is found in China, over half of the world’s new energy vehicles run on roads in China, and one-quarter of the world’s newly created green spaces are located in China. 

China accomplished, ahead of schedule, its targets for 2020 for tackling climate change and establishing protected areas. It is home to the world’s largest area of planted forests and has become the world’s largest contributor to the protection of the ozone layer. 

China has always played an active role in global climate negotiations and international rule-making, while also providing as much financial and technical support as possible to help developing countries improve their environmental governance. 

China is also working to implement the Belt and Road South-South Cooperation Initiative on Climate Change. By October 2024, it had signed 53 South-South cooperation memorandums of understanding with 42 developing countries to address climate change, rolled out almost 100 climate mitigation and adaptation projects, carried out over 300 capacity-building projects in climate-related fields, and provided more than 10,000 training opportunities to people from over 120 developing countries. 

Editor: Zhang Xian