A global community with a shared future is central to Chinese President Xi Jinping’s ideas and vision for the world. In the last half decade or thereabouts the philosophical concept of a global community with a shared future as proposed by Xi has become mainstreamed in international diplomacy and debate for global peace and harmony.
The concept was first proposed in January 2017, when Xi Jinping delivered a keynote speech titled, “Work Together to Build a Community of Shared Future for Mankind” at the United Nations Office in Geneva.
Since then the pursuit of a global community with a shared future for mankind has remained a major point in diplomatic circles. This is because the world needs peace to progress. Recognising our common humanity can go a long way in fostering global harmony, fairness, equity and justice.
In the face of global turbulence and warmongering and the numerous challenges of human society, there is a need for rational thinking among global leaders in protecting and preserving global peace and harmony.
Leaders and peoples from all countries expectedly should become more conscious and participants in advancing and building a community with a shared future for mankind. The world belongs to all of us.
We are all interconnected. As President Xi noted in a keynote address at the CPC conference of World political parties in March 2023, where he also proposed the global civilisation initiative, the world is like a garden more beautiful and colourful when we work together in common aspiration for peace and harmony: “A single flower does not make spring, while one hundred flowers in full blossom bring spring to the garden. As the future of all countries is closely connected, tolerance, coexistence, exchanges and mutual learning among different civilisations play an irreplaceable role in advancing humanity’s modernisation process and making the garden of world civilisations flourish. Here, I wish to propose the Global Civilisation Initiative.”
This initiative is built on mutual collaboration and win-win. People-to-people exchanges and cooperation, the building of a global network for inter-civilisation dialogue and cooperation, enriching the content of exchanges and expanding avenues of cooperation for the benefit of mankind is a major goal of China
China seeks to be different and has always advocated international fairness and justice, world peace and stability. China, according to Xi, “Will neither tread the old path of colonisation and plunder, nor the crooked path taken by some countries to seek hegemony once they grow strong. What China pursues is the right course of peaceful development. We seek to settle differences through dialogue and resolve disputes through cooperation. We firmly oppose hegemony and power politics in all their forms. We advocate solidarity and a win-win mentality in handling complex and intertwined security challenges to set up a fair and just security architecture that is built and shared by all. The world does not need a new Cold War. The practice of stoking division and confrontation in the name of democracy is in itself a violation of the spirit of democracy. It will not receive any support. What it brings is only endless harm. A modernised China will strengthen the force for world peace and international justice. No matter what level of development China achieves, it will never seek hegemony or expansion.”
Evidently, China has chosen the path of peaceful growth and has held itself accountable to the scrutiny of the international community so that people will better understand the common aspiration that is dear to mankind. It is not about hegemonic power but about mankind and the future of the global community and to “pass on the torch of peace from generation to generation, sustain development and make civilisation flourish: this is what people of all countries long for. It is also the responsibility statesmen of our generation ought to shoulder….: build a community of shared future for mankind and achieve shared and win-win development.”
Dr Austin Maho, an international affairs analyst, can be reached at [email protected]
