In
traditional Chinese culture, an ideal world is one in which the “Great Way”
prevails and works for the common good, and the world is for everyone. The
Great Way refers to the values of humanity such as fairness and justice. And
the “Universal Harmony” proposed by Confucius means harmonious coexistence,
common development, and respecting the diversity among civilizations. It is
mirrored in the vision of building a community with a shared future.
Contributing more to global development
Even when China was a poor and weak country
in the 1950s, Chairman Mao Zedong had high expectations that China should and
would make greater contributions to the world, saying that with an area of 9.6
million square kilometers and a population of 600 million, China could make
great contributions to the world. In the 1980s Deng Xiaoping also talked about
China contributing more to global development.
Today, after Beijing has built a moderately
prosperous society in all respects and is pursuing the second centenary goal of
developing China into a great modern socialist country that is prosperous,
harmonious, culturally advanced and beautiful, it is more willing and capable
of making greater contributions to the world.
The CPC’s mission is to seek happiness for
the people, realize national rejuvenation and make greater contributions to the
world. Just as Xi Jinping, CPC Central Committee general secretary, said in the
report to the 20th National Congress of the CPC that “the Communist Party of
China and the Chinese people have provided humanity with more Chinese insight,
better Chinese input, and greater Chinese strength to help solve its common
challenges and have made new and greater contributions to the noble cause of
human peace and development.”
Amid increasing uncertainties, Xi proposed
building a community with a shared future for mankind. Why did he make such a
proposal? What is a community with a shared future? What good will it do to the
world and how can it be built?
The world has become a global village, but
the people have not yet formed a “big family”. The global economy has been
sluggish for some time now and various global challenges keep popping up from
time to time. Financial crises, climate change, pandemics and other hotspot
issues have put people’s interests and well-being in jeopardy.
Some countries still play zero-sum games
Yet some countries are still playing zero-sum
games and have resorted to protectionism and unilateralism, even trying to
weaken economic globalization. Indeed, the world faces a severe deficit of
peace, development, governance and trust.
What has happened to the world and how should
we respond?
China has responded by proposing to build a
global community with a shared future. This means accommodating the common
concerns of the countries and urging people across the world to work together
to overcome the challenges facing global development and governance.
We need to build a community with a shared
future for mankind, which means building an open, inclusive, clean and
beautiful world of eternal peace, universal security and common prosperity. It
also means building partnerships, developing shared security mechanisms;
seeking common development; upholding inclusiveness; learning from each other;
and pursuing green, low-carbon, sustainable development. The aim should be to
promote mutual respect, equality and justice, mutually beneficial cooperation
and common development among all countries.
But no country alone can build a global
community with a shared future. The efforts to build such a community should be
like those of the members of an orchestra. All countries have to play their
respective parts to make this endeavor a success. China made this proposal to
help the international community to reach a consensus on maintaining peace,
promoting common development and working together to build a better world.
BRI a symbol of promoting shared future
The initiative also aims to boost industrial
capacity cooperation. In 2011, China’s Huajian Group invested in a women’s
shoe-making factory in Ethiopia. With an annual production capacity of 5
million pairs of shoes, the factory generates more than $30 million in output
value and makes shoes for consumers across the world, including in the United
States and Europe.
Thanks to such Chinese investments, we are
seeing more and more “made-in-Africa” products in different countries across
the world. By 2020, Chinese enterprises had built 113 overseas industrial parks
and industrial zones in 46 countries — Long Jiang Industrial Park in Vietnam,
Thai-Chinese Rayong Industrial Park, Great Stone China-Belarus Industrial Park,
China-Egypt Suez Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone, and Eastern Industrial
Zone in Ethiopia, to name a few.
Thanks to its cooperation with China,
Ethiopia enjoyed an average economic growth rate of more than 10 percent for 10
consecutive years. Some Western politicians and media outlets have accused
China of practicing neo-colonialism in Africa. Ethiopia, a country with limited
resources, is strong proof that such accusations are false, as China has helped
the country to find a path toward win-win cooperation and common development.
But what is the ultimate goal of the Belt and Road Initiative?
The answer is quite simple. While promoting
its own development, China hopes to share its development dividends with the
rest of the world and integrate further into the global community to enjoy the
benefits of deeper cooperation and create more development opportunities for
other countries.
The Belt and Road Initiative is not a tool to
win geopolitical games, nor form exclusive interest groups. On the contrary,
its aim is to build a new platform for win-win cooperation and a new type of
international partnership for development. Its salient features are mutual
respect and win-win cooperation.
Chinese wisdom helps improve global governance
To make greater contributions to the world,
China has also been actively engaging in global governance. In the age of
economic globalization, while peace, development and cooperation remain the
theme of the times, traditional and non-traditional security threats such as
terrorism, climate change and pandemics are posing serious challenges to
humankind.
Against such a background, China proposed
reforming the global governance system based on extensive consultation, joint
contribution and shared benefits, and called on all countries, developing
countries in particular, to overcome the challenges together.
On the climate front, for instance, China has
been making arduous efforts to meet the Paris Agreement goals. It has played a
constructive role at the United Nations Climate Change Conferences,
facilitating discussions and negotiations under the UN Framework Convention on
Climate Change. To fulfill its climate commitments, it has pledged to peak its
carbon emissions before 2030 and realize carbon neutrality before 2060. It has
also been trying to meet its other climate goals in accordance with the
principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities”.
On global public health, China proposed
building a global community of health for all and urged the international
community to work together to overcome global health challenges. When the Ebola
pandemic broke out in West Africa in 2014, the Chinese government was one of
the first to offer emergency assistance to African countries to contain the
pandemic.
China proposed building a global community of
health for all, and has been helping develop countries to contain the spread of
the novel coronavirus and revive their economies after the COVID-19 pandemic
broke out in 2020. In the meantime, China has largely contained the virus at
home.
Also, China has fully implemented the G20
Debt Service Suspension Initiative, joined COVAX(COVID-19 Vaccines Global
Access), which is a worldwide initiative aimed at providing equitable access to
COVID-19 vaccines. It has also proposed to make vaccines a global public good,
and worked with other countries to make vaccines more affordable and more
easily accessible to people around the world.
A better world makes a better China and
vice-versa. While pursuing its own development, China has remained committed to
making greater contributions to the world. It has made great contributions to
global development and poverty alleviation, provided international development
assistance to other countries, and taken part in global security governance.
And it will always honor its commitment to promote global development,
contribute to global governance and safeguard the international order, because
its goal is to build a better world.
The
author is a professor in international studies at the Party School of the CPC
Central Committee. The views don’t necessarily represent those of China Daily.
0 Comments