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The concept of a community of shared future for all humankind, initiated by President Xi Jinping in late 2012, has been mentioned by Xi more than 70 times on different domestic and international occasions. The concept was adopted into an official U.N. document at the 55th session of the U.N. Commission for Social Development (UNCSD) on Feb. 10, 2017.
“There is only one Earth in the universe and we as mankind have only one homeland,” Xi said in his keynote speech at the U.N. General Office in Geneva on Jan. 18, 2017. A community of shared future, as Xi outlined, features “partnership, security, growth, inter-civilization exchanges and the building of a sound ecosystem.” It is a world of “lasting peace through dialogue and consultation,” “of common security for all through joint efforts,” and “of common prosperity through win-win cooperation.” It is “an open and inclusive world through exchanges and mutual learning,” and “a clean and beautiful world through green and low-carbon development.” Xi has expounded on the concept in his speeches since he first proposed it Nov. 15, 2012, but his January 2017 speech is by far the most comprehensive, profound and systematic exposition of the concept.
Reasons for the conceptualization are strong.
Internationally, surging economic globalization and drastic IT development have transformed the world into what Marshall McLuhan called a “global village.” “Mankind, by living in the same global village ... has become a community of a shared future in which everyone has in himself a little bit of others,” Xi said in Moscow in March 2013. Interconnection and interdependence means every country in this world has a shared future. While people share the benefits, they are equally vulnerable to challenges and risks. Conventional security issues aside, unconventional security issues loom large. Building a community of shared future is a new model for developing relations among major powers and developing countries, to ward off global risks and to achieve common security and prosperity.
Domestically, with an average annual GDP growth rate of 9 percent over the past three decades, China has emerged as the second-largest economy in the world. China has set the goal of eradicating poverty by 2020, and it has also witnessed explosive growth in its sharing economy, whose market trade volume topped 3.45 trillion yuan (US$523.53 billion) in 2016, according to a People’s Daily report May 16.
The spirit of a community of shared future also has its roots in traditional Chinese civilization, where entirety thinking, harmony of man and nature, and aspirations for the well-being of all humans are the core elements. Thus it could well be said that China’s proposition is both a product and a great contribution of Chinese civilization to the world.
In Xi’s view, the essence of “the community of shared future” lies in mutual respect, equal dialogue and harmonious co-existence among civilizations. In a world beset by what Samuel Huntington termed “the clash of civilizations” and other conflicts and threats, mutual respect and equal dialogue can help achieve common security and prosperity. As Xi said during his visit to UNESCO in March 2014, “Civilizations have come in different colors, and such diversity has made exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations relevant and valuable.”
The British philosopher Bertrand Russell once wrote: Contacts between different civilizations have often in the past proved to be landmarks in human progress. ... The evolution of civilizations is in itself a history of exchanges and mutual learning, a history of common development while preserving difference among different civilizations.
But the concept is not just theoretical at all. With initiatives such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and the Belt and Road Initiative, concrete ideas about building a better world are emerging. The AIIB has allocated loans totaling US$1.73 billion in nine infrastructure projects across seven countries since it started operating in January 2016. Connecting some 60 countries, the Belt and Road Initiative has been aligned with many national and regional development strategies, bringing forth more and more cooperative projects, including railways, roads and ports. China will offer 60 billion yuan in aid to the countries along the Belt and Road in three years, Xi said in a speech in May. “The Belt and Road Initiative is a path to a community of shared future,” Zhao Kejin, a professor of Tsinghua University, observed in a paper.
Philipp Charwath, chair of the 55th session of the UNCSD, noted that Xi’s concept has offered inspiration to the bewildered world.
“In the long run, it profits us all,” Charwath said. “I think that’s how I understand the concept, and that’s how the U.N. work can profit from the concept.”
(The author is the executive deputy editor-in-chief of the Shenzhen Daily.)