Chen Wenling: A Common Community of Shared Future for All Mankind－Shaping Mankind’s New Civilization

At the 5th anniversary of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s concept of building a common community of shared future for all mankind, the International Liaison Department of the CPC Central Committee and the Guangming Daily Office jointly held a launching event for the new book “Building a Better World Together” in Beijing on March 24^th. At the same time, the seminar on The Concept of A Common Community of Shared future and Global Governance Reform was also held. Guo Yezhou, Deputy Director of the International Liaison Department of the CPC Central Committee, and Zhang Zheng, Editor-in-Chief of Guangming Daily, attended the meeting and delivered speeches. Zhai Jianzhang, Director of the Research Department of the International Liaison Department, presided over the event and gave a concluding speech.

The book entitled “Building a Better World Together”, published by the Guangming Daily Press was released at the event. The book is a collection of important speeches delivered by the General Secretary Xi Jinping at the high-level dialogue between the Chinese Communist Party and other political parties around the world. All the delegates highly praised the book and expressed that they will further study and implement the socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era of Xi Jinping, promote the concept of building a common community of shared future for all mankind, and strive to do a good job in relevant research. The participants also exchanged their opinions and offered suggestions on building a common community and a better world.

Building a common community of share future for all mankind is the most distinctive banner of diplomacy of China in the new era and a major change in the concept of global governance.

Guo Yezhou, Deputy Director of the International Liaison Department of the CPC Central Committee, pointed out that the high-level dialogue between the Chinese Communist Party and the world’s political parties was successfully held shortly after the 19th National Congress. General Secretary Xi Jinping attended the opening ceremony and delivered a keynote speech with the title of Building a Better World Together, elaborated how can we build a common community of shared future for all mankind, the role of political parties in this regard, the major responsibilities of the Communist Party of China and other issues, which received positive response from the international community.

The building of a common community of shared future for all mankind is the most distinctive banner of China’s diplomacy in the new era. It reflects not only the integration of the Chinese culture “One World” with today’s development trend, but also the value and mission of the Chinese communist which is mainly represented by the General Secretary of Xi Jinping. The concept is well supported and recognized by more and more countries and political parties around the world. At the 1st session of the 13th National People’s Congress, the amendment to the Constitution was passed and the concept of building of a common community of shared future for all mankind was included in the preamble of the Constitution. At the closing session of the 13th National People’s Congress, General Secretary Xi Jinping also declared that “Enlighten the world with a common community of shared future for all mankind!” In the future, we need to turn the ideas into actions and make it a reality.

We must be aware of that building a common community of shared future for all mankind is not only a world view but also a methodology. The concept shows our understanding of the increasingly interconnected and interdependent world, and is a proposal put forward by China for various problems in the current international community. The concept reflects people’s pursuit of a better world and requires us to look for ways to solve the world’s problems. Generally speaking, this concept is both a new worldview and a scientific methodology.

We have to adhere to the principles of mutual consultation, common development and sharing. Although the idea of building a common community of shared future for all mankind was first proposed by China, it requires joint efforts from all countries to achieve this goal. The main reason for the successful implementation of the Belt and Road initiative is that we have always adhered to the principles of mutual consultation, common development and sharing. We also have to follow these principles when building a common community of shared future for all mankind.

We have to remain confident. The building of a common community of shared future for all mankind is a systematic project and cannot be accomplished overnight. The project is a great cause but it will not be easy and requires us to meet many new challenges. We must be fully aware of the complexity and arduousness, long-term nature, and tortuousness of building a community of shared future, and conduct forward-looking, systematic, and strategic research on possible risks and challenges in order to contribute our wisdom and build a better world.

Jin Canrong, Professor of the School of International Relations at Renmin University of China pointed out that the concept of building a common community of share future for all mankind is of great significance. The world today is more interdependent than ever. As General Secretary Xi Jinping said, we all live in the same global village and no one can isolate himself from the common community of shared future. This new era is full of endless challenges and risks and mankind is faced with unprecedented problems. At the same time, the world is in a state of fragmentation, various social trends confront each other and the international community urgently calls for a new concept of global governance. The concept of building a common community of shared future for all mankind, proposed by General Secretary Xi Jinping is a response to the question of what kind of world should we build and how to build it? The concept grasps the trend of the world progress and conforms to the trend of our times. It will not only effectively solve the existing problems, but will also lead the future development.

Feng Zhongping, Vice President of China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, pointed out that the concept of building a common community of shared future for all mankind answered three major questions. First, how should China get along with the outside world after achieving great development? The answer is peace and harmony. Second, what kind of world order does China expect? The relation between big powers during the Cold War was confrontational but it has been changed to the coexistence of cooperation and competition after the Cold War. At present, the relations between big powers have reached a turning point and the competition among big countries has become increasingly fierce. The idea of building a common community of shared future for all mankind reflects China’s attitude and position on the big powers relations. Third, how to solve the deficit problem of global governance? Nowadays, the world faces many global challenges such as terrorism, climate change, slow growth, and unbalanced development. The economic globalization system led by the West is unsustainable and hence, the concept of building a common community of shared future for all mankind is China’s proposal for solving the global governance deficit problem. To put the concept into practice, we need to be committed to three things. The first thing is that we must unswervingly build a new type of international relations, which is featured with mutual respect, fairness and justice, and win-win cooperation. Secondly, we have to provide the international community with better global governance, which is open, balanced, inclusive, and sustainable. Finally, we must build the Belt and Road project by mutual consultation, joint building and sharing the outcome.

Ding Yifan, a researcher at the World Development Institute of the Development Research Center of the State Council, believes that the proposal of building a common community of shared future for all mankind is an important indication of China’s international discourse power. The speech delivered by General Secretary Xi Jinping at the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2017 once again emphasized the concept of building a common community of shared future for all mankind. The theme of the 2018 World Economic Forum, “To create a common destiny in a divisive world” echoed the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s speech and fully demonstrated the international influence of China. The idea of building a common community of shared future for all mankind shake the development concept advocated by the Westerners, and promote peace among different nations, civilizations, and religions, which is why it has received wide recognition and support from so many countries.

Chen Wenling, chief economist of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, pointed out that building a common community of shared future for all mankind will open some new areas for mankind in the 21st century, and the concept has achieved major breakthroughs in three aspects. Firstly, the proposal of the concept is a great success as it has united the world. The second breakthrough is the ability to make a master plan. China has offered many public products to the world. The third breakthrough is the ability to act. China has the ability to put many other countries and regions together and build a common community of shared future for all mankind. China has set a good example for other nations and China’s vision gives other countries hope. The concept of building a common community of shared future for all mankind demonstrates China’s confidence and ambitious.

Zheng Changzhong, director of the Party Construction and National Development Research Center at Fudan University, noted that the concept and implementation of building a common community of shared future for all mankind have opened up a new form of civilization. Marx hopes that modern civilization will eventually realize the all-round development of man, and all powers will return to mankind. In the process of modernization, the capitalist countries have achieved global expansion by relying on the power of capital, which has made an enormous contribution to the development of the world, but its drawbacks also emerged. Mankind need urgently a new form of civilization, which is based on Marx’s “people-centered approach.” The concept of building a common community of shared future for all mankind is also a people-centered approach, which advocates the common development of people’s living standard in different regions and civilizations, rather than solely relies on the development of capital.

Building a common community of shared future for all mankind requires the concerted efforts of all countries in various fields.

Zhang Zheng, editor-in-chief of Guangming Daily explained that the world is confronted with increasingly complex security threats, especially cyber security and thus, we must establish a common community of shared cyber security and a new security concept which is comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable. All countries should be able to share the development achievements and we should make sure that the economic globalization is moving in a direction that is more open, inclusive, balanced and will benefit all nations. Furthermore, we need to promote exchanges, learn from each other and promote civilizations and harmony so as to create more space for common development. We must pursue a green, low-carbon, cyclical, sustainable lifestyle and adopt a civilized development path of production development, lifestyle, and ecology.

Zhang Xiansheng, former Deputy Secretary-General of the United Front Work Department of the CPC Central Committee, pointed out that the idea of ??building a common community of shared future for all mankind proposed by General Secretary Xi Jinping reflects a global vision and great wisdom. As a global practice, the concept of ??building a common community of shared future for all mankind requires all nations to work together resolving contradictions, minimizing risks, and dealing with challenges. To achieve these goals, we must have clear goals, correct path, and different platforms. Otherwise, this is not going to work. The political parties need to put forward appropriate proposals, promote mutual understanding, gather wisdom and play a leading role. This kind of leading role is not a dictatorship but a responsibility, which should focus on peaceful development and strives to build a beautiful world together. The leading party should offer suggestions, clarify paths, make plans, set up new platforms, eliminate barriers, and make concerted efforts to promote consensus and gather wisdom. The Communist Party of China should actively play a leading role in building a common community of shared future for all mankind.

Li Yuxiao, Vice President of the China Cyberspace Research Institute, said that we must strengthen cyberspace cooperation to advance world peace, common development and cultural exchange, which is an important part of the concept of building a common community of shared future for all mankind. Internet innovation has provided new space and opportunities for the development of all countries. At present, the global governance of the Internet is in the process of transition, China should take the opportunity to protect its core interests, increase mutual trust among countries, expand cooperation in network governance, and improve the cyberspace governance. The establishment of fair and reasonable global cyberspace governance will offer great support for building a common community of shared future for all mankind.

Zhao Kejin, Deputy Dean of the School of Social Sciences at Tsinghua University, pointed out that the idea of building a common community of shared future for all mankind is the key to reduce the current deficit in world peace, development, and governance. As General Secretary Xi Jinping said that the fate of the world is in the hands of people of all countries, and the future of mankind depends on the choices of the peoples, all countries need to join hands to cope with the global challenges. Currently, we have not been able to unite state, market, and society. The concept of building a common community of shared future for all mankind will create a healthy relationship among the three participants and promote coordinated development through consultation, joint work and sharing. Political parties must run through the country, market and society and this has become the new trend in today’s development. The new issues we face today require the political parties to come up with new solutions. The idea of building a common community of shared future for all mankind points the direction for political parties to strengthen reform of the global governance system.

Zhou Xinyu, Secretary-General of the Center for Public Diplomacy of Beijing Foreign Studies University reckons that NGOs have great professionalism and flexibility and hence, they are the important participants in global governance such as human development, environmental protection, and cultural exchange. The idea of building a common community of shared future for all mankind proposed by China needs to be further developed and disseminated through NGOs. We should give more support to the international activities organized by non-governmental organizations.

Wang Yue, Deputy Secretary-General of the Academic Committee at Pangoal Institution, believes that building a common community of shared future for all mankind requires the unremitting efforts of all parties. In particular, the vast number of new think tanks should provide various platforms and intellectual support for this mission. In addition to the diplomatic platform at the national level, we should also create diversified exchange platforms to bring together experts and scholars, so that they can carry out research on the concept of building a common community of shared future for all mankind and the global governance system. At the same time, the new media should also support the theoretical research and implementation of the concept. It is necessary to build a non-governmental diplomatic platform, give full play to the advantages and expertise of think tanks, gather the wisdom of the community and form a strong synergy that promotes the building a common community of shared future for all mankind.