Focusing on Human Well-being, Creating a Better Future

In the face of global, historical, and contemporary challenges, nations must collaborate to ensure enduring global stability, guide humanity on the right path of development, and promote sustainable human civilization. As a formidable global player today, China introduced the "Community of Shared Future for Mankind" in 2013. Over the past decade, this concept has evolved, deepening its philosophical foundations, enriching its theoretical framework, and clarifying its path to realization. On September 26th, China released a White Paper titled "Building a Community of Shared Future for Mankind: China's Proposals and Actions," offering a comprehensive account of its core ideology and practical implementations. This reaffirmed China's dedication to the vision of a community of shared future for mankind, demonstrating its unwavering commitment to collaborate with other nations and underscoring its role as a responsible global powerhouse.

Constructing a community of shared future for mankind is an urgent mandate of our times. In the 21st century, the world has transformed into a global village where nations are intertwined, forming a community united by shared interests, responsibilities, and destinies. Collaboration and mutual benefit among nations are not merely optional but imperative. However, recent years have seen the emergence of an intricate web of global issues, both old and new, and the entanglement of complex conflicts. Peace deficits have deepened, development gaps have widened, security concerns have intensified, and governance challenges have grown more severe. Challenges like cybersecurity, space exploration, polar development, and artificial intelligence further complicate matters. Meanwhile, there has been a resurgence of protectionism, unilateralism, bullying, isolationism, and anti-globalization sentiments, along with a revival of zero-sum thinking, power politics, and Cold War-style confrontations—all of which threaten global peace and stability. Our new era demands fresh ideas, and humanity stands at a crossroads, urgently requiring a vision that aligns with contemporary currents of global development and human advancement. The concept of a community of shared future for mankind emerges from this context, offering a guiding vision to address global challenges and chart humanity's course into the future.

The notion of a community of shared future for mankind represents the culmination of China's philosophical principles and historical practices. China's rich cultural traditions have molded the way its people think and behave, emphasizing harmony over discord and viewing all things as interconnected and harmonious rather than in conflict. China's tradition of dialectical thinking places value on coexistence, interdependence, and mutual tolerance. These cultural influences have fostered a worldview that sees the world as a unified whole, where the unity of heaven and humanity prevails, and where all nations form one global family. This perspective calls for mutual respect, inclusivity, equal treatment, and coexistence among nations. China's perception of global order emphasizes a vision where all nations live together in harmony, fostering a world of peace, openness, inclusivity, mutual learning, and equal benefit. The concept of a community of shared future for mankind draws deeply from these cultural roots. Additionally, it aligns with China's diplomatic traditions and practices. Since its establishment, the People's Republic of China has adhered to an independent foreign policy of peace, with peace as its core principle. Whether through the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence or the recognition that peace and development are the prevailing themes of our times, China has consistently prioritized peace. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China has put forward a series of new ideas, proposals, and initiatives, all emphasizing peace, development, cooperation, and mutual benefit. These serve as the bedrock for the concept of a community of shared future for mankind.

The concept of a community of shared future for mankind continues to evolve and refine itself, forming a rich ideological and theoretical framework. The goal of constructing a community of shared future for mankind is based on five pillars: sustaining lasting peace through dialogue and consultation, establishing universal security through shared construction and shared responsibility, fostering common prosperity through cooperation and mutual gain, encouraging exchanges and mutual learning for open inclusivity, and striving for a clean and beautiful world through green, low-carbon development. Under this framework, it advocates forging partnerships grounded in equality, consultation, and mutual understanding, shaping a just and equitable security landscape, pursuing open and innovative developmental prospects, promoting intercultural exchange and harmony, and building an ecological system that respects nature and prioritizes green development. It follows a "Five-in-One" framework, underscoring characteristics such as openness and inclusiveness, fairness and justice, harmony and coexistence, diversity and mutual learning, and unity and cooperation. This represents a new pattern in international relations.

The concept of a community of shared future for mankind also offers a clear path for implementation. Traditional international relations theories, which were based on the law of the jungle, survival of the fittest, zero-sum games, winner-takes-all mentality, power politics, unilateralism, hegemonic thinking, and Western-style democracy, no longer align with the progress of humanity or offer solutions to the complex challenges of today's world. Present-day international interactions necessitate fresh perspectives and innovative approaches. China has introduced the idea of constructing a new model of international relations, centered on principles of mutual respect, fairness, justice, cooperation, and mutual benefit. It also champions global collaboration and the deepening expansion of equitable, open, and cooperative global partnerships, emphasizing coordination and cooperation among major powers, upholding genuine multilateralism, and pushing international order toward greater equity and rationality. In contrast to the Western emphasis on Western-style democracy and freedom, China emphasizes the promotion of universal values such as peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy, and freedom. This approach seeks to unite people from diverse nations, faiths, cultures, and regions, drawing upon the achievements of various world civilizations and reflecting the universal desires and shared aspirations of all humanity.