New, substantive progress made in building a community with a shared future for mankind over past year: Wang Yi

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi reviewed the new and substantive progress made in building a community with a shared future for mankind over the past year.

Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), noted that over the past year, amid great transformation and instability in the world, we in the diplomatic service have followed the strong leadership of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core and the scientific guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Diplomacy, upheld fundamental principles while breaking new ground, and acted with composure and confidence in fostering a favorable external environment for China’s high-quality development and providing much-needed stability to a turbulent world.

Following is the highlight of Wang Yi's signed article titled "Holding High the Banner of Building a Community with a Shared Future For Mankind and Striving for Greater Achievements In Major-Country Diplomacy with Chinese Characteristics" on Qiushi Journal, No. 02, 2025.

Head-of-state diplomacy has been marked by numerous highlights, providing strategic guidance for building a community with a shared future for mankind. As General Secretary Xi Jinping noted, dreams and wishes may be far, but they can be fulfilled with dedicated pursuit. Building a community with a shared future is a historical process that requires persistent and painstaking efforts. Over the past year, General Secretary Xi Jinping personally engaged and actively participated in a wide range of head-of-state diplomatic events, leading the way forward for building a community with a shared future for mankind. He attended three major home-ground diplomatic events, expounding on the historic step from peaceful coexistence to a shared future for humanity at the Conference Marking the 70th Anniversary of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, drawing up a new blueprint for comprehensively strengthening China-Africa cooperation at the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), and elevating China-Arab cooperation in the new era to a higher level at the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum. He undertook four important overseas visits. His trip to Europe helped build trust, dispel misunderstandings, enhance cooperation, and open up a brighter future. His visit to Central Asia carried forward the Shanghai Spirit and deepened good-neighborly relations. His attendance at the BRICS Summit advanced high-quality development of greater BRICS cooperation, and reinforced solidarity among the Global South. His trip to Latin America charted a new course for Asia-Pacific cooperation and brought a renewed focus on global governance reform. With the global vision, broad-mindedness and sense of common good for humanity befitting the leader of a major party and a major country, General Secretary Xi Jinping had in-depth strategic communication with world leaders and reached out to strengthen friendship with the people of other countries. He elaborated on the rationale for peaceful development, the path to win-win cooperation, and the principle of global solidarity, thereby contributing to the forces of peace, stability, and progress in a volatile world.

All-round diplomacy has been deepened and expanded, providing solid underpinning for building a community with a shared future for mankind. As stated by General Secretary Xi Jinping, China will work with other countries to build a community with a shared future for mankind, forge partnerships across the world, enhance friendship and cooperation, and explore a new path of growing state-to-state relations based on mutual respect, fairness, justice and win-win cooperation. Our goal is to build a more peaceful and tranquil world, and make life happier and more fulfilling for all. Over the past year, we have continued to build global partnerships that foster dialogue and inclusiveness rather than confrontation and exclusion, further substantiated China’s all-round, multitiered, wide-ranging and multi-faceted external exchanges, and worked to expand converging interests and forge maximum synergy with all countries. We have maintained overall stability in our relations with other major countries. General Secretary Xi Jinping met with Russian President Putin three times, further deepening China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination; he had in-depth exchanges with leaders of various European countries, paving the way for the sound and stable development of China-Europe relations; and he met with President Biden and sent congratulatory message to then President-Elect Trump, providing strategic guidance for the China-U.S. relationship at critical junctures. We have joined hands with neighboring countries to foster a peaceful, safe and secure, prosperous, beautiful, amicable and harmonious Asian home. The China-ASEAN comprehensive strategic partnership has maintained strong momentum. The comprehensive strategic cooperation between China and the five Central Asian countries has been upgraded. The leaders of China and India reached agreement on bringing bilateral relations back to the track of stable development. China and Japan reaffirmed their commitment to promoting the China-Japan strategic relationship of mutual benefit in an all-round way. We have rallied powerful force of the Global South in seeking strength through unity. General Secretary Xi Jinping called for more open and inclusive Global South cooperation, announced eight measures in support of Global South cooperation, and reached consensus with other leaders on bringing more partners into the BRICS family to make it a primary channel for strengthening solidarity and cooperation among Global South nations. China also jointly adopted the Beijing Declaration on Jointly Building an All-Weather China-Africa Community with a Shared Future for the New Era and the Beijing Action Plan (2025-2027) of FOCAC with African countries, established “five cooperation frameworks” with Arab states, further aligned its development strategies with Latin American and Caribbean countries, and continuously expanded its cooperation with Pacific island countries, all with the aim of empowering the Global South across all dimensions.

The dividends of Chinese modernization have been further unleashed, providing an inexhaustible driving force for building a community with a shared future for mankind. General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out that China’s development needs openness to the world, and the world’s prosperity needs contribution from China. Over the past year, we have linked our own development with that of other countries. We have joined forces with the international community to pursue peaceful development, mutually beneficial cooperation and shared prosperity.

On what kind of modernization should be pursued, a question of historic significance, General Secretary Xi Jinping articulated at the FOCAC Beijing Summit the need to join hands in advancing modernization that is just and equitable, open and win-win, that puts the people first, that features diversity and inclusiveness, and that is eco-friendly and underpinned by peace and security. This has helped to point the direction for the modernization of countries around the world.

In response to the pressing need for faster development in many countries, China has announced eight actions for global development, which include solid steps to deepen high-quality Belt and Road cooperation. To date, 155 countries have participated in Belt and Road cooperation. Trade between China and these countries grew by 6.4 percent in 2024 against headwinds. The Belt and Road Initiative has indeed become a road to happiness that benefits the wider world.

In the face of growing protectionism, China stays committed to expanding high-standard opening up. It has fully opened up the manufacturing sector, given all the least developed countries having diplomatic ties with China zero-tariff treatment for 100 percent tariff lines, and continued to refine policies for foreigners traveling to China. All these are steps to bring everyone onboard to share in China’s development. China has also taken proactive steps to align with high-standard international trade rules, implement the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), and invigorate the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP) process. These are examples of China’s steadfast commitment to advancing trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, which will create new momentum for global growth.

Joint efforts are made to reform and refine the global governance system, accumulating more tangible outcomes for building a community with a shared future for mankind. General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out that building a community with a shared future for mankind does not mean replacing one system with another or one civilization with another. Rather, it aims at enabling countries with different social systems, ideologies, history, cultures and levels of development to pursue common interests, uphold shared rights, and fulfill common responsibilities in international affairs in order to pool the greatest efforts possible to build a better world.

Over the past year, China has continued practicing true multilateralism. Guided by the principle of consultation and contribution for shared benefit, it has worked actively to provide global public goods to enable all countries to achieve development, security and prosperity together. At the G20 Summit in Rio, General Secretary Xi Jinping comprehensively and systematically articulated China’s vision for global governance. Such vision is grounded in the long trajectory of history and aims at creating a bright future for humanity. It includes proposals to improve global governance on five dimensions spanning economic, financial, trade, digital, and ecological domains, helping to guide efforts to practice true multilateralism.

China has stepped up efforts to deliver on the three major initiatives it has proposed, namely the Global Development Initiative (GDI), the Global Security Initiative (GSI) and the Global Civilization Initiative (GCI). Eighty-two countries have joined the Group of Friends of the GDI, 119 countries and international organizations have expressed support for the GSI, and the 78th session of the U.N. General Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution establishing an International Day for Dialogue among Civilizations. All these are important underpinnings for the endeavor to build a community with a shared future for mankind. China has actively facilitated the political settlement of hotspot issues such as the Ukraine crisis and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, making China’s contributions to restoring peace and saving lives.

Over the past year, the vision of building a community with a shared future for mankind has been supported and echoed by a growing number of countries worldwide. The vision has become a grand cause galvanizing extensive, joint efforts from various parties. China and Brazil have announced efforts to build a China-Brazil community with a shared future for a more just world and a more sustainable planet, an example of how major emerging countries shoulder their responsibilities. China and Serbia have launched efforts to build a China-Serbia community with a shared future in the new era, the first of its kind between China and a European country. Globally, more countries are joining forces to build a community with a shared future. Notably, China and all African countries with which it has diplomatic relations have agreed to build an all-weather China-Africa community with a shared future for the new era, reflecting the shared desire of over 2.8 billion people in China and Africa to stand shoulder to shoulder through thick and thin. For eight years running, the vision of building a community with a shared future for mankind has been incorporated in UNGA resolutions. The core tenets of this vision has been included in the U.N.’s Pact for the Future. The vision has increasingly become a signature global public good for all countries to share.