Editor's note: March 2023 marks the 10th anniversary when the concept of "Community with a Shared Future for Mankind" was first introduced by China. To commemorate this occasion, CGTN is working with the Institute for a Community with Shared Future from Communication University of China, to invite researchers specialized in the field from around the world to contribute their visions. Anibal Carlos Zottele is the director of the Research Center for a Community with Shared Future in Mexico and director of the China-Veracruz Studies Center of the Universidad Veracruzana. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

Since the beginning of this century, the links among China, Latin America and the Caribbean have grown in cultural, economic and academic activities. The main actors of our respectives societies have advanced in reciprocal knowledge. Today it is possible to affirm that from both sides of the Pacific, there is a critical mass capable of creatively establishing and sustaining new cooperation mechanisms and friendship ties.

The world system presents challenges, among other issues, regarding the protection of the environment, the fight against racial, cultural and gender discrimination, and the reduction of poverty. The covert mechanisms of protectionism exercised by the hegemonic countries try to relocate activities of a diverse nature and displace the principles of optimization and competitiveness by other criteria that seek to preserve that predominance. 

Despite this, China and Latin America and the Caribbean, particularly China and Mexico, are advancing in the development of exchanges in all aspects, including in this case the strengthening of the already consolidated Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, and the extraordinary contributions that both nations have made in international organizations, as is the case of the speeches that President Xi Jinping and President Andrés Manuel López Obrador agreed to in the framework of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) summits.

China and Mexico have also realized about how the Community with a Shared Future must face armed conflicts, systems of commercial retaliation, or another nature, advocating the need for any of these situations to be resolved within the framework of dialogue and especially of the institutions that govern the international system of relations. As can be observed, the affinities between the two nations involve elements of a historical, commercial, cultural and social order that are expressed in a greater mutual understanding. For a deeper understanding of them, the intercultural skills of those who are part of this exchange are essential.

Intercultural competence is related to the skills that individuals must possess to develop effective communication, understood as the set of interactions between people of different cultural origins; as a process of exchange, negotiation and mediation of differences. This conception can strengthen ties between Mexico and China and represents a great challenge for academic organizations, particularly universities, which must facilitate access to understanding so that cultural differences do not become artificial barriers to the common interests that China and Mexico share between their respective societies.

MSMEs under the Community with a Shared Future

Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) are for all developing economies a fundamental instrument for the generation of employment, the spatial distribution of income, and the development of trade and the digital economy.

From this perspective and within the framework of the responsibility of the academic sector with the aforementioned intercultural competencies, the China-Veracruz Studies Center of Universidad Veracruzana, since 2009, developed a diploma course called: Culture and business in China, in that country. This diploma convened dozens of micro, small and medium-sized entrepreneurs to establish agreements between companies, in terms of international trade, investment settlement and project financing. They were valuable experiences for other participating sectors, especially for students and academics who had the opportunity to interact in business rounds, in the preparation of documents, and to participate in the teaching of courses by specialists in aspects related to history, economy and business culture in China.

During the early years, the headquarters were located in the city of Beijing, then in the city of Shanghai and the city of Changzhou, Jiangsu province. And due to agreements established with the Chinese public and private institutions, the visiting businesspeople also made visits to other places in China. After the suspension of face-to-face meetings due to COVID-19, this important experience will be resumed in October 2023, in which it is expected to have qualified specialists and move forward with the MSMEs of the two countries towards a Community with a Shared Future.

Therefore, concerning the fulfillment of the objectives set through cooperation, there is a greater need for greater knowledge between regions, and demand for greater mutual understanding of cultural differences, which allow boosting the development of agreements, the collaboration between governments, and contacts between companies and various institutions. There is still a long way to go and in this common future, the growing participation of MSMEs stands out.

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