Editor's note: March 2023 marks the 10th anniversary when the concept of "a community with a shared future for mankind" was first introduced by China. To celebrate 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. Qian Feng is a senior research fellow at the National Strategic Institute, Tsinghua University and Taihe Institute. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily those of CGTN.

Part 14 of the report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, which expounded the concept of "community with a shared future," stressed that "China has always been committed to its foreign policy goals of upholding world peace and promoting common development, and it is dedicated to promoting a human community with a shared future."

This concept was first proposed by President Xi Jinping in his speech at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations in 2013. Over the past decade, this idea has become increasingly inspiring. In the face of the current century of changes and the impact of the pandemic, more and more people deeply realize that the fate of each country is closely linked, no country can cope with the challenges facing humans alone, and no country can return to an isolated island. To solve the dilemma, people must carry out global cooperation, and move toward the goal of building a community with a shared future for mankind.

President Xi has explained the rich connotation of the concept on a series of major international occasions. He proposed building an open, inclusive, clean and beautiful world with lasting peace, universal security, and common prosperity, and promoting a new type of international relations featuring mutual respect, fairness, justice, and win-win cooperation.

The concept of a community with a shared future for mankind contains Chinese wisdom. It is also the innovative development of the spirit of the "Datong," or the Great Unity, widely praised as "a key to development provided by China for the global village." Building a community with a shared future for mankind and the Belt and Road Initiative represent China's plan for globalization and global governance.

China has been an advocate of this concept. At the bilateral level, China along with Pakistan, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and other countries are jointly building a community with a shared future in different forms.

At the regional level, steady progress has been made in building a community with a shared future among neighboring countries in the Asia-Pacific, between China and Africa, China and the Arab world, and China and Latin America.

At the global level, a community with a shared future, including in cyberspace, nuclear security and oceans, has emerged. The concept has been written into resolutions or declarations of the United Nations, BRICS and other international organizations.

China has also been a practitioner and leader in building a community with a shared future for mankind. Due to geographical, historical and cultural differences, there are bound to be many differences and disputes between countries, which is the reality of the world, but the key is how to view, deal with and solve these problems. History has proved time and again that confrontation will not solve problems, but will intensify conflicts and lead to the loss of both sides.

To the delight of the world, on March 10, China, Saudi Arabia and Iran issued a joint statement in Beijing, announcing that Saudi Arabia and Iran had reached an agreement to restore diplomatic relations and clarified their path to improving relations.

Saudi Arabia reached a settlement with Iran, ended seven years of hostility and decades of political opposition, which some called "the reconciliation of the century," and got high appraisal from the world, especially from the Middle East countries. Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari even sighed with relief, "The world hasn't heard such good news for a long time." 

Different from the way that some major powers in the world "pit one against another" in dealing with regional issues, China has promoted the reconciliation between Saudi Arabia and Iran as  a new model of constructive mediation by major powers.

It can be said that this is a successful practice of the concept of building a community with a shared future for mankind. Especially when the world is shrouded by the cloud of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the restoration of the relationship between Saudi Arabia and Iran and the further easing of the tension in the Middle East not only add a silver lining to the international security situation but add confidence to the human society.

At the crossroads of history, countries in the world need to make a choice whether to uphold the principle of shared destiny, conduct dialogue and cooperation, pursue mutual benefit and pursue win-win results, or to uphold the zero-sum Cold War mentality and promote the world of division and confrontation, and ultimately lose-lose. Building a community with a shared future for mankind is China's plan to meet the voice of the international community and address world peace and development.

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