Getting the world together: China's diplomatic contribution in retrospective

Editor's note: Gao Lei, a special commentator for CGTN, is an associate professor at the Center for Xi Jinping Thoughts on Opening-up, Research Institute of Globalization and China's Modernization, University of International Business and Economics. Gao Yuxiang, is a graduate student at the School of Marxism, University of International Business & Economics. Xia Lu, a special commentator for CGTN, is an associate professor at the National Academy for Development and Strategy, the Academy of Xi Jinping Thoughts on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, Renmin University of China. The article reflects the authors' opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

The world just bid farewell to 2023. But just the flipping of the calendar doesn't mean the world is ushering in a brand new page. The global economic recovery has remained weak, armed conflicts are still going on, the humanitarian crisis has not been well resolved, let alone security risks, such as food, energy, and ecology, which have exerted colossal and long-term impacts upon people's livelihoods almost everywhere. Also in this year, there has been very fierce discussion and debate about the future and destiny of mankind. The specter of uncertainty and unpredictability has been haunting the world, which is why the global community must join forces to solve global challenges.

China will continue to work with other countries to shoulder the responsibilities of the times, and respond to challenges with a broader vision and more positive actions to advance the world toward a better and brighter future, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said at a seminar on January 9, as he reviewed the accomplishments China made in diplomacy in the previous year and reaffirmed the mission for 2024 that was set by the Central Conference on Work Relating to Foreign Affairs.

The world in trouble and the reasons

Security is a prerequisite of development and other things. The year 2023 witnessed a frequent occurrence of geopolitical security issues. The fact that multiple contradictions have become prominent and regional conflicts have continued, combined with old grudges and new grudges being intertwined with each other, has made peace and stability a top priority and one of the scarcest resources. According to the annual report by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a London-based world-leading authority on global security, political risk and military conflict, there were as many as 183 regional and local conflicts in the world in 2023, the highest in nearly three decades.

Development is a global challenge facing all members of the international community. Unfortunately, 2023 did not observe a strong recovery or rapid growth. According to the analysis of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the annual economic growth rate of 2023 was only about 2.9 percent, way lower and slower than was expected. Various impacts, such as geopolitics, fierce competition among great powers, regional conflicts, fragmentation of trade and supply chains, natural disasters, and climate change, upon global development have become more and more obvious, and factors such as deglobalization, trade protectionism, politicization of energy, and famine have formed multiple constraints on growth.

Global governance is supposed to be a golden key to the solutions of the above mentioned problems, but the lack of good governance has become the problem itself. Generally speaking, at the present time, there is a serious disequilibrium in the global governance system. On the one hand, to overcome the growing deficit in global governance in all respects there are calls for more global public goods by creating a broad consensus and overcoming the dilemma of collective action. However, on the other hand, the existing global governance system is now in difficulties in terms of providing "public" goods, since certain countries just want themselves to be good "in private."

The way-out and China's contribution

Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who unfortunately passed away in 2023 at the age of 100, once said that statesmen should have their own "philosophy of diplomacy" instead of just treating diplomacy as an "administrative matter." In order to answer the question of the world and the question of the era, Chinese leadership has put forward its own "philosophy of diplomacy," a new thinking of global governance with related effective solutions in the past decade.

One of the key components of this philosophy is the concept and idea of building a community with a shared future for mankind, proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is also the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), 11 years ago in Moscow, which has already become a distinguished feature of China's diplomacy and international strategy in the new era. Over the past 11 years, this idea has expanded from a Chinese initiative to an international consensus, from a beautiful vision to a rich practice, and from a concept to an effective system, becoming a glorious banner leading the progress of the times.

More recently, from proposing the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, and the Global Civilization Initiative, to advocating the common values of all mankind, at a time when the world is plagued by various challenges, the Chinese leadership has persistently provided systematic global public goods, which have conformed to the aspirations and expectations of all the members of the international community for peaceful development, fairness, justice and win-win cooperation and have become an important support for promoting the building of a community with a shared future for mankind under the new situation.

In addition, 2023 also marks the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Over the past decade, the Belt and Road Initiative has brought tangible benefits to more than 150 countries and related peoples around the world. At the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, President Xi Jinping solemnly announced that China would launch eight specific actions to support high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, pointing out that the BRI adheres to extensive consultation, joint construction and sharing, crosses differences in different civilizations, cultures, social systems and development stages, opens up new paths for exchanges between countries, builds a new framework for international cooperation, and brings together the greatest common elements of global common development.

Last but not the least, global warming is one of the major challenges facing mankind at the present time, and it is related to the future survival and development of mankind. As a major contributor to global biodiversity and global climate protection, China has not only made solid commitments but also taken concrete actions to address climate change. The Chinese leadership has fully realized that to address and to solve global risks and challenges such as climate change requires an effective global governance system, which has been and will be the goal of China's diplomacy.

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