How China is empowering the current global governance system

Editor's Note: In 2025, as the United Nations marks its 80th anniversary, CGTN presents "Reshaping Global Governance." This special series highlights China's active role in shaping and improving global governance, its responsibilities as a UN founding member and Security Council permanent member, and its steadfast commitment to supporting the UN while advancing toward a community with a shared future for humanity.

As the United Nations turns 80 this year, the global order it was built to uphold is showing signs of strain: Multilateralism is fraying, protectionism is on the rise, and conflicts from Eastern Europe to the Middle East have exposed the limits of international cooperation. Responding to the uncertain landscape, China has stepped forward with a suite of four initiatives – ranging from development and security to civilization and governance – that together amount to China's bid to improve the current global governance system.

The most recent proposal put forward by China is the Global Governance Initiative (GGI), announced at the SCO+ summit in September. The proposal is guided by five key principles: adhering to sovereign equality, abiding by international rule of law, practicing multilateralism, advocating the people-centered approach, and focusing on taking real actions. The Chinese Foreign Ministry stated that the initiative aligns closely with the UN Charter and seeks to reform, not replace, the current system, aiming to make it more responsive to today's challenges.

As a permanent UN Security Council member and the largest developing country, China has long been a builder of world peace, a driver of global development and a defender of international order. Before putting forward the GGI, China had already introduced the Global Development Initiative (GDI) in 2021, the Global Security Initiative (GSI) in 2022 and the Global Civilization Initiative (GCI) in 2023. Together with the GGI, these four proposals form an interconnected and mutually reinforcing framework, underpinning China's broader vision of building a community with a shared future for humanity.

Four initiatives, one vision

The GDI targets urgent challenges such as poverty reduction, food security, industrialization, green growth and digital transformation. Rather than limiting itself to grand infrastructure projects, it emphasizes policy coordination, knowledge sharing and capacity building.

The initiative has delivered concrete results: The China–Pakistan Economic Corridor has become a lifeline for Pakistan's economy. The Laos–China Railway has turned the landlocked Southeast Asian nation into a land-linked hub. Kenya's Mombasa–Nairobi Railway boosted the country's GDP growth by more than two percent, while in Malawi, 600 Chinese-built water wells provide clean water to around 150,000 people.

The initiative also extends into agriculture and education. In Madagascar, China set up a research center of Chinese hybrid rice, and the cultivation area now covers over 50,000 hectares, helping the country move closer to food self-sufficiency. "Luban Workshops" in Central Asia train youth in technical skills, while renewable energy projects in Kazakhstan and Bosnia are not only reshaping local energy structures but also creating jobs and reducing emissions.

If development is the foundation, China believes that security is the guarantee. The GSI puts forward a vision of "common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security." It rejects zero-sum thinking, instead urging countries to resolve disputes through dialogue and to pursue shared security.

From mediating the reconciliation between Saudi Arabia and Iran to launching a "Friends of Peace" group aiming to resolve the Ukraine crisis; from supporting the UN Security Council in adopting its first Gaza ceasefire resolution to brokering a pact between Palestinian factions agreeing to end divisions – China has consistently pushed for dialogue and political solutions to hotspot issues around the world.

China is also the only country to enshrine a commitment to peaceful development in its constitution, and the only nuclear-armed state to pledge no-first-use of nuclear weapons and has signed more than 20 multilateral arms control and disarmament treaties. Among permanent members of the UN Security Council, China also contributes the largest number of peacekeepers, making its Blue Helmets a visible symbol of Chinese engagement in global security.

The GCI stresses respect for diversity and dialogue among different cultures, as China believes that cultural understanding can help bridge political divides.

China has pursued this through diplomacy and people-to-people exchanges. The Asian Civilization Dialogue Conference and the CPC in Dialogue with World Political Parties have expanded channels for cultural and political interaction. On the people-to-people level, China has forged over 3,000 sister-city relationships worldwide, held various cultural activities to demonstrate Chinese culture to global audience and helped build theaters, museums, libraries and galleries along the Belt and Road countries, while cooperating with UNESCO to boost cultural heritage protection.

China sees these activities not only as cultural diplomacy but as part of a broader strategy: leveraging mutual learning and respect for diversity as stabilizing forces in an era of evolving global dynamics.

Together, China's four initiatives form a cornerstone of its vision to build a community with a shared future for humanity and these initiatives have steadily gained international recognition.

King Felipe VI of Spain said China's concept of building a community with a shared future for humanity brings "peace, development and hope" to the world. Vanuatu's Prime Minister Charlot Salwai noted that China-proposed global initiatives play a crucial role in promoting international fairness and common development. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also emphasized that the purpose of practicing multilateralism is to build such a community.

Read more: Why the Global Governance Initiative is timely and necessary