by: Ms. Maryam Raza
The year 2021 brought landmark achievements with immense economic development, new initiatives, and progress for China. Throughout, the year the resilient Chinese nation has worked hard and achieved the desired targets. Now, the Chinese new lunar year (the year of Tiger) again brings many opportunities and victories for the country. The year of the Tiger represents the strength, courage, and bravery of China. The Chinese leadership has already planned a new voyage of building a modern socialist state in all dimensions for 2022. For global cooperation, peace, and a shared future, President Xi Jinping has been advocating a vision of common, cooperative, comprehensive and sustainable security.
The vision of human beings as a community of shared futures has been codified as an integral part of President Xi’s Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for the New Era. The grand narrative has become more than a new foreign policy doctrine. It reflects an intellectually coherent analysis by the Chinese leadership of global affairs and represents China’s latest attempt to answer the most fundamental question as to where humanity is heading in times of greater economic interdependence and growing political divergences. China’s vision is based on three pillars, i.e., cooperative security, common development, and political inclusiveness.
Here, it is important to highlight the significance of the masterpiece “On Building a Community with Shared Future”. The book is a collection of translations of 85 articles and speeches
written by President Xi since 2012. The book was compiled and published by ‘The Institute of Party History and Literature of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China’ in March 2019. The book helped the readers gain a clearer understanding of President Xi’s thinking on building a human community with a shared future. The book under review depicts China’s future aspirations and achievements. By a profound analysis of the book, it is clear that China aspires to provide opportunities to the world. The future promises brighter prospects than ever before, though the road ahead will not be smooth. Thus, it is highly significant to tackle common threats with a shared forward-looking spirit.
China’s Vision for a Sovereign Equality-based World:
Chinese programs of integration have paved the way for promoting innovative, coordinated, green, and open development that is for everyone. In this aspect, bridging gaps in development and fostering shared prosperity is crucial to achieving set targets. Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the pioneer of China’s Democratic Revolution, once stated, “The tide of history is mighty. Follow it and prosper; resist it and perish.” Looking back on the history of the world, we can see that all those who engaged in acts of aggression or sought expansion, in the end, met with failure. This is the law of history.
A prosperous and stable world provides China with opportunities, and sustainable development offers opportunities for the world. The new way forward lies in equality, mutual learning, dialogue, and inclusiveness between civilizations. Cultural understandings and peaceful coexistence are the key characteristics of global cooperation. The visionary leadership under President Xi, has provided the principle of shared growth through discussion and collaboration vis-à-vis reforms and an improved global governance system.
To understand the international situation, one needs to have a correct view of history, the overall picture, and China’s role at the international level. Having a correct view of history means that one should not only observe the international situation as it stands currently but also look back to the past to summarize history’s laws, and identify the trends of future. Having a correct view of the overall picture means we should not only pay attention to phenomena and the finer details but also have an understanding of the essential nature and overarching situation.
In this regard, there is a dire need to identify the principal contradictions and the primary facets of these contradictions so that, amid a complex and volatile international situation, states do not lose their way or become bogged down in the details at the expense of the essentials. In terms of having a correct outlook on China’s role, major developments in international relations and evolving regional landscape can be observed. Thanks to the robust economic model of President Xi, many third-world and developing countries have revived their economy and now heading in a positive direction.
At present, China is in its best period of development in modern times, while the world is undergoing the most profound and unprecedented changes in a century. Thus, by analyzing in-depth the laws that govern the international environment, one can correctly understand the basic features of China’s historical juncture and future aspirations for global cooperation.
