Five years on, Xiplomacy is reshaping China's global role for a better world

BEIJING - Over the past five years, Chinese President Xi Jinping has visited 57 countries and received more than 110 foreign heads of state.

Through his travels and diplomatic meetings, Xi has helped deepen the world's understanding of a rising China, reshaped the Asian country's new role on the world stage and offered new ways forward in tackling the most pressing global problems.

GROWING INTERNATIONAL INFLUENCE

US think tank Atlantic Council released a report "Power and Influence in a Globalized World" in February, which shows China's impressive upward trajectory and increasing global influence in recent years.

China is undergoing a very critical transformation, that is, from "seizing opportunities" to "creating opportunities," said Zheng Yongnian, director of the East Asian Institute of the National University of Singapore.

Also, more observers worldwide agree that China is taking an active part in improving the current system of global governance, and "Xiplomacy" continues to deliver results and gain a broader international consensus.

For example, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), a China-initiated 84-member platform to support regional development, has funded projects that benefit tens of millions of people in the past two years. The AIIB embodies China's development philosophy and showcases China's spirit of the time, said AIIB President Jin Liqun.

In October 2016, The International Monetary Fund included the Chinese currency in its Special Drawing Right (SDR) basket, making the yuan one of the five reserve currencies fully endorsed by the 189-member organization. In January the same year, China had become the third largest member in the organization.

Last May, Xi hosted the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing, which attracted over 1,600 representatives from more than 140 countries and 80-plus international organizations. This ushered in a new stage of promoting worldwide cooperation for the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative. Xiplomacy has impacted all corners of the globe.

CONTRIBUTING TO GLOBAL GOVERNANCE

As the world faces the rising tide of anti-globalization and protectionism, as well as a worsening global climate situation, China has sought to provide alternative solutions for addressing these problems with an emphasis on equality, fairness and inclusiveness when working with other nations.

In January 2017, Xi delivered two landmark speeches in Switzerland, at the United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG), and the World Economic Forum (WEF) held in Davos, respectively, outlining his ideas for tackling major world challenges and China's proposal for a global community with a shared future.

Xi's Davos speech is an important turning point for China's relations with the world, said Klaus Schwab, WEF founder and chief executive.

"The world is so big and faces so many problems, and the international community wants to hear China's voice and see China's solutions," Xi said. "China cannot be absent."

Against the backdrop of a wobbly economic recovery around the globe, China's contribution to global economic growth has exceeded 30 percent in the past five years. This despite a slower economic growth rate in the country over the past few years.

In helping to settle various flashpoints in different parts of the world, China follows its own distinct approach, one that is peaceful and constructive and rooted in justice.

Amid growing concerns over isolationism and protectionism, China has held a steady commitment to the Paris Agreement on climate change, promoted multilateral trade, and supported the goals of the United Nations (UN). "Indeed, China is a central pillar of multilateralism," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said when he addressed the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing.

In September 2015, Xi announced the creation of the Institute of South-South Cooperation and Development during a high-level roundtable of developing countries on the sidelines of the 70th Anniversary Celebration of the United Nations.

Today, the institute is frequented by leaders and elites of several developing countries in search of ideas to promote development in their own countries.

GLOBAL VISION, GLOBAL PRAISE

At the just-concluded annual session of the 13th National People's Congress, the national legislature, Chinese lawmakers approved a draft amendment to write the notion of building "a community with a shared future for "mankind" into the country's Constitution.

The vision, together with China's proposal of building "a new type of international relations," represents the country's efforts to search for for the answer to a simple question: What kind of future does humanity wish to create?

"China's proposition is to build a community with a shared future for mankind and achieve shared and win-win development," Xi said in his UNOG speech last January.

Over the past few years since it was first introduced to the international community in 2013, the concept of a community with a shared future has gained growing recognition around the world. It was incorporated into a UN resolution in February last year, and has also been adopted by the UN Security Council, the Human Rights Council and the First Committee of the UN General Assembly.

Alexander Lomanov, chief researcher of the Institute of Far Eastern Studies at Russia Academy of Science, said the China-proposed vision, which abandons the mentality of ideological and geopolitical confrontations, has received worldwide recognition.

"China is marching towards its perception of its global destiny," former Australia Prime Minister Kevin Rudd once said.

As China's major channel towards realizing the notion of building a community with a shared future for mankind, the Belt and Road Initiative, proposed by Xi in 2013, has offered the world a new vision to promote common prosperity. To date, more than 140 countries have participated in or responded to the initiative.

The Belt and Road Initiative is "the best public goods" that China offers the world, said Bambang Suryono, chairman of the Asia Innovation Study Center in Indonesia. It also embodies a bit of Chinese wisdom: harmony and co-existence, he added.