China-led initiatives gain momentum

A range of far-reaching solutions that have been offered by China to the world — such as building a community with a shared future for mankind — are pooling momentum and leading nations' efforts in advancing reform and development of the global governance system, leaders, officials and experts said.

They made the point as a number of leaders of foreign countries have recently, on a number of occasions, expressed support for these initiatives proposed by President Xi Jinping.

Hungarian President Tamas Sulyok said in a meeting with Xi in May that the three global initiatives proposed by Xi in recent years — the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative and the Global Civilization Initiative, "advocate enhancing international dialogue and cooperation, which is crucial for solving the various challenges currently facing the world and preventing bloc confrontation".

Charlot Salwai, prime minister of the Republic of Vanuatu, also highlighted the three global initiatives, as well as the vision of building a community with a shared future, in his talks with Xi in Beijing on Friday.

These "are of great significance to upholding international justice and promoting common development", a Foreign Ministry statement quoted him as saying.

As part of the fruitful results yielded in advancing the China-proposed global initiatives, more than 150 countries and over 30 international organizations had signed more than 200 Belt and Road cooperation documents as of last month. Over 80 countries have joined the Group of Friends of the GDI, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said last month.

In a signed article published in the latest edition of Qiushi Journal, the flagship magazine of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, Foreign Minister Wang Yi took stock of the progress achieved by China in advancing its flagship initiatives and visions.

The building of a community with a shared future has engaged dozens of countries and regions and "has covered domains such as health, nature, cyberspace and oceans", he noted.

As this year marks the 70th anniversary of China proposing the landmark Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, Wang said China will build on the spirit of the five principles and further advance mutual respect, common security, openness and cooperation, inclusiveness, justice and teamwork with other members of the Global South.

In May, China and Equatorial Guinea issued a joint statement on the establishment of a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership.

In the statement, the African nation spoke highly of the BRI and the three global initiatives, and it said that it appreciated China's efforts in strengthening the rights of developing countries in global governance in the fields of artificial intelligence, networks and data.

Ichiro Inoue, a professor at the Graduate School of Policy Studies of Japan's Kwansei Gakuin University, said the three global initiatives "can be seen as efforts to give substance "to the concept of a community with a shared future for mankind.

"There does not appear to be any significant change in China's foreign policy approach in the near term," he wrote in a recent article. "The reality is that there is no other country capable of demonstrating economic presence in many Global South nations in place of China."

Gao Fei, vice-president and a professor at China Foreign Affairs University, noted that over the course of the past 40 years, China has achieved prosperity for itself and benefited the world through its opening-up.

"Today, China is a major trading partner of more than 140 countries and regions, and the BRI has become one of the broadest and largest international cooperation platforms in the world," he said.

By further deepening its reforms and expanding opening-up in the new era, "China will surely make greater contributions to the building of a community with a shared future through carrying forward its own development", he added.

Officials and policy experts also expressed their hopes about nations working more closely with China to roll out a series of key agendas later this year and in the longer run, while advancing the global initiatives proposed by China.

Andrei Kortunov, director-general of the Russian International Affairs Council, said that China has a key influence in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. China assumed the rotating chairmanship of the SCO earlier this month.

Kortunov added that "the three major global initiatives put forward by the Chinese leadership will help navigate the SCO's continuous growth as it moves forward".

In September, Beijing will host the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation summit, a major event on the China-Africa cooperation agenda.

Under the guidance of the three global initiatives put forward by Xi, the attending leaders will "focus on development and security issues of common concern to both sides, and cooperate in the three key areas of industrialization, agricultural modernization and talent cultivation", said Wang Xining, China's ambassador to Chad.

The two sides will look at "new ideas and measures to promote the quality and upgrading of China-Africa cooperation and build a higher-level China-Africa community with a shared future", Wang said in a recent article.

zhangyunbi@chinadaily.com.cn