Book inspires scholar's journey into China's diplomacy

After reading Xi Jinping: The Governance of China, I realized my life would change forever. Once I understood that a true global vision — one that seeks to incorporate all of humanity — had been introduced to international relations, there was no way I wouldn't want to be part of it.

As a scholar of international relations, I didn't want to learn about China through the eyes and ears of others. I wanted my opinion to be based on my own perceived reality rather than on something I had read or heard. That's why I came to China and dedicated my academic career to the study of Chinese foreign policy.

I first encountered The Governance of China, along with books on the Belt and Road Initiative, while preparing for my doctoral qualifying exam. My research focuses on the Global Civilization Initiative (GCI), which required me to become deeply familiar with China's governance, its diplomatic initiatives, and the lexicon used by Chinese leaders.

Unlike many students who study Chinese before arriving in China for academic specialization, I came nearly three years ago without speaking a word of the language. So, I began by reading these books in English, and then I did a comparative analysis of the same texts in Chinese, extracted key words and concepts, and built my own dictionary of terms important for my research. It took a lot of time and effort, but I believe it was necessary: without understanding the meaning embedded in these Chinese concepts, it is impossible to fully grasp China's policies.

It was during this process that I realized many Chinese diplomatic concepts lose part of their essence when translated into English. For example, the term minxinxiangtong is often rendered as "people-to-people connectivity". But when you consider the individual characters, it might be better understood as "people's hearts communicating" or "being interlinked". This deeper meaning reflects a distinctive feature of China's diplomacy under the GCI, as well as the broader vision of building a community with a shared future for humanity.

On a personal level, as someone with a diverse cultural background who has lived around the world, I feel especially drawn to this idea.

One passage in the volumes captures this powerfully: "With a strong sense of our responsibility for the future of all humanity, we need to champion common human values, foster broad-minded understanding of the values of other civilizations, and respect the choice of every nation for its pathway to realizing its values." It suggests that China understands the importance of self-determination, while also encouraging humanity to unite around common principles to face shared challenges. I believe this is a perspective we could all embrace.

One of the themes that stood out to me in the book is the protection of the Earth for sustainable development, also called building an "ecological civilization". As someone acutely aware of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), I once assumed that actions like recycling and transitioning to green energy would be enough. But after living in China, researching the meaning of sustainable development, and engaging in in-depth discussions about how humanity can coexist in harmony with the environment, I came to realize that China has taken sustainability efforts to new levels in its pursuit of this ecological civilization.

I have recently joined the Tsinghua-Nike Sustainability Fellowship, a program dedicated to shaping young leaders who will carry forward the mission of sustainable development. Through lectures on low-carbon transformation strategies, talent development and career planning in the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) field, and even sustainability challenges within the fashion industry, we are gaining a deeper understanding of what sustainable progress truly requires. We also attend seminars and events that enrich our knowledge of how best to implement the SDGs in practice.

To me, this reflects the kind of mindset and training needed to build an ecological civilization and to better understand the steps we can take to live in harmony with nature.

Rather than simply offering enlightenment, I would say The Governance of China gives me hope: hope that there is a society, a country, and a leadership willing to put forward a global vision that recognizes humanity as one, united in facing challenges unseen in a century.

Written by Jood Ghazwan Sharaf, a Bulgarian scholar who is currently a PhD candidate at the department of international relations at Tsinghua University. Her research focuses on China's diplomacy and global governance initiatives.