President Xi Jinping has proposed three global initiatives: the Global Development Initiative (GDI), the Global Security Initiative (GSI), and the Global Civilization Initiative (GCI), providing a Chinese solution to the reform of the global governance system and architecture. The three global initiatives hold significant importance for advancing Chinese modernization, shaping a new type of international relations, and building a community with a shared future for mankind in the new era.

Since the beginning of the 21st century, particularly over the past decade, the theme of the times has undergone profound changes. The world is changing, so are the times and history. Geopolitical conflicts, especially competition among major powers, are unfolding at a fast pace. A new cold war looms large, where countries are taking sides and enter into alliances. The spread of the pandemic and the rise of unilateralism have severely impacted the industrial and supply chains. Extreme weather events, especially natural disasters, have become increasingly frequent. Countries are confronted with challenges, including, among others, soaring prices of energy, raw materials and other commodities globally, intensifying inflation in developed economies and potential energy and food crises. As described at the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), momentous changes of a like not seen in a century are accelerating, our world, our times and history are changing in ways like never before. The deficit in peace, development, security and governance is growing. All of this is posing unprecedented challenges for human society. The world has once again reached a crossroads in history. “What kind of a world to build and how to build it” has become a major issue concerning the future of mankind.

The GDI offers a remedy for development deficit. It is grounded in the commitment to development as a priority, a people-centered approach, benefits for all, innovation-driven development, harmony between man and nature, and results-oriented actions. The GDI aligns with the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development on the imperative of global development governance transition, expands the new development philosophy, and adds a development dimension to the community with a shared future for mankind. It provides a clear response to the important theoretical and practical question of “what type of development the world will achieve and how to achieve it”. It is an embodiment of President Xi Jinping’s profound insight into the defining features of the new development stage of the world and the laws governing the development of human society, and represents China’s vision for international development.

Tackling peace and security deficits requires the GSI. There is a growing consensus among nations that the world needs peace and security, which is not only the premise of development and the basic condition for national prosperity and stability, but also an international public good indispensable to improved global governance. The GSI explains the core concepts and principles of advancing global security and peace, and defines 20 priorities of cooperation and five platforms and mechanisms of cooperation. It answers the question of the times: “What kind of security concept the world should embrace and how countries can achieve common security”. It contributes China’s wisdom to addressing peace deficit, and provides China’s solution to international and regional security challenges.

The GCI underscores the importance of respecting the diversity of civilizations and building a community with a shared future for mankind, and promotes equality, mutual learning, dialogue and inclusiveness among civilizations. In essence, the GCI advocates respect for the diversity of civilizations and the common values of humanity, including peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy and freedom, the importance of inheritance and innovation of civilizations, as well as robust international people-to-people exchanges and cooperation. The GCI answers the question of our era: “What kind of civilizational concept the world needs and how nations can learn from each other”, and lays the foundation for human development and security. The GCI is dedicated to facilitating the exchange and mutual learning between civilizations, and stands for the diversity, commonality, development and inclusiveness of civilizations. At the same time, it addresses four fundamental questions, namely, why we need to learn from each other, why we can do so, what we learn from each other, and how to achieve it.

The GDI, GSI and GCI are complementary and provide solid support in the three dimensions of development, security and civilization for building a community with a shared future for mankind. Development forms the material basis for security and civilization, security serves the prerequisite for development and civilization, and civilization provides the cultural sustainability for development and security.

The GDI underscores that a community with a shared future for mankind must be grounded in a solid foundation. It will deliver a powerful boost to economic globalization, which is the prevailing trend of world economic development and conforms to the aspiration of people worldwide for development and cooperation. A community with a shared future for mankind must be constructed through a new paradigm of economic globalization, with all countries committed to openness and opposed to protectionism, ‘erecting walls and barriers’, unilateral sanctions, and application of extreme pressure. Countries should pursue economic interaction and integration and jointly build an open world economy. Hence, it is an imperative for all countries to establish a fair, reasonable and transparent system of international economic and trade rules, promote liberalization and facilitation of trade and investment, promote further openness, exchange and integration in the global economy, and advance economic globalization in a way that is open, inclusive, beneficial to all, balanced and win-win, so that people of all countries can share the fruits of economic globalization and world economic growth. The GDI aligns with the trend of scientific and technological revolution, which represented by artificial intelligence, will have an immense and profound impact on the new round of economic globalization and human society development. Rules and standards must be developed to drive innovation in science and technology and uphold the bottom line of human security. It is also crucial to accommodate the interests of all countries, with a particular focus on developing countries, and guarantee that technological innovation operates on the basis of the rule of law and widely recognized international norms. Innovation must be driven by the people, serve the people and conforms to human values.

The GSI emphasizes that a community with a shared future for mankind must be built in a peaceful environment and that world security is paramount. The purpose is to work with the international community to carry forward the spirit of the Charter of the United Nations, call on countries to adapt to the profoundly changing international landscape in the spirit of solidarity, address traditional and non-traditional security challenges with a win-win mindset, and embark on a new security path featuring dialogue over confrontation, partnership over alliance, and win-win cooperation over zero sum game. History tells us that for a country to develop and prosper, it must keep pace with the underlying trend of world development, otherwise it will be abandoned by history. Peace, development, win-win cooperation is the trend of today’s world. The old path of colonialism and hegemony will lead nowhere but to an abyss. Peaceful development is the only right way forward. The GSI stands against hegemony, the law of jungle, the winner-takes-all approach, zero-sum mentality and various forms of power politics, and rejects interference in other countries’ internal affairs, hegemony or expansion. This guides China’s policy formulation, system design, as well as practical action.

The GCI provides the cultural sustainability for a community with a shared future for mankind. It advocates respect for the diversity of civilizations, the common values of humanity, the importance of inheritance and innovation of civilizations, and robust international people-to-people exchanges and cooperation. The GCI is a genuine call for the world to enhance inter-civilization exchange and dialogue and advance human civilization in an inclusive way and through mutual learning. It points the way forward for promoting exchange and mutual learning among civilizations and the progress of human civilization. The GCI not only fully respects the diversity of civilizations, but also seeks the greatest common interests among them. It is important to carry forward civilizations while learning from the past, work together to build a global network of dialogue and cooperation among civilizations, strengthen international people-to-people exchange and cooperation, and promote mutual understanding and friendship among people of all countries.

China proposed the three global initiatives and has made notable progress in implementing them.

 China has actively advanced the GDI. China hosted the High-level Dialogue on Global Development and proposed 32 major measures to implement the GDI, including setting up a Global Development and South-South Cooperation Fund with a total amount of US$4 billion, starting the China-FAO South-South Cooperation Trust Fund Phase III, and increasing input in the United Nations Peace and Development Trust Fund. The GDI has been widely echoed by the international community, with improved implementation mechanisms, result-oriented cooperation, and joint efforts made to tackle outstanding challenges such as food security, poverty alleviation and energy security. The Global Development Promotion Center has been operating effectively, with an expanding GDI Project Pool and more than 200 cooperation projects successfully implemented. China issued the Global Development Report and established the Global Knowledge Network for Development, contributing China’s wisdom to tackling development challenges. More than 100 countries and international organizations have supported the GDI, with more than 70 countries joining in the Group of Friends of the Global Development Initiative established at the United Nations. As the largest developing country and a member of the Global South, China has provided assistance to other developing countries within its means to help the recipient countries improve their development capacity. China has actively carried out international exchanges and cooperation, partnering with nearly 20 international organizations such as the World Food Programme(WFP), the United Nations Development Programme(UNDP), the UN Children’s Fund(UNICEF), the UN High Commissioner for Refugees(UNHCR), the World Health Organization(WHO) and the International Committee of the Red Cross(ICRC), and implementing more than 130 projects in nearly 60 countries including Ethiopia, Pakistan and Nigeria, with a focus on small yet smart projects to improve people’s lives, in such areas as poverty alleviation, food security, pandemic response and climate change, benefiting more than 30 million people. China has actively promoted and fully implemented the G20 Debt Service Suspension Initiative, making the most significant contribution to it and signing debt alleviation agreements or reaching consensus with 19 African countries to help alleviate debt burden on Africa.

China has actively implemented the GSI. In February 2023, China officially released the Global Security Initiative Concept Paper, which expounded the core concepts and principles of the GSI, identified the priorities of cooperation, and proposed suggestions on the platforms and mechanisms of cooperation, demonstrating China’s sense of responsibility to safeguard world peace and firm resolve to defend global security.

The GSI is an international public good, designed to serve the interests and safeguard the peace of people worldwide. To maintain world peace, China engages in negotiations and consultations with relevant countries to settle disputes on territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests. Through peaceful means, China has resolved land boundary issues with 12 of its 14 land neighbors, and completed the demarcation of the Beibu Gulf between China and Vietnam. As a permanent member of the UN Security Council, China faithfully performs its duties and missions. It is the second largest financial contributor to both the UN and its peacekeeping operations, as well as the largest contributor of peacekeepers among the permanent members of the UN Security Council. Over the past 30 years, China has dispatched more than 50,000 peacekeepers to over 20 countries and regions to participate in UN peacekeeping operations, becoming a key force in UN peacekeeping. By April 2024, China had provided 46 batches of more than 150 escort services for more than 7,200 Chinese and foreign ships in the Gulf of Aden and waters off the coast of Somali, and rescued and assisted nearly 100 ships of various types, more than half of which were foreign ships. China plays its role as a responsible major country in facilitating the resolution of geopolitical hotspot issues, including the settlement of international and regional issues such as those concerning the Korean Peninsula, Palestine, the Iranian nuclear issue, Syria and Afghanistan. In response to the Ukraine crisis, China has made active efforts to encourage peace talks, and issued China’s Position on Political Settlement of the Ukraine Crisis. The Chinese Special Representative for Eurasian Affairs has engaged in extensive contacts and exchanges with relevant parties on the political settlement of the Ukraine crisis. Thanks to China’s mediation, Saudi Arabia and Iran achieved historic reconciliation, setting an example for regional countries to resolve differences through dialogue and consultation, and achieve good-neighborliness and friendship, and leading to a wave of reconciliation in the Middle East. China is also dedicated to collaborating with all parties in non-traditional security areas, such as counter-terrorism, bio-security and food security.

China has actively implemented the GCI, demonstrating respect for the diversity of civilizations through its openness and inclusiveness. It advocates peaceful coexistence and harmony among different civilizations, with a strong emphasis on dialogue among civilizations. China has hosted significant events such as the CPC in Dialogue with World Political Parties High-Level Meeting, CPC and World Political Parties Summit, and Conference on Dialogue of Asian Civilizations, carried out bilateral and multilateral political party exchanges and cooperation activities and has promoted various forms of people’s diplomacy, sister city diplomacy, and public diplomacy. China has deepened cooperation with United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization(UNESCO) and the UN World Tourism Organization(UNWTO), with 43 projects inscribed on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List. Domestically and internationally, China has held various cultural exchange activities, including over 30 large-scale cultural and tourism years (festivals), such as the Greek Culture and Tourism Year and the Spanish Culture and Tourism Year in China. 16 multilateral exchange and cooperation mechanisms including the Meeting of BRICS Ministers of Culture and 25 bilateral cooperation mechanisms have been improved. Cultural activities such as the Arab Arts Festival and the Meet in Beijing International Arts Festival have continued to be held in China. The Happy Chinese New Year has been held consecutively for more than 20 years. Efforts have been made to promote Belt and Road cultural and tourism exchange, with the launch of the Cultural Silk Road. The Silk Road Alliance of opera houses, museums, festivals, libraries and art museums has been established. About 3,000 pairs of sister cities (provinces and states) have been established with various countries. “Hello, China!” inbound tourism promotion has been carried out. The Chengdu Universiade, Hangzhou Asian Games, and Asian Cultural Heritage Protection Alliance Conference, exemplify China’s effort to create platforms for equal-footed dialogue among civilizations and people-to-people connectivity.

The international community has spoken highly of the three global initiatives, viewing them as a reflection of China’s global vision, growing international influence, and a comprehensive  approach to addressing the challenges facing mankind.

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Zhao Ai is Executive Vice President and Secretary General of China Society of Economic Reform.