Humanity's Shared Future: Part of China's Effort

During December, China with Xi Jinping as vanguard has somewhat quietly continued promoting the vision announced ten years ago along with the BRI. Xi, China and I are all promoting the same vision, the difference being the choice of terms: China and Xi use Mankind and I use Humanity. Machine translation renders Humanity as 人性化, while Mankind is 人类 as is Human Race and also Human, while this symbol 人 is people. (Comments on these translations are welcome in the comments.) Since 人类 stands for three very interrelated terms, it’s entirely possible Xi could be saying “Human race’s shared future” or “Shared Future for Human Race.” Since China contains about 15% of humanity, Xi clearly wants to see all peoples combined into one large family and that' also transfers to his political philosophy which is based on the UN Charter’s edict that all nations big and small have the same level of equality and rights—there’re no humans being somehow more equal than others. Of course, it takes a certain level of maturity to agree with this fundamental axiom unless one is taught that axiom from birth. For most of human history, that axiom hasn’t been held up as the Truth it must be if humans are to mature as a species and overcome their shortcomings. Currently the world is witnessing several very blatant examples of the damage exceptionalism can cause that only serves to retard human advancement and denies Humanity from attaining the long-sought goal of Global Peace. Exceptionalism must be seen and declared a felonious deviance that must be irradicated from human behavior as it only serves inhumanity.

Readers here have the opportunity to read the four main global initiatives proposed by Xi Jinping if they haven’t already. But those are far from his only promotions for Humanity having a shared future. This short speech was delivered on 12 October 2021 to the Convention on Biological Diversity, “Working Together to Build a Community of All Life on Earth,” and attempts to meld the two objectives together by expressing some obvious truisms to make his points (bolded italics my emphasis):

Dear Colleagues,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Friends,

Good afternoon.

It gives me great pleasure to meet you virtually in Kunming and jointly attend the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity. On behalf of the government and people of China as well as in my own name, I wish to extend a warm welcome to all the distinguished guests.

As a Chinese saying goes, "All beings flourish when they live in harmony and receive nourishment from Nature." Biodiversity makes Earth full of vigor and vitality, and lays the foundation for human survival and development. Protecting biodiversity helps protect Earth, our common homeland, and contributes to humanity's sustainable development.

The Kunming conference, under the theme of "Ecological Civilization: Building a Shared Future for All Life on Earth", has great significance. It will work for the conclusion of the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, and identify targets and pathways for global biodiversity protection in the future. In this context, the international community must enhance cooperation, build consensus and pool strength to build a community of all life on Earth.

Man and Nature need to coexist in harmony. When we take care to protect Nature, Nature rewards us generously; when we exploit Nature ruthlessly, it punishes us without mercy. We need to have deep reverence for Nature, respect Nature, follow Nature's laws and protect Nature, so as to build a homeland of harmonious coexistence between man and Nature.

Green mountains are gold mountains and silver mountains. A sound ecology and environment is not just a natural asset, but also an economic asset, and it affects the potential and momentum of economic and social development. We need to speed up efforts to foster a green way of development and secure a win-win of economic growth and environmental protection, so as to build a homeland of coordinated advancement of economy and the environment.

The COVID-19 pandemic has cast a shadow over global development and compounded challenges to the UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Faced with the dual tasks of economic recovery and environmental protection, developing countries need help and support all the more. We need to strengthen solidarity to overcome difficulties and let people across countries benefit more and in a fairer way from development outcomes and a sound environment, so as to build a homeland of common development of all countries.

We are living in an era both fraught with challenges and full of hopes. As long as we press ahead with perseverance, a bright future will beckon. For the sake of our common future, we need to join hands and start a new journey of high-quality development for humanity.

First, we shall take the development of ecological civilization as our guide to coordinate the relationship between man and Nature. We need to solve the problems brought by industrial civilization, keep human activities within the limits of the ecology and environment, and carry out holistic conservation and systematic governance of mountains, rivers, forests, farmlands, lakes, grasslands and deserts.

Second, we shall let green transition drive our efforts to facilitate global sustainable development. We need to build a green, low-carbon and circular economic system, translate ecological strengths into development strengths, and bring out the great benefit that green mountains and clear waters can offer. We also need to step up green international cooperation and share the fruits of green development among all countries.

Third, we shall concentrate on bettering people's well-being to promote social equity and justice. We need to keep in mind the people's aspiration for a better life, pursue win-win results in environmental protection, economic development, job creation, poverty alleviation and other endeavors, and increase the sense of fulfillment, happiness and security of people in all countries.

Fourth, we shall take international law as the basis to uphold a fair and equitable international governance system. We need to practice true multilateralism, and effectively honor and implement international rules, which are not to be exploited or discarded at one's own will. The new environmental protection targets we set need to be ambitious on the one hand and pragmatic and balanced on the other, so as to make the global environmental governance system fairer and more equitable.

Colleagues,

China has made remarkable progress in building an ecological civilization. The recent story of the northward travel and return of a group of elephants in Yunnan Province in southwestern China shows the vivid results of our endeavor to protect wild animals. China will continue to advance ecological progress, stay committed to implementing the new development philosophy emphasizing innovative, coordinated, green and open development for all, and build a beautiful China.

On this occasion, I wish to announce China's initiative to establish a Kunming Biodiversity Fund and take the lead by investing 1.5 billion RMB yuan to support biodiversity protection in developing countries. China also calls for and welcomes contributions from other parties to the fund.

To strengthen biodiversity protection, China is moving faster to establish a protected areas system with national parks as the mainstay. Over time, areas with the greatest importance to the natural ecosystem, and with the most unique natural landscapes, the most valuable natural heritage and the greatest biodiversity reserve will be included in the national parks system. China has officially designated its first group of national parks that includes the Three-River-Source National Park, the Giant Panda National Park, the Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park, the Hainan Tropical Forests National Park, and the Wuyishan National Park. The protected land area is 230,000 square kilometers and they cover nearly 30 percent of the key terrestrial wildlife species found in China. In the meantime, acting by the principle of striking a balance between on-site and translocation conservation, China has started building a system of national botanical gardens in places like Beijing and Guangzhou.

To achieve its carbon peak and neutrality targets, China will release implementation plans for peaking carbon dioxide emissions in key areas and sectors as well as a series of supporting measures, and will put in place a "1+N" policy framework for carbon peak and carbon neutrality. China will continue to readjust its industrial structure and energy mix, vigorously develop renewable energy, and make faster progress in planning and developing large wind power and photovoltaic bases in sandy areas, rocky areas and deserts. The first phase of projects with an installed capacity of approximately 100 million kilowatts have recently started construction in a smooth fashion.

Colleagues,

If we humanity do not fail Nature, Nature will not fail us. Ecological civilization represents the development trend of human civilization. Let us join hands, follow the philosophy of ecological civilization and shoulder our responsibility for future generations. Let us make joint efforts to build a community of all life on Earth, and a clean and beautiful world for us all.

Working to attain an equitable world regarding resource use (food being a resource) will require work and a reordering of expectations of those who have enjoyed excess at others expense. Peacefully arriving at this goal will require a level of statesmanship that has yet to be displayed. As the next item suggests, Asians will likely be the source of such statesmen.

Prior to his visit to Vietnam, Xi Jinping wrote an open letter/article to Vietnamese that was published on 12 December 2023 in the Nhan Dan Newspaper, which is the official newspaper of the Communist Party of Vietnam. Few are likely aware that China and Vietnam have a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership that negates attempts by the Outlaw US Empire to use South China Sea issues to create rifts in their relations. There’re a number of factoids the letter reveals I’ll allow readers to discover. But again, this is an example of humans getting along together to build a better future for themselves, their neighbors and beyond.

Building a China-Vietnam Community with a Shared Future That Carries Strategic Significance and Writing Together a New Chapter in Our Modernization Drive

I will soon pay a state visit to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam at the invitation of General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Nguyen Phu Trong and President Vo Van Thuong. It will be my third visit to this beautiful country since I became General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and President of the People's Republic of China. I feel that I am already immersed in the warmth that people would only have when visiting relatives and neighbors.

China and Vietnam are connected by mountains and rivers. We enjoy cultural proximity, cherish the same ideals, and have a shared future ahead of us. Inspired by common visions, convictions and empathy, Comrade Mao Zedong, Comrade Ho Chi Minh and other older-generation leaders of our two parties and countries jointly cultivated the China-Vietnam traditional friendship featuring "camaraderie plus brotherhood." We stood together wholeheartedly and supported each other in pursuing national independence and liberation. In advancing socialism, we shared our experience and expanded our cooperation, writing together a historic chapter of China-Vietnam friendship.

This year marks the 15th anniversary of the China-Vietnam comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership. No matter how the global environment has changed, our two parties and countries have worked together to uphold peace and tranquility, pursue development and cooperation, and promote prosperity and progress. We have found a promising path of jointly building a community with a shared future for mankind.

We have conducted exchanges with mutual trust. Leaders of our two parties and countries have visited each other frequently like relatives. I had close interactions with General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong through the year. We jointly drew up a blueprint for China-Vietnam relations in the new era from a strategic and long-term perspective, adding new dimensions to the relationship and raising it up to a new stage. I met with President Vo Van Thuong, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, and permanent member of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the CPV Truong Thi Mai, who came to China for bilateral visits or international conferences. The two sides held the session of the steering committee for bilateral cooperation, the party-to-party theoretical symposium, the conference on crime control between the two public security ministries, and other meetings under bilateral mechanisms. Interagency and subnational cooperation was getting ever closer.

We have enhanced our common interests with mutually beneficial cooperation. China has long been Vietnam's largest trading partner, and Vietnam is China's biggest trading partner in ASEAN and the fourth largest globally. At China's invitation, Vietnamese leaders attended the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, the sixth China International Import Expo, the seventh China-South Asia Expo, and the 20th China-ASEAN Expo. Vietnamese agricultural exports including fruits and vegetables are the favorites of Chinese consumers. China's raw materials and machinery equipment exported to Vietnam effectively boosted the Vietnamese manufacturing sector. Vietnam's first urban light rail project, the Cat Linh-Ha Dong metro line which was built by a Chinese company, has served nearly 20 million passenger trips so far, making travels in Hanoi more convenient. China-Vietnam cross-border freight trains are up and running smoothly, the smart port program has been launched, and connectivity at land boundary ports has been advanced rapidly. The largest overseas photovoltaic industrial cluster that Chinese businesses have constructed to date is in Vietnam. This, together with wind power stations built by Chinese companies, has greatly helped with the transformation of energy use in Vietnam. Chinese companies also invested in and constructed many waste-to-energy plants in Hanoi, Can Tho and other cities.

We have brought our two peoples closer together through friendly exchanges. Travels between the two countries quickly rebounded this year. From January to October, Chinese tourists made more than 1.3 million visits to Vietnam. The Detian-Ban Gioc Waterfall cross-border tourism cooperation zone has started trial operation. Friendly exchanges have also achieved great success, including the friendly exchange between the national and local committees of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and the Vietnam Fatherland Front, and the border residents gala. While some Chinese literature classics are household names in Vietnam, contemporary Chinese film and television productions are also loved by Vietnamese audience. Likewise, some Vietnamese pop songs are huge hits on Chinese social media, and Vietnamese singers who appeared in Chinese TV shows have won many fans in China. The small creeks of ever closer people-to-people interactions are converging into a mighty river of friendly ties between China and Vietnam.

We have always treated each other with sincerity. As two vocal advocates of multilateralism, both China and Vietnam value the importance of dialogue, consultation, and peaceful cooperation, and firmly uphold the basic norms of international relations underpinned by the purposes and principles of the UN Charter. We support each other on issues involving our respective core interests and major concerns, and maintain close coordination in regional and international cooperation mechanisms. Vietnam is an important player in the Group of Friends of the Global Development Initiative (GDI). It supports the Global Security Initiative (GSI) and the Global Civilization Initiative (GCI), and supports China's accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership.

It has been 10 years since I first put forth the vision of a community with a shared future for mankind, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and the principles of amity, sincerity, mutual benefit and inclusiveness for China's foreign policy toward neighboring countries. Building a community with a shared future for mankind should start from Asia. A popular Chinese song goes, "In our Asia, the roots of trees are linked; in our Asia, even clouds drift hand in hand." The lyrics reflect the Chinese people's basal perception of Asia as a community with a shared future. Asia is our common home. Neighboring countries cannot be moved away. Helping one's neighbor is helping oneself, and good neighbors wish each other well. China is ready to better align its development with that of its neighbors, and work with them together to build a community with a shared future and deliver a better life to all. Vietnam's friendship with China featuring "camaraderie plus brotherhood" is profound indeed. The CPC and the Chinese government always take it as a priority in our neighborhood diplomacy to develop relations with Vietnam. We sincerely hope that our two nations will always hold dear to the hearts our traditional friendship, always keep in mind our shared visions and missions, advance together along the socialist path, and steadily promote the building of a community with a shared future that carries strategic significance.

-- We need to maintain strategic communication and reinforce the political foundation for a China-Vietnam community with a shared future. It is important that we keep strategic communication at high levels to ensure that the ship of China-Vietnam relations can break waves and keep making steady progress. We should firmly support each other in pursuing the socialist path suited to our respective national realities. We should coordinate our two priorities, i.e., development and security, and jointly act on the GDI, the GSI and the GCI. We need to deepen exchanges on the theory and practices of socialist development, fend off external risks and challenges together, and ensure steady and sustained progress in our socialist endeavors.

-- We need to make good use of our complementary strengths to cement the cooperation foundation for a China-Vietnam community with a shared future. China is promoting a new development paradigm through high-quality opening up, and Vietnam is in the period of robust economic growth. We both should bring out the full potential in our geographical proximity and complementarity of industries. Among others, we should accelerate synergizing the BRI and the Two Corridors and One Economic Circle strategy, and broaden cooperation in such areas as connectivity, SOE reform, green energy and critical minerals, in a bid to better serve our respective national development and benefit our two peoples.

-- We need to step up friendly exchanges to cement popular support for a China-Vietnam community with a shared future. A close neighbor is better than a distant relative. The people are the root, the lifeline and the source of strength of China-Vietnam relations. We should enhance friendly cooperation and exchanges, and make full use of counterpart exchange mechanisms such as central media outlets, think tanks, cultural and tourism departments, publishers, as well as radio, film and television institutions. We should deepen cooperation in Chinese language education, vocational education, sports and health. We should ensure the success of flagship events including the China-Vietnam People's Forum and the China-Vietnam Youth Friendship Meeting with a view to increasing mutual understanding and affinity between our peoples, especially the younger generation. We should also have more direct flights between us. China will encourage more tourists to visit Vietnam to experience the unique charm of the Vietnamese culture and history.

-- We need to properly manage differences and expand the consensus for a China-Vietnam community with a shared future. Both sides need to act on the common understandings reached by the leaders of our two parties and countries, properly manage differences on maritime issues, and jointly look for mutually acceptable solutions. Both should bear in mind the long-term well-being of our peoples, and stay committed to striving for mutual benefit and win-win cooperation. Both should vigorously promote cooperation, and make due efforts to build an enabling external environment for our respective development and to realize long-term stability and security in our region.

In today's world, changes on a scale unseen in a century are unfolding at an accelerated pace. Hegemonism, unilateralism and protectionism are on the rise. Peace and development in the region are confronted with fairly grave challenges of instability and uncertainty. Standing on the historical foundation of a time-honored civilization, Asia has come to a critical juncture of development and revitalization. Its emerging markets and developing economies will remain the powerhouse of world economic growth.

History has proved time and again that a country or a region can only prosper when it follows the logic of history and keeps pace with the trend of the times. Asia's future is in the hands of no one but Asians. Over the past decade, the Asian people have more and more realized that they can only keep abreast with the trend toward peace, development and progress by jointly acting on the principles of amity, sincerity, mutual benefit and inclusiveness and promoting the Asian values of peace, cooperation, inclusiveness and integration. They can only further unclog the regional economic circulation and upgrade it to deliver more benefit to Asians by staying committed to win-win cooperation, promoting the BRI under the principle of planning, building and benefiting together, and opening their door wider to the world. They can only build a peaceful, tranquil, prosperous, beautiful, amicable and harmonious home in Asia by vigorously working together for an Asian community with a shared future and making one country's development part of the common development of all countries.

An ancient Chinese philosopher once observed, "Plants with strong roots grow well, and efforts on the right path ensure success." No matter how drastically the world may evolve, China will always stay on the right path. Currently, we are striving to build China into a great modern socialist country in all respects and to advance the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation on all fronts through the Chinese path to modernization. We will continue to promote high-quality development and high-standard opening up, and move faster toward the new development paradigm. We will keep our neighborhood policy consistent and stable. We will remain committed to the guidelines of developing friendship and partnership with our neighbors and fostering an amicable, secure and prosperous neighborhood. At the same time, we will seek to add new substance to the principles of amity, sincerity, mutual benefit and inclusiveness. We will bring more benefits to our neighbors through Chinese modernization, jointly move forward Asia's modernization process, and provide new development opportunities for Vietnam and other Asian countries.

I believe that a China-Vietnam community with a shared future that carries strategic significance will draw more countries to the great cause of building an Asian community with a shared future as well as building a community with a shared future for mankind. It will lend more positive energy to our efforts for long-term development and good-neighborliness in Asia, and make greater contributions to peace and development of the world. [All Emphasis Mine]

IMO, there’s great merit in having Xi’s global initiatives go global beginning with Eurasia, moving to Africa, then jumping the Atlantic to South America as the nations in those geographic regions are more prepared to act both as one yet multilaterally. While the West has some people ready to join the global movement toward a shared future, their governments and those having them within their grip are not. IMO, it’s a mistake for the Global majority to wait on the minority to see the light and accept the fundamental axiom of equality. The Central Conference on Work Relating to Foreign Affairs recently held in Beijing featured an important speech by Xi Jinping for which I’m awaiting a transcript not a review, the latter being the only format available at the moment. If the primary document isn’t made available soon, I’ll need to provide the review so readers can be informed.

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