Although I don't remember the specific time when I first came across the idea of a "global community with a shared future", the impact it had on me is still clearly in my mind. Amid all the political speeches and articles usually composed of blunt cold or meaningless words, these warm words impressed me. 

I spoke with a friend who specialized in China's economy about this concept. I will never forget that dialogue.

He said, "The global community of shared future is really an amazing idea. I still don't know what vision this concept will realize, but I think it is worth betting on the future." I replied, "Certainly. We don’t yet know whether such an idea can be realized in today's world. But there is a dream involved. Marching along this road may change the world."

In January 2017 President Xi Jinping delivered a speech titled "Building a Global Community of Shared Future" at the United Nations Office in Geneva, which was also reported by Japanese media.

Global community

According to the literature, the concept of "global community of shared future" was first proposed in March 2013. During a speech given at the Moscow Institute of International Relations, President Xi Jinping said: "In this world, the degree of interconnection and interdependence among countries has deepened unprecedentedly. Human beings live in the same global village. Living in the same time and space where history and reality meet, it is increasingly becoming a global community of shared future."

It can be seen that at least a few years before his speech in Geneva, while monitoring the changes in the world, President Xi Jinping pondered the concept of "the global community of shared future." During his visit to the United Nations Office, Xi put forward this concept to the world in an inclusive way.

Especially at the 19th CPC National Congress held in the autumn of that year, General Secretary Xi Jinping stated that the idea of "building a world of lasting peace, universal security, common prosperity, openness, inclusiveness, cleanliness and beauty, and making unremitting efforts in politics, security, economy, culture, and ecology in order to build a global community of shared future."

The Belt and Road Initiative is an important way to realize the “global community of shared future”. The "South-South Cooperation" that China has always attached importance to is another one. The latter helps developing countries to alleviate poverty, improve people’s livelihoods such as medical and health care, and actively participate in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted at the United Nations General Assembly.

China has made a lot of efforts to grant a greater role to international cooperation and mutual assistance mechanisms. Particularly when the United States entered the dead-end of "national prioritization" and caused a lot of chaos in the world, China led the international order of peacebuilding, cooperation, openness, inclusiveness, mutual learning and sharing, mutual benefit, and win-win results.

China put the concept of "global community with a shared future" into practice, presenting it to the world in a quicker and more concrete way. With the increasing presence of China in the world value chain and supply chain, the interdependence of the world is deepening, and the risk factors of confrontation and disputes are decreasing continuously.

World of possibilities

"The end of the Cold War" was once regarded as the victory of capitalism, but now we have seen that capitalism is marred by many internal contradictions and is in currently in a deep state of chaos.

"Desire capitalism", brought about by the excessive expansion of financial capital distorts globalization and makes countless people suffer from unfairness and inequality. The need to reimagine capitalism has been discussed endlessly by many economists and people of insight in the world. At the same time "democracy", which has been eulogized as a universal value, is also in chaos and losing its way forward.

As a force for peace and development, China will bring forward great new possibilities. In 2019, China hosted the Asian Civilization Dialogue Summit with the purpose to deepen mutual learning and understanding, realize civilization development through benign stimulation and interaction.

These are examples and aspects of the enhanced unity of knowledge and practice of the "global community of shared future." During the Climate Ambition Summit held virtually at the end of last year, President Xi put forward in his speech "striving to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060."

Xi explained the three fundamental components to realizing this impressive goal: First, "unite as one to create a new scenario of climate governance through win-win cooperation." Second, “boost ambition to form a new system of climate governance with each actor doing his best”. And third, “enhance confidence and adhere to a new idea of climate governance with green recovery”.

What next?

Awareness of the concept of a "global community of shared future" has gradually increased around the world. The focus should therefore now turn to how we can bring this cooperative vision to fruition.

The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the instability and inequity of the current system. We live in an era when everything must be completely reimagined.

The furthering of the concept of a "global community of shared future" will undoubtedly make great contributions to correcting the contradictions and distortions in the world and opening up of new opportunities.

The world is standing at the threshold of great change. We should therefore act to combine the concept of "global community of shared future" with the rest of the world, understand this concept and put it into practice.

Tomoyoshi Kimura is former NHK anchor from Japan.