Chapter 1 Great Changes Call for a Global Community of Shared Future

The world is experiencing changes unseen in a century, and human society is going through a new cycle of major developments, transformation and adjustment. In this transitional period, an international order is evolving rapidly, and various elements of uncertainty and instability are also increasing. The outbreak of Covid-19 has especially worsened an already gloomy situation in global development and governance. Also worsening are deficits in world peace and development, governance and trust. What is happening to the world? And what’s to be done? We need to recognize difficulties of governance faced by all humanity and the fact that we share a common destiny. At the same time, we need to focus on global development trends, multipolarity of the world, economic globalization, diversity of civilizations, and an information society. These reveal to us the necessity of building a global community of shared future during this period of unprecedented changes. What is the right path forward for the world? There is only one answer: building a global community of shared future.

These important thoughts of Xi Jinping on foreign relations offer an important methodological guide and refreshing inspiration for us to correctly understand the changes in the global situation and feel the pulse of general human development trends. We need to adopt a historical and holistic approach to assessing international developments and choose the right approach to China’s role. We should pay close attention to various elements of uncertainty and instability triggered by a rapidly-evolving international order, and recognize the urgency of building a global community of shared future. At the same time, we must keep an eye on general global development trends featuring multipolarity, economic globalization, diversity of civilizations, and information society. These reveal to us the right way forward is to build a global community of shared future.