Building a Community of Shared Future for Mankind: The Aspiration and the Setback

Pich Charadine

Senior Research Fellow, Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace, Cambodia

1 Introduction

The proposition to build a community of shared future for mankind is a direct response to the reflection of the global efforts in addressing various challenges threatening to world peace. Moreover, a community of shared future chases an open, inclusive, clean, and beautiful world that enjoys lasting peace, global security, and common prosperity. As nations with a long history of civilization, Cambodia, and China have always appreciated, learned from, and communicated with each other, which laid the foundation of two countries’ exceptional friendship. While China continues to push forward the Belt and Road Initiative under the commitment to achieving the shared benefits, Cambodia and China have been an outstanding developing partner in all aspects: politically, economically, and culturally.

2 President Xi’s keynote “Community with a Shared Future for Mankind”

Two years ago, on January 18th, 2017, Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered a keynote speech at the United Nations Office at Geneva, elaborating on China’s solution towards current global challenges by Building a Community with a Shared Future for Mankind that Features All—win Cooperation and Sharing. The term “shared future” has also been emphasized by President Xi on many occasions since then, being a vision converging with the China-proposed concept of “a community of shared future for mankind.”

Pass on the torch of peace from generation to generation, sustain development and make civilization flourish: this is what people of all countries long for; it is also the responsibility statesmen of our generation ought to shoulder. And China’s proposition is: build a community of shared future for mankind and achieve shared and win-win development.^[1]

This idea demonstrates that countries should respect one another, discuss issues as equals, and decisively reject a Cold War mentality and power politics as well as taking a new approach to develop state-to-state relations with communication rather than confrontation, partnerships rather than alliances. Moreover, it also calls for peaceful settling disputes through dialogue and resolving differences through discussion, coordinating responses to traditional and non-traditional threats, and opposing terrorism in all its forms. In this regard, the diversity of civilizations should be respected in the sense that the relations among countries, estrangement should be replaced with an exchange, clashes with mutual learning, and superiority with coexistence. This community would cover all areas of human life and urge all people of all nations to work towards as open, inclusive, clean, and beautiful world that enjoys lasting peace, universal security, and common prosperity.

In February 2017, President Xi’s phrase was incorporated into a UN resolution for the first time on the 55th UN Commission for Social Development and also enshrined by the UN Security Council, the Human Rights Council and the First Committee at the UN General Assembly, turning the Chinese Concept into an international consensus. Moreover, during the 2018 World Economic Forum, policymakers and economists around the world have gathered in Davos to discuss and seek consensus and collaboration on a “shared future.”

3 Cambodian perspective on that keynote

As one of the longest-standing cultural heritages in the region, the Kingdom of Cambodia always shares her positivism towards the diverse solid cultural and spiritual basis. For centuries, Cambodian culture has been influenced by two major cultures in the region – Indian and China – through various aspects, which constructing the sense of cultural relativism of Cambodia.

Obviously, mankind has only one earth to live on, and countries have only one world to share. Thus the diversity of civilizations should always be respected as an engine driving the advance of human civilization and that it shall not be a source of global conflict. China’s proposition to build a community of shared future of humanity represents a new concept of relationship among civilizations and the guideline for development dialogues. Nation-states are becoming more increasingly interconnected and interdependence, thus this proposition is indeed very relevant for creating a new model for inter-civilization exchange and will usher in a new age of global solidarity, and drive economic growth.

The principles of the United Nations Charter have been observed by Cambodia, as supporting equality among all countries, mutual respect for sovereignty, regardless of sizes, wealth, and strength. Cambodia has never wanted to intervene in any other state’s internal affairs. We also give a clear foreign policy perspective with regard to the respect of sovereignty, shared security, and upholding peace and stability both regionally and globally.

Under the Confucian principle, a natural ease – harmony – is to be praised and diversity is to be valued; hence, the proposition to build a community of shared future for mankind is based on China’s cultural tradition that advocates for a universal outcome of the Chinese national wisdom with the principles of friendship and inclusiveness within the context of diplomacy and international relations at large. Moreover, China has never been so close to this vision as it is today when the Belt and Road Initiative has been proposed by President Xi Jinping. The proposition to build a community of shared future for mankind is based on the tradition of peace and friendship among civilizations, particularly, the spiritual legacy of the Silk Road that had spread Chinese culture throughout various regions around the globe. Therefore, since Cambodia has been culturally connected with China for centuries and more recently bond with economic and political aspects, the sense of those principles has been more significant within Cambodia’s foreign policy today than ever before.

However, the Chinese civilization has not been fully integrated yet with the global civilizations, and for that reason, the aspiration to build a community of shared future for mankind has been inserted within the Belt and Road Initiative. Since 2013, the project was established to be a new network of trade routes that exchange goods, ideas and culture across Europe, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and China. The proposition to build such a community as well as that of the BRI ideally reflects the Chinese ambition and commitment toward global development. So far, more than 60 countries across those regions have reportedly signed the agreements with China for this project, and the list is growing inasmuch as China promotes it as a win-win for everyone. In addition, China exhibits that it respects the rights of all countries to choose their own path of development and opposes the act of imposing one’s will on others and interfering in the internal affairs of other countries as well as using one’s economic or political strength to suppress the inferiors. This is the motive that has strongly tied Cambodia-China relations for we share the same direction and vision, and stance firmly to join China to build a Community with a Shared Future for Mankind.

Nevertheless, development, trade relations, and financial assistance come with a cost and a social burden to some recipient countries. Despite continuous Chinese efforts toward universal prosperity and mutual benefits for its win-win cooperation, so far, the allegation over Chinese presence and initiatives has raised a lot of critical debates and negative perceptions due to the widening trust gap and the lack of public awareness. China should strengthen its cooperative effort toward a wider range of stakeholders involved by enhancing dual-track diplomacy as well as elevating its policy-design through Track II mechanism.

Conclusion

The proposal to build a community of shared future for mankind will be both glorious and difficult, with both positive and negative perspectives. Within the Cambodian context, we applause and strongly support the building of the community of a shared future for mankind. The aspiration demonstrates a strong commitment toward global interconnectedness by using culture and civilization as a primary mean.

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[1]Speech at the United Nations Office at Geneva, January 18, 2017 (Xinhua, 2018).