Ruan Jianping: The Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence and the Building of a Community with a Shared Future for Mankind Are Rooted in the Same Lineage
Seventy years ago, in the face of the painful catastrophes of "hot wars" and the fractured confrontations of the Cold War, Chinese leaders for the first time fully proposed the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. These principles have withstood the test of a changing international landscape, becoming basic norms of international relations and fundamental principles of international law that are open, inclusive, and universally applicable. Today, seventy years later, when confronted with the major question of "what kind of world to build and how to build it," China has provided the answer of our times: building a community with a shared future for humanity. Building a community with a shared future for humanity has expanded from a Chinese initiative into an international consensus and has been transformed from a beautiful vision into rich practice. In the new situation, it represents the best inheritance, promotion, and sublimation of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. From the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence to the concept of building a community with a shared future for humanity, China’s diplomacy has advanced with the times while remaining part of a continuous lineage. This demonstrates China’s firm determination to persist on the path of peaceful development and its global sentiment [1] of making new and greater contributions to humanity, reflecting the active interaction between China and the world.
Adapting to the Requirements of World Development in the Current Era
In the historical process of the development of modern human society, how to handle relations between states, jointly maintain world peace and tranquility, and promote the development and progress of all mankind has always been a major proposition for which all countries have untiringly explored. The trajectory from the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence to building a community with a shared future for humanity reflects the requirements of world development in the era following the Second World War.
The formation of the modern world system originated from the global expansion of Western capitalism, which created an unequal structure with capitalist powers at the center and the vast number of colonies and developing countries at the periphery. The ultimate goal of this structure is to serve the capital accumulation and political rule of the core countries. This not only resulted in the vast colonies and developing countries remaining in a state of dependency for a long time, making it difficult to achieve independent development, but the imbalance in the political and economic development of the core countries also caused frequent periodic wars. The two World Wars were the inevitable result of this unequal system, while national independence movements and South-South cooperation were the resistance to and transformation of such a system. Facing exclusion by the core countries of the old world system and the threat of Cold War bloc confrontation, the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence advocated by the Chinese government reflected both the common demand of independent developing countries to safeguard their legitimate rights and improve their external environment, as well as the universal needs of people across the world who had experienced the painful encounters of two World Wars. It provided correct guidance for countries with different social systems to coexist and for the establishment of a new international order.
With the accelerated development of science and technology and the continuous expansion of international exchanges since the 21st century, the interdependence between countries has deepened daily. At the same time, however, common challenges such as war and conflict, economic turbulence, resource depletion, ecological degradation, and the spread of disease have continued to emerge. The peace deficit, development deficit, security deficit, and governance deficit have become interwoven. The futures and destinies of all countries are more closely linked, increasingly becoming a community with a shared future where "you are in me and I am in you." [2] Standing at a crossroads of history, whether to choose unity or division, openness or closure, cooperation or confrontation concerns the collective interests and future destiny of humanity. In response, Chinese leaders proposed the concept of building a community with a shared future for humanity. This conforms to the requirements of the era and the general trend of world development, converging the "greatest common divisor" [3] for the people of all countries to jointly build a better world. It has received high attention and widespread praise from the international community, showing strong vitality and holding great significance for promoting solidarity and cooperation among all countries to create a better future for humanity.
Reflecting the Internal Needs of China's Own Development
The founding of the New China washed away a century of national humiliation in which China was at the mercy of others [4], and the Chinese people have since stood up. Safeguarding national sovereignty and security and developing the national economy became new historical tasks. Facing the challenges brought by power politics and Cold War confrontation, China needed other countries to recognize and respect its sovereignty and territorial integrity; it needed a peaceful external environment—especially in its neighborhood—to concentrate its energy on socialist modernization. In this context, Chinese leaders for the first time fully proposed the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence: mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, mutual non-aggression, non-interference in each other's internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence. These were incorporated into joint statements between China and India and China and Myanmar, jointly advocating for the establishment of these principles as basic norms guiding state-to-state relations. In the development of international relations after World War II, the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence gained recognition from more and more countries, providing important support for China to win international recognition and improve its external environment.
For all countries, making full use of world resources and markets is an effective way to accelerate their own development. With the exploratory advancement of socialist modernization, especially since reform and opening up and China’s accession to the World Trade Organization, China’s external exchanges have continuously expanded and deepened. "Bringing in" and "going global" [5] have developed in parallel, promoting each other, and overseas interests have continuously expanded. Facing the severe challenges brought by the world entering a new period of turbulence and change, how to maintain external economic exchanges and protect the security of overseas interests has become an urgent task for China in the New Era. Unlike the West, which expands and protects overseas interests through force, China persists on the path of peaceful development, adheres to the principle of non-interference in internal affairs politically, and actively explores new methods that conform to China’s diplomatic tradition, recognized norms of international law, and the trend of world development. The concept of building a community with a shared future for humanity proposed by China not only reflects the objective trend of deepening interdependence between China and the world but also provides scientific guidance for safeguarding China’s external exchanges and the security of its overseas interests. By jointly building a community of shared interests, security, and responsibility, China’s overseas interests can receive multifaceted support while ensuring continued external interaction.
Demonstrating the Continuous Improvement of China's Capacity for International Contribution
As a responsible major power, China has always been committed to promoting the progress of human affairs. In modern times, Western countries occupied the center of the world system by virtue of their "strong ships and sharp guns" [6] and their economic and technological advantages, while colonies and developing countries were located on the periphery to serve their capital accumulation and political rule. The development of national liberation movements and the promotion of South-South cooperation aimed to break this unequal world system and its order. Like the vast number of developing countries, modern China was located at the periphery of the world system. The founding of New China meant that one-quarter of the world’s population achieved independence and liberation, which was in itself a huge contribution to the cause of human progress; at the same time, it greatly inspired the confidence of other oppressed nations in their struggles. After its founding, New China took supporting the independence and development of developing countries as an important international obligation, providing significant material and moral support toward this end. With the success of national independence and liberation movements after World War II, the Western colonial system collapsed. Independent developing countries hungered to safeguard national sovereignty and develop their national economies. The Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence proposed by China reflected these common demands and became a universally accepted norm of international relations.
With the continuous advancement of Chinese-path modernization and the steady strengthening of its comprehensive national strength, China's international influence has gradually expanded, and it has increasingly moved toward the center of the world stage, possessing both the will and the ability to make greater contributions to international peace and development. The concept of building a community with a shared future for humanity not only reflects China’s worldview, values, and view of order—powerfully responding to various versions of the "China threat theory"—but also demonstrates China's pursuit of goals and assumption of responsibility for international peace and development. Among today’s major world powers, China is the only one that has never engaged in external aggression to seize colonies. Among the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, China is the country that dispatches the most peacekeeping troops. In terms of contributing to world economic growth, China’s contribution rate has remained above 30% for a long time, ranking first among all major countries, and it has become a major trading partner for more than 140 countries and regions. In terms of addressing global climate change, China’s contribution to emission reductions leads all major countries. Faced with the common challenges of the "peace deficit," "security deficit," "development deficit," and "governance deficit" in today’s world, China has timely proposed the Global Security Initiative, the Global Development Initiative, and the Global Civilization Initiative. These provide certainty and direction for a world intertwined with change and disorder, making China a leader in building a community with a shared future for humanity. At present, building a community with a shared future for humanity has expanded from a Chinese initiative to an international consensus, and from a beautiful vision to rich practice, reflecting the continuous improvement of China's capacity for international contribution.
Advancing the Continuous Improvement of Global Governance
The development of globalization has promoted interaction between countries but has also exacerbated the eruption of contradictions and the spread of risks, linking the futures and destinies of all countries more closely. Addressing the various challenges facing today’s world and promoting the reform of global governance is the fundamental path to solving these problems.
How to ensure and balance the right to development of all countries is the core issue of global governance. Every country has the right to development, but relying solely on domestic resources and markets is insufficient; it is necessary to make full use of the world's resources and markets. Meanwhile, the development of economy and technology must constantly break through existing economic and political spaces to achieve the optimal allocation of resources on a larger scale—this is the fundamental driver of economic globalization. However, under certain economic and technological conditions, resources are always limited, and the international community remains in a state of anarchy, leading to varying degrees of competition between states. As the primary actors in the modern international system, states are the primary parties responsible for the security and welfare of citizens within their territories. The imbalance between the spatial division of political responsibility and economic globalization has intensified the complexity of competition for national development.
Since the end of the Cold War, the United States has attempted to expand the Western liberal international order it leads to the entire globe to maintain its unipolar hegemony. This approach has not only met with resistance from many non-Western countries but has also triggered increasingly serious domestic problems, giving rise to a series of issues such as political polarization, populism, protectionism, and de-globalization. The result has been an increased trust deficit among nations, making it difficult to effectively mobilize more countries to jointly respond to global challenges. In this regard, some scholars have pointed out that the liberal international order advocated by the United States is led by the United States itself and takes regime type as its primary principle; it cannot adapt to the reality of diverse regime types or the trends toward a multipolar international landscape and the democratization of international relations.
Fundamentally speaking, every country has the right to choose the political model and development path that suits its national conditions. Regardless of whether political models and development paths are the same, ensuring the security and welfare of their people is a common goal. To this end, countries should first achieve mutual respect and peaceful coexistence. On this basis, they should achieve win-win cooperation through "extensive consultation, joint contribution, and shared benefits" rather than drawing lines based on ideology and values to engage in bloc confrontation—and certainly not practicing hegemonism and neo-colonialism in the name of "freedom and democracy." Historically, the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence provided basic principles and norms for global governance, helping to transcend differences in values and ideology and mobilizing more countries to participate in global governance on the basis of mutual respect to maintain world peace and development. Today, as the futures and destinies of all countries are increasingly linked, the concept of building a community with a shared future for humanity provides practical principles and goal-oriented leadership for promoting the reform of global governance, helping to build a better future for humanity together.
Source: Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Network (中国社会科学网)
October 24, 2024
Online Editor: Jing Mu