Sun Jisheng

At the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in September 2022, President Xi Jinping pointed out that “The once-ina-century pandemic has continued unabated. Regional conflicts keep flaring up. The Cold War mentality and bloc politics are resurfacing, so are unilateralism and protectionism. Economic globalization has encountered headwinds. Deficit in peace, development, trust and governance has grown”. In the face of today’s daunting task of global governance, the existing governance system has failed to keep pace with the times in terms of governance concepts, institutions and coordination and cooperation. Such a system is often broken, discredited or even ineffective, making it in urgent need of reform. At the same time, countries are scrambling for their discourse power in global governance. Going forward, China needs to summarize its practical experience in global governance, strive to establish and consolidate its conceptual, institutional, academic and communicative discourse power in global governance, and thus contribute its wisdom and solutions to advancing global governance.

STRENGTHEN IDEOLOGICAL GUIDANCE AND BUILD CONCEPTUAL DISCOURSE POWER IN GLOBAL GOVERNANCE

Ideas drive action. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China has continuously innovated its thinking and practice in its foreign relations, which has laid the foundation for China to seek greater conceptual discourse power in global governance. China has put forward the goal of building a community with a shared future for mankind, which provides another set of ontological understandings and methodological guidelines for reflecting, studying and solving global problems. China’s emphasis on holistic thinking, associative thinking and inclusive thinking is in sharp contrast to Western theories on international relations epitomized by individualism, binary opposition and structural conflict, as well as old concepts such as zerosum game and bloc confrontation.

Guided by the vision of a community with a shared future for mankind, China has put forward clear governance concepts and initiatives, thus contributing a new approach to global governance and ensuring a greater conceptual say in global governance. China formulates the principle of extensive consultation, joint construction and shared benefits in global governance. China is committed to the principle of equality among all countries regardless of their size and believes that all countries should embrace dialogue and consultation and properly handle their differences. China opposes unilateralism, practices multilateralism in its real sense, forges partnership globally, and calls for all countries to share the fruits of global development and governance. These highlight the values of peace, development, cooperation and mutual benefit, and is in line with today’s global governance realities.

In response to global security challenges, China emphasizes that the world is an indivisible security community, and puts forward the Global Security Initiative based on the vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security. In the field of development, China proposes a new philosophy of innovative, coordinated, green, open and shared development at the domestic level, and the Global Development Initiative at the international level. The two initiatives echo each other and coordinate the themes of security and development. In view of various problems to be addressed, China puts forward the vision of building a global community of development, a community of health for all, a community of life for mankind and nature, a community of all life on Earth, a community with a shared future in cyberspace, a community with a shared future for nuclear security and a maritime community with a shared future and so on. These represent China’s overall thinking to global governance as well as its governance goals and approaches.

PROMOTE INSTITUTIONAL INNOVATION AND BUILD INSTITUTIONAL DISCOURSE POWER IN GLOBAL GOVERNANCE

Global governance calls for coordination and cooperation among countries supported by various international systems, mechanisms and norms. These constitute the core of global governance system. As the existing system is led by the United States and major European countries since the most part of its formation after World War II, developing countries take a back seat. In recent years, global governance results have been compromised as the governance system is becoming ever more unreasonable, inadequate and unbalanced. This prompts China to enhance its institutional discourse power when engaging in global governance.

The event of “Ambassadors Face to Face with CSCEC” was held in Beijing on Sept. 21, 2022.

First, China has worked to push for the reform of the existing system so that it can better reflect the shift of global power and the interests of developing countries. Developing countries have always been marginalized in the global governance system, exemplified by their underrepresentation, low share and small weight in such institutions as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Thanks to the efforts made by China and other developing countries, the above-mentioned institutions adopted quota and governance reform plans in 2010, which has thus seen China’s voting right in the World Bank increased from 2.77% to 4.42%, and that of developing countries as a whole increased from 44.06% to 47.19%.

Second, China has worked to put in place new mechanisms to make up for the insufficiency of the existing ones. As the existing international institutions struggle to meet the needs of global governance in recent years, new additions are called for. In the field of investment and financing, China spearheads the establishment of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank to promote regional connectivity and economic integration in Asia. In July 2015, the BRICS New Development Bank was launched with an aim to provide financial support for infrastructure building and sustainable development projects in BRICS countries and other emerging economies and developing countries, which provides useful supplement to the existing multilateral and regional financial institutions.

China has also established a raft of new mechanisms in different fields through host diplomacy. Under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative, China has established and institutionalized a Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, and launched a series of multilateral platforms for dialogue and cooperation in specific fields together with its international partners. Beyond that, China has established the World Internet Conference, the World Artificial Intelligence Conference, the China International Import Expo, the South-South Human Rights Forum, and the High-level Dialogue on Global Development in order to build consensus on global governance through new mechanisms.

Third, China has worked to reform the operation modes of the existing system and incorporate its own propositions into them. In recent years, China has hosted and organized various international conferences and forums, which were infused with Chinese governance concepts. During the G20 Hangzhou Summit in 2016, China advocated the new development philosophy featuring cooperation and inclusiveness, and made innovation in growth mode one of the key topics. By playing its unique role in setting up and leading the agenda of development, China has managed to amplify the voice of developing countries. In 2017, China laid out the vision of BRICS+ cooperation at the BRICS Xiamen Summit, which has consolidated the solidarity and cooperation among developing countries. In 2022, the 22nd meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization signed a memorandum on Iran’s obligations to join the SCO, initiated the process of admitting Belarus as a member state, and admitted Bahrain, Maldives, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Myanmar as new dialogue partners. This demonstrates the SCO’s spirit of mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, consultation, respect for diversity of civilizations and pursuit of common development.

SUMMARIZE PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE AND IMPROVE ACADEMIC DISCOURSE POWER IN GLOBAL GOVERNANCE

For a long time, western developed countries have dominated academic say in global governance. The ideas and practice of developing countries have rarely been brought up. As developing countries are in sore need of inclusion in the establishment and development of global governance theories, they themselves should enhance their theoretical consciousness and strive for greater academic say.

On China’s part it needs to continue to build up its theoretical strength in global governance. China has always emphasized addressing both symptoms and root causes of governance insufficiencies. By adopting the spirit of crossing river by feeling the stones, China has explored a development path suited to its national conditions, eradicated absolute poverty and completed the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects, thus making its own contribution to global development governance. The concepts and experience of development governance, Chinese concepts and experience such as “development being the top priority”, “to build the road being the first step to become prosperous”, “targeted poverty alleviation” and “rural vitalization” have served as a reference for developing countries.

At the global governance level, China takes part in global development governance in its own way. The Belt and Road Initiative, which emphasizes openness, equality and inclusiveness, has shown a high degree of flexibility in practice and focused on practical cooperation and livelihood projects. It has driven national development of partner countries. In terms of delivering foreign aid and participating in international cooperation on development, China has demonstrated its own practical characteristics. It attaches no conditions when assisting other countries and aims to enhance the development capacity of recipient countries through “teaching them how to fish” instead of the past practice of “just providing them with fish” through material and technical assistance.

An important project to promote international production capacity cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative in Uzbekistan.

In May 2021, General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed that it is necessary to develop fast a system of Chinese discourse and Chinese narrative, interpreting Chinese practice with Chinese theory, subliming Chinese theory with Chinese practice, and creating new concepts, new definitions and new expressions that resonate with both Chinese and foreign audiences. Therefore, with regard to global governance China needs to summarize and gain an in-depth understanding from its practice, make theoretical innovations, further enrich and develop the system of global governance thinking and improve its academic discourse power.

FOCUS ON INTERNATIONAL PERCEPTION AND IMPROVE COMMUNICATIVE DISCOURSE POWER IN GLOBAL GOVERNANCE

For any country to have a greater say in any field will not only impact its specific governance actions but also shape international perceptions of it. In order to boost China’s influence in global governance, efforts should be made to improve its communicative discourse power in global governance.

Shenzhou XIV astronauts held “Heavenly Palace dialogue” with African youth.

On the one hand, China should vigorously tell the world about its governance practices and its participation in global governance through mass communication. China’s achievements in domestic and global governance have laid the foundation for telling its story in a convincing way. As an advocate of the Paris Agreement, China has been committed to the idea that lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets, taken the initiative to promote green and ecological development, and achieved notable results in the development and utilization of renewable energy. China ranks first globally in terms of cumulative installed capacity of hydropower, wind power and solar power, as well as investment in renewable energy. More than that, China has also got a wealth of vivid stories to tell in areas such as poverty alleviation, economic development, infrastructure improvement, education and public health.

That is also the case with China’s participation in global governance. In recent years, China has helped African countries to improve public health governance. During the Ebola epidemic in 2014, China sent more than 1,000 public health experts and medical workers for boosting medical care, and several batches of emergency supplies and financial assistance to people in the affected areas of Africa. After the outbreak of COVID-19, China immediately provided anti-epidemic supplies and vaccines to the African Union and African countries. The China-Europe Railway Express made its 10,000th trip this year 10 days sooner than last year. Serving as a boon for the socioeconomic development of countries and regions along the routes, it has also played an important role in stabilizing the global industrial and supply chains and promoting post-COVID world economic recovery. The living stories behind these statistics deserve to be better told and spread.

On the other hand, China should make efforts in academic communication in order to spread its governance concepts and theories to the world. At present, China still has some disadvantages in terms of its global academic say in the realm of philosophical and social science. It is thus important for China to specifically promote academic communication so that China’s concepts, theories and practices of global governance can be presented to the global academic community, and become a part of the global academic system of governance.

CONCLUSION

As a topic important to today’s world, global governance remains a complex and arduous task. During the reform process of global governance system, competition between countries for their say in global governance will intensify. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, China has put forward a series of new concepts and mechanisms regarding global governance, making its own contributions with concrete actions. In order for China’s concepts, solutions and actions to have a wider impact and better promote and participate in global governance, it is necessary to continue to consolidate and enhance China’s conceptual, institutional, academic and communicative discourse power in global governance, and shape an objective and fair perception of China’s role in global governance in the world, and in turn China can develop a voice in global governance in the reform process of global governance system that matches with its major country status and its contributions therein.