Shared values help to build consensus

Xi calls for efforts to promote common aspirations of peace, development, fairness

As some Western countries push their values on others in diplomatic settings, China has called for upholding and promoting the common values of humanity, including peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy and freedom, to build a better world.

Since he put forward such a concept during the general debate of the 70th session of the United Nations General Assembly in 2015, President Xi Jinping has, on various occasions, called on the international community to champion the common values of humanity and respect the efforts of different peoples to turn these values into reality.

Addressing a grand gathering in celebration of the centenary of the founding of the Communist Party of China on July 1, Xi, who is also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, told the world that on the journey forward, "the CPC will continue to work with all peace-loving countries to promote the shared human values of peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy and freedom".

Five days later, while delivering the keynote speech at the CPC and World Political Parties Summit via video link in Beijing, he once again called for fostering broad-minded tolerance toward the understanding of values by different civilizations, and said that the common values of humanity should be translated into the practice of individual countries to serve the interests of their own people in a concrete and realistic way.

Observers said that faced with profound changes in the international landscape as well as a pandemic unseen in a century, promoting the shared values of humanity helps build the broadest consensus in the international community to jointly cope with the global challenges and to advance the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.

Wendell Bell, a professor emeritus of sociology and senior research scientist at Yale University's Center for Comparative Research, said overcoming cultural differences and discontent with globalization requires reexamining and reemphasizing the positive values that all humans share to seek a positive future.

In an article published on universespirit.org, Bell wrote that cultural differences do indeed separate people between various civilizations, "however, for most people, most of the time, peaceful accommodation and cooperation are the norms".

"Most people of the world, whatever society, culture, civilization or religion they revere or feel a part of, simply want to live－and let others live－in peace and harmony. To achieve this, all of us must realize that the human community is inescapably bound together," he wrote.

Different from the values-based diplomacy that Western countries adopt to build an alliance structure, China advocates the shared values of humanity which aim to build a community with a shared future for mankind, as countries, with different histories, cultures and systems and in different development levels, all pursue peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy and freedom, Chinese analysts said.

Western countries, such as the United States, always export their own values to other sovereign states by peaceful or military means, they said, however, China exports no revolution or ideology, far transcends the Cold War zero-sum game mentality of countries being either friends or foes, and is committed to win-win cooperation and building a global partnership network.

Wang Yiwei, vice-president of the Academy of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era at Renmin University of China, said that China emphasizes seeking common ground while putting aside differences in realizing the shared values of humanity.

In this way, China strives to explore the common interests for the whole of mankind beyond disparities and clashes, while respecting cultural diversity and different levels of development, Wang said.

Zhang Guoqi, a professor of Marxism at South China University of Technology, said Xi's proposal on the common values of humanity is based on the fact that all people share our planet and live in a global village, and in the meantime, it demonstrates the basic values and norms governing the development and progress of human society.

It also calls for the international community to forge an awareness of building a community with a shared future and to work together to deal with global challenges, Zhang said.

Xi has stressed that peace and harmony are ideas the Chinese nation has pursued and carried forward for more than 5,000 years and that the Chinese nation does not have aggressive or hegemonic traits in its genes. He has said on many occasions that China remains committed to promoting peace, development, cooperation and mutual benefit, to an independent foreign policy of peace and to the path of peaceful development.

Sergei Glazyev, the minister in charge of integration and macroeconomics at the Eurasian Economic Commission and an academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said the CPC has set an example for global development.

Mainstream Western economic thought and theory alone cannot explain the range of achievements China has made over the past 50 years, such as how it has grown from a poor and backward country to a global leader in manufacturing technical products today, Glazyev said in an opinion piece published on the website of China Global Television Network.