Some 2,100 years ago, or 1,600 years before Italian explorer Christopher Columbus found the New World, ancient Chinese General Zhang Qian braved a world of uncertainties to open up a trade route now known as the Silk Road.[Special Coverage]
Along the Silk Road and other networks linking up remote corners of the world, nations sharing the planet have marched a long way in global interconnection and reached unprecedented levels of development, while having also become more closely intertwined and interdependent than Zhang Qian could ever have imagined.
To deal with the numerous problems and uncertainties troubling today's world, China has decided to give greater scope to the time-honored Silk Road spirit and launched, among others, a modern-day land and maritime Silk Road initiative to promote win-win and shared development across the globe.
Underpinning Beijing's endeavors for global development and integration is the vision of building a community of shared future for mankind, which is championed by Chinese President Xi Jinping and, in the eyes of many, represents the ultimate goal of human development.
China will not close its open door, and will keep on opening up on all fronts, Xi reaffirmed at a panel discussion with Chinese lawmakers at the ongoing annual session of the National People's Congress (NPC).
"THE ONLY FUTURE FOR HUMANITY"
More than two millenniums after Zhang Qian blazed the international trail, isolationist and confrontational elements are still haunting the world, despite the enormous benefits globalization has brought to human development.
A sluggish global growth and widening development gaps are exacerbated by armed conflicts, Cold War mentality and power politics, and mixed with such non-conventional security threats as terrorism, major communicable diseases and climate change.
To ride out those numerous challenges and increasing risks, "China's proposition is: build a community of shared future for mankind and achieve shared and win-win development," announced the Chinese president in a keynote speech at the UN Office at Geneva (UNOG) in January.
"To achieve this goal, the international community should promote partnership, security, growth, inter-civilization exchanges and the building of a sound ecosystem," added the president.
In the government work report Chinese Premier Li Keqiang delivered at an NPC plenary on Sunday, Beijing declared once again that it stands ready to work with the international community to foster a new type of international relations with win-win cooperation at the core and make new contributions to the building of a community of shared future for mankind.
Xi's vision "is the only future for humanity on this planet," said UN General Assembly President Peter Thomson in an interview with Xinhua.
Both Thomson and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres have pledged that the United Nations will work with China to promote world peace and development, and realize the goal of building a community of shared future for mankind.
As a clear sign of the increasing global recognition of Xi's signature concept on human development, the 55th UN Commission for Social Development (CSocD) approved a resolution in February that calls for more support for Africa's economic and social development by embracing the spirit of building a human community of shared future.
Philipp Charwath, chair of the CSocD, told Xinhua that the concept "basically is an acknowledgment that we all depend on each other."
ADAPTER TO CURRENT WORLD ORDER
To those with a propensity for zero-sum thinking, China is strategizing to dethrone the United States and dictate a new world order as the world witnesses a power shift from the West to the East.
Beijing has addressed such suspicions with both words and deeds. In his visit to the UNOG and other international organizations in Switzerland, Xi reaffirmed China's commitment to peaceful development and pledge not to seek hegemony, expansion or sphere of influence.
