Page 3 - ON BUILDING A HUMAN COMMUNITY WITH A SHARED FUTURE

ON BUILDING A HUMAN COMMUNITY WITH A SHARED FUTURE

once wrote, “The path of history is not paved like Nevsky Prospekt;
it runs across fields, either dusty or muddy, and cuts across swamps or
forest thickets.” Yet the annals of human progress show, no matter the
bumps on the road, history always moves forward according to its own
laws. No force can hold back the rolling wheels of history.
Dr. Sun Yat-sen once said, “The tide of history is mighty. Follow it
and prosper; resist it and perish.” If we are to move with the times, we
cannot live in the 21st century in body but in the past in mind, stuck in a
bygone era of colonial expansion, stuck in an old framework based on a
Cold War mentality or the zero-sum game theory.
Facing profound changes in the international landscape and an
objective need for the countries of the world to see ourselves as voyagers
in the same boat, all our countries should work together to build a
new kind of international relations to which cooperation and common
benefits are central. All peoples should unite to protect world peace and
promote common development.
We stand for common dignity shared by all countries and peoples.
We must all commit to the principle that all countries, irrespective of size,
strength, and wealth, are equal. The autonomy of a country’s people to
choose their development path should be respected, interference in the
internal affairs of other countries should be opposed, and international
fairness and justice should be preserved. Only a shoe’s wearer knows
if it fits. Whether a country’s development path is appropriate for that
country, only the people of that country can tell.
We stand for the fruits of development to be shared by all countries
and peoples. Every country, while pursuing its own development, should
actively facilitate the development of others along with them. The world
cannot achieve enduring development when some countries are getting
richer and richer while others languish in poverty and backwardness.
Only when all countries have come to achieve common development
can the world enjoy better development. Practices like treading on one’s
neighbor, shifting crises onto others, and feathering one’s nest at the
expense of others are not only immoral but unsustainable.
We stand for security that is shared by all countries and peoples.
Countries should pull together to address appropriately different issues
and challenges. The more these challenges are global challenges, the more

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