Ambassador of the People's Republic of China to Ukraine  Ma Shengkun

1. What is a community with a shared future for mankind?

Building a community with a shared future for mankind is a major original idea put forward by President Xi Jinping. From its initial proposal at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations in 2013, to the clarification of the five-point proposal for its realization during the General Debate of the UN General Assembly in 2015 and then to the presentation of the five goals for the world at the United Nations Office at Geneva in 2017, the scientific connotation of this important vision has been continuously enriched and expanded.

In December 2023, President Xi Jinping delivered an important address at the Central Conference on Work Relating to Foreign Affairs, further defining the “four beams and eight pillars” of the scientific system for building a community with a shared future for mankind: the goal is to build an open, inclusive, clean and beautiful world of lasting peace, universal security and shared prosperity; the pathway is promoting global governance that features extensive consultation and joint contribution for shared benefits; the guiding principle is to apply the common values of humanity; the basic lies in building a new type of international relations; the strategic guidance comes from the implementation of the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, the Global Civilization Initiative and the Global Governance System; and the platform for action is high-quality Belt and Road cooperation. In other words, a community with a shared future for mankind is China’s answer to the questions of our times — what kind of world to build and how to build it. It has served as a glorious banner leading the progress of our era and pointing the way forward for human progress.

2. Why should we promote building a community with a shared future for mankind?

The Earth is the cradle of humanity and our shared home. Across different parts of the planet, people have settled down and developed, creating diverse societies, civilizations and cultures. This coexistence of diversity and plurality enriches the world and brings vitality to human society, but it can also bring about differences and disputes. History has shown that barriers must be broken down and civilizations must learn from and enrich one another so that human civilization could continue advancing and developing. Nowadays, exchange and cooperation have become the trend of the times, and peace and development have become the defining themes of our era.

The Chinese people’s dream is closely linked with the dreams of all nations. The realization of the Chinese Dream cannot be separated from a peaceful international environment and a stable international order. The Chinese people have always believed that China can only do well when the world is doing well. When China does well, the world will get even better. Through concrete actions to build a strong China and fulfill its responsibilities as a major country, China will steadfastly promote the building of a community with a shared future for mankind and will always be a builder of world peace, a contributor to global development and a defender of the international order. China will continue to contribute Chinese wisdom and strength to lasting peace, development and prosperity for humanity.

3. What is the major significance of building a community with a shared future for mankind?

 With globalization advancing rapidly today, the global scope of people-to-people interaction has deepened to an unprecedented degree, and countries are more interconnected and interdependent than at any time in history. In the meantime, the world has entered a new period of turbulence and transformation. Hegemonism and power politics are on the rise, while unilateralism and protectionism are gaining ground again. How to bring more certainty and stability to a world of change and disorder has become a major question facing the international community.

Bearing in mind the future of humanity and the wellbeing of the people, building a community with a shared future for mankind advocates transcending conflict and confrontation through peaceful development, replacing absolute security with common security, choosing win-win outcomes over zero-sum games, preventing clashes of civilizations through exchanges and mutual learning and preserving the planet Earth through green development. It sets a more specific goal and draws a clearer picture for the future of humanity, and points the only right way forward for a world at a historical crossroads.

The building of a community with a shared future for mankind has developed from a conceptual proposition to a scientific system, from a promising vision to practical outcomes, from a Chinese initiative to an international consensus. It is gaining even broader understanding and recognition across the international community, steadily becoming a major international public good with symbolic significance.

To date, dozens of countries and regions have reached understanding with China on building this vision in various forms. For eight consecutive years, the vision has been written into resolutions of UN General Assembly and included in declarations of multilateral mechanisms. Facts demonstrate that building a community with a shared future for mankind embodies the broadest common expectations of people around the globe for a better world. It will surely gain stronger influence, vitality and appeal, and stand as a banner leading the progress of the times.

4. How should we understand the historical inevitability of building a community with a shared future for mankind?

In the universe there is only one Earth, the shared home of humanity and the common world for all nations.  To cherish and protect our shared home, and to realize peace and development for humanity has been a cherished aspiration of human society since ancient times. A community with a shared future for mankind calls for the future and destiny of every nation and country to be closely intertwined. It urges all to stick together through thick and thin and endeavor to build this planet of ours into a harmonious big family and realize mankind's longing for a better life.

Building a community with a shared future for mankind is an inevitable requirement in keeping with the historical trend of world development. In today’s era, the tide of economic globalization is surging forward, a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation is well under way, the global governance system is being profoundly reshaped, the international landscape is evolving at a faster pace and the overall trend toward peace and development is irreversible. Only by embracing the trend of history and advancing the building of a community with a shared future for mankind can all countries achieve common development and shared prosperity.

Building a community with a shared future for mankind is the only right path to addressing global challenges. Today, the world is undergoing changes unseen in a century. Instability and uncertainty are on the rise, posing severe challenges for humanity. Only through solidarity, cooperation and by working together to build a global community of shared future, can countries address global challenges, safeguard our shared home and build a better world.

The destiny of the world rests in the hands of the peoples of all nations, and the future of humanity depends on the choices they make. The Chinese people stand ready to work hand in hand with the peoples of all countries on the right path of building a community with a shared future, and jointly create a more prosperous and better world for all.

5. What distinct significance does a community with a shared future for mankind hold for the present era?

A community with a shared future for mankind captures the greatest common denominator among nations shared values and calls for a fair and reasonable new type of international relations. President Xi Jinping noted: “Peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy and freedom are the common values of the whole mankind.”  Upholding the principle of harmony without uniformity, the common values of humanity advocate the harmonious development of diverse civilizations and provide the value foundation for building a community with a shared future for mankind.

A community with a shared future for mankind goes beyond the one-sided theory of hegemonic stability and advocates building a world of lasting peace. The hegemonic stability theory stresses creating an all-powerful superpower to dominate international affairs, with a single major country “exporting” order and security to others. By contrast, a community with a shared future for mankind calls for resolving differences and disputes in a peaceful way through dialogue and consultation. At the political level, it advocates mutual respect and consultation on an equal footing, opposes the Cold War mentality and power politics, and embraces a new approach to state-to-state relations, one that features dialogue rather than confrontation and seeks partnerships rather than alliances. It stresses equality among countries, places emphasis on protecting the rights of weaker and smaller countries, upholds multilateralism and opens up new approaches to interactions both among major states and between major and smaller countries.

A community with a shared future for mankind goes beyond a one-sided, unilateral view of security and calls for building a world of universal security. In the age of economic globalization, the security of all countries is interlinked and has impact on one another. The security of any single country cannot be achieved in isolation and requires joint efforts by the international community. A community with a shared future for mankind calls for settling disputes through dialogue and resolving differences through discussion, coordinating responses to traditional and non-traditional security threats, and opposing terrorism in all its forms. It also rejects the Cold War mentality and zero-sum game, and advocates creating a security architecture featuring fairness, justice, joint contribution and shared benefits.

A community with a shared future for mankind goes beyond a narrow, self-centered view of interests and advocates building a world of common prosperity. At the economic level, the vision of building a community with a shared future for mankind calls on countries to stick together through thick and thin, promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, and make economic globalization more open, inclusive and balanced so that its benefits are shared by all. It calls for reform of the global economic governance system, encourages all countries to earnestly shoulder their responsibilities and advocates building an open world economy.

A community with a shared future for mankind advocates inclusiveness and mutual learning among countries, seeking common ground while shelving differences. It calls for full respect for the diversity of civilizations and the plurality of development paths, and promotes a new global vision of civilization characterized by harmony without uniformity, with open and inclusive mindset. It encourages closer cultural and ideological exchanges, so as to narrow distances, remove barriers on the path forward, learn from one another and complement each other’s strengths, and jointly advance the progress of human civilization.

6. What global challenges can a community with a shared future for mankind help to address?

At present, the world is confronted with a serious governance crisis. Financial risks, populism and other negative trends are on the rise, the wealth and the development gap continue to widen. With its rich and insightful substance, the vision of a community with a shared future for mankind provides a key to addressing major global issues.

Development and security are mutually reinforcing and inseparable. Underdevelopment and imbalance lie at the root of turbulence in many countries and regions, and such turbulence in turn aggravates underdevelopment in those countries and regions. The vision of a community with a shared future for mankind, with its emphasis on win-win cooperation and shared prosperity, is aimed precisely at strengthening policy coordination and industrial cooperation among countries, expanding trade and increasing investment, and sharing the dividends of economic development, so as to address the root causes of poverty and underdevelopment, and defuse the sources of instability.

A community with a shared future for mankind calls for countries to treat each other as equals and engage in extensive consultation and dialogue. It rejects confrontation and alliances and instead advocates partnerships of mutual respect and win-win cooperation. It rejects the outdated zero-sum mentality and the logic of power politics, and aims to build a new type of international relations.

When responding to various non-traditional security challenges, a community with a shared future for mankind emphasizes joint efforts and shared benefits and advocates universal security. By enhancing mutual trust, strengthening coordination and stepping up consultation and cooperation, it seeks ultimately to achieve common and sustainable security. To sum up, a community with a shared future for mankind brings together a shared global vision and offers the world a China`s solution to turn that vision into reality. It can both help to address the major international issues at present and provide long-term direction for the development of the international community.

7. Why is building a community with a shared future for mankind said to be the way forward for the peoples of all countries?

President Xi Jinping has emphasized: “Building a human community with a shared future is the way forward for all the world’s peoples. All living things may grow side by side without harming one another, and different roads may run in parallel without interfering with one another. Only when all countries pursue the cause of common good, live in harmony, and engage in cooperation for mutual benefit will there be sustained prosperity and guaranteed security.”

Today, thanks to the rapid development of the internet, big data, cloud computing, quantum satellite and artificial intelligence, the human beings are connected as never before, and the future and destiny of peoples in all countries are becoming ever more closely intertwined. At the same time, humanity faces global challenges unprecedented in terms of number, dimension and severity, and turbulence and transformation have become the norm. Faced with this situation, humanity is confronted with two starkly different choices: vicious competition for power and self-interest, even armed conflict, or openness and inclusiveness, rise to challenges through global collaboration and mutually beneficial cooperation — the outcomes of the two choices are fundamentally different.

As the peoples of all countries work jointly to build a community with a shared future for mankind, they should vigorously advocate the common values of humanity — peace, development, equity, justice, democracy and freedom. This embodies the progressive vision jointly pursued by the peoples of all countries, helps forge a broad value consensus across different countries, nations and civilizations, transcends differences in social systems, ideologies and at different stages of development, provides the right guiding philosophy for advancing human civilization and meets the fundamental and long-term interests of all the nations.

8. What are the main tasks in building a community with a shared future for mankind?

First, to promote equal and orderly multipolarity, and universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization. Advocating equal and orderly multipolarity means upholding the equality of all countries regardless of their size, genuinely advancing democracy in international relations, and ensuring that the process toward multipolarity is generally constructive and that every country finds its place and duly plays its role. Advocating universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization means meeting the common needs of all countries, especially the developing ones, properly addressing the development imbalances between and within countries resulting from the global allocation of resources, supporting all countries in pursuing development paths suited to their national conditions, and maintaining the dynamism and momentum of global economic growth.

Second, to advance integrated development with neighboring countries. Guided by head-of-state diplomacy, China has worked with countries in the neighborhood to deepen all-round cooperation, increase exchanges across the board and jointly safeguard regional peace and stability. Strategic mutual trust between China and its neighbors has been continuously strengthened, connectivity further enhanced and cooperation on industrial and supply chains continued to deepen. China has established the goal of building a community with a shared future with 17 neighboring countries, achieving full coverage of this vision across the Indochina Peninsula and the Central Asia region. China’s relations with its neighbors are at their best in modern times.

Third, to maintain overall stability in relations among major countries. Major countries shoulder special responsibilities. They should see the world as one community with a shared future, take historical initiative and move history forward. Entering the new era, China actively promoted coordination and positive interactions among major countries through its diplomacy, working to foster major-country dynamics featuring peaceful coexistence, overall stability and balanced development. Such positive interactions among major countries are conducive to maintaining global strategic stability. They provide favorable external environment for the development of every country.

Fourth, to deepen solidarity and cooperation with other developing countries. As the world’s largest developing country and an important member of the Global South, China adheres to the principle of sincerity, real results, amity and good faith, along with the approach to pursue the greater good and shared interests, both advocated by President Xi Jinping, in strengthening unity and collaboration with developing countries, and firmly defends the common interests of the developing world. All of these have strengthened the traditional friendship and enhanced the cooperation between China and other developing countries.  

Fifth, to put into practice the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, the Global Civilization Initiative and the Global Governance Initiative. These four global initiatives provide essential underpinnings for the endeavor to build a community with a shared future for mankind from the perspectives of development, security, civilization and governance. They are important public goods, proposed by President Xi Jinping to the international community, and constitute strategic guidance for advancing the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.

Sixth, to promote building an open, inclusive, clean and beautiful world of lasting peace, universal security and shared prosperity. These five features are interconnected and mutually enhancing, representing a package solution. They have provided the worldview and laid out viable pathways for building a better world, setting an overall goal for the community with a shared future for mankind and charting the course for the future of humanity.

9. How should we understand the Global Governance Initiative as the latest outcome in building a community with a shared future for mankind?

In September 2025, President Xi Jinping solemnly put forth the Global Governance Initiative. This major initiative features five core concepts. First, sovereign equality to ensure participation in global affairs by all countries. Second, international rule of law for a just and orderly global governance system. Third, multilateralism for greater solidarity and cooperation among all countries. Fourth, a people-centered approach for universally beneficial and inclusive outcomes of global governance. Fifth, real results for a pragmatic and efficient global governance process.

The Global Governance Initiative responds to the needs of the world and wishes of the people, and provides much needed stability and certainty for this volatile world. The most unequivocal message from the Global Governance Initiative is a call for stronger solidarity. A world marked by transformation and turbulence is in greater need of enhanced global governance than ever before. Blind worship of might, power politics and bullying will only push the world back to the law of the jungle and seriously undermine the foundation of the international system and rules. The Global Governance Initiative has sent a strong message that countries must come together to meet challenges, forging a consensus and a force for solidarity and cooperation to overcome division and confrontation.

The most resolute position of the Global Governance Initiative is to uphold the banner of multilateralism. Multilateralism is the cornerstone of the current international order and an essential path to peace and development. The Initiative upholds the principle of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits: global affairs should be discussed by all, the global governance system built by all and the governance outcomes shared by all. All acts of unilateralism must be rejected. This position reflects the trend of our times and the aspirations of the overwhelming majority of countries. It will boost the confidence and determination of the international community to practice multilateralism and enhance multilateral mechanisms.

The most desired vision of the Global Governance Initiative is a future of fairness. It aims to make the global governance system more just and equitable and bring all countries together toward a Community with a Shared Future for Mankind. It calls for greater representation and voice for developing countries, advocates for equal and uniform application of international law and rules, urges to close the North–South gap as soon as possible for better upholding the common interests of all countries. It calls on developed countries to earnestly fulfill their responsibilities, and on developing countries to seek strength through unity.

10. How can Ukraine benefit from building a community with a shared future for mankind?

On the nearly four-year-old Ukraine crisis, China, guided by the four points about what should be done put forward by President Xi Jinping, worked relentlessly to create conditions and foster consensus for peace. As one of the initiators of the Group of Friends for Peace, China sincerely welcomed all efforts conducive to the peaceful settlement of the crisis and worked actively alongside others to this end. Right now, the window for negotiation is open, and the dawn of peace is within sight. While the road ahead will still be bumpy, China will continue to play a constructive role and hopes that a comprehensive, durable and binding peace agreement could be reached to eliminate the root causes of the conflict and bring about lasting peace and stability in Europe.

The China–Ukraine strategic partnership is a solid political foundation for cooperation across all fields. China always views and advances China-Ukraine relations from a long-term perspective.  China is ready to work with Ukraine to continue implementing the important common understandings reached by the heads of state, deepen mutually beneficial cooperation in all spheres and maintain and advance China–Ukraine relations for the benefit of the two peoples. In recent years, China has been Ukraine’s largest trading partner and the largest source of imports. This is a hard-won outcome under the current circumstances which demonstrates the potential and space for cooperation between the two states. China is ready to work with Ukraine to eliminate unfavorable factors, advance bilateral relations and carry out practical cooperation.

At present, negotiations on a peace agreement have entered a critical stage, and Ukraine’s post-war reconstruction is becoming a major matter affecting directly people’s well-being. China has strong capacity in engineering and construction, highly efficient logistics and supply chains, cost-effective equipment manufacturing and extensive experience in infrastructure development. China can provide the international community with support across the entire industrial chain, especially in such fields as energy, manufacturing, transport, ports, industrial parks and trade. As an important economic and trade partner of Ukraine, China stands ready, within the framework of the bilateral relationship, to play to its strengths and, in light of Ukraine’s actual needs, carry out practical and mutually beneficial cooperation.