Practical solutions
Hedva Ser, a UNESCO goodwill ambassador for cultural diplomacy and UNESCO artist for peace, said that China today plays an "extremely important role" on the global stage, particularly through its emphasis on peace, development and improvement of people's well-being."China is thinking about its people and about development, not about war. And that is very important," Ser said.She also praised China's contributions to intercultural dialogue and its strong support for UNESCO projects. "The United States stepped out of UNESCO, but we are very fortunate that China remains actively engaged and is providing increasing support."According to a concept paper on the GGI released by the Foreign Ministry, priority will be given to areas where governance demand is urgent, but supply remains insufficient. These include reform of the international financial architecture, artificial intelligence, cyberspace, climate change, trade and outer space.China has said it aims to strengthen communication and cooperation in these areas to build consensus, identify deliverables and achieve early results.As the Paris Agreement marked its 10th anniversary and global climate governance entered a critical stage, China announced in September a new round of Nationally Determined Contributions.In October, the International Organization for Mediation was officially launched in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. It is the world's first intergovernmental legal organization dedicated to resolving international disputes through mediation, representing a new global public good provided by China and its founding partners.In response to both the opportunities and risks posed by the rapid development of artificial intelligence, China proposed the Global AI Governance Initiative in 2023 and, in July this year, called for the establishment of a World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization. The aim, it said, is to ensure that AI is developed for the common good and it benefits all of humanity.Former Norwegian prime minister Kjell Magne Bondevik said that China's size and global presence mean that its initiatives naturally carry wide-ranging impact. "We do not need to agree on everything, but we should engage in dialogue, so we can better understand one another," he said.Former Czech deputy foreign minister Petr Drulak described the GGI as "an important contribution to the ongoing discussion about the future of the world order".Drulak welcomed China's emphasis on multilateralism, noting that the emergence of "more centers of world politics" is already underway. The challenge is ensuring that these centers are "able to sit at one table" and "discuss common rules" for the global economy and broader governance issues, he said.China does not merely accept the fact that it will be one of the centers of world politics, but also seeks to "contribute to finding diplomatic solutions", Drulak said.He said he found it particularly noteworthy that the initiative calls for "reality-based solutions", rather than ideological approaches, which he noted have at times shaped Western debates.In recent years, many people in the West have been so enchanted with ideologies that they forgot about reality, Drulak said, emphasizing that the GGI serves as "a useful reminder that responsible leaders actually respect reality and strive for solutions that are based on reality".The four initiatives proposed by China demonstrate that its global ambitions are accompanied by a sense of responsibility toward the world, reflecting efforts to align national interests with those of the broader international community, he added.Former Spanish deputy prime minister Pablo Iglesias Turrion said the GGI is oriented toward safeguarding peace and promoting development, offering the international community "a new option" at a time when traditional models face growing criticism.He noted that China "never requires its partners to adopt any particular political system or economic model", calling this trait a defining difference between China and other major powers.Grzegorz W. Kolodko, former deputy prime minister and finance minister of Poland, said the GGI has been received particularly well in developing countries, where its emphasis on rules that must be respected "by all parties involved" closely aligns with the priorities of many Global South nations.Kolodko attributed this positive response in part to what he described as a crisis of the so-called rules-based order. Although the system is supposed to be rules-based, "the rules are not observed, and often not honored", particularly under the current US administration, he said.With the global economy highly interconnected yet lacking a unified mechanism to coordinate policies on matters related to the economy, technology and environment, "we do need something like global governance", Kolodko said, adding that the GGI should be considered very seriously and followed to the greatest possible extent.
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