中文
Tourists admire views at the Bund in Shanghai in September. [Photo by Wang Gang/China Daily]
By Hujjatullah Zia
China has been constantly sharing the cake of its development with the rest of the world and paid especial significance to common prosperity and interests. It is a heavyweight contributor to global economy as Beijing has been sharing its industrial products and technological development with the world and is widely engaged in multilateral exchanges.
To achieve common prosperity, China has reiterated multilateral give-and-take, wider opening-up, and broader connectivity – which are highly crucial to economic development for the entire globe. At the opening ceremony of the 4th China Intl Import Expo (CIIE), President Xi Jinping has renewed China's commitment to "safeguard true multilateralism", "share market opportunities", "promote high-standard opening-up" and "uphold the common interests of the world".
As a journalist who lived in China, I have noticed that multilateralism, opening-up policy, and exchanges form the building blocks of President Xi's statements in national and international forums, which signifyies that the Communist Party of China is seeking to warmly shake hands with all nations and share the fruit of its development. In short, sharing and caring have changed into a common narrative among Chinese officials.
It is self-explanatory that trade leads to tolerance. For instance, a seller will sell its product to anyone regardless of their castegender, color or creed. On the other hand, a customer will purchase an item simply for needing it without asking the seller's identity, racial background or political orientation. With the passage of time, the seller and customer are most likely to cultivate a friendly tie and will show no tinge of intolerance towards each other.
In the meantime, the seller is dependent on the customer to run its business and the buyer needs to buy the product to fulfill its requirement, which is a win-win situation.
Considering the aforementioned facts, the China has made constant effort to boost tolerance via trade and support the win-win situation so as to pave the ground for peaceful coexistence. In other words, the Chinese nation is fully aware that, in the current global village, trade and commercial exchanges are strongly linked to tolerance and peaceful coexistence. On the contrary, protectionism and only-my-backyard mindset will deal a strong blow to global economy and shrink the space for tolerance.
The COVID-19 pandemic left no doubt that human societies are strongly connected to one another and share common destiny. Since the outbreak has traveled so fast throughout the world, economic boom and bust will also impact all nations. A nation is not able to exclude itself from the destiny of the rest of the world. In such a case, developing by its own is not possible.
Take the issue of terrorism for example, if a country is destabilized by a terrorist group, the entire globe will be prone to its spillover and refugee exodus.
The issues of pandemic and terrorism should be an eye-opener, for all nations, that pursuing individual interests at the cost of the interests of other states will be self-destructive. Realizing this fact, China is seeking to share market opportunities and the cake of its economic development with the rest of the world.
China, with 1.4 billion population, provides a vast market for global product. In the meantime, its giant industrial and technological enterprises export quality product to every corner of the world to meet the public demands. Hence, Beijing contributes much to the international economy.
The recent remarks of President Xi at the CIIE indicates that China wants all nations to board the train of its development and progress. That is, the door of China is open wide to all nations – regardless of their social, political and cultural differences – for economic give-and-take.
Overall, multilateral exchanges and sharing market opportunities, to which China is committed, will not only lead to economic development for the human societies, but also promote public tolerance. To enjoy a developed and tolerant atmosphere, all states have to embrace economic sharing and multilateralism with open arms.
The author is a political analyst and senior writer in Daily Outlook Afghanistan.
