中文
By Zheng Haizhen
In September 2015, while attending the General Debate of the 70th Session of the United Nations General Assembly and delivering an important speech, Chinese President Xi Jinping emphasized that "peace, development, equity, justice, democracy and freedom are common values of all humanity and the lofty goals of the United Nations." Since then, President Xi has on many occasions stressed the need to carry forward the common values of humanity.
Over the past decade, the realities of the international community have once again proved the strong foresight and relevance of the common values of humanity. At present, major power competition is escalating, geopolitical tensions are mounting, the recovery of the world economy remains sluggish and the development gap between the Global South and developed countries continues to widen.
The deficits in peace, development, security and governance are becoming more prominent, leaving humanity once again at a historic crossroads. Firmly carrying forward the common values of humanity fully demonstrates China's sense of responsibility as a major country.
First, the common values of humanity help to forge value consensus, unite people across nations, and lay a moral foundation for consultation and cooperation among countries.
Today, the future and destiny of mankind are closely linked, and the degree of interdependence among countries is deeper than ever before. In the face of mounting global challenges, no country can remain immune on its own. Only through solidarity and joint action can humanity confront its shared problems.
A United Nations flag is pictured at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, June 16, 2025. [Photo/Xinhua]
Joint actions call for shared values. The common values of humanity transcend differences in ideology, social systems and historical and cultural traditions, and foster a broad consensus across civilizations. As humanity lives in the same global village and increasingly shares a common destiny, there are objective common interests, which naturally call for common values. These provide the foundation for international cooperation.
Moreover, the common values of humanity open up new practical pathways for addressing the universal problems facing human society and offer new solutions to the current dilemmas of global governance.
The common values of humanity represent a Chinese proposal in response to profound changes unseen in a century: changes in the world, in our times, and in history itself, with the aim of seeking the common interests of humanity and guiding joint actions.
Confronted with universal human problems, especially questions of survival that concern humanity as a whole, hegemonism, power politics and bullying remain root causes and are gravely harmful, leaving humanity with unprecedented challenges.
The common values of humanity provide new thinking to address today's challenges facing the international community. By applying systematic thinking to the fragmented challenges of our times, they are conducive to resolving the current crises.
Finally, the common values of humanity provide the right conceptual guidance for building a better world and sketching out a bright vision for the future.
Today, there is a huge gap between people's aspirations for a happy life and the realities they face. We need to discard ideological bias, bridge the divides among nations and cultures, and uphold peace, development, equity, justice, democracy and freedom as the common values of humanity. Together, we must cherish and build our shared planet.
The common values of humanity also underpin the vision of a community with a shared future for humanity, injecting spiritual strength into efforts to guide the course of human civilization in the right direction.
To build a community with a shared future for humanity, we must champion the common values of humanity, namely that peace and development are the common cause, equity and justice are the common ideal and democracy and freedom are the common pursuit. These values provide guidance in vision and principles for the peoples of all countries to realize their aspirations for a better life.
Carrying forward the common values of humanity and applying them in concrete and practical ways in global governance is of great significance for resolving the pressing global challenges of today.
In the future, China will continue to engage in exchanges and mutual learning with other countries, firmly carry forward the common values of humanity, work hand in hand to address global challenges, promote the building of a community with a shared future for humanity and make greater contributions to the progress of human civilization.
Zheng Haizhen, a special commentator for CGTN, is an assistant researcher at the Department for Global Governance and International Organization Studies, China Institute of International Studies.
