Community of Shared Future
Text
Building an Asian community of shared destiny
Last year, six countries through which one of the world's longest rivers runs agreed to establish the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation framework to coordinate development works and promote the well-being of the people living in the subregion. Given the Mekong River's rich biodiversity and the riparian zone's delicate environment, the framework will serve as an additional forum for consultations between upper and lower riparian countries. China's decision to release water from its Jinghong Dam last week was hailed as a goodwill gesture that augurs well for the LMC meeting in Sanya, south China's Hainan province, on Wednesday when Chinese Premier Li Keqiang is scheduled to meet the leaders from Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam. The current dry season has led to drought in parts of Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, where many people depend on agriculture and fishing. For instance, Vietnam's Mekong Delta region is facing severe drought, which has harmed rice and fruit productions. The discharge of water from Jinghong Dam will continue until April 10, allowing all riparian countries to store water and plan irrigation, as managing their water supplies remains a common annual dilemma for them. The recent El Nino phenomenon has aggravated the region's water shortage problem, which can be solved only with the cooperation of all stakeholders. The 4,880-kilometer-long river runs through Yunnan province before snaking through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. The LMC framework, agreed by the riparian countries in Jinghong, Yunnan province, in November, will focus on political security issues, economic affairs and sustainable development, as well as social affairs and people-to-people exchanges. Many see the LMC as a mechanism that could promote better understanding and help build trust through information and data sharing, as well as draw all the countries to work together on critical issues such as water management, capacity building and protection of the river's biodiversity. The LMC frame work meeting in Sanya is likely to discuss wide-ranging issues related to water management, connectivity, capacity building, cross-border economic cooperation, agriculture and poverty alleviation. And given the prevailing situation, there is a possibility that the parties will reach an agreement to dredge the river in order to improve navigation in and strengthen security along the river. Kavi Chongkittavorn is a veteran journalist based in Bangkok.
Can China Build a Community of Common Destiny?
Ever since his refreshing public speech in front of international media in late 2012, Chinese President Xi Jinping has been either creating or stressing quite a number of catchphrases. These phrases help showcase his ideas about how to lead China forward. Xi’s catchphrases or keywords include the China dream, new type of great power relations, and a community of common destiny. In 2007, the phrase “community of common destiny” was officially adopted in Hu Jintao’s 17th National Party Congress report to describe the special cross-strait relationship between mainland China and Taiwan. Ever since, Beijing has been keen to use this term to emphasize its important but unique relations with other countries, particularly China’s neighbors. Such comments may be found in Hu Jintao’s June 2012 speech during the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the 18th National Party Congress report made by Hu Jintao in late 2012, Xi Jinping’s speech during his visit to Africa in March 2013, Xi’s speech at the Boao Forum in early 2013, and during Xi’s recent visit to ASEAN countries. In the Conference on the Diplomatic Work with Neighboring Countries on October 25, 2013 in Beijing, Xi Jinping particularly stressed “letting the awareness of community of common destiny take root in the neighboring countries.” This was understood as a guiding principle of China’s diplomacy with its neighbors. The concept of a community of common destiny is the core part of a well-designed and carefully constructed new diplomatic strategy for Xi’s era: there is the “China dream” to maintain domestic unity and stability, “new type of great power relations” to find alternative ways of peaceful co-existence with major powers, and the “community of common destiny” to ensure a peaceful and stable neighboring environment, which is essential for China’s continued rise. Enjoying this article? Click here to subscribe for full access. Just $5 a month. The timing of Xi’s new emphasis on the phrase is interesting — China’s promise of a “community of common destiny” can be regarded as a counter-balancing measure to Washington’s “return to Asia” policy. Beijing takes a slightly different approach that can be described as “strong and powerful but not tough” (in Chinese: 强势但不强硬). This confidence comes from the fact that China is now the world’s second largest economy and is still rising while the incumbent dominant power, the U.S., is in relative decline. Of course, as currently its military growth is understandably causing worries in the region, Beijing also intends to show its neighbors a softer image by emphasizing community and a shared fate. The idea of a community of common destiny also indicates that Beijing has decided to take a leadership role in transforming the multilateral trade system. Recent trade negotiations such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP) show that the West and the U.S. are trying to replace the decades-old multilateral system with a smaller version, which Philip Stephens of the Financial Times described as “midi-lateralism.” Interestingly, the world’s second largest economy has been left out of the TPP and T-TIP talks, despite the fact that China has been the biggest winner in the current multilateral trade system. Moving forward, Beijing may use the idea of a community of common destiny as part of its ambition to ensure that China remains a leader in the multilateral system. China could essentially form a bloc with those countries that more or less depend on its economy. However, Beijing has yet to be genuinely consistent about what its community of common destiny actually means for its neighbors, much less the other regional major or great powers. As a fairly comprehensive political or diplomatic proposition , the concept needs further definition. A similar term would be “community of fate or destiny,” which Ingo W. Schroder describes as countries that “share a common history and have been exposed to the same process of socioeconomic structuring.” Given the extremely complicated historical, cultural, and political diversities throughout the region, China seems to have no choice but to link its initiative to common challenges such as climate change, sustainable development, and anti-terrorism, instead of relying on a common history and similar processes of socioeconomic structuring, much less shared identity, to create a sense of community. Some may question how far such a community can move forward without substantially shared norms and institutions. Beijing seems to have already acknowledged the obstacles and has been more actively involved in various regional and international rule-making processes. But there is still a long way to go. Further, as a great power, it is relatively easy for China to “give” but not always comfortable for those smaller neighbors to “accept.” Take South Korea as an example. Seoul’s economic fate has become increasingly dependent on China’s huge market, while its security so far still depends on the Seoul-Washington alliance. Should China intend to further push forward its initiative of creating a community of common destiny, Beijing will have to carefully calculate the subtle, delicate, and even hidden reactions from all China’s neighbors.
Why Is a Cyber Community of Shared Destiny Important?
The 3rd World Internet Conference was held in Wuzhen, Zhejiang province from Nov 16 to 18. This has been China’s third time to host the event, which has become a significant platform for national governments, businesses and academic circles to communicate on international governance of the cyber space. Although he couldn’t be present in person, Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered a video message at the opening ceremony. In his speech, Xi reiterated China’s wish for building a cyber community of shared destiny. China is demonstrating with a series of practical actions that cyber community of shared destiny is not a broad yet empty concept, but a tangible, realistic, and achievable goal. A cyber community of shared destiny will also become an important foundation for China’s cooperation with the upcoming new US government regarding cyberspace, the Chinese side is eager to continue effective bilateral cooperation in the field. At the first WIC in November 2014, Xi put forward the concept of a “cyber community of shared destiny”. At last year’s event, Xi offered a detailed explanation of the concept, proposing five specific points, including accelerating construction of global Internet infrastructure, promoting transnational cultural exchanges via the Internet, facilitating online economic innovation, preserving cyber security, promoting international governance of the cyber space. Such proposals demonstrate China’s basic understanding of cyber space development, cyber security, and corresponding international cooperation, China also hopes to push forward international cooperation on cyber security under such a consensus and common goal. In order to promote international cooperation, China has also played constructive, instrumental roles in such international organizations for cyber space governance as the WSIS, IGF, UNGGE and ICANN. The 2016 G20 summit in Hangzhou for the first time incorporated the “digital economy” as an important G20 topic, passed the “G20 Digital Economy Development and Cooperation Initiative”, the first international policy document signed jointly by multiple national leaders. The concept of “cyber community of shared destiny” has three core components. First, just like the theme of the latest conference, “Innovation-Driven Internet Development for the Benefit of All”, the concept emphasizes that the international community has a common mission in preserving cyber security, promoting Internet technology development and sharing the dividends of the Internet economy. Each country has witnessed the tremendous changes Internet technologies have brought to society and to people’s livelihoods in recent years. In more and more countries, Internet technology is no longer a luxury, but has become a necessity in everyday life. Nearly 50% of global population has been covered by the Internet, and more than half of Internet users have access to the convenience of broadband communications. On the other hand, the Internet gap between developed and developing countries remains; in the least developed nations, the cost of Internet access is still unaffordable. We have seen the sea changes the Internet has made in China and India, yet these changes have yet to materialize in many under-developed nations. The Internet is not the private property of any country, and its dividends should be shared by all human beings — the ultimate goal of building a “cyber community of shared destiny”. Second, the concept is based on respect for cyber sovereignty. The Internet is free of national borders, but network infrastructure, personal information and Internet users, upon which the Internet relies, are divided by national boundaries. China insists that the United Nations’ principles apply to the cyber space, each country can deal with the Internet in ways it deems appropriate, and free of outside interference. Cyber sovereignty is the basis for each country to enjoy equal rights in cyberspace, and will prevent the “law of the jungle” as well as big-power hegemony in the new realm. Third, the concept holds that peace and harmony should be the main theme on the Internet. China explicitly opposes militarization of cyberspace, cyber crimes, cyber attack and cyber violence, and hopes all countries can reach a consensus on curtailing such “negative energy” in the cyber space, and promote international cooperation. Some recent phenomena in cyberspace corroborated the necessity of building the “cyber community of shared destiny”. Some passive tendencies in cyberspace in the past year have caused worries worldwide. The risk of militarization of cyberspace has increased. Prior to the US presidential campaign, the US and Russia had come into fierce contradiction in cyberspace, the US repeatedly accusing Russia of launching cyber attacks and attempting to influence its general election. It also threatened to engage in a counter-attack, even a big power cyber war. In November, the US announced its cyber troops have developed initial capabilities for practical combat, setting a dangerous precedent for the international community. Also, cyber crimes and hackers have become even more rampant. Since the beginning of this year, large-scale information leaks have taken place in the US, Russia, Turkey and China: Hackers stole private information of millions of individuals and sold the information on the Internet. Such incidents are damaging public confidence in the Internet, and may negatively influence the development and application of Internet technologies for a fairly long period. China and the US are aware of the importance of cooperation in cyberspace. Since 2015, the two countries have held two rounds of high-level dialogue on fighting cyber crimes and related matters, made multiple achievements and reached a number of understandings, successfully prevented mutual suspicion from worsening. China wishes to sustain bilateral cooperation mechanisms regarding cyber issues, and to expand cooperation concerning international multilateral regimes. Some scholars believe, with his isolationist tendency, Donald Trump may take a passive attitude toward international governance and international cooperation as the next US president. But China and the US should have consensus on collaboration in cyberspace. The threats and potential risks in brook no footdragging, they are clear and present dangers. China-US cooperation in cyberspace not only will stimulate humanity’s sharing of Internet dividends, but is also in both countries’ fundamental interest.
Knowledge Graph
Examples
1 Chinese President Xi Jinping said here Saturday that his country is ready to align development strategies with Nepal and hopes to build the two neighbors into a community of shared destiny.
2 In the new year message, President Xi expressed the hope that “the international community can join hands to contribute more peace and cooperation to the world, turn confrontation into cooperation, turn conflicts into peace, and work together to build a community of shared destiny possessed and shared by people of all countries.” This is China’s world view; and also its global dream.
3 The proposal to establish a community of shared destiny for all humankind has made China a shaper of its peripheral diplomacy, which enables it to better safeguard peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region.