Interview: Xi's initiatives even more relevant as West moves towards blocs, says expert

NEW YORK -- The idea of building a community with a shared future for mankind, initiated by Chinese President Xi Jinping 10 years ago, is "even more relevant" and "being recognized today in spades," a renowned US scholar has said.

Xi's commitment to multilateralism is a thread linking all the initiatives he put forward -- the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative and the Global Civilization Initiative, Sourabh Gupta, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Institute for China-America Studies, told Xinhua in a recent interview.

A key message in these initiatives proposed by Xi has been the United Nations' core role, he said. "It is about there is one world and we can't run away from that. We have to live together. We have to sort our problems together."

"If we frame our collective action under the UN umbrella, we will be able to have the widest possible buy-in into the system, which will be good for the long-term sustainability and prosperity of all human beings. And I think that was the key point he was making," Gupta said.

"That point is even more relevant today and is being recognized today in spades given the developments that we've seen over the last five to seven years in international relations," he said, referring to the bloc-based acts by the West including de-globalization, which is creating "very self-centered" supply chains and leading to unilateral sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction.

As Xi has said that countries around the world are like passengers aboard the same ship who share the same future, Gupta said "we have to manage our affairs on the ship and the ship needs to move forward."

"We need to work with an existing multilateral system, which we already own and must nourish and tend to," said the expert, adding "That is very important ... The more one can bring more people under the same tent to resolve issues, the better it'll certainly be for all of us."

"There's another important point he wants to get across. We cannot get separated into bloc-based formations. It is a derivative of that point of multilateralism," Gupta said. "Bloc-based behavior is actually an antechamber to war whether it be a cold war or a hot war."

"And we are again seeing this business of coalition of the willing ... how the way the West frames it in terms of special partners, etc., is leading to this bloc-based universe, this bloc-based world, the bloc-based system," said Gupta. "That is not going to end in a good way for anybody."

Countries need to have good friendship without acting or directing against third parties, still less going into blocs, and they need to be committed to a UN-centered mechanism where problems can be solved, he concluded.