Xi's vision on shared future of humanity an 'outstanding' theoretical achievement, British sociologist

LONDON - Chinese President Xi Jinping's vision of a human community with a shared future has been an "outstanding" theoretical achievement of global significance, a renowned British sociologist said.

"When you talk about a shared human future, you talk about the things that we can do together in the future, not a future where we are all the same," Martin Albrow, a fellow of the British Academy of Social Sciences, told Xinhua.

Albrow has made multiple visits to China since the 1980s and has been closely watching China's development.

A pioneer in the study of globalization in the West, he has been focusing his research on China's development, systems and governance in recent years.

Albrow told Xinhua that he first came across the idea of a human community with a shared future in the book "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China," and that he was impressed most by Xi's "logical and theoretical exploration of concepts."

"For the future, you have to have ideas developing all the time," he said. "And this is what Xi Jinping does. He is, from that point of view, absolutely outstanding."

That is how he started off with years of research into this idea, having published two books in recent years, titled "China's Role in a Shared Human Future: Towards Theory for Global Leadership" in 2018 and "China and the Shared Human Future: Exploring Common Values and Goals" lately.

At the launch of his new book in April, Albrow said the idea of building a human community with a shared future was to update the age old Chinese idea of harmony without uniformity, between cultures, including all people.

In his new book, the British scholar wrote that the COVID-19 has shown to perfection that it is imperative for human beings to work together to meet global challenges and build a human community with a shared future, and that it is also imperative for all in the world to recognize that mankind has a shared destiny and future and must therefore look out for each other and marshal a collective response to global challenges.

At present, China offers the world qualities that can mobilize other countries to meet global threats, he noted.

China now, with its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), is for the first time in its history taking its unique national experience into a wider world far beyond its traditional boundaries, Albrow said in his book.

The proposal's main difference from the Western-inspired models of governance is that it looks to shared goals rather than the imposition of rules, and it approaches other cultures in the spirit of finding common goals and shared projects, he added.

"The global future of the human species ... is an issue which commands the attention of people everywhere in the world. There are so many things that need to be done. So China can take the lead on that," Albrow said.

This echoed his words during a previous interview with Xinhua, in which he said: "Belt and Road provides the world with two important examples of how to build a community of shared future. Firstly it shows that technologies cross boundaries. They are the products of human ingenuity and efforts that can benefit all who care to make use of them. Secondly, it is the exact opposite to isolation. China and the other nations joining in the Belt and Road agreements are using their sovereign rights and power to work towards goals that all can share and help to meet global challenges that face us all."

"China has this fabric of ideas which holds it together ... It is also held together by its past and its culture," the expert said. "China has a theoretically-led government system. This is one of the most extraordinary strengths of it."

The global future "is an issue which commands the attention of people everywhere in the world, not just people of this country or that country," Albrow noted.

Tackling such big global issues as climate change, nuclear security and deforestation needs "the focus for collective activities, which go beyond national boundaries," he said.