Humanity is at the crossroads, with cascading crises threatening the very survival of mankind. Along with the erosion of the West-led order, the Hobbesian state of nature_ where every state is against every state to seek its survival_ is unfolding. Global inequality, food insecurity, rising conflicts, marginalization of the Global South, innovation of new technologies, and climate change are fatal flaws that, if left unresolved, could practically mean the end of the human race on the face of this planet. In this context, the grand Chinese vision of global transformation through multilayered initiatives brings hope. These initiatives aim to bridge humanity’s divisions by adopting a holistic, cooperative, and human-centered approach, reviving multilateralism and cooperative institutions for the betterment of the whole humanity.
Western institutions have weaponized the global financial institutions to maintain their hegemony. A Lancet Global Health report estimated that Western unilateral sanctions have caused 38 million deaths since 1970, averaging nearly a million each year. Unlike this model, China’s Global Development Initiative (GDI) aims to provide developing states with expanded fiscal space, investment opportunities, and to encourage them to opt for a people-centered approach. Since its launch in 2021, according to a 2023 Xinhua News Agency report, GDI has more than 100 members, and its UN-based “Group of Friends” has around 70 members. It helps uphold the UN’s SDGs, green transition, and climate goals.
GDI, along with BRI, which has more than 140 members globally, is marked as the “twin engine” of growth, prosperity, and development. In 1982, the number of people living in extreme poverty was 1.94 billion, but recently these figures have dropped between 808 to 831 million, updated World Bank 2025 report shows. According to another World Bank report, China has lifted almost 800 million people out of poverty, almost half of the global total. This development makes China’s vision more appealing for curbing global food inequality, food shortages, and extreme poverty worldwide. This indicates Beijing’s preparedness and appetite to resolve humanity’s issues by prioritizing the agenda of “development first,” contrary to growing rhetoric in specific countries of opting for a “state-first” agenda.
Whereas the Global Security Initiative (GSI), launched in 2022, highlights the concept of “indivisible security” and upholds that one state’s security must not come at the expense of others. A report of a PRIO Paper said that in 2024, more than 61 conflicts in 36 countries were going on; also, 2024 is marked as the fourth deadliest year since the end of the Cold War in 1989, with major conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine. GSI calls for a cooperative security environment by opening dialogue and fostering communication and joint training opportunities. Through this initiative, China has pledged to provide 5000 training opportunities in the next five years for developing states to counter global security issues. The 12th Beijing Xiangshan conference on global security issues was attended by more than a hundred representatives of different countries, regions, and officials of international organizations, which shows growing confidence in Chinese initiatives.
Also, through SCO, Beijing, along with member states, helps formulate uniform security measures to tackle regional security issues to avoid mistrust and enhance confidence in each other. Furthermore, Chinese mediation efforts, including the 2023 rapprochement between two arch-rivals, Saudi Arabia and Iran, present China as a new emerging global leader and show Chinese willingness to take global responsibilities amidst a growing anarchic environment. Above all, GSI includes tackling all traditional as well as non-traditional threats, such as cyber, climate change, and avoiding pandemics.
Moreover, the Global Civilization Initiative (GCI), which is a diplomatic initiative launched in 2023, calls for an inclusive approach to ensure peace, harmony, and create a community with a shared future for mankind. It aims to ensure cooperation of civilizations, not “clash of civilizations”. It also includes respecting diversity and gaining soft power through joint cultural exchanges and social interactions by providing Visa-Free access to students of specific countries in China.
Last but not least, the Global Governance Initiative (GGI) launched in September 2025, aims to reform post-World War II defunct power-based global institutions, most importantly the United Nations. These global institutions have been reduced to symbols of nothingness with no practical effectiveness and almost negligible Global South’s aspirations and say in them. The structure of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) only ensures countries with veto powers to control world politics, especially the USA and its Western allies. Chinese vision revolves around revising these institutions to ensure equal say of Global South states as per global reality, which the West is unwilling to accept. This initiative also calls for multilateralism, fair global governance, and international cooperation on climate change, Artificial Intelligence, and cybersecurity. China, along with like-minded states, is pushing for a global reform agenda through BRICS, SCO, and other regional and international organizations.
Since the end of the Cold War, few powers have unilaterally tried to change the political landscape of other sovereign states, which left nothing but a vacuum, and later they succumbed to international terrorism, political instability, and civil wars, costing hundreds of thousands of precious lives and mass deportations of others because of droughts and chaos that followed. To avoid such a humanitarian crisis, China has presented its vision of global governance, which doesn’t set any conditions other than ensuring respect for sovereign equality, conforming to the territorial integrity of other states and institutional governance with increased say of developing states.
By joining these four initiatives, one gets a clear picture of Chinese efforts to transform the world we live in. GDI helps resolve problems of food shortages, rising hunger, increasing international conflicts, global development issues, and implement the UN’s 2030 SDGs. GSI helps by clearing all the obstacles in achieving these aims by improving common security measures through international cooperation and communication, and by establishing new channels. It also brings attention to rising threats in non-traditional domains such a biotechnology, artificial intelligence, and disruptions in cyber, space, and maritime areas by highlighting the need for urgent international consensus to avoid lingering mistrust and catastrophe. Whereas GCI steps in to create trust among different civilizations, which is essential for global cooperation and engagement. And GGI resolves systematic inequalities by focusing on institutions necessary for such cooperation and dialogue.
In a nutshell, China has a viable comprehensive plan for eliminating rising global inequality, widening food insecurity, and furthering sustainable development as a solution to reducing global conflicts and promoting multilateralism through international engagement based on sovereign equality. These initiatives are not just rhetorical gestures but practical blueprints for bringing humanity together and bridging mutual gaps. If these initiatives are embraced globally, they can truly make the world a better, peaceful, and harmonious living place to cherish and realize the Chinese aim of fostering an international community with a shared future for mankind, where no country and no person is left behind.
Participant of ICSF-UoS Fellowship Program 2025-26 at University of Sargodha.
