Xi Jinping’s concept of the ‘two integrations’ in relation to the concept of a shared future for humanity. Speech to the Symposium held at the London Embassy of the People’s Republic of China on the theme ‘China’s diplomacy and building a community with a shared future for mankind’. 21 February 2024.
Your Excellency Ambassador Zheng Zeguang
Comrades and Friends
Thank you for the invitation and for the excellent and informative introduction and presentation.
On behalf of Friends of Socialist China, I’d like to make some remarks about the concept of a shared future for humanity.
In his article published on January 16, Foreign Minister Wang Yi notes that Xi Jinping Thought on Diplomacy is “a shining example of applying the basic tenets of Marxism to the practice of China’s diplomacy and fine traditional Chinese culture. It has not only built on the proud diplomatic tradition of New China but also kept abreast of the times, broken new ground, and opened up new vistas in China’s diplomatic theory and practice.”
He goes on to explain that “building a community with a shared future for humanity is the core tenet of Xi Jinping Thought on Diplomacy.”
The report published by the Xinhua News Agency on the Central Conference on Work Related to Foreign Affairs adds that this concept addresses how China proposes to solve the questions of what kind of world to build and how to build it, based on a deepening understanding of the laws governing the development of human society. It reflects the Chinese communists’ worldview, perception of order, and values, accords with the common aspiration of people in all countries, and points the direction for the progress of world civilisations.
That being the case, I think it’s valuable to look a little more deeply into how this concept relates to Xi Jinping Thought as a whole.
I will focus here on the “two integrations” advanced by President Xi, namely the integration of Marxism with China’s specific realities and especially the best of its traditional culture. In a June 2023 speech, Xi Jinping pointed out that:
“The ‘two integrations’ is not a far-fetched proposition. Despite their distinct origins, Marxism and traditional Chinese culture exhibit remarkable congruence. For instance, the social principles of pursuing the common good for all and acting in good faith and being friendly to others resonate harmoniously with the ideals and convictions of communism and socialism.”
From this, we can see a close identity between the community of shared future and the ancient Chinese maxim of “pursuing common good for all under heaven”, put forward by Confucius in the Book of Rites as the core concept of the “community of great harmony” centuries before the Christian era. In fact, this idea may be found even millennia before Confucius, for example in the time of the Three Legendary Emperors, Yao, Shun and Yu, between 4000-3000 BCE, whose reputed deeds may be found extolled in bronze vessel inscriptions made between the mid to late Western Zhou dynasty (1046-771 BCE).
How then does it relate to the chronologically second of the ‘two integrations’, namely that of Marxism? After all, some dogmatic Marxists would assert that this concept is devoid of class content.
However, in his recent article, Minister Liu Jianchao of the International Department of the Communist Party of China’s Central Committee asserts that:
“The vision of building a human community with a shared future and the three global initiatives are scientific. They encapsulate the stances, viewpoints, and methods of Marxism, reflecting the hallmarks of Marxism, and demonstrating salient theoretical character. Underpinned by dialectical and historical materialism, the vision and the three global initiatives reveal the laws governing the development of human society and its future direction.”
How to assess this claim? Coincidentally or otherwise, today marks the 176th anniversary of the publication of The Communist Manifesto. Despite all the changes in the world, and the progress, development and application of scientific socialism, this remarkable work of Marx and Engels remains the foundational document of the proletarian movement.
In the Manifesto’s first chapter, Marx and Engels explain that the building of a shared future for humanity actually begins with the revolutionary change from feudalism to capitalism led by the bourgeoisie. They write:
“In place of the old local and national seclusion and self-sufficiency, we have intercourse in every direction, universal interdependence of nations. And as in material, so also in intellectual production. The intellectual creations of individual nations become common property. National one-sidedness and narrow-mindedness become more and more impossible, and from the numerous national and local literatures, there arises a world literature.”
However, they equally note that the bourgeoisie is incapable of carrying this process through to its conclusion, adding:
“All previous historical movements were movements of minorities, or in the interest of minorities. The proletarian movement is the self-conscious, independent movement of the immense majority, in the interest of the immense majority.”
They further reinforce the point in Chapter 2: “National differences and antagonism between peoples are daily more and more vanishing, owing to the development of the bourgeoisie, to freedom of commerce, to the world market, to uniformity in the mode of production and in the conditions of life corresponding thereto. The supremacy of the proletariat will cause them to vanish still faster. “
In his Draft Theses on the National and Colonial Question, written in June 2020, Lenin similarly emphasised that, “there is a tendency towards the creation of a single world economy, regulated by the proletariat of all nations as an integral whole and according to a common plan. This tendency has already revealed itself quite clearly under capitalism and is bound to be further developed and consummated under socialism.”
From this necessarily very brief survey, we can therefore see that, as the core tenet of Xi Jinping Thought on Diplomacy, the concept of a shared future for humanity embodies the ‘two integrations’ and therefore underlines and reinforces the position of Xi Jinping Thought as Marxism for the twenty-first century.