The Report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) is an action plan for the CPC to rally and lead the people to uphold and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics on the new journey of the new era. It gives a rational answer to the philosophical question of “Where is socialism with Chinese characteristics headed on the new journey of the new era” that underlies in the development course of this country, and contains strategic thinking that is forward-looking, big-picture, and pioneering. From a strategic perspective, the Report to the 20th National Congress points out a scientific path for China’s future development, clarifies phased tasks, and defines specific strategic choices, reflecting the forwardlooking strategic vision of planning the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Based on the viewpoint of holistic, developing, and universal connection, it aims to achieve the unity between local and overall interests in strategic deployment, the unity between the present and the future in strategic objectives, and the unity between domestic and international development in strategic vision. It highlights the principles of scientific socialism as upholding the guidance of Marxism, the overall leadership of the CPC, and the people’s decisive role in history, pioneering a new frontier in adapting Marxism to the Chinese context and the needs of the times.
The sudden onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic brought people the most serious global public health emergency since the end of World War II. Posing a threat to human survival and development, the pandemic has given prominence to global issues concerning life safety and ecological security and triggered studies on their integrated advancement. Only by fully understanding the importance and urgency of the life-ecology integrated security and establishing the new idea, new strategy, new plan, and basic path can we survive deadly emergencies, build a community with a shared future and health for all, and jointly contribute to and share the benefits of a safe, healthy and beautiful world with common prosperity, long-lasting peace and stability of humanity.
The building of a shared community requires enduring efforts. The human community with a shared future is the largest community of human society for nation-states so far, an inevitable result of globalization. In this era, globalization needs to be oriented at demolishing the false universality in the past and rebuild the genuine universality, which makes building a human community with a shared future constructively logical in contemporary globalization. The new universality is the shared values of humanity. In essence, the shared values of humanity are a “common good” formed by all nations for their common interests, common needs, and common development, which makes them a new universality. The emergence and formation of the shared values of humanity was developed naturally in the long term among the exchanges of all nations. From the perspective of the thinking mode, the shared values of humanity focus on the “communicative rationality” in the intersubjectivity of the countries and the nations instead of hegemonic rationality, while adhering to the consultative principle. From the perspective of the internal structure, the shared values of humanity unite the value of existence and development. Their fundamental connotation reveals that the shared values of humanity dialectically unite cultural commonness and particularity. Building a human community with a shared future and its core shared values has in fact proposed a new model for human advancement. The fundamental connotations of the new model for human advancement can be classified into three aspects: new cultural value, the new paradigm of civilization, and new cultural experience.
On the basis of recognizing the diversity of cultures and civilizations in the world and the existence of different values among people of different nations, regions, and countries, the shared values of humanity pursue after the largest common ground and greatest convergence of values of all mankind. Shared values of humanity are the deep cultural structure of a human community with a shared future, and value and ethical consensus is necessary to form at the global level to promote the building of a human community with a shared future. Shared values of humanity embody the public good of all peoples and countries in the world in the fields of common interests, needs, and development, serve as the ethical guidelines for reconstructing the rules for interaction and order of communication of the international society in the era of globalization, and represent the ethical vision for the development of a human community with a shared future. Shared values of humanity lay the ethical foundation for promoting the construction of a human community with a shared future. Specifically, peace and development represent the ethical consensus on the survival of the community; fairness and justice advocate the new ethical consensus on international relations formed within the framework of the community; and democracy and freedom demonstrate the political-ethical consensus of the community.
General Secretary Xi Jinping deeply grasps the overall strategic situation of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and great changes in the world unseen in a hundred years, and forms the important thought of carrying forward the shared values of humanity of peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy, and freedom and promoting the building of a human community with a shared future. The shared values of humanity provide value basis for the community, confirm the morality of the community, and lay the foundation of value recognition for building the community. A human community with a shared future is the practice area for the shared values of humanity, providing it with a real subject and delimiting the boundaries of the times. The shared values of humanity and a human community with a shared future complement each other, and are dialectically unified in the planning and grasp of the “two overall situations,” i.e., the overall strategic situation of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and great changes in the world unseen in a century．
The concept of the shared values of humanity, embodying the spirit of putting people first and solving real-life problems, is of great significance for constructing a new global order and building a human community with a shared future. The shared values of humanity respect the differences in understanding and realization paths of different civilizations, and seek common grounds with an inclusive and open attitude. The core socialist values are an embodiment and an extension of the shared values of humanity. The fine traditional Chinese culture has also laid a profound cultural basis for the pursuit of the shared values of humanity, enabling us to make up a better scheme for building a human community with a shared future from the perspective of civilization.
Marx’s thought of community has experienced three stages in logic and is rooted in the social fundamental contradictions between productive forces and universal communication in content. It reflects the evolution of history into world history and human’s free and all-round development tending towards the unity of individuals and communities. Faced with the profound changes never seen in a century, the thought of building a human community with a shared future inherits and carries forward Marx’s idea of community in three aspects, i.e., the practice of building a social community, the ultimate focus on human destiny, and the grand vision of promoting historical development in human society. In addition, under the historical context of socialism and capitalism coexisting, the thought of building a human community with a shared future creates and shows a new state of Marx’s idea of community in three aspects, namely, dimension remodeling, path reshaping, and value reinterpretation. It presents a new model for historical significance and human civilization of a world of openness, probability and promise to promote the transformation from the modern society to a human society.