The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) will convene its 18th meeting of the Council of Heads of Member States in Qingdao, a coastal city in eastern China this week. This is also the first summit since the organization granted full membership to India and Pakistan last year. The SCO is an important international organization and China is one of its initiators and plays a leading role in it. 

The development of the SCO is attributable to the "Shanghai Spirit", namely, mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, mutual consultations, respect for cultural diversity, and aspiration for common development. This brand new spirit best manifests the organization's purposes and principles. 

The SCO upholds new-type concepts of security and cooperation that advocate peace, mutual benefit, cooperation, and win-win results, in endeavors to build a solid moral foundation and a framework for the gradual establishment of a new pattern of international relationship and world order.

The "Shanghai Spirit" shares the same connotation with the idea of building a community with a shared future for humankind, which was proposed by President Xi Jinping in his report delivered at the 19th CPC Congress last October. “We call on the people of all countries to work together to build a community with a shared future for mankind, to build an open, inclusive, clean, and beautiful world that enjoys lasting peace, universal security, and common prosperity,” said Xi. He continued to expound the concept from perspectives of international relations, state-to-state relations, security issues, trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, diversity of civilizations, and ecological protection. 

By comparing the “Shanghai Spirit” with building a community with a shared future for humankind, it is not difficult to discern their similarities. Both ideas hold high the banner of peace, development, cooperation, and mutual benefit, and emphasize the forging of a new form of international relations featuring mutual respect, fairness, justice, and win-win cooperation. 

The two concepts call on all countries to respect each other, discuss issues as equals, resolutely reject the Cold War mentality and power politics, and take a new approach to developing state-to-state relations with communication, not confrontation, and with partnership, not alliance. 

Both concepts commit to settling disputes through dialogue and resolving differences through discussion, coordinate responses to traditional and non-traditional threats, and oppose terrorism in all its forms.

According to the two concepts, we should stick together through thick and thin, promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, and make economic globalization more open, inclusive, and balanced so that its benefits are shared by all.

Both concepts respect the diversity of civilizations. In handling relations among civilizations, they call for replacing estrangement with exchange, clashes with mutual learning, and superiority with coexistence.

From the aforementioned aspects, we can come to the conclusion that the “Shanghai Spirit” and the concept of building a community with a shared future for humankind are consistent in essence. 

The SCO is one of the first major new-type international organizations in which China plays a leading role. Its successful operation in the last two decades is ascribed to the practice of the "Shanghai Spirit," which, as a whole, laid the basis both in theory and substance of the proposal of building a community with a shared future for humankind.

The eight SCO member states, with a total area of 34 million square kilometers, cover three fifths of the Eurasia land mass. They are home to more than three billion inhabitants, nearly half of the population of the planet. Hundreds of ethnic groups live across the vast land, using more than 100 languages and holding a variety of religions. These countries are distinguished by different cultures, religions and social systems. Their differences in the geographic size, national
strength, and international status are even sharper. All the elements contributed to the formation of different ways of living and social development, as well as various social and political cultures in these countries. 

In such a complex geographical and humanistic environment, only the concept of building the community with a shared future for humankind could be able to strengthen unity among nations and ethnic communities, raise the awareness of tolerance, joint discussion and equal cooperation, and promote mutual benefit and win-win results.

I attended an SCO symposium on international issues held in Beijing at the end of March. Participating scholars and politicians thought highly on the idea of building a community with a shared future for humankind. It is a consensus that the concept is advanced, follow the tide of times, and is expected to lead the SCO to achieve greater progress.

At the meeting, SCO Secretary-General Rashid Alimov pointed out that the openness, transparency, and ever-expanding partnership of the SCO will undoubtedly bring the organizational spirit closer to China's concept of building a community with a shared future for humankind. According to Sergei Luzianin, director of the Institute for Far Eastern Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the SCO contains diverse civilizations, which is a salient example for Xi's proposal of building the community with a shared future for all humankind. The Russian scholar said, we can regard the SCO as a model, featuring peace and development. 

Professor Singh of Jawaharlal Nehru University hoped that building a community with a shared future for all humankind could usher in a shared future for the SCO member states and people, and allow them to unite for mutual development and cooperation. Looking into the future, Professor Singh continued, under the guidance of building a community with a shared future for humankind, the SCO has the capacity to play a role in linking a myriad of organizations in the Eurasia land mass and facilitating the establishment of a new Eurasian security order that is positively interacted, so as to safeguard the peace in the region and the world at large. 

China should join hands with all SCO member states and upholds high the banner of building a community with a shared future for humankind. We should base our work on the reality, make concerted efforts, and jointly discuss future plans for mutual development.

On the one hand, all parties should face up to concerned issues and actively consult with each other to figure out on which issues and projects we can improve the level of cooperation and efficiency, and on which specific areas that we can establish mechanisms to improve efficiency.

On the other hand, apart from strengthening mutual political trust, all shareholders should quicken the pace of cultural and people-to-people exchanges, which will lay a solid basis for upgrading the level of cooperation levels. Under the guidance of the concept of building a community with a shared future for humankind, the SCO will move forward steadily and embrace a bright future.

Professor Singh of Jawaharlal Nehru University hoped that building a community with a shared future for all humankind could usher in a shared future for the SCO member states and people, and allow them to unite for mutual development and cooperation. Looking into the future, Professor Singh continued, under the guidance of building a community with a shared future for humankind, the SCO has the capacity to play a role in linking a myriad of organizations in the Eurasia land mass and facilitating the establishment of a new Eurasian security order that is positively interacted, so as to safeguard the peace in the region and the world at large.

China should join hands with all SCO member states and upholds high the banner of building a community with a shared future for humankind. We should base our work on the reality, make concerted efforts, and jointly discuss future plans for mutual development. 
On the one hand, all parties should face up to concerned issues and actively consult with each other to figure out on which issues and projects we can improve the level of cooperation and efficiency, and on which specific areas that we can establish mechanisms to improve efficiency.

On the other hand, apart from strengthening mutual political trust, all shareholders should quicken the pace of cultural and people-to-people exchanges, which will lay a solid basis for upgrading the level of cooperation levels. Under the guidance of the concept of building a community with a shared future for humankind, the SCO will move forward steadily and embrace a bright future.

Sun Changdong is an executive director of the Euro-Asian Social Development Research Institute at the Development Research Center of the State Council.

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