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China has offered just another public benefit to the world. "I look forward to working with all countries for a more just and equitable global governance system and advancing toward a community with a shared future for humanity,” said Chinese President Xi Jinping when proposing the Global Governance Initiative at the "Shanghai Cooperation Organization Plus" meeting in Tianjin.

Reforming and improving global governance that the international community currently has is first and foremost a requirement of our time.

In the aftermath of the horrors of World War II and with the purpose of avoiding the repetition of a conflict with consequences as brutal as those that the world had just experienced, people came together and founded a new multilateral system centered around the United Nations. Since then, the UN system has established itself as the main forum for international dialogue and cooperation in areas that concern all of humanity, such as peace and security, human rights, sustainable development, disarmament, and many others. The UN system, together with the formation of multipolarity in international orders after the Cold War, has pioneered and practiced the idea of global governance.

Yet the great transformation of our times is also revealing the urgency of reforms needed in the current global governance mechanisms. Data from the International Monetary Fund show that with an average annual growth rate of more than 3 percent, emerging markets and developing economies now take up more than 60 percent of the world economy. Also, Global South countries are leading a wave of cleansing the dregs of colonization in global governance, vocally demanding their very own rights to sovereignty, peace and development. The drive for change by these economies and countries is fundamental and the changes they are bound to bring are revolutionary.

Secondly, improving global governance is just the right thing to do in face of the common challenges we have now. No nation is really an island in this era. We are still far from providing satisfactory solutions to traditional transnational challenges, such as arms control, migration and others. In the meantime, new issues continue to rise: climate change, the digital divide, governance of artificial intelligence, etc. Old and new problems combined are testing whether human beings can rise to the occasion, overcome their differences and try to tackle common threats together, for no country or government can deal with any of them on their own.

Thirdly, improving global governance is a prerequisite for upholding international justice and the rule of law. Just how vocal Global South countries are on their rights these days is a reflection of how long Western hegemony has dominated international affairs and global governance. Flashpoint issues in the past few decades – trade disputes being the most recent and notable – have shown that the misguided beliefs in “might is right,” or “the law of the jungle” are destabilizing forces for world order. People across continents are coming to realize that, to guard international justice and the rule of law, work needs to be done in the rules-making: creating a global governance system that opposes hegemonism and advances justice for all.

Lastly, there are practical changes our current global governance mechanisms must make to address the mismatch with the need by the international community on governance issues. For one thing, the act of treading on the principles of the UN Charter or paralyzing global institutions such as the WTO must stop and the authorities of international treaties and organizations must be respected. For another thing, the vast number of developing countries and the Global South should have sufficient representation in major international mechanisms such as the IMF quota and the World Bank's shareholding.

China proposes the Global Governance Initiative on the basis of its decades-long experience as a global governance practitioner. On security issues, China is the second largest financial contributor to both the UN and UN peacekeeping operations and provides more peacekeepers than any of the other permanent members of the Security Council. China also provided its way in resolving hotspot issues, such as facilitating the historic reconciliation of Iran and Saudi Arabia, presenting the "six-points common understandings" with Brazil on the political settlement of the Ukraine crisis. On economic governance, China has played leading roles in establishing new multilateral platforms such as the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and the New Development Bank (NDB). China has also been a strong advocator of the rights of the Global South, either through multilateral platforms such as the BRICS group or the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, or by calling on safeguarding interests of the Global South on emerging issues such as climate change or artificial intelligence (AI).

Yet the most profound influence China brings to global governance is the principle it adheres to on governance issues: “extensive consultation, joint contribution, and shared benefits.” Rather than one leading power deciding the fate of others, all nations should partake in the rules-making and practicing on critical issues of our time on an equal basis. This is the belief that China holds and on which China has proposed the Global Development Initiative (GDI), Global Security Initiative (GSI), Global Civilization Initiative (GCI) and, today in Tianjin, Global Governance Initiative (GGI).

To sum up, the Global Governance Initiative is China's answer to the call of our time. It is also China taking up its responsibility as an important member of the Global South community and as the world’s second largest economy. The blueprint has been drawn and the endeavor for action is upon us all.

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