The Chinese path to modernization offers valuable experience for global sustainable development, providing the world with examples of huge-scale, equitable, stable, harmonious, and peaceful development, according to “Humanity 2050: Comprehensive Human and Social Development,” the thematic report of the 2024 Tongzhou Global Development Forum.

Held in Beijing on Oct. 18–20, the forum centered on the theme, “Fostering a Community of Shared Development and Building a New Era of Humanity Together.” Attendees engaged in in-depth discussions on such topics as global smart governance and the new model of human advancement, interconnectivity within the Belt and Road Initiative, new energy and global climate agenda, and the global food system and food security.

According to Danilo Türk, former president of Slovenia, globalization is entering a new development stage, raising an urgent need for fresh momentum towards sustainable development. He emphasized the importance of avoiding large-scale war worldwide to better cope with regional and global conflict, averting global climate-related disasters to better respond to climate change, and preventing economic crises to better support economic development. Türk added that the report presented at the forum provided essential insights in these areas.

Currently, the inherent flaws of capitalism have manifested as systemic crises across political, economic, cultural, and other spheres, prompting reflections on global development and reform to the governance system, said Solly Mapaila, general secretary of the South African Communist Party.

Pursuing development remains the core agenda and unifying discourse of the Global South, Mapaila said. He urged countries of the bloc to work in solidarity and cooperation to sustain South-South cooperation and South-North dialogue. Such efforts, he noted, would enable the Global South to assume a more pivotal role on the international stage, infusing new contemporary implications into the advancement of world prosperity and development, and paving the way towards a brighter future for humanity.

Dev Prasad Gurung, general secretary of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre), stressed that peace is the basis for friendly international cooperation and is the premise for world development and human progress. Only by maintaining peace and stability can a prosperous world with a shared future truly be realized.

Gurung’s view was echoed by Qian Chengdan, founding director of the Institute of Area Studies at Peking University, who said that peace preconditions development, and peace and development remain the main themes of the contemporary world.

The experiences of the two world wars have shown humanity that there is neither a universally “correct” path to development nor a single set of universally applicable values. This understanding requires recognizing that civilizations are diverse, viewing humanity as an equitable, global family, and affirming each country’s right to pursue its own development path and model, Qian said.

Gurung pointed out that China has not only achieved tremendous results in South-South cooperation, eradicating absolute poverty, advancing sci-tech innovation, and enhancing infrastructure construction, but has also played a guiding role in facilitating world peace and development.

Grzegorz W. Kolodko, former deputy prime minister and finance minister of Poland, attributed China’s globally remarkable development partly to its efforts to embrace the world as a major country, a gesture that has consistently injected new impetus into global economic growth.

Hosted by Renmin University of China, the event represented the first international forum staged by a Chinese university to contribute to designing targets and strategies for achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.