Exploring the Path of Opportunities
Toward a Better Future
Keynote Speech by He Ping
Presidium Member of the Belt and Road Journalists Network, President of the All-China Journalists Association
At the 2024 Belt and Road Journalists Forum
August 31, 2024
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Friends,
It is an absolute delight to reunite with journalists from all over the world in the charming mountain city of Chongqing one year later to attend the 2024 Belt and Road Journalists Forum. First and foremost, on behalf of the All-China Journalists Association, I would like to extend a warm welcome to all our friends coming from afar.
Chongqing, a city of both mountains and rivers, lies at the junction of the Belt and Road and the Yangtze River Economic Belt. It suggests that where mountains meet waters, there is access to the rivers and the sea; where hearts connect, there is a gathering of strength, with the latter being precisely the responsibility of the media.
With this common objective in mind, joint efforts have been made to continuously improve the cooperative mechanism of journalist organizations from the Belt and Road countries since the inaugural Belt and Road Journalists Forum in 2017. The number of members has continued to expand, the exchange activities have become diverse, and the fruits of our collaboration have been increasingly evident. So far, the Belt and Road Journalists Network has covered more than 1.6 million journalists at home and abroad, playing a unique role in promoting media exchanges and facilitating international cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
The world today is confronted with accelerated changes unseen in a century. Compared to this time last year, the unceasing occurrence of “black swan” and “gray rhino” events has added more instability and uncertainty to a world fraught with turbulence and change. At this juncture, the news media need to collaborate more closely than ever before to disseminate positive energy and expand the convergence of interests in a turbulent world.
Here, I would like to share with you some contemplations on the theme of this forum, “Expand the Path of Opportunities, Share a Bright Future.”
First, sharing opportunities to ensure the Silk Road spirit gains a firmer place in people’s hearts
Development is an aspiration of the people of all countries, particularly the developing countries. The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held in July this year adopted a blueprint for further deepening reform comprehensively to advance Chinese modernization. This blueprint shows China’s unwavering determination to achieve modernization and its aspiration to achieve modernization of all developing countries through joint efforts.
Peace and cooperation, openness and inclusiveness, mutual learning, and mutual benefit—these encapsulate the Silk Road spirit and represent China’s commitment to sharing development opportunities with the world. At the Third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation held last October, President Xi Jinping announced eight steps to support high-quality Belt and Road cooperation. They constitute the core content of the new phase and new tasks and provide a new roadmap for high-quality Belt and Road cooperation.
The Belt and Road cooperation has provided new opportunities for and injected new impetus into the world economy. In addition, it has opened up new fields of reporting for media worldwide and offered them fresh subjects to cover.
I recall that at last year’s forum, the head of the Union of Journalists of Kazakhstan stated that the BRI would increase the country’s GDP by 20 percent. Experts in the Egyptian media mentioned that Chinese investment in Egypt has created approximately 30,000 direct jobs for the local people. These facts fully demonstrate that Belt and Road cooperation was proposed by China, but its benefits and opportunities are for the world to share.
Let us join hands to recount more captivating BRI-related stories. We should tell stories of different countries about sharing opportunities and realizing common development and prosperity. We should focus on the converging interests of all countries and reflect the sense of fulfillment of people in all countries. We should carry forward the Silk Road spirit and jointly contribute to building the Belt and Road into a road for peace, prosperity, openness, innovation and civilization, constantly turning people’s longing for a better life into reality.
Secondly, jointly fulfilling the mission to increase the public appeal of the vision of a community with a shared future for mankind
As a Chinese saying goes, “A just cause should be pursued for the common good.” Building a community with a shared future for mankind is China’s answer given by President Xi Jinping to the question of the times, “What kind of world we need and how to build such a world,” as the world is undergoing profound changes unseen in a century. It meets the prevailing aspiration of people around the world, points the direction for the progress of world civilization, and has become a glorious banner leading the progress of the times.
A global public good provided by China, BRI provides a platform for building a community with a shared future for mankind. Over the past decade, the BRI has injected fresh vitality into the millennia-old Silk Road in the new era and new impetus into the global economy, and has built a new platform for international economic cooperation. Landmark projects such as the China-Europe Railway Express, Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Railway, Ethiopia-Djibouti Railway, Mombasa-Nairobi Railway and Hungary-Serbia Railway and “small yet smart” livelihood projects such as the Luban Workshop are scattered like stars across the vast continents of Asia, Europe, and Africa.
Last autumn, I had the honor of being at a station of the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway and witnessed local technicians and Chinese technicians working jointly to dispatch a train running through the East African savannah, the cradle of human civilization. This 480-kilometer-long modern railway, along with the abovementioned Belt and Road projects, bears witness to the mutual benefit of China and the rest of the world and has become an important engine driving the economic development of countries along the route.
We have only one planet, and countries share one world. As media entities, we should follow the trend of the times featuring peace, development and win-win cooperation, grasp the logic of progress of the times, and jointly construct new narrative frameworks as well as new discourse expressions that transcend differences in ideologies, social systems and historical cultures. We should embrace cultural diversity and global harmony, and stand as proactive advocates, enthusiastic communicators, and vigorous promoters of building a community with a shared future for mankind. Together, we will usher in an era of common development and shared prosperity.
Thirdly, jointly shouldering moral responsibility to see that common values of humanity take deeper roots in the heart of the people
Peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy, and freedom are values shared by all humanity and the guiding principles for building a community with a shared future for mankind. They embody the commonalities among civilizations on the essence and realization of values and stand on the moral commanding heights of human civilization.
Belt and Road cooperation is based on the principle of “planning together, building together, and benefiting together.” It transcends differences between civilizations, cultures, social systems, and stages of development. It has opened up a new path for exchanges among countries and established a new framework for international cooperation. Indeed, the BRI represents humanity’s joint pursuit of development for all.
With a keen understanding of the advancement of human civilization, we should consciously undertake the due responsibility of the media, and focus on the common cause, common aspiration and common pursuit of humanity. We should widely disseminate the fine achievements of civilizations created by different countries and nations to ensure that cultural exchanges transcend estrangement, mutual learning transcends clashes, and coexistence transcends feelings of superiority. We should forge closer bonds with other peoples, and enhance solidarity and cooperation. By doing these, we aim to contribute our share as journalists to the building of an open, inclusive, clean and beautiful world of lasting peace, universal security, and shared prosperity.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Friends,
As a Chinese poem reads, “The boundless forest sheds its leaves shower by shower; The endless river rolls its waves hour after hour.”
Changes of the world, of our times, and of historical significance are unfolding like never before, and the world has entered a new period of turbulence and transformation. Yet the overall direction of human development and progress will not change, the overall dynamics of world history moving forward amid twists and turns will not change, and the overall trend toward a shared future for the international community will not change.
For the news media, we are not only the chroniclers of historical events but also the catalysts of historical progress. We should stand on the right side of history.
I wish this forum a complete success.
Thank you all.