China’s Approach to the Realization of the Right to Development from the Perspective of Building a Community with a Shared Future for Mankind: Value Logic, Institutional Dilemmas and Specific Paths

MA Zhongfa* & GONG Weitao**

Abstract: In global human rights governance, the right to development is closely linked to the fundamental interests of developing countries. However, the rules governing the right to development in the current international system are still deeply constrained by Western-dominated paradigms and institutional inertia. The traditional logic of “just war” represented by military intervention has gradually been transformed into more concealed forms such as technological blockades, institutional constraints and economic sanctions. This structural oppression has caused developing countries to face multiple dilemmas in realizing the right to development, including divergences in understanding the nature of the right to development, the weak binding force of relevant international norms, and the vague definition of the content of the right to development, making the problems of uneven development opportunities and unfair competition difficult to solve for a long time. In this regard, grounded in the concept of building a community with a shared future for mankind, this article proposes China’s approach to the realization of the right to development. At the level of value logic, it is necessary to explain the value leap from individual-centeredness to common interests of mankind, from formal equality to substantive fairness, and from confrontation and games to win-win cooperation. At the level of solving institutional dilemmas, it is necessary to reveal the root cause of Western-centrism behind the unequal international economic order and demonstrate the necessity of reshaping the implementation rules of the right to development with the Global Development Initiative. At the level of specific paths, it is necessary to put forward the global governance concept based on the principle of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits to improve the normative system of the right to development, innovate the international development cooperation mechanism through the practice of the Belt and Road Initiative, optimize the structure of global human rights governance with China’s experience of taking the right to subsistence and the right to development as the primary fundamental rights, and contribute a new normative foundation to the governance of the global right to development.

Keywords: right to development · unequal international economic order · people-centered approach · building a community with a shared future for mankind · global development initiative