In March 2023, CiSDG was commissioned by relevant parties to undertake the research project “China’s Participation in the Construction of Global Governance System”. The project is led by Professor Gong Sen, and includes a multidisciplinary research team composed of experts and scholars from Zhejiang University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Suzhou University, and Peking University.
On May 7th, 2023, the Center held a project kickoff meeting to summarize the preliminary research results and advance the next steps. The meeting was chaired by Professor Gong Sen, and invited experts and scholars including Professor Zheng Yongnian, former director of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen) and honorary director of the Zhejiang (Zhejiang University) Centre for International Studies on Development and Governance; Professor Zhou Jianghong, dean of the School of Social Sciences and director of the Zhejiang (Zhejiang University) Centre for International Studies on Development and Governance; Professor Yu Xunda, president of the Zhejiang Provincial Political Science Association and professor at the School of Public Administration at Zhejiang University; and Assistant Professor Yuan Rendong, vice director of the Academy of International Affairs at the Qianhai International Institute for Innovative Research. Key members of the research team, including Li Jia, Zhang Ze, Jin Zhangfeng, and Li Chunsheng, also attended the meeting.
Professor Zheng Yongnian believed that inclusiveness is the foundation of global governance, including the security system centered on the United Nations, the economic system centered on the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, and the value system centered on modernization. He stated that the current global governance system has shown signs of loosening, and that China should seize the opportunity to learn from Western developed countries such as the United States and Britain, and formulate a circle-based global governance strategy that separates core, peripheral, and other objects, levels, and fields, while fully considering the costs and benefits. He also emphasized that the differences in values should not be exaggerated, and that an inclusive global governance system should be constructed.
Professor Zhou Jianghong emphasized the importance of the research for China’s participation in global development and the construction of an independent knowledge system in China. He also pointed out that international law is a very important perspective in the research. Professor Yu Xunda believed that the key to global governance lies in institutional reform, which can truly promote China’s modernization. He suggested that the key to the new global governance is to tell the Chinese story, so that ideas and concepts can truly be conveyed to the world stage. Assistant Professor Yuan Rendong believed that the globalized development cases of Yiwu in Zhejiang Province provide good materials for this research.