Clear choice to make

South-South cooperation and China’s vision for high-quality development offer path to a shared future

Global society stands at a critical juncture. The world faces a fundamental choice: to advance profound reform of global governance rooted in international law and inclusive multilateralism, or to risk a fragmented future marked by strategic rivalry and exclusive blocs. In this pivotal moment, China’s policy direction, as charted during the 2026 two sessions and articulated in the Government Work Report and the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30), provides a compelling blueprint for collaborative, high-quality development. It offers a practical pathway for South-South cooperation, prioritizing shared prosperity over zero-sum competition.

China’s policy directives are grounded in a proven record of resilient and forward-looking development. The 2026 Government Work Report reviews a robust 2025 where GDP grew by 5 percent, over 12.67 million urban jobs were created and new energy vehicle output surpassed 16 million units. This performance extends a remarkable five-year trend of an average 5.4 percent annual GDP growth, underpinned by the world’s largest manufacturing sector in value added for 16 consecutive years.

Looking ahead, the 15th Five-Year Plan outlines a transformative vision for “high-quality development”. Its goals are both ambitious and people-centered: maintaining GDP growth within an appropriate range, cutting carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by 17 percent, raising the added value of core digital economy industries and increasing life expectancy to 80 years. Crucially, the plan emphasizes “investment in people” as much as in physical capital, with strategies to boost incomes, expand education and strengthen social security. This domestic focus on balanced, sustainable and innovation-driven growth — termed cultivating “new quality productive forces” — forms the bedrock of China’s constructive international engagement.

A cornerstone of China’s external strategy, emphatically reiterated in the 2026 Government Work Report, is to “further expand high-standard opening-up” and “steadily expand institutional opening-up”. This moves beyond traditional market access to a deeper integration of rules, standards and governance practices. Key measures include advancing the upgraded China-Association of Southeast Asian Nations Free Trade Area 3.0 and actively promoting accession to high-standard pacts such as the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership.

This commitment to “institutional opening-up”, from between-the-borders trade and services to behind-the-borders alignment based on rules, is highly significant for the Global South. It provides a stable, predictable and rules-based framework for cooperation, aligning with the need for “demanding governance” in an increasingly fragmented world. By promoting the harmonization of standards in emerging fields such as the digital and green economies, China’s approach helps partners integrate into modern supply chains, fosters technology transfer and creates a fairer business environment. It represents a shift from aid dependency to partnership based on mutual benefit and shared rules, a model that resonates with the development aspirations of Latin America, Africa and Asia, and charts a vision for reforming global governance.

China’s domestic and foreign policies are coherently linked by a vision of reformed, inclusive global governance. The Government Work Report calls for “deepening multilateral, bilateral and regional economic cooperation” and upholding the multilateral trading system. This external policy complements the internal goal of building a “national unified market”, which seeks to eliminate internal barriers and “rat-race competition” — a principle that, if applied globally, argues for reducing fragmentation and protectionism.

This implies, in a practical way, promoting South-South coalitions to raise common positions in multilateral forums, supporting procedural reforms, transparency, representativeness and clear rules, and promoting cooperative projects that produce tangible and measurable benefits.

At the center of the proposal is the spirit of pragmatism. Reforming global governance requires concrete tools: more accessible dispute resolution mechanisms for smaller economies, development financing less constrained by geopolitical conditions and robust platforms for technological cooperation on global public goods such as public health and climate adaptation. China’s advocacy for these reforms, together with its commitment to South-South cooperation through platforms such as the China-CELAC Forum, demonstrates a practical approach. The forum’s focus on solidarity, development and shared modernization exemplifies the principle of building a community with a shared future for humanity, based on mutual respect and benefit, not on pressuring third parties to take sides.

The heart of any crossroads is to make the right choice. In an environment of danger, that means choosing responsibly. At present, one path leads toward division and exclusive spheres of influence. The other, illuminated by the policy direction set at China’s two sessions, leads toward integration, shared development and a reformed multilateral system. China’s 15th Five-Year Plan and Government Work Report demonstrate that a nation can pursue high-quality domestic growth while simultaneously championing high-standard international cooperation.

For the Global South, this offers a relevant and actionable model. It is a vision where collaboration supplants confrontation, where common rules facilitate shared prosperity, and where the rightful pursuit of development and cultural identity is respected on the global stage. By choosing this path of “institutional opening-up” and South-South solidarity, the international community can navigate current uncertainties and build a more stable, equitable and prosperous future for all.

The author is the director and a PhD in public and business management at the Central American Institute of Public Administration, and a researcher at the Center for Historical Research of Central America at University of Costa Rica.

The author contributed this article to China Watch, a think tank powered by China Daily. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

Contact the editor at editor@chinawatch.cn.