The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics has been in full swing, and athletes from across the globe are striving for excellence. The Olympics, as they always are, has become an embodiment of humanity’s shared heritage and path, embodied through the merits of sportsmanship.

The official slogan of Beijing 2022 is “Together for a Shared Future,” combining the themes of unity, progress, cooperation, and internationalism. It mirrors one commonly advocated by China: the principle of a “community of a shared future for mankind,” which the country has followed to try and address the challenges posed by globalization.

Deep-rooted in the heart of this slogan is China’s development philosophy, including the proposals of the Belt and Road Initiative, which envisions mutual development between China and countries across the world by the financing and construction of infrastructure, deepening trade links, overcoming logistical barriers, and building opportunities. Ultimately, this principle thereby allows nations to expand their economic horizons.

The principle of a “shared future” also relates to China’s increasing trade and investment integration with the outside world. With over 1.4 billion people, China has developed into the largest and fastest-growing consumer market. It is also the world’s largest importer and exporter, playing an increasingly important role in global trade. In the face of growing protectionism and unilateralism elsewhere, China has strived to defend multilateralism and pursue open trade, and more deeply integrate its markets with others. As such, the principle of a “community of a shared future with mankind” simply encapsulates the goal of achieving mutual prosperity through openness and collaboration, with more free trade agreements getting underway between China and other countries.

Finally, the slogan also embodies a series of norms of how countries should work together on the international stage. In a world that is increasingly interconnected and interdependent, countries cannot isolate themselves and instead must work together, multilaterally, in order to secure common interests and a common pathway.

For China, this involves treating countries as equal partners, upholding mutual respect regarding national sovereignty, promoting non-interference, and more importantly, working together while sustaining the principle of “non-alignment” and opposition to the division of the world into blocs. The country is committed to working together with other countries so as to pool common interests for common goals. The Winter Olympics in Beijing is the ultimate incarnation of this plan.