Xinhua reviews Xi Jinping's metaphors on global governance ahead of Xiong'an forum

The 2026 Global Governance Forum (Xiong'an) is scheduled to open on Friday in the Xiong'an New Area of Hebei Province in northern China. According to Xinhua, the event draws attention to the question of how countries can cooperate on shared challenges in an interconnected world amid growing protectionism and unilateralism. In speeches and meetings, Chinese President Xi Jinping has used a series of metaphors to set out his vision for global governance, which Xinhua describes as an approach to building a more just, equitable and inclusive system.

One recurring image is that of passengers on the same ship. Addressing the 2018 APEC CEO Summit aboard the cruise ship Pacific Explorer in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, Xi said he had looked at the ocean when boarding and reflected that all were fellow passengers in the same boat. Xinhua presents the metaphor as expressing the idea of a community with a shared future for humanity and the interconnectedness of countries. The report cites four deficits it says the world faces: a peace deficit linked to geopolitical conflicts, a development deficit widening the North-South divide, a security deficit eroding mutual trust, and a governance deficit undermining multilateralism. At the 2019 China-France Global Governance Forum in Paris, Xi proposed a four-pronged approach to these deficits, calling first for fairness and reasonableness in addressing the governance deficit and advocating extensive consultation and joint contribution for shared benefits, along with what he described as democratization of global governance rules.

Xinhua states that Xi put forward the Global Governance Initiative (GGI) at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in September 2025 in Tianjin, saying he looked forward to working with all countries for a more just and equitable global governance system and stressing sovereign equality and genuine multilateralism. The report also cites a second metaphor on rules, quoting Xi at the 2026 BRICS Summit in New Delhi as saying that a world without rules is like a crossroads without traffic lights. Xinhua adds that Xi has stressed that international rules must be written and upheld jointly by all countries on the basis of the UN Charter rather than set by the strongest or loudest, and that there should be no double standards or imposition of the house rules of a few countries on others. Rahmon Ulmasov, a professor at the Russian-Tajik (Slavonic) University, is quoted as saying the GGI reflects the transformation of the world system and responds to most countries' aspirations for fairer and more representative global governance.

A third image is that of the pie. At the 23rd meeting of the SCO Council of Heads of State in 2023, Xi said the pie of win-win cooperation should be made bigger so that more development gains are shared more fairly. Xinhua links this to a people-centered, action-oriented vision in which the people of every nation are actors in and beneficiaries of global governance. It notes that within the SCO, China has announced cooperation platforms in energy, green industries and the digital economy, as well as centers for scientific and technological innovation, higher education, and vocational and technical education. At the G20 summit in Brazil in 2024, Xi called for a just world of common development, saying prosperity and stability would not be possible where the rich become richer while the poor are made poorer, and urging more bridges of cooperation and fewer small yard, high fences so that more developing countries can achieve modernization. The report by Xinhua, carried by Mehr News, frames these metaphors as an outline of Beijing's stated approach ahead of the Xiong'an forum.