- by A Carruthers
- The Guardian
- Issue #2160
World Youth Conference for Peace in Beijing, July 29, 2025. Photo:CGTN
The world is at a crossroads. We are seeing new fractures open up along old conflict zones. The world is crying out for stability, for voices of reason. China is emerging as a major force for peace, a force for dialogue, exchange, and justice, rather than confrontation. The “Community of a Shared Future for Humankind” approach from China is a clarion call for scientific development, win-win-cooperation and civilisational dialogue rather than destruction, neo-fascism and genocide, as we are seeing now with Israel’s actions in Palestine and the US trade and tariff wars enveloping the globe.
On 30 July 2025 a World Youth Conference for Peace was held at Peking University in Beijing. Over 3,000 young people from 130 countries and regions attended. President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter to the conference. We know that peace is dear to Xi’s heart. The youth put forward a “World Youth Peace Initiative” manifesto which is published in this issue of the Guardian The Worker’s Weekly.
Among the points put forward in the manifesto are the defence of world peace against the distortions of history after the victory over both European and Japanese fascism in World War II, the importance of mutual learning among and between civilisations, sustainable development against climate destruction, and scientific and technological development for the common good.
Young people of the world give hope. Young people bring energy. They bring energy to movements like our own, to the worker’s movement. They bring new ideas and new possibilities and they can shoulder the responsibility to build a better and more peaceful planet.
The young people of the world also have a unique ability to forge peace through international initiatives. Wherever we come from, no matter what country or political system we come from, we must learn to engage in dialogue and build bridges of understanding between countries, cultures and civilisations. If we cut ourselves off from each other, and stop translating our ideas into other languages and stop engaging, differences will grow and suspicions will turn into hatreds and distrust. Proletarian internationalism is the same. Without learning from other likeminded fraternal movements our principles, however well-meaning, can wither into dogmas.
The issue of “technologies for social good” has never been more pressing. We have seen how Silicon Valley can innovate in the areas of AI and cryptocurrency and electric vehicles, but they cannot translate these things into social goods. China has been able to harness cryptocurrency against fraud, and AI for Aged Care, and transform their transportation system through EVs – new productive forces for new social relations and new forms of community. We cannot forget also that science and technology can and must be harnessed for environmental progress and defeating climate change. The next generation shoulders an immense burden to ensure that the destruction of the planet is reversed in favour of the greening of the globe, to bring back the flourishing biodiversity that makes our planet unique and the only thing we have.
Technological advances should be made for the benefit of the whole of humanity and for the planet, not the few. Socialist China has proven this is possible.
Initiatives like the World Youth Conference for Peace must be celebrated. They are essential for our times and the challenges we face.
Let’s march together for a peaceful world.
