I. Introduction

The challenges facing the global governance system are discussed, including the adjustment of international power dynamics and the escalation of transnational issues, as well as China's evolving role in global governance. China has proposed initiatives for global development, security, civilization, and governance, constructing a practical system for global governance. However, China's practices in this field have yet to fully transform into a systematic, mature discourse system and an independent knowledge framework. Global governance research remains influenced by Western-centrism, making it difficult for China's experience to fully demonstrate its uniqueness and universal significance. While China's "great power practices" in global governance have reached a new level, the corresponding "great power knowledge" is still in formation, resulting in an imbalance between knowledge and action. The rise of regional and country studies provides a critical opportunity to address this issue, as it can "localize" global governance topics to specific countries and regions, serving as a key intermediary connecting China's global governance practices with knowledge construction.

II. China's Global Governance Practices

This section elaborates on the evolution of China's role and practices in global governance, from being an institutional participant in the early stages of reform and opening-up to becoming a builder and leader. China has progressed through three phases in global governance: learning and adaptation, active participation, and proactive shaping. Through multilateral mechanisms such as the United Nations, China has accumulated experience, put forward constructive proposals, and initiated new multilateral cooperation platforms, forming a global governance practice system with Chinese characteristics. China emphasizes its role as a builder and defender of world peace, development, and international order, as well as a provider of global public goods, supporting the central role of the United Nations.

The evolution of China's global governance practices aligns with the growth of its comprehensive national power, the expansion of its external interests, and its understanding of changes in the international order. China has shifted from passive responsiveness to proactive action, from following agendas to setting them, and from single-domain engagement to multidimensional planning, building a knowledge-action system for global governance with Chinese characteristics. The vision of a community with a shared future for mankind provides a value framework and theoretical foundation for China's global governance practices, emphasizing lasting peace, universal security, shared prosperity, openness and inclusiveness, and a clean and beautiful world.

Through its four global initiatives—development, security, civilization, and governance—China promotes the evolution of the global governance system toward fairness, rationality, inclusiveness, and effectiveness. These initiatives have formed a logical structure in practice: promoting prosperity through development, ensuring stability through security, enhancing mutual trust through civilization, and pursuing justice through governance. At the global, multilateral regional, cross-regional, and bilateral levels, China demonstrates its global governance practices through multi-tiered and diverse platforms and mechanisms.

Despite the expansion of China's participation in global governance, it faces internal and external structural challenges. Externally, institutional competition and discourse struggles in global governance have intensified, with some Western countries interpreting China's initiatives and practices through geopolitical and ideological lenses. Internally, China faces imbalances in issue coverage, resource allocation, knowledge support, and talent reserves in its global governance practices. China needs to achieve mutual reinforcement between great power practices and great power knowledge through the construction of disciplinary and knowledge systems, establishing a framework for an independent global governance knowledge system.

III. Academic Research on China's Global Governance

China's academic research on global governance originated from the introduction and critique of Western theories, gradually forming a perspective on global governance with Chinese characteristics. This perspective emphasizes the central role of the state in governance and reinterprets global governance from a Chinese standpoint, proposing values such as win-win cooperation. Research trends focus on the vision of a community with a shared future for mankind and the four global initiatives—development, security, civilization, and governance—exploring their roles and impacts at different levels. While China's global governance research demonstrates strengths in the interaction between practice and knowledge, such as systematically summarizing practical achievements and consolidating value interpretations, it also faces shortcomings, including a macro-level research bias, a lack of empirical studies, and insufficient interdisciplinary integration. The practical starting point for constructing China's independent global governance knowledge system lies in upgrading problem awareness, leveraging the value foundation and discourse framework provided by the community with a shared future for mankind and the four global initiatives, and integrating the perspectives and methods of regional and country studies to solidify the empirical and theoretical foundations of China's solutions.

IV. Regional and Country Studies from a Regional and Country Studies Perspective

This section discusses the importance and methods of constructing China's global governance practices and independent knowledge system from the perspective of regional and country studies. With the vision of a community with a shared future for mankind as its core objective, China has produced public goods for global governance, but further research is needed at the meso and micro levels. Regional and country studies align closely with the construction of China's independent global governance knowledge system, serving as a key discipline for reconstructing the global governance knowledge framework. As a "great power discipline," regional and country studies serve national strategy, exploring the roles and missions of major powers and providing theoretical support for China's global governance. As an "interdisciplinary field," it integrates multidisciplinary resources to construct a holistic knowledge framework for addressing the complexity of global governance. As a "localized discipline," regional and country studies emphasize indigenous knowledge and practices, uncovering governance wisdom from China and other countries. As a "practice-oriented discipline," it highlights the interaction between knowledge and practice, supporting policy implementation. Finally, as an "educational discipline," regional and country studies cultivate global governance talent with expertise in countries, regions, and fields, providing human capital for China's global governance efforts.

V. Constructing an Independent Knowledge System for Regional and Country Studies from a Regional and Country Studies Perspective

This section discusses the methods and steps for constructing China's independent global governance knowledge system from the perspective of regional and country studies. First, it emphasizes the importance of adhering to the "two integrations"—combining the basic tenets of Marxism with China's specific realities and its fine traditional culture—to form a global governance knowledge system with Chinese characteristics. Second, it highlights the necessity of advancing system construction, including the development and innovation of disciplinary, academic, discourse, and textbook systems. It clarifies research objects and questions, requiring researchers to define their subjects within spatial and thematic coordinates. It strengthens ontological, epistemological, and methodological awareness to provide stability and sustainability for the system. It distills fundamental principles, translating the core concepts of China's global governance into academically meaningful propositions. It consolidates case studies, integrating them across mechanisms, issues, and pathways. Finally, it underscores the need to build academic and journal communities to form cross-disciplinary, cross-institutional, and cross-regional academic networks, providing stable publication platforms and agenda-setting mechanisms.

VI. Conclusion

This section emphasizes the importance of China's practices in the global governance system and the construction of its independent knowledge system. Through the vision of a community with a shared future for mankind and the four global initiatives, China has established a global governance practice system with platforms such as the United Nations and the Belt and Road Initiative, providing public goods and action plans. In academic research, China has shifted from introducing Western theories to constructing theoretical explanations and conceptual frameworks for its own solutions. Regional and country studies, with their interdisciplinary integration, localized practice, and practice-oriented approach, have become the preferred path for building an independent global governance knowledge system. Both China's global governance practices and the development of regional and country studies as a discipline are advancing rapidly, encountering new experiences and challenges that require continuous adjustment and optimization in practice. Constructing an independent global governance knowledge system is not only an academic endeavor but also a strategic issue concerning national development and world order, requiring the collective participation of scholars, practitioners, and policymakers.