On Oct. 18, Xi Jinping set out his vision for China's future in a 3½-hour-long report to the National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party.

At around the 173 minute mark of this marathon recital, Xi launched into the report's 12th and penultimate section, entitled "Adhering to the Path of Peaceful Development and Constructing a Community of Common Destiny with Mankind."

Many analysts have written about the arrival of Xi's "new era" in China. Fewer have explored the report's foreign policy implications, and fewer still have noted the importance of this pivotal phrase, "community of common destiny."