Xi a champion of UN principles
President’s vision of shared future for mankind more relevant than ever to meet needs of global governance
‘The greatest ideal is to create a world truly shared by all,” Chinese President said Xi Jinping in 2015 in his debut at the UN General Assembly Hall, citing an ancient adage that reflects the defining world view ingrained in China’s millennia-old civilization.
Upholding that ideal, Xi expounded his concept of and approach to building a community with a shared future for mankind, his flagship vision on how to guide humanity through the various common challenges toward a better future.
Countries should abandon the Cold War mentality, foster a new vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security, and promote open, innovative and inclusive development that benefits all, he said.
Five years later, his vision on upholding the international system with the UN at its center, rejecting unilateralism and the winner-takesall mindset has become more relevant than ever before.
Observers said the past five years have witnessed dramatic changes in the international landscape, featuring conflicts between forces for multilateralism and unilateralism as well as between cooperation and confrontation.
The United States’ “America First” policy has undermined the international order established since World War II, while the different ways that countries respond to the unprecedented public health crisis have further widened the global divide, they said.
In recent days, Xi has been presenting China’s answers to the fundamental questions hanging over the world at a series of high-level meetings for the UN’s 75th anniversary via video link, with the theme “The Future We Want, the UN We Need: Reaffirming Our Collective Commitment to Multilateralism.”
The great importance Xi attaches to the UN has been consistently demonstrated in practice. Over the years, he has visited the UN Office at Geneva and the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in Paris, and met on various occasions with UN leaders.
In May, he addressed the World Health Assembly via video link. Many of his important thoughts on global governance were delivered through these UN rostrums.
“Peace, development, equality, justice, democracy and freedom are common values of all mankind and the lofty goals of the United Nations,” Xi said under the dome of the General Assembly Hall in 2015.
“Yet, these goals are far from being achieved; therefore, we must continue our endeavors,” he told the 193-member General Assembly.
The UN marks its 75th anniversary at a time when the world is reeling from the still raging COVID-19 pandemic, the most serious global public health emergency since the 1918 influenza pandemic.
The pandemic exposes a lack of leadership and unity in the international system. Moreover, the UN and multilateralism it represents face unprecedented challenges with the rise of unilateralism and protectionism. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the situation as a “1945 moment.”
The more complex and grim the situation is, the more important it is to manifest the authority and role of the UN, Xi told Guterres when they met in April 2019 in Beijing on the sidelines of the Second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation.
China firmly upholds multilateralism, the international system with the UN at its core, and the international order based on international law, and promotes the building of a community with a shared future for humanity, Xi added.
These words are never empty talk. China is currently working to set up a global humanitarian response depot and hub to ensure operation of supply chains amid the COVID-19 pandemic. It is also working to implement the UN Sustainable Development agenda with stronger actions in eliminating extreme poverty and cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
The concrete commitments Xi made in September 2015 have been implemented in tandem. A 10-year, $1-billion China-UN peace and development fund was inaugurated in 2016 in support of UN peacekeeping operations as well as social, economic and environmental projects.
China has registered a standby force of 8,000 troops and 300 police troops for UN peacekeeping missions. China has the biggest standby force and most varieties of contingents among all UN member states in the UN Peacekeeping Capability Readiness System. More than 2,500 Chinese “blue helmets” are deployed elsewhere, including Mali and South Sudan.
China has contributed $1.3 billion, the full amount of its financial obligations for the UN regular and peacekeeping budgets for this year. At the start of the pandemic, China donated $50 million to the WHO to help it coordinate global efforts to combat the virus.
The world’s largest developing country has, since 2015, assisted other developing countries with 180 poverty-reduction projects, 118 agricultural cooperation projects, 178 aid-for-trade projects, 103 projects on ecological conservation and climate change, 134 hospitals and clinics, and
123 educational and vocational training institutes.
The South- South Cooperation Assistance Fund, which China established, has supported over 80 projects in more than 30 developing countries, injecting impetus into global sustainable development, according to the Foreign Ministry.
With a donation of $10 million to UN Women, China is the largest contributor among developing countries to the UN entity for gender equality and empowerment of women. It has completed 133 health projects for women and children, and invited more than 30,000 women from other developing countries to training programs in China. China has also been taking an active part in global ecological governance.
Its Juncao technology, which uses grass to grow mushrooms, has made its way into more than 100 countries, ranging from Laos to the Central African Republic. China’s technology and knowledge in greening the desert have been shared with countries in Africa and Central Asia.
Inger Andersen, executive director of the United Nations Environment Program, said China “has had a tremendous success in demonstrating climate leadership in recent years” through large investments in clean energy and technologies, electric mobility, and wide-scale land restoration.
China’s support is crucial to multilateralism, Guterres told Xi during a phone conversation in March.
“No matter how the international situation changes, China will take the side of multilateralism and adhere to the global governance concept of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits,” Xi has vowed.
Building a community with a shared future for mankind “to me is the only future for humanity on this planet”, said Peter Thomson, president of the 71st Session of the General Assembly, after meeting with Xi in 2017 in Geneva.
Pondering on the fundamental challenges confronting the world and the path for the entire humanity to march ahead, Xi has proposed building a community with a shared future for mankind and the Belt and Road Initiative.
As BRI cooperation is yielding tangible results one after another — including Greece’s Piraeus port, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, and China-Europe freight trains — Xi has promised that China will continue to pursue a win-win strategy of opening-up, and sharing development opportunities with other countries.
“Welcome them aboard the fast train of China’s development,” Xi has proclaimed.
Tatiana Valovaya, director-general of the UN at Geneva, said global citizens have realized that all the economic and social challenges the world faces, such as COVID-19 and the climate emergency, need cooperation among participants in the multilateral system to find a global solution.
As the Sustainable Development Goals are priorities for the UN, Valovaya said she is absolutely sure that China could be a “crucial partner” in this work.
Christopher Bovis, a professor of international business law at the University of Hull in the United Kingdom, said China is keen to promote responsive and responsible political and economic leadership as the basis of sustainable development, which would strike a meaningful and workable balance between free trade and international and regional concerns, especially the elimination of poverty, raising living standards, combating inequality and combating the effects of the recent global pandemic.
China is committed to the functioning of a workable, fair and sustainable international trade system, and it now has a bigger role to play in fostering the UN and its agenda of sustainable development while promoting peace among nations, Bovis said.
In the address on Sept 28, 2015, Xi set forth a five-point proposal on how to build a new type of international relations featuring win-win cooperation and create a community with a shared future for mankind, with partnership, security, development, culture and ecology being the key aspects.
Recalling the scene five years ago, Christian Landrein, a retired UN interpreter for French language who translated Xi’s speech on site, said it was applauded multiple times, and “the atmosphere was electric”.
“We only have one planet, which is our shared home,” said Landrein. “All countries must collaborate to protect it and ensure sustainable development, to guarantee a prosperous future for all nations.”
“Peace, development, equality, justice, democracy and freedom are common values of all mankind.”
XI JINPING
President