Under the banner of the United Nations, we will make unremitting efforts to promote the construction of a community with a shared future for mankind

Author: Ren Jingjing (Special Researcher of the Research Center of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Associate Researcher of the Institute of Contemporary China, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the restoration of the people's republic of China to its legitimate seat in the United Nations. Over the past 50 years, China has firmly upheld the international system with the United Nations at its core, the international order based on international law and the basic norms governing international relations based on the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, fully supported and participated in all undertakings of the United Nations, and made important contributions to safeguarding world peace and promoting common development. On October 25, President Xi Jinping delivered an important speech at the meeting commemorating the 50th anniversary of the restoration of the legitimate seat of the United Nations in the People's Republic of China, comprehensively reviewing and summarizing the course of cooperation between China and the United Nations in the past 50 years, profoundly pointing out that "the 50 years since New China restored its legitimate seat in the United Nations is 50 years of China's peaceful development and benefit to mankind", clearly outlining China's identity definition and self-perception as a responsible and responsible major country in the coordinate system of world history and the cause of human progress.

First, China has always been a staunch guardian of world peace and security

Over the past 50 years, China has always advocated resolving differences through dialogue and consultation, resolutely opposed the use or threat of use of force in international affairs, actively participated in the political settlement of major global regional hotspot issues, constantly explored and practiced solutions to international and regional hotspot issues that conform to the spirit of the UN Charter and have Chinese characteristics, worked hard to safeguard the authority and unity of the Security Council, supported the United Nations in carrying out good offices in accordance with its mandate, and supported the Coordination and Cooperation between the United Nations and various regional and subregional organizations to continuously inject stabilizing forces into the maintenance of world peace and security.

China has actively participated in the international arms control and disarmament process, acceded to more than 20 international arms control treaties and mechanisms, including the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, the Biological Weapons Convention and the Chemical Weapons Convention, and has continuously improved and enhanced its domestic legal system for compliance with the Convention and the country's ability to implement the Treaty; The verification mechanism has made a positive contribution to promoting international peace and security and maintaining global strategic stability.

China actively participates in global cooperation in addressing non-traditional security threats, supports the United Nations in playing a leading role in the international fight against terrorism, and vigorously promotes the full implementation of the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy; participates constructively in the process of the United Nations Open Working Group on Information Security and the Group of Governmental Experts, jointly proposes the world's first systematic document on an international code of conduct in cyberspace, promotes the negotiation of the United Nations Convention on Combating the Use of Information and Communication Technologies for Criminal Purposes, and provides a blueprint for the formulation of global rules on data security; The Tianjin Guidelines for the Code of Conduct for Biosafety for Scientists contribute to reducing biosafety risks and promoting bioscience for the benefit of mankind.

Since 1990, China has dispatched more than 50,000 peacekeepers to nearly 30 UN peacekeeping operations, making it the second largest contributor to UN peacekeeping operations and the country with the largest number of peacekeepers among the five permanent members of the Security Council;

In order to combat the global COVID-19 epidemic, China has actively organized and implemented global humanitarian actions, provided material assistance to more than 150 countries and international organizations, and exported epidemic prevention materials to more than 200 countries and regions; it was the first to commit to treating the COVID-19 vaccine as a global public good, joined the "COVID-19 Vaccine Implementation Plan" led by the World Health Organization, and provided more than 1.6 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccine to more than 100 countries and international organizations, becoming the country that provided the most vaccines to developing countries. It has made positive contributions to the construction of a community of human health.

China has always been an active contributor to global development and human well-being

Development is the common aspiration of the people of all countries. "The development of all countries together is the real development, and the common prosperity of everyone is the real prosperity." Over the past 50 years, China has always advocated cooperative development and common development, closely linked its own development with the development of the world, placed the promotion and promotion of the common development of developing countries in a prominent position, provided development assistance to 166 countries and international organizations, implemented nearly 3,000 complete sets of assistance projects, dispatched more than 600,000 aid personnel, and provided strong support for more than 120 developing countries to implement the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.

China has historically solved the problem of absolute poverty, built a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way, completed the poverty reduction target set by the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development 10 years ahead of schedule, and the poverty reduction population accounted for more than 70% of the global poverty reduction population in the same period, creating a miracle in the history of human poverty reduction, and making great contributions to promoting poverty reduction and achieving sustainable development on a global scale. China has actively integrated into the world economic system, earnestly fulfilled its commitments to join the World Trade Organization, continuously improved the level of opening up to the outside world, vigorously promoted economic globalization, and injected strong impetus into world economic growth. Since 2006, China's average contribution to world economic growth has exceeded 30%, ranking first in the world for 15 consecutive years, becoming an important engine of world economic growth.

China has promoted the joint construction of the "Belt and Road", which has become the widest and largest international cooperation platform in the world today. At present, 141 countries and 32 international organizations, including 19 UN agencies, have signed the Belt and Road Cooperation Document. A large number of cooperation projects have been successfully implemented, which has effectively promoted the economic and social development and people's livelihood improvement of relevant countries and regions, and played an important role in fighting the epidemic, stabilizing the economy and promoting growth. According to a World Bank research report, the joint construction of the "Belt and Road" will lift 7.6 million people out of extreme poverty and 32 million people out of moderate poverty in relevant countries, with trade among participating countries increasing by 2.8% to 9.7%, global trade increasing by 1.7% to 6.2%, and global income increasing by 0.7% to 2.9%.

In September 2021, President Xi Jinping put forward a global development initiative during the general debate of the 76th session of the UN General Assembly, calling for adhering to the concept of development priority and people-centeredness, and proposing cooperation ideas and plans for eight key areas such as poverty reduction, food security, anti-epidemic and vaccines, financing for development, climate change and green development, industrialization, digital economy, and connectivity, with the goal of accelerating the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and focusing on solving the imbalance in development between and within countries. Clarifying the goals, principles and key areas for global development and international development cooperation, and becoming a vivid embodiment of the concept of a community with a shared future for mankind in the field of development and another important international public good provided by China, has been highly appreciated by the international community.

China has always been a faithful practitioner of multilateralism and the common values of all mankind

The United Nations is the banner and centre stage of multilateralism. Over the past 50 years, China has always supported the United Nations in playing a central role in international affairs, firmly safeguarding the international system with the United Nations at its core and the international order based on international law, firmly safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of developing countries, and promoting the development of the global governance system in a more just and rational direction.

China maintains that a strong United Nations is needed to uphold and practice genuine multilateralism. China advocates that the United Nations become a core platform for all countries to jointly safeguard universal security, share the fruits of development and jointly grasp the destiny of the world; advocates promoting the democratization and rule of law in international relations; advocates that the United Nations promote the work in the three major fields of security, development and human rights in a balanced manner, focusing on prominent issues and formulating a common agenda; and advocates that all parties implement their commitments to multilateralism and resolutely oppose "pseudo-multilateralism" that undermines the international order and creates confrontation and division under the banner of so-called "rules".

Vigorously promoting the common values of peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy and freedom for all mankind is an inevitable requirement for upholding and practicing multilateralism. Peace and development are the common causes of the international community, fairness and justice are the common ideals of all countries in the world, and democracy and freedom are the common pursuit of all mankind. China advocates that we should adhere to dialogue rather than confrontation, inclusiveness rather than exclusivity, build a new type of international relations featuring mutual respect, fairness and justice, and win-win cooperation, and expand the convergence of interests; we must abide by the concept of international cooperation of mutual benefit and win-win results, reject the narrow policy of taking one-neighbor as the enemy and selfishness, abandon the one-sided approach of monopolizing development advantages, dismantle the high walls and barriers in trade, investment and technology, create inclusive and inclusive development prospects, guarantee the equal development rights of all countries, and promote the common development and prosperity of all countries. In the face of increasing global problems, the international community can jointly create a better future only by adhering to the concept of mutual assistance and coexistence and promoting the formation of more inclusive global governance, more effective multilateral mechanisms and more active regional cooperation.

The green mountains can't cover it, after all, it flows east. In the past 50 years, the international situation has changed, and China's original intention has not changed in the past 50 years. In the face of unprecedented changes in a century, China will continue to hold high the banner of multilateralism, firmly safeguard the international system with the United Nations at its core, the international order based on international law, and the multilateral trading system with the WTO at its core, actively participate in the reform and construction of the global governance system, uphold the concept of consultation, co-construction and sharing, carry forward the common values of all mankind, and always be a builder of world peace, a contributor to global development, a defender of international order, and a provider of international public goods, under the banner of the United Nations. In order to achieve sustainable peace and development in the world and to promote the construction of a community with a shared future for mankind, we will make unremitting efforts.

Guangming Daily (16/11/2021)

Source: Guangming Network - Guangming Daily