President Xi Jinping: China will strongly support the green and low-carbon energy development of developing countries and will no longer build new overseas coal-fired power projects.
President Xi Jinping, President of the People's Republic of China, attended the general debate of the 76th Session of the United Nations General Assembly via video link in Beijing on the 21st and delivered an important speech titled Staying Confident and Overcoming Hardships Together to Build a Better World.
Xi Jinping noted that this year marks the centenary of the Communist Party of China and the 50th anniversary of the restoration of China's lawful seat in the United Nations. China will hold grand commemorations for this historic event. We will continue to actively elevate China’s cooperation with the United Nations to new heights and make fresh and greater contributions to the noble cause of the United Nations.
Xi Jinping stressed that one year ago, leaders of all countries attended the summit commemorating the 75th anniversary of the United Nations. They pledged to jointly fight the pandemic, meet challenges hand in hand, uphold multilateralism, strengthen the role of the United Nations, and build a shared future for present and future generations. Over the past year, the world has witnessed the interplay of profound changes unseen in a century and the global COVID-19 pandemic. People of all countries cherish peace and development more deeply, call louder for fairness and justice, and pursue win-win cooperation with firmer resolve.
Xi Jinping emphasized that the pandemic is still raging across the globe and has profoundly transformed human society. The world has entered a new period of turbulence and change. Every responsible statesman must answer the questions of our times and make historic choices with confidence, courage and a strong sense of responsibility.
First, we must defeat the pandemic and win this major battle that bears on the future of humanity. Humanity has always achieved greater development and progress by rising above challenges. We must put people’s lives and health first, uphold the spirit of science, adopt a scientific mindset and follow scientific laws. We need to balance epidemic response with economic and social development and strengthen international joint prevention and control. Vaccines must be made a global public good to ensure accessibility and affordability for developing countries. The top priority is the equitable and reasonable distribution of vaccines worldwide. China will strive to provide 2 billion doses of vaccines to the world throughout the year. On top of its donation of 100 million US dollars to the COVAX Facility, China will donate an additional 100 million doses of vaccines to developing countries within the year. China will continue to support and participate in global scientific origin-tracing and firmly oppose political manipulation of any form.
Second, we must revive the economy, pursue stronger, greener and healthier global development, and jointly usher in a new stage of balanced, coordinated and inclusive global development.
Xi Jinping put forward the Global Development Initiative:
Prioritize development. We should place development high on the global macro-policy agenda, strengthen policy coordination among major economies, maintain continuity, stability and sustainability, foster more equal and balanced global development partnerships, generate synergies for multilateral development cooperation, and accelerate the implementation of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Put people at the center. We should protect and improve people’s wellbeing and promote and protect human rights in the course of development. Development should be for the people, by the people and for the benefit of the people. We will continuously enhance people’s sense of happiness, fulfillment and security and achieve well-rounded human development.
Promote inclusiveness. We should pay attention to the special needs of developing countries, support them, especially vulnerable nations in severe difficulty, through debt relief and development assistance, and strive to address imbalances and inadequacies in development between and within countries.
Pursue innovation-driven growth. We should seize the historic opportunity of the new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation, accelerate the translation of scientific and technological advances into tangible productivity, foster an open, fair, just and non-discriminatory environment for scientific and technological development, unlock new drivers for post-pandemic economic growth, and achieve leapfrog development together.
Advance harmony between humanity and nature. We need to improve global environmental governance, actively tackle climate change, and build a community of life for humanity and nature. We will speed up the green and low-carbon transition to achieve green recovery. China strives to peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. This will require arduous efforts, yet we will go all out. China will strongly support developing countries in green and low-carbon energy development and will no longer build new overseas coal-fired power projects.
Take action-oriented approaches. We should scale up investment in development resources, prioritize cooperation in poverty reduction, food security, pandemic response and vaccines, development financing, climate change and green development, industrialization, digital economy and connectivity, and build a global community of development with a shared future.
Third, we must strengthen solidarity and pursue the vision of international relations featuring mutual respect and win-win cooperation. A world of peace and development should embrace civilizations of various forms and must accommodate diverse paths to modernization. Democracy is not a patent of any single country; it is the right of peoples of all nations. External military intervention and so-called democratic transformation bring immense harm. We must vigorously promote the common values of humanity: peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy and freedom. We should reject small cliques and zero-sum games. The success of one country does not mean the failure of another. The world is big enough for all countries to grow and progress together. We should choose dialogue over confrontation and inclusiveness over exclusion, foster a new type of international relations based on mutual respect, fairness, justice and win-win cooperation, expand converging interests and seek the greatest common ground. The Chinese nation has inherited and pursued the philosophy of peace, amity and harmony. We have never and will never invade or bully others, nor seek hegemony. China will always be a builder of world peace, a contributor to global development, a defender of the international order and a provider of public goods. It will continue to offer new opportunities for the world through its own new development.
Fourth, we must improve global governance and uphold true multilateralism. There is only one international system in the world, that is, the international system with the United Nations at its core. There is only one international order, that is, the international order based on international law. There is only one set of rules, that is, the basic norms governing international relations based on the purposes and principles of the UN Charter. The United Nations should hold high the banner of true multilateralism and serve as a core platform for all countries to jointly uphold universal security, share development outcomes and jointly shape the future of the world. It should strive to stabilize the international order, increase the representation and voice of developing countries in international affairs, and take the lead in advancing the democratization and rule of law in international relations. We should advance work in security, development and human rights in a balanced manner and deliver on all commitments to multilateralism.
Xi Jinping concluded by stressing that the world has once again reached a historical crossroads. He firmly believes that the trend of peace, development and progress of humanity is irresistible. Let us stay confident, jointly respond to global threats and challenges, advance the building of a community with a shared future for mankind, and work together to build a better world!