On September 21, President Xi Jinping attended the general debate of the 76th UN General Assembly in Beijing by video and delivered an important speech.
Putting forward a global development initiative, emphasizing joint response to global threats and challenges, and promoting the building of a community with a shared future for mankind. In his speech, President Xi Jinping emphasized four “must” –
The epidemic must be defeated
Must revive the economy
Unity must be strengthened
Global governance must be improved
For more information, please read the draft:
Speech by Xi Jinping at the General Debate of the 76th UN General Assembly (full text)
Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, September 21st, by wire
Strengthen confidence and overcome difficulties together
Build a better world together
——Speech at the General Debate of the Seventy-sixth United Nations General Assembly
(September 21, 2021)
Xi Jinping, President of the People’s Republic of China
Mr.president:
2021 is an extremely special year for the Chinese people. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China. This year also marks the 50th anniversary of the restoration of the People’s Republic of China in the United Nations. China will solemnly commemorate this historic event. We will continue to actively push China’s cooperation with the United Nations to a new level and continue to make new and greater contributions to the noble cause of the United Nations.
Mr.president!
A year ago, leaders of various countries attended the series of summits on the 75th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations and issued a political declaration, promising to cooperate in combating the epidemic, work together to tackle challenges, uphold multilateralism, strengthen the role of the United Nations, and build a common future for present and future generations.
Over the past year, major changes in the world unseen in a century have been intertwined with the global pandemic of the new crown pneumonia epidemic. People of all countries have more ardent expectations for peaceful development, a stronger call for fairness and justice, and a firmer pursuit of win-win cooperation.
Currently, the epidemic is still raging around the world, and human society has been profoundly changed. The world has entered a new period of turbulent change. Every responsible politician must answer questions of the times with confidence, courage, and responsibility, and make historical choices.
First, we must defeat the epidemic and win this major battle concerning the future and destiny of mankind. A history of world civilization is also a history of fighting the plague. Mankind has always achieved greater development and progress while constantly overcoming challenges. Although the epidemic is fierce, we will eventually overcome it.
We must uphold the people’s supremacy and life supremacy, and care for everyone’s life, value, and dignity. It is necessary to promote the spirit of science, uphold a scientific attitude, follow scientific laws, coordinate normalized precision prevention and control and emergency response, and coordinate epidemic prevention and control and economic and social development. It is necessary to strengthen international joint prevention and control to minimize the risk of cross-border spread of the epidemic.
Vaccines are a weapon to defeat the epidemic. I have repeatedly emphasized that to treat vaccines as a global public product to ensure accessibility and affordability in developing countries, the top priority is to equitably distribute vaccines globally. China will strive to provide 2 billion doses of vaccine throughout the year. On the basis of donating 100 million US dollars to the “New Crown Vaccine Implementation Plan”, another 100 million doses of vaccine will be donated to developing countries within the year. China will continue to support and participate in global scientific tracing, and resolutely oppose any form of political manipulation.
Second, we must revive the economy and promote a stronger, greener, and healthy global development. Development is the key to achieving people’s happiness. Faced with the severe impact of the epidemic, we must jointly promote global development to a new stage of balance, coordination and inclusiveness. Here, I would like to propose a global development initiative:
——Insist on giving priority to development. Put development in a prominent position in the global macro policy framework, strengthen policy coordination among major economies, maintain continuity, stability, and sustainability, build a more equitable and balanced global development partnership, promote synergy in multilateral development cooperation, and accelerate Implement the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
——Insist on putting people as the center. Ensure and improve people’s livelihood, protect and promote human rights in development, so that development is for the people, development depends on the people, and the fruits of development are shared by the people, and continuously enhance the people’s sense of happiness, sense of gain, and security, and realize the all-round development of people.
——Insist on inclusiveness and inclusiveness. Pay attention to the special needs of developing countries, support developing countries, especially fragile countries with great difficulties, through debt relief and development assistance, and strive to solve the problems of uneven and insufficient development among and within countries.
——Insist on innovation-driven. Seize the historic opportunity of a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, accelerate the transformation of scientific and technological achievements into real productivity, create an open, fair, just, and non-discriminatory environment for scientific and technological development, tap new drivers of economic growth after the epidemic, and work together to achieve leapfrog development.
——Insist on harmonious coexistence between man and nature. Improve global environmental governance, actively respond to climate change, and build a community of human and natural life. Accelerate the green and low-carbon transformation to achieve green recovery and development. China will strive to achieve carbon peaks by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060. This requires hard work, but we will do our best. China will strongly support the green and low-carbon development of energy in developing countries and will no longer build new overseas coal power projects.
——Insist on action-oriented. Increase investment in development resources, focus on promoting cooperation in areas such as poverty reduction, food security, anti-epidemic and vaccines, development financing, climate change and green development, industrialization, digital economy, and interconnection, and accelerate the implementation of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. A community with a shared future for global development. China has announced that it will provide another US$3 billion in international aid in the next three years to support developing countries’ fight against the epidemic and restore economic and social development.
Third, we must strengthen unity and practice the concept of international relations of mutual respect and win-win cooperation. A peacefully developing world should carry different forms of civilization and must be compatible with diverse paths towards modernization. Democracy is not the patent of any country, but the right of the people of all countries. Recent developments in the international situation have once again proved that external military intervention and so-called democratic transformation are infinitely harmful. We must vigorously promote the common values of peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy, and freedom for all mankind, and abandon small circles and zero-sum games.
It is inevitable that there will be differences and contradictions between countries, but it is necessary to carry out dialogue and cooperation on the basis of equality and mutual respect. The success of one country does not mean that another country will inevitably fail. This world is fully tolerant of the common growth and progress of all countries. We must insist on dialogue without confrontation, tolerance without exclusiveness, build a new type of international relations featuring mutual respect, fairness, justice, and win-win cooperation, expand the convergence of interests, and draw the largest concentric circles.
What the Chinese nation inherits and pursues is the concept of peace, harmony and harmony. We did not in the past, and we will not invade or bully others in the future, and we will not be kings and hegemons. China has always been a builder of world peace, a contributor to global development, a defender of international order, and a provider of public goods. China will continue to provide new opportunities for the world with China’s new development.
Fourth, we must improve global governance and practice true multilateralism. There is only one system in the world, and that is the international system with the United Nations at its core. There is only one order, which is an international order based on international law. There is only one set of rules, which are the basic norms of international relations based on the purposes and principles of the UN Charter.
The United Nations should hold high the banner of true multilateralism and become a core platform for all countries to jointly safeguard universal security, share the fruits of development, and master the destiny of the world. We must be committed to stabilizing the international order, enhancing the representation and voice of the vast number of developing countries in international affairs, and leading the way in promoting the democratization and rule of law in international relations. It is necessary to advance work in the three major areas of security, development, and human rights in a balanced manner, formulate a common agenda, focus on outstanding issues, and focus on taking actions to implement all parties’ commitments to multilateralism.
Mr.president!
The world is at the crossroads of history again. I firmly believe that the trend of peaceful development and progress of mankind is unstoppable. Let us strengthen our confidence, work together to deal with global threats and challenges, promote the building of a community with a shared future for mankind, and jointly build a better world!
Producer: Zhou Zongmin
Planning: Chen Zhi
Producer: Feng Junyang
Coordinator: Xie Peng, Qi Zijian, Yan