President Xi again offers China's solutions to global challenges: Chinese envoy

UNITED NATIONS - Chinese President Xi Jinping has once again offered solutions to global challenges as he proposed a Global Development Initiative and laid out China's propositions on global challenges, a Chinese envoy has said.

Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the United Nations, made the remarks Tuesday in a virtual briefing on President Xi's statement delivered at the General Debate of the 76th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA).

China is committed to addressing climate change with concrete actions, Zhang said, noting that Xi has pledged last year that China will strive to peak its CO2 emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060.

This year, Xi announced that China will step up support for other developing countries in developing green and low-carbon energy and will not build any new coal-fired power projects abroad.

This is another important step China takes to deal with climate change, which was highly praised by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and many state leaders, the envoy said.

The Global Development Initiative proposed by President Xi in his statement this year "grasps the pressing needs of post-COVID recovery and focuses on sustainable development for future generations", Zhang said.

"It aims to address a series of key questions about how to develop, develop for whom, and develop by whom," he said, adding that the initiative was well-received by the international community and will "broaden the space for international cooperation".

Zhang said that China is committed to true multilateralism.

As President Xi stressed, there is only one international system, the one with the UN at its core. There is only one international order, the one that is underpinned by international law. And there is only one set of rules, namely the basic norms governing international relations underpinned by the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, said Zhang, "this is the fundamental approach of multilateralism."

Talking about anti-pandemic cooperation, the ambassador said that as stressed by President Xi, it is important to "make vaccines global public goods and ensure the accessibility and affordability of vaccines in developing countries".

Xi announced that China will strive to provide more doses of vaccines to the world by the end of this year, Zhang added.

"These measures have strongly boosted the global confidence in fighting the pandemic," he noted.

Referring to China's position on hotspot issues, Zhang said that as President Xi noted, "we need to pursue dialogue and inclusiveness over confrontation and exclusion, and build a new type of international relations based on mutual respect, equity, justice and win-win cooperation."

"Recent developments in Afghanistan show once again that military intervention from the outside and so-called democratic transformation entail nothing but harm," Zhang said.

"Relevant countries must draw lessons from it and earnestly shoulder their due responsibilities," he added.

In his briefing, Zhang said that President Xi's UNGA statement and the participation of the Chinese delegation during the high-level week again shows that "China is always a builder of world peace, a contributor of global development, a defender of international order, and a provider of public goods".

On the 50th anniversary of the restoration of China's lawful seat in the United Nations, he said that China has held and will continue to hold various kinds of commemorative events to review the past, look forward to the future and deepen China-UN cooperation.

"China's support to the UN has been consistent, enduring and reliable," Zhang said, adding that China will "continue to join like-minded partners to make even greater contribution to promoting world peace and development, defending and practicing true multilateralism, and upholding the authority and role of the UN".