China has proved itself to be an essential protector of UN cause: China Daily editorial

Fifty years ago on Oct 25, in recognition that the restoration of the lawful rights of the People's Republic of China was "essential" for the UN cause, the 26th Session of the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 2758, with an overwhelming majority.

The PRC occupying its rightful seat at the UN not only represented a victory for the Chinese people, but also a vindication of the choice of all the "peace-loving countries in the world that stood up for justice", as President Xi Jinping said in a speech to mark the occasion on Monday. And over the past 50 years, the country has demonstrated the prescience of Resolution 2758 in identifying it as an essential protector of the UN, its principles and cause.

Over that period, through much hard work, the Chinese people have attained the goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, eradicating absolute poverty in the process, and are now embarking on the journey to build a modern socialist country.

Throughout this endeavor to rejuvenate the nation, China has unswervingly followed an independent foreign policy of peace, stood firmly on the side of fairness and justice, and resolutely opposed hegemony and power politics, faithfully fulfilling its responsibilities as a permanent member of the UN Security Council.

Those countries that co-sponsored and supported Resolution 2758 can be proud of the decision they made 50 years ago.

However, as President Xi said in his speech, compared with 50 years ago, the challenges the world faces today are more extensive and complicated. He called on all countries to address these challenges by choosing cooperation over confrontation, openness over seclusion, and mutual benefit over zero-sum games, and urged them to give full play to the UN's central role in international affairs, and stand firm in opposing all forms of hegemony and power politics, as well as all forms of unilateralism and protectionism.

Declaring that "Diversity makes human civilization what it is", he once again advocated building a community with a shared future for mankind, while emphasizing that doing so does not mean replacing one system or civilization with another, but rather countries coming together to build a better world based on shared interests and responsibilities. "Climate change is nature's alarm bell," he stressed, and new ideas and new models of cooperation are needed to address the various challenges facing humanity.

The question facing countries today is still whether they will stand on the right side of history or not. And the trend of history is clear: We must all stand together. Failure to do so risks making humanity nothing more than a brief footnote in any cosmic annal of life on Earth.