Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday took the floor at the annual high-level debate of the UN General Assembly to present China's views on the current world situation and proposals for peace and development in the world at large. This was the first time for Xi, who became Chinese president in 2013, to address the 193-member General Assembly. Pointing out that the goals of the United Nations -- peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy and freedom -- "are far from being achieved," Xi urged more efforts to better promote world peace and development in the 21st century. "We should renew our commitment to the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, build a new type of international relations featuring win-win cooperation, and create a community of common destiny for mankind," Xi told the audience. The Chinese president put forward a five-point proposal on how to forge such a new type of international relationship. Firstly, Xi called on the international community to build partnership in which countries treat each other as equals, engage in mutual consultations and show mutual understanding. "We should forge a global partnership at both international and regional levels, and embrace a new approach to state-to-state relations, one that features dialogue rather than confrontation, and seeks partnership rather than alliance," Xi noted. Xi said major countries should follow the principle of non-conflict, non-confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation in handling their relations, while big countries should treat small countries as equals, and take a right approach to justice and interests by putting justice before interests.
Secondly, Xi warned of Cold War mentality and called for building a security architecture featuring fairness and justice, jointly contributed and shared by nations. "We should foster a new vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security, give full play to the central role of the United Nations and its security council in ending war and keeping peace," Xi said. Thirdly, Xi called for an open, innovative and inclusive outlook of development that benefits all. "It is important for us to use both the invisible hand and visible hand to form synergy between market forces and government functions and strive to achieve both efficiency and fairness," Xi said.
Xi stressed that since the just-concluded UN Sustainable Development Summit adopted the post-2015 development agenda, commitments must be translated into actions and the international community should ensure that everyone has access to development and lives with dignity. Fourthly, Xi called for increasing inter-civilization exchanges to promote harmony, inclusiveness and respect for difference. "Different civilizations should have dialogue and exchanges instead of trying to exclude or replace each other.We should respect all civilizations and treat each other as equals," he said.
Lastly, Xi proposed building an ecosystem that puts nature and green development first, hoping that all members of the international community will jointly work toward a global eco-civilization. Xi's UN statement reaffirmed China's consistent stance at the United Nations, calling on the international community to jointly promote peace and development and address major challenges to build a better world. The United Nations is the most authoritative stage in the world to express China's viewpoints on the current world situation. China wants its voice to be better heard here and thus be more and more understood and supported by other countries.
Historically, the Chinese voice, which states that China is a peace-loving country which will contribute to world stability and advancement and support the central role of the world body in global affairs, was heard at various momentous occasions in the past decades. In November 1950, the newly founded People's Republic of China (PRC) had its voice heard at the United Nations for the first time when Wu Xiuquan, the special representative of the PRC, spoke to the UN Security Council to denounce "open, direct and armed invasion" of Chinese province of Taiwan by the U.S. military force. "Taiwan is an inalienable part of the Chinese territory," Wu said, citing a large number of facts to expose the U.S. invasion of China.
"The U.S. armed forces invading Taiwan constitutes an open, direct and armed invasion of China by the American government." Wu was the first representative from Beijing to speak at the United Nations. His speech came shortly after the PRC celebrated its first birthday and nearly 21 years before the restoration of the PRC's lawful seat at the world body in 1971.
Deng Xiaoping was the first Chinese leader to speak at the United Nations. On April 10, 1974, Deng, then Chinese vice premier and chairman of the delegation of the PRC, told the Sixth Special Session of the UN General Assembly that "China is a socialist country, and a developing country as well. China belongs to the Third World." "China is not a superpower, nor will she ever seek to be one," Deng said. "If one day China should change her color and turn into a superpower, if she too should play the tyrant in the world, and everywhere subject others to her bullying, aggression and exploitation, the people of the world should identify her as social-imperialism, expose it, oppose it and work together with the Chinese people to overthrow it," he said.
On Oct. 24, 1995, then Chinese President Jiang Zemin became the first Chinese head of state to address the United Nations. Speaking at a meeting marking the 50th anniversary of the United Nations, Jiang said that the United Nations had done useful work in and contributed to mitigating regional conflicts, eradicating colonialism, expediting arms reduction and promoting peace, cooperation and development in the world. "There should be no attempts to make up excuses to interfere in the internal affairs of other nations," he said. "Countries should be allowed to pursue the social systems that they choose for themselves.
A secure and reliable international environment for lasting peace and stability should be created. The principles of mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity and non-aggression should be observed." As a member of the international community, China cannot stand separate from the rest of the world, he said. "Even as it becomes stronger and more developed, it will not seek hegemony or pose a threat to anyone. It will help to maintain international peace and stability."
On Sept. 15, 2005, then Chinese President Hu Jintao told world leaders who gathered here to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the United Nations, that the international community should reiterate its commitment to adhering to the purpose and principles of the UN Charter and demonstrate its determination to safeguard world peace and promote common development. "As the core of the collective security mechanism, the role of the UN can only be strengthened and must not be weakened," he said. "China will firmly hold high the banner of peace, development and cooperation and follow the road of peaceful development," Hu said. "China will unswervingly combine its own development with the progress of humanity. China's development, instead of hurting or threatening anyone, can only serve peace, stability and common prosperity in the world."
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