By Liu Yantao

On October 25, 1971, the United Nations General Assembly at its 26th session adopted Resolution 2758 with an overwhelming majority to restore all the lawful rights of the People’s Republic of China in the United Nations, recognising the PRC as the sole legal government representing the whole China. It was a victory for New China’s diplomacy and a triumph for all peace-loving countries that stood up for justice.

Twenty days later, Qiao Guanhua, then Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of China and head of the Chinese delegation, mounted the rostrum of the UNGA and strongly declared to the world that China insists that “the affairs of the world should be managed by countries around the world, and the affairs of the UN should be jointly managed by all member states of it”. Such remarks won loud applause from representatives of the member states.

Although China was one of the founding members of the UN and the most populous country that accounts for a quarter of the world’s population, it had been kept out of the organisation for up to 22 years after the People’s Republic of China was founded in 1949 due to the obstruction of some individual countries. China’s restoration of the lawful seat in the UN was to return justice to history. It also signified that the UN had truly become the most universal, representative and authoritative inter-governmental organisation.

Over the past 50 years, China has faithfully fulfilled its responsibility and mission as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, stayed true to the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, and upheld the central role of the United Nations in international affairs, and has always committed itself to becoming a builder of world peace, a contributor to global development, a defender of international order, and a provider of public goods.

China has joined almost all the universal inter-governmental organisations, signed more than 600 international conventions, and become the second largest contributor to the UN peacekeeping budget and the top contributor of peacekeepers among the Permanent Members of the UN Security Council. While China has historically eliminated absolute poverty for the first time in its history and attained the poverty reduction target under the UN Agenda for Sustainable Development 2030 ten years ahead of schedule, it has also implemented several thousands of complete projects of foreign aid and programmes of material assistance, over 10,000 projects of technological cooperation and human resources development, and provided more than 400,000 training opportunities, benefiting over 160 developing countries. The Belt and Road Initiative raised by China has become the world’s largest cooperation platform covering 141 countries and 32 international organisations.

After the outbreak of Covid-19, China took the lead in controlling the pandemic and became the only major economy to record positive growth in 2020. Meanwhile, China actively promoted the building of a global immune barrier. It has provided over 1.6 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines to over 100 countries and international organisations, and committed to providing a total of 2 billion doses by the end of 2021. Moreover, China has earnestly implemented the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Paris Agreement, and announced to achieve peak carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060, leading the global environmental and climate governance. Recently, China announced an initiative to establish a Kunming Biodiversity Fund and invest RMB 1.5 billion to support biodiversity protection in developing countries in an effort to build a shared future for all life on earth.

Currently, we are facing impacts from a profound change in the international landscape and a pandemic unseen in a century, while global challenges such as development divide, terrorism, and climate change are becoming increasingly severe. Cold War mentality and power politics still exist, arousing conflict and confrontation and undermining international solidarity and cooperation. The United Nations faces an unprecedented test. Given the new realities and challenges, we must do some serious thinking: What kind of UN is needed for the world? How should the UN play its role?

In this regard, Chinese President Xi Jinping put forward four proposals at the High-level Meeting to Commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the United Nations: the UN must stand firm for justice and maintain mutual respect and equality among all countries, whether big or small; the UN must uphold the rule of law and unswervingly stay true to the purposes and principles of the UN Charter; the UN must promote cooperation and expand the converging interests of all countries; the UN must focus on real actions and strongly practise multilateralism. On September 21, 2021 President Xi Jinping proposed the “Global Development Initiative” in his speech at the general debate of the 76th Session of the UNGA.

He called for bolstering confidence, jointly overcoming difficulties, strengthening cooperation on poverty alleviation, food security, Covid-19 response and vaccines, development financing, climate change and green development, industrialisation, digital economy, and connectivity for stronger, greener and healthier global development, steering global development toward a new stage of balanced, coordinated and inclusive growth, and building a global community of development with a shared future. At the same time, he reiterated that the UN should advance its work in a balanced manner in the three key areas of security, development and human rights, and ensure that commitments made by all parties to multilateralism are truly delivered.

The world needs a strong UN more than ever, and it is the responsibility of all member states to support strengthening the role of the UN. Countries should build consensus and synergy in upholding multilateralism to safeguard world peace and stability, should strengthen cooperation in fighting the pandemic to build a line of defence for life and health, should put development first to promote common prosperity across the world, should embrace openness and inclusiveness to develop an open world economy, should improve climate governance to build a clean and beautiful world, should enhance exchanges and mutual learning to promote the progress of human civilisation, and should take concrete actions to maintain the authority of the UN as well as the international system with the UN at its core.

It is worth mentioning that China and Cyprus established formal diplomatic relations just one month after China’s restoration of its lawful seat in the United Nations.

As good friends and true friends upholding common principles and values, both China and Cyprus pursue independent foreign policies, understand and firmly support each other on issues bearing on each other’s core interests and major concerns. We are witnessing deepening friendship and cooperation between the two countries and rising strategic significance in our bilateral relations. As member states of the UN, China and Cyprus follow the trend of peace and development, advocate and practise true multilateralism, defend fairness and justice on major international and regional issues, and jointly promote the international order towards a more just and rational direction.

An open, inclusive, clean and beautiful world featuring lasting peace, universal security and common prosperity is in the fundamental and long-term interests of all countries including China and Cyprus. China is ready to work with Cyprus and the international community to build the UN into a central platform for all countries to jointly safeguard universal security, share development achievements and chart the course for the world’s future. Countries should jointly address global threats and challenges, and work together to build a community with a shared future for mankind and a better world for all.

Liu Yantao is the Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China in Cyprus