Commentary
ROME – Facing common challenges like a protracted COVID-19 pandemic, fragile economic recovery, and acute climate changes, a concerted and holistic response from the humanity has never been more imperative.
No country can win these battles alone. Thus President Xi Jinping once again called at the Rome Summit of the Group of 20 (G20) for “solidarity and cooperation” as they are “the most powerful weapons.”
Urging G20 members to shoulder due responsibilities and uphold openness, inclusiveness and win-win cooperation for forging a community with a shared future for mankind, Xi also expounded China’s moves to assume due international responsibilities, making a safer and better world more tangible.
On the most imperative issue of life and death – the COVID-19 pandemic, China highlighted the leading role that G20 should play in building consensus, mobilizing resources and promoting cooperation.
For its own part, China has not only controlled its own epidemic exceptionally well, but also made substantial selfless contributions to the world.
As “vaccine nationalism,” stigmatization of the virus, and politicization of origins tracing continue to undermine the global solidarity in the fight against the virus, China has repeatedly voiced its firm opposition and maintained cooperation with multiple countries across the world.
To date, China has provided over 1.6 billion doses of vaccines to more than 100 countries and international organizations, and will provide over 2 billion doses to the world in the course of this year. China is conducting joint vaccine production with 16 countries, with an initial capacity of 700 million doses per year.
Addressing the Rome Summit online, Xi proposed a six-thread Global Vaccine Cooperation Action Initiative to tackle problems in vaccines distribution, R&D cooperation, technology transfer and financial support, making China’s goal to beat the pandemic globally more systemic.
Reviving the global economy is another challenge amid the pandemic, as disrupted social movement and economic chains have not only hurt businesses, but also impacted the livelihood of individuals, particularly those in low- and middle-income countries.
Having been opposed to the practice of protectionism and unilateralism employed in some major developed countries’ approach to recover domestic economy, China took the forum to call for “a long-term perspective” to ensure a sound operation of the international economic and financial system with the World Trade Organization at its core.
To buttress a safety net for global economy, major economies should adopt responsible macroeconomic policies in a coordinated, consistent and sustainable manner, and avoid negative spillovers into developing economies, in areas such as rising inflation, exchange rate fluctuations or mounting debts.
In this regard, China has been making unremitting efforts to add impetus to the world economy, especially developing countries.
China voiced readiness to lend the new allocation of Special Drawing Rights to low-income countries seriously affected by COVID-19 via the International Monetary Fund (IMF), proposed to hold an international forum on resilient and stable industrial and supply chains, and welcomed more countries to join the Belt and Road Initiative.
To build a better future for all, more efforts are needed than just fight the pandemic and facilitate world economic recovery. To minimize the global governance deficit exposed in the pandemic and changes unseen in a century, China proposed the Global Development Initiative (GDI) earlier at a UN conference and welcomed more countries to join in.
On issues ranging from poverty alleviation and food security, through COVID-19 response, climate change and green development, to digital economy and connectivity, China made pledges at various international forums, and has walked the talk with measurable contributions.
Take the climate change issue. In the past 10 years, China phased out 120 million kilowatts of installed coal-fired power generation capacity, launched constructions of wind and photovoltaic power stations of about 100 million kilowatts capacity, and will strive to peak its CO2 emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060.
The world is now at a crucial crossroads in human history. Every country should shoulder its due responsibility.
At the G20 Summit, Italy’s Prime Minister Mario Draghi said, “It is easy to suggest difficult things. It is very, very difficult to actually execute them.”
As the largest emerging economy, China has acted promptly to control the risk when it comes to pandemic prevention and emission limitation, and shared unselfishly its development achievements with the rest of the world by upholding opening-up policy and true multilateralism.
Indeed, Rome wasn’t built in a day. And yet Beijing is confident that with sustained actions from all parties, a brighter future for humanity is not a long way ahead. – Xinhua
