Position Paper of the People’s Republic of China For the 77th Session of the United Nations General Assembly

2022-09-20 22:30

Today, the combined forces of changes in the world unseen in a century and the COVID-19 global pandemic have taken the world into a phase of fluidity and transformation. Threats and challenges with global implications keep emerging. Unilateralism, protectionism, and hegemonism are reasserting themselves, and nontraditional security threats involving public health, terrorism, climate change, and cybersecurity are rising. Instability and uncertainties are mounting in the world. 

Meanwhile, the world is becoming increasingly multi-polar, economically globalized, digitized and culturally diversified. The call of the international community for peace and development grows even stronger. Countries need to strengthen solidarity and cooperation, uphold the vision of a community with a shared future for mankind, further improve the global governance system, and work together to find solutions to global issues.

I. The world needs true multilateralism. Multilateralism is a cornerstone of the existing international order and an effective path to upholding peace and promoting development. In the world, there is only one international system, i.e. the international system with the United Nations at its core. There is only one international order, i.e. the international order underpinned by international law. And there is only one set of rules, i.e. the basic norms governing international relations underpinned by the purposes and principles of the UN Charter.

— We need to practice true multilateralism, observe the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and the basic norms governing international relations; respect the sovereignty of all countries and equality among them, big or small; uphold diversity in the world and respect the legitimate development rights of all countries and their own choice of development path; handle world affairs through extensive consultation and advocate greater democracy in international relations. We need to oppose the attempt to seek exclusive, bloc politics under the disguise of multilateralism, or to impose the rules made by a few countries on the wider international community under the pretext of multilateralism. We must reject the moves to use multilateralism as an ideological tool to build alliances of values targeting certain countries.

— We need to advocate consultation, cooperation and shared benefits in global governance and adopt a Member States-led and action-oriented approach to improve the global governance system. The aim is to make it better reflect the changing international landscape and the aspirations and interests of the majority of countries, especially emerging markets and developing countries, and more effective in tackling global challenges. All UN Member States should earnestly fulfill their financial obligations stipulated in the UN Charter and pay assessments for both regular budgets and peacekeeping operations on time, in full, without conditions and in accordance with the “capacity to pay” principle set forth in the UN General Assembly resolution, so as to support the UN in effectively carrying out its functions.

— We need to take the promotion of the Secretary-General’s report Our Common Agenda as an opportunity to keep improving the efficiency of the UN, enhance its capacity to address global challenges, and better respond to new circumstances and tasks. In particular, the UN needs to strengthen the capacity of its development system to support Member States in implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and enhance oversight and accountability to fully meet the expectations of the international community.

II. Promoting a global community of security for all. The Global Security Initiative (GSI) proposed by President Xi Jinping is underpinned by “six commitments”, namely, staying committed to the vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security; staying committed to respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries; staying committed to abiding by the purposes and principles of the UN Charter; staying committed to taking the legitimate security concerns of all countries seriously; staying committed to peacefully resolving differences and disputes between countries through dialogue and consultation; and staying committed to maintaining security in both traditional and non-traditional domains, with a view to promoting a global community of security for all. Upholding the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, the GSI takes mutual respect as the fundamental requirement and indivisible security as the important principle, in order to foster a new type of security that replaces confrontation, alliance and a zero-sum approach with dialogue, partnership and win-win results.

— Promoting the political settlement of international and regional hotspots. Wars and sanctions are not fundamental paths to resolving problems; only dialogue and consultation offer effective ways to addressing differences. Countries need to enhance strategic communication among them, improve security mutual trust, resolve disputes, manage differences, and remove the root causes of crises. Major countries should uphold equity and justice, shoulder their due responsibilities, and support equal-footed consultation. They should respect the views of the countries concerned, and facilitate talks for peace, play good offices and mediate in light of the needs and will of the countries concerned. The Security Council should apply on a priority basis the tools of mediation availed to it by Chapter VI of the UN Charter to actively promote the political settlement of hot-spot issues. The international community should uphold the principle of indivisible security, establish a balanced, effective and sustainable security architecture, and stay committed to promoting the peaceful settlement of international disputes. Parties in a conflict should be encouraged to build trust, resolve disputes and enhance security through dialogue.

— Upholding global strategic stability. China maintains that nuclear-weapon states should abandon nuclear deterrence policies based on pre-emptive moves, stop developing and deploying global anti-ballistic missile systems, and not seek to deploy land-based intermediate-range missiles overseas, so as to promote global strategic balance and stability. Relevant countries should withdraw all nuclear weapons deployed abroad and refrain from any attempt to replicate the nuclear sharing model in the Asia-Pacific region. Nuclear disarmament should follow the principles of “maintaining global strategic stability” and “undiminished security for all” and proceed in a gradual manner. Countries with the largest nuclear arsenals shoulder special and primary responsibilities in nuclear disarmament.

— China advocates the complete prohibition and thorough destruction of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), including nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, and firmly opposes any forms of proliferation. The AUKUS cooperation on nuclear submarine concerns the integrity, effectiveness and authority of the NPT. It affects the international security order as well as regional or even global security and stability. The IAEA has on multiple occasions included the AUKUS issue in its formal agenda. China urges the three countries to take seriously the concerns of the international community and support the IAEA in initiating and advancing an intergovernmental process according to the established practice to discuss issues concerning such cooperation. Pending an agreement among the various parties, the three countries and the IAEA Secretariat should not proceed to negotiate, on their own, any safeguards arrangement on nuclear submarine cooperation. China urges the three countries to respect the will of regional countries and revoke the decision to pursue nuclear submarine cooperation.

— China takes nuclear security seriously. It has proposed a rational, coordinated and balanced approach to nuclear security and worked actively for a community of shared future for global nuclear security. The international community should draw lessons from the Fukushima nuclear accident, make continuous efforts to enhance nuclear security, and protect a safe global marine environment and people’s health interests. Japan’s unilateral decision to discharge the contaminated water into the ocean has caused serious concern among the Pacific Rim countries and the Japanese people. Japan should live up to its international obligations, dispose of the contaminated water in a science-based, open, transparent and secure manner, and stop pursuing its discharge plan. Japan must not start the discharge process prior to a thorough consultation and consensus with stakeholders and relevant international agencies.

— China works actively for the full, balanced and effective implementation of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction (CWC), and is committed to the lofty goal of achieving a world free of chemical weapons. China calls upon the US to complete the destruction of its chemical weapon stockpile as soon as possible and urges Japan to speed up the destruction of the chemical weapons it left in China. China upholds the vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security for all countries and calls for continued efforts to strengthen global governance on conventional weapons.

— China attaches great importance to biosecurity and is committed to improving global governance in this area. It is important that the international community work together for substantive outcomes at the Review Conference of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction (BWC) to be held at the end of this year, steadily bolster the mechanisms of the Convention, and restart multilateral negotiations on a verification protocol to the Convention. The international community should jointly advocate responsible biological research and encourage all stakeholders to voluntarily observe the Tianjin Biosecurity Guidelines for Codes of Conduct for Scientists to lower biosecurity risks and promote the sound development of biological science and technology.

— On outer space security, China maintains that the equal rights of all countries to explore and peacefully use outer space should be respected and guaranteed, and that attempts to create major-country competition, bloc politics and rival camps in outer space must be rejected. China supports the UN’s role as the main platform for international governance on outer space and stands firm against arms race in outer space. On cybersecurity, efforts must be made to uphold solidarity against the practices of fragmenting the Internet or stoking confrontation. A balanced approach should be adopted to handle technological progress and economic development on the one hand and the protection of national security and public interests on the other without overstretching the concept of national security to restrict normal ICT development and cooperation. On the security governance of artificial intelligence (AI), countries should uphold multilateralism and the principles of openness and inclusiveness and carry out dialogue and cooperation to jointly regulate the military application of AI, set up international mechanisms with broad participation, and push for AI governance frameworks, standards and norms that reflect extensive consensus.

— The international community should put up a global united front on counterterrorism with the UN at its center, and step up coordination to form greater synergy. China strongly condemns terrorism and extremism of all forms, opposes associating them with specific countries, ethnicities or religions, and stands against double standards on this issue. China calls for a holistic approach to counterterrorism that addresses both the symptoms and root causes. Efforts are needed to facilitate the political settlement of hotspot issues, promote the harmonious coexistence of different civilizations and religions, and help relevant regions and countries develop their economies and improve people’s lives, so as to eliminate the breeding ground of terrorism at its source. It is imperative to help developing countries enhance counterterrorism capacity building and work to address the challenges that emerging technologies are bringing to the international fight against terrorism.

III. Promoting a global community of development with a shared future. In 2013, China put forward the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). With connectivity as its main focus, the BRI is designed to promote policy, infrastructure, trade, financial and people-to-people connectivity. As of July 2022, 149 countries had signed Belt and Road cooperation documents with China, making the BRI the largest and widely welcomed platform for international cooperation in the world. Belt and Road cooperation is guided by the principle of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits. It follows the concept of open, green and clean development, and is aimed at high-standard, people-centered and sustainable growth. Since the BRI was put forth nine years ago, a large number of practical cooperation projects have been successfully launched. Relevant cooperation has demonstrated strong resilience and vitality despite COVID-19. Relevant parties are further enhancing the complementarity between development strategies, deepening practical cooperation in various areas, and working together to build a Health Silk Road, a green Silk Road, a digital Silk Road, and a Silk Road of innovation, with a view to creating new highlights of cooperation and achieving higher-level cooperation, better cost-effectiveness, higher-quality supply and stronger development resilience. Such efforts will produce more positive outcomes in advancing high-quality Belt and Road cooperation and contribute even more to post-COVID global economic recovery. China will continue to promote the complementarity and synergy between Belt and Road cooperation and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and work with all partners including UN agencies for more progress in high-quality Belt and Road cooperation and for a bright future of win-win cooperation.

— President Xi Jinping has proposed the Global Development Initiative (GDI), which aims at building consensus, mobilizing resources, promoting action and forming synergy for implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development at a faster pace. China has acted in the spirit of an open and inclusive partnership, and followed the principles of development first, a people-centered approach, harmony between man and nature, innovation-driven development, a global partnership for development, results-oriented actions, and synergy through coordination, to ensure that no country or individual would be left behind. China has identified 8 priority areas, namely poverty alleviation, food security, COVID-19 response and vaccine, development financing, climate change and green development, industrialization, digital economy and connectivity in the digital era, as viable pathways for speeding up the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.

— It is important to improve the global governance mechanism on poverty reduction and draw greater international attention to poverty reduction. More efforts are needed to deepen policy exchanges and practical cooperation and expand partnerships, with a view to eradicating absolute poverty and addressing the challenges of pandemic- or conflict-induced poverty or relapse into poverty and multidimensional poverty. It is essential to promote full employment and help certain groups such as youth and women get out of poverty. More should be done to strengthen energy policy coordination, keep the energy supply chain secure and stable, and ensure access to affordable energy in developing countries. It is important to increase financing for sustainable development, urge developed countries to fulfill ODA commitments to developing countries, fully harness the role of multilateral development banks and other international financial institutions, in order to provide more development resources to developing countries and shore up their capacity for self-generated development.

— It is important to step up cooperation in food production, storage, transport, processing and food loss and waste reduction, and improve food self-sufficiency of developing countries, especially the least developed countries. Efforts should be made to make the international order for food trade more just and equitable, and keep industrial and supply chains stable and smooth. There should be closer cooperation on agricultural technology to promote the transformation of the food system and realize the green and sustainable development of agriculture and rural areas.

— It is important to deepen anti-pandemic cooperation, strengthen cooperation on vaccine innovation, research and development, joint production and technology transfer, to ensure vaccine accessibility and affordability in developing countries and put up a global immunization defence. The international community should support the WHO in playing a central coordinating role in global health governance and support necessary and reasonable reform of the global health governance system to make the Organization better able to respect science free from political interference, access and deploy resources to address public health crises, and support the building of a global community of health for all. Support should be given to the origins tracing of the coronavirus around the world, and all forms of political manipulation must be firmly opposed. It is important to uphold multilateralism and enhance unity and cooperation to further support the work of the UN and its specialized agencies in preventing and treating AIDS and other communicable and non-communicable diseases, and work toward realizing the health-related targets of the 2030 Agenda.

— We need to strengthen international climate cooperation and help developing countries resist the impact of climate change. It is important to stick to the basic legal framework and principles of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its Paris Agreement, particularly the principles of equity, common but differentiated responsibilities, and respective capabilities. Developed countries should earnestly fulfill their commitments of financing, technology and capacity-building support to developing countries. We should keep to the general direction of low-carbon development, strike a balance between livelihood imperatives and energy security, and make sure that the phase-down of traditional energy is based on safe and reliable substitution in new energy. Efforts need to be made to deepen cooperation on renewable energy and clean energy, strengthen technology transfer and sharing, and transform and upgrade the energy and resources mix and the consumption pattern. We need to step up cooperation in ecological and environmental protection and governance and enhance developing countries’ capacity for green development and financing.

— Countries need to strengthen digital capacity building to bridge the digital divide. Efforts need to be made to enhance international cooperation on developing the digital industry and transforming traditional industries with digital technologies, integrate digital technologies with the real economy, transform and upgrade traditional industries, bolster pandemic response and economic recovery and growth through digital means, and advance coordinated digital and green transition and development. It is important to harness digital technologies in poverty reduction and carry out cooperation in such areas as e-commerce for farmers. Countries need to strengthen cooperation on the digitization of customs services, advance cooperation on Smart Customs, Smart Borders and Smart Connectivity, and build a smart network connecting all parties involved in the supply chain.

IV. Promoting humanity’s common values of peace, development, equity, justice, democracy and freedom. Peace and development are our common cause, equity and justice our common aspiration, and democracy and freedom our common pursuit. The world we live in is diverse and colorful. Diversity is the charm of human civilization and provides a constant source of vitality and driving force for world development. Countries around the world should rise above ideological disputes, avoid the trap of “clash of civilizations”, and respect each other’s independent choice of development path and model. We should see the diversity of our world as an inexhaustible source of inspiration driving human advancement and a natural reflection of the colorful civilizations of humanity.

— Promoting and protecting human rights is the shared cause of all humanity. The UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights have set out lofty ideals and basic principles for the global human rights cause. They should be observed and delivered by all countries. Human rights have historical, specific and practical contexts. It is both necessary and imperative for countries to explore their own paths of human rights development in light of national realities and the needs of their people. It is important to uphold a human rights philosophy that centers on the people, and take coordinated and systemic measures to advance all types of human rights, among which the rights to subsistence and development are the basic human rights of paramount importance. Countries have the right to choose independently their paths of human rights development, and human rights dialogue and cooperation should be conducted on the basis of equality and mutual respect. Politicization of human rights issues, double standards and the use of human rights as an excuse to interfere in other countries’ internal affairs should be rejected. The Human Rights Council and other human rights mechanisms of the UN should honor the principles of fairness, impartiality, non-selectiveness and non-politicization, and avoid becoming a stage for political confrontation.

— It is important to uphold fairness and justice by punishing wrongdoings while promoting good conduct. The international community needs to build extensive political consensus, and take a zero-tolerance stance, build zero-loophole institutions, and conduct zero-barrier cooperation to combat corruption. It is important to respect differences, treat each other as equals and promote mutual learning; respect countries’ right to choose their own paths for fighting corruption; and advance international cooperation against corruption on the basis of equal treatment, respect for differences, exchanges and mutual learning, and common progress. It is important to pursue win-win cooperation through extensive consultation and joint contribution; uphold multilateralism and improve the system of global rules for anti-corruption governance on the basis of consensus; act in line with the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, and carry out anti-corruption cooperation within the framework of the UN Convention against Corruption. It is important to honor commitments with action. The parties to the UN Convention against Corruption should deliver their solemn commitments on anti-corruption cooperation and fulfill their international obligations.

— Advancing the causes of women and children are important goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Efforts need to be redoubled to implement the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, and put the protection of the rights and interests of women and children high on our agenda. Comprehensive measures should be taken to ensure women and children enjoy the various benefits of development. We should support the UN in its leading and coordinating role and strengthen international cooperation on women and children.

— We need to tackle the challenge of refugees within the multilateral framework, give full play to the role of the UN and its refugee agency and other multilateral institutions as the main channel, earnestly implement the Global Compact on Refugees, work hard to address the root causes of large waves of refugees, and push the international community to advance global refugee governance in accordance with the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities.

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There is but one China in the world and Taiwan is an inalienable part of China’s territory; the Government of the People’s Republic of China is the sole legal government representing the whole of China. Resolution 2758 adopted by the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in 1971 restored the lawful seat of the People’s Republic of China in the UN, and settled once and for all the political, legal and procedural issues of the representation of the whole of China, including Taiwan, in the UN. The UN system, its specialized agencies and the UN Secretariat should abide by the one-China principle and UNGA Resolution 2758 when dealing with any Taiwan-related affairs. The one-China principle has become a universal consensus of the international community and a basic norm in international relations.

Resolving the Taiwan question to realize China’s complete reunification is the shared aspiration of all Chinese people. China will continue to work with the greatest sincerity and effort to achieve peaceful reunification, but will leave no room for any form of “Taiwan independence” secessionist activities. The Taiwan question is an internal affair that involves China’s core interests and the Chinese people’s national sentiments; no external interference will be tolerated.

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The Communist Party of China will soon convene its 20th National Congress. China will continue to follow the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and Xi Jinping Thought on Diplomacy in particular, actively participate in international affairs, act with a sense of responsibilities as a major country, advance the building of a new type of international relations featuring mutual respect, fairness, justice and win-win cooperation, and work tirelessly for building a community with a shared future for mankind.

EMBASSY OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA IN THE REPUBLIC OF ZAMBIA All RIGHTS RESERVED