China’s President Xi Jinping held a video conference with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres last night. This is Xi’s third appearance at this year’s UN General Assembly, which the Chinese no doubt knew would be a key forum for countering the attacks on China coming from the U.S. administration.
Most striking was the Chinese President’s strong defense of China’s sovereignty, in light of numerous recent provocations especially around the Taiwan issue, which for China is a red line. “China never engages in ideological confrontation, never advocates decoupling, and never wants to seek hegemony,” Xi said. “What we think about the most is to enable 1.4 billion Chinese people to lead a better life and make greater contributions to mankind. However, we will not sit back and watch the damage to national sovereignty, national dignity, and development space. We will firmly safeguard our legitimate rights and interests and safeguard international fairness and justice.”
Xi also said that the international community should use the occasion of the 75th Anniversary to reaffirm its commitment to multilateralism and to its solemn commitment to the UN Charter. He said that the global fight against COVID cannot be relaxed. China is willing to share its experience and practices with all parties without reservation, and continues to provide support and assistance to countries in need. China firmly supports the United Nations system, especially the World Health Organization, to play a key leadership role, Xi said, and to strengthen international cooperation and joint prevention and control, and jointly build a human health community. China will fulfill its commitment to make any vaccine a global public product after its research and development is completed and will put it into use, contributing to the realization of vaccine accessibility and affordability in developing countries.
