Xi offers new proposals on building better future amid pressing challenges

With the COVID-19 pandemic still raging and the global economy struggling, the international landscape is undergoing profound changes, and humanity has now reached a new crossroad. 

"It falls on each and every responsible statesman to answer the questions of our times and make a historical choice with confidence, courage and a sense of mission," said Chinese President Xi Jinping at the general debate of the 76th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) delivered via video on Sept. 21.

As the leader of the world's largest developing country and second-largest economy, Xi has over the last month put forward a series of new proposals on how the world should overcome difficulties and build a better future together.

RESPONSIBILITY AS A MAJOR COUNTRY

"China is always a builder of world peace, contributor to global development, defender of the international order and provider of public goods," said Xi in the UNGA statement.

The addition of the fourth dimension to China's global role comes as the country is providing the world with more public goods. The Belt and Road Initiative, proposed by Xi, has become the most popular public good in the world, and China has been championing efforts to make COVID-19 vaccines a global public good.

On the globally significant China-U.S. ties, Xi said that whether the two countries can handle their relationship well is a question of the century to which they must provide a good answer.

Getting the relationship right is not optional, but something we must do and must do well, Xi said in a phone conversation with his U.S. counterpart, Joseph R. Biden, on Sept. 10.

Noting that in all countries, people long for peace and development more than ever before, their call for equity and justice is growing stronger, and they are more determined in pursuing win-win cooperation, Xi pointed out that practicing true multilateralism is the need of the times.

On various multilateral platforms, including the United Nations, BRICS, the Eastern Economic Forum and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), Xi's consistent call for true multilateralism has charted a course for improving global governance.

"I am convinced that the trend of peace, development and advancement for humanity is irresistible," Xi said.