Advance Cooperation to Build a Community with a Shared Future

“The eventful year has driven home the significance of building a community with a shared future for humanity,” President Xi Jinping said in his 2021 New Year's Dayspeech.

Looking back at the past year, we had experienced helplessness as the virus raged, but we have fought against it with faith. We had dealt with the harsh international situation and challenges for economic globalization, but we have proved our commitment to deepening reforms and expanding opening-up.

This year, all countries have come together in solidarity. In 2020, the pandemic raged across the globe, posing great public health threats to all the people and significantly affected the world economy. The covid-19 virus is fast-spreading and aggressive, which calls for the concerted efforts by all countries to contain it. In his speeches at both the 73rd World Health Assembly and on New Year's Day, president Xi stressed the cooperation of the human community to overcome the pandemic.

In 2020, the world built a new wall of defense against the virus through cloud meeting. Xi said that solidarity and cooperation against the virus were the most discussed topic in his diplomatic phone calls and video conferences in the New Year speech. Advances in technology have made online meetings over major diplomatic issues possible.

In 2020, the international community, together with China, adopted multiple approaches to develop public good. China has been always taking an active part in international cooperation on public health. This time, China timely built the online knowledge center concerning the virus accessible to all countries and shared the genome sequence of the virus with the international community. China would fulfill our commitment to the WHO to make its coronavirus vaccines a public good. In addition, China, together with the international community, will actively help underdeveloped countries and low-income areas to pull through.

In 2020, China held the line against protectionism and continued expanding opening-up. Due to the pandemic, active and passive decoupling is increasing. Some countries took the initiative to decouple from others in pursuit of their own interests. This hindered the normal development of the world economy and sent the already weak world economy into a severe recession. Other countries lost access to business activities, talent exchanges, and trade in goods, which disrupted the global industrial and supply chains. In the face of such uncertain risks, some countries and regions have adopted conservative measures of industrial involution and were skeptical of economic globalization.

In the face of these external risks, China continues to deepen reforms and expand opening-up, facilitate economic globalization while developing the domestic economy. China also actively advocates that the international community should cut tariffs, eliminate barriers, and develop e-commerce to boost international trade and economic cooperation, so as to contribute to the recovery of the world economy, enhance confidence in economic globalization and free trade, and build a more open market.

We are experiencing unprecedented changes in this century, plus the challenges posed by the COVID-19. However, the Chinese nation has the ability and resolve to overcome all challenges. In 2021, China will keep seeking cooperation and promoting win-win outcomes, making greater contributions to global stability, development, and prosperity.

Contributed by Ren Lin for Guangming Daily

Translated by Ren Meiqi