Global Development Initiative proposed by Xi encourages positive forces, says Kuhn

WASHINGTON -- The Global Development Initiative proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping during his remarks at the general debate of the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on Tuesday encourages positive forces, said a US expert on China.

During his UNGA statement via video, Xi proposed an initiative in steering global development toward a new stage of balanced, coordinated and inclusive growth in face of the severe shocks of COVID-19.

"Xi stressed both attenuating the negative and accentuating the positive," Robert Lawrence Kuhn, chairman of the Kuhn Foundation, told Xinhua in an interview, adding that the Chinese leader's remarks hit square on the two "global challenges of our times" -- beating the COVID-19 pandemic in short term and tackling the climate change in long term.

Impressed by Xi's announcement that China will not build new coal-fired power projects abroad, Kuhn said this commitment is the "headline grabber" and "puts climate change theory into real world practice by reducing greenhouse gases, an action step unmatched by the fine rhetoric of others."

Kuhn also took note of Xi's promise that China will step up support for other developing countries in developing green and low-carbon energy.

The commitment, he argued, was "almost as significant, in that to eliminate coal-fired plants without providing green power substitutes would leave developing countries struggling inequitably for the power they need desperately to grow their economies and lift their populations out of poverty."