Ambassador Xie Feng: In a turbulent world, China’s choice is to pursue Chinese modernization at home, and forge a community with a shared future for mankind internationally
Chinese Embassy in the US | Updated: 2024-04-22 02:52
A green China will keep injecting momentum into building a clean and beautiful world.
Chinese modernization is about harmony between humanity and Nature. Ten years ago, when Beijing hosted the 22nd APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting, President Xi said at the welcome dinner that in the future, people in Beijing would see a blue sky every day. Today, "AEPC blue" has become "Beijing blue" and "China blue". China has seen the fastest improvement in air quality, is home to the largest afforested area in the world, and is the first country that has achieved land degradation neutrality. Giant pandas are no more endangered. Half of the world's electric vehicles are running on roads in China. We also account for over half of the newly installed capacity of renewable energy globally.
We are living on the same planet. Frequent extreme weather events have again sounded the alarm, warning us that we need to treat Nature with reverence and follow its laws. China has not only committed itself to moving from carbon peak to carbon neutrality in the shortest time span in human history, but also actively advanced South-South cooperation on climate change. We have launched hundreds of clean energy and green development projects in Africa, so as to pursue green, low-carbon and sustainable development together.
A peaceful China will keep fulfilling its responsibilities for building a world of universal security.
Chinese modernization is about peaceful development. We will also encourage more countries to follow the path of peaceful development together. What the Chinese people long for are peace in every corner of the world, amity with all countries, and harmony without uniformity. The ambition to seek hegemony, dominate the world, and challenge and displace others is not in our DNA.
Shortly after the founding of New China, we put forward the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. Over the past 70-plus years, China has never initiated a war, or occupied an inch of foreign land. It is the only country that has put peaceful development in its Constitution, and the only country among the five nuclear-weapon states to pledge no-first-use. It is also the top contributor of peacekeeping personnel among the permanent members of the UN Security Council.
We believe no one is safe unless all are safe. This is why President Xi put forward the Global Security Initiative, envisioning a new path to security that features dialogue over confrontation, partnership over alliance, and win-win over zero-sum.
With China's active efforts, a historic reconciliation was reached between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Amid the Ukraine crisis, our special envoy traveled back and forth to mediate among different parties, so as to pave the way for peace talks. On the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, we facilitated the adoption of the first resolution at the Security Council since the outbreak of the conflict, and calls for a more broad-based and effective international peace conference, so as to protect women and children from the scourge of war, and let peace prevail.