Guancha: The United States pursues unilateralism unscrupulously and withdraws from international organizations and treaties at will. It has become the biggest destabilizing factor in global governance, and made the prospects of global stability and development very uncertain. What do you make of this? What role can China play in global governance?
Le Yucheng: The United States is stoking division and confrontation, attacking dissenting views, and creating disorder around the world. It has caused predicament for international institutions including the UN, WTO and WHO, and put global governance and international cooperation agenda in jeopardy. Its sole aim is to install a uni-polar world where the United States lords it over all others, where globalization becomes "Americanization", and where global governance gives way to U.S. hegemony. The U.S. attempt contravenes the trend of our times and the will of the people. It is destined to fail.
China is committed to pursing peaceful development and building a community with a shared future for mankind. This commitment is rooted in the traditional Chinese value of "common good of the world" and "peace and harmony among all nations". It is also the shared aspiration of people across the world.
China never has the intention to rule the world; we want to contribute to the common good of the world. China strives for development not to compete with the United States for supremacy, but to bring a better life to its own people. China takes an active part in global governance not to supplant anyone, but to play its due role as a major country.
In responding to COVID-19, China has offered assistance to more than 150 countries and international organizations. We have shared our containment experience, and helped other developing countries, especially the least developed ones, to cope with the virus. We have supported WHO in playing its important role, and worked to improve global public health governance. China and the United States form a sharp contrast when it comes to vaccine development and distribution. China is making every effort to develop a COVID-19 vaccine and has pledged to make it a global public good, whereas the United States is trying to hoard and monopolize vaccines, caring about no one but itself.
In essence, the difference between China and the United States on the international order and global governance is not what some U.S. politicians have portrayed as "tyranny vs. freedom", but between multilateralism and unilateralism, between equity and justice on the one hand and hegemony and "might makes right" on the other, and between the common good and "America First".
It is only too clear to the world which one is the right way to go and represents the trend of history. All peace- and justice-loving people in the world should stand up to U.S. unilateralist moves and power politics, and come together in getting the United States to return to the right path of reason, law and justice.
