By Le Yucheng
THE world today is struggling against the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic and undergoing changes unseen in a century. The co-occurrence is profoundly reshaping the world and revamping our lives in myriad ways. Sweeping across almost all countries and regions, COVID-19 is the most serious pandemic since World War II, affecting more than 7 billion people and having claimed more than 1.5 million lives so far.
The pandemic has precipitated the worst global recession since the 1930s. The International Monetary Fund forecasts that global GDP will shrink by 4.4 percent this year, and the World Bank estimates that hundreds of millions of people have been plunged into extreme poverty as a result. Economic globalization has met a cold front that attempts to push it backward. The pandemic has brought almost everything to a standstill from tourism and aviation to trade, commerce and the flow of people. More than 40 airlines around the world went bankrupt. Industrial and supply chains have been seriously disrupted.
The multilateral trading system faces numerous challenges. A certain big country has engaged in unscrupulous bullying, and even provoking a new Cold War. International tensions and regional conflicts are clearly on the rise. All these pose unprecedented challenges to the global governance system and the international order.
The way forward for the world: No one is immune to the virus. The top priority at the moment is to contain its spread. Countries must put people and saving lives first, opt for unity over division, and work together to build an international line of defense against the virus.
In particular, they must cooperate on vaccine R&D and distribution, and make the vaccines a public good accessible and affordable to people in all countries.
The central task in front of us is to revive the global economy. Protectionism or “decoupling” will only aggravate the economic situation. We should promote the building of an open world economy, encourage connectivity between countries, protect the safe and smooth operation of the industrial and supply chains, vigorously develop the digital economy, and foster new drivers of growth, so as to achieve inclusive and sustainable development.
What is urgently needed is a more just and equitable international governance system. Zero-sum game and unilateral bullying are no solutions. They cannot put one’s own house in order, let alone tackling the common challenges of mankind. Countries need to embrace the basic principle of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits, keep improving global governance, and uphold the international system with the United Nations at its core and the international order based on international law.
The ultimate solution lies in building a community with a shared future for mankind. Humanity live on the same planet, and our interests and futures are interlinked. The pandemic has highlighted the need and urgency of building a community with a shared future and has gained greater traction for the vision. COVID-19 is unlikely the last crisis for humanity. We must close ranks to brace for other global challenges. The awareness that we are “one big family” and a “community” is the only choice for the future of mankind.
With courage and determination, the 1.4 billion Chinese people have endeavored to minimize the impact of the pandemic, speedily restored life and work, and attained steady economic progress this year. At the Fifth Plenum of the 19th Communist Party of China Central Committee in October, recommendations for the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) and long-range goals for 2035 were adopted, laying down the strategic blueprint for fully building China into a modern socialist country.
Based on a keen understanding of the new development stage, we will act on the new development philosophy, and foster a new development paradigm with domestic circulation as the mainstay and domestic and international circulations reinforcing each other. It must be stressed that the new development paradigm China pursues is not an enclosed domestic circulation; rather, it is an open dual circulation with the domestic and international aspects reinforcing each other.
China will not backpedal. Instead of closing our doors, we will open them wider. An increasingly open and growing China will create vast development opportunities for other countries, and make greater contributions to the stability and prosperity of the post-pandemic world.
– The Daily Mail-
China Daily news
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