China will never seek hegemony, expansion, or sphere of influence, President Xi Jinping said on Tuesday and said Beijing has no intention to fight either a “Cold War” or a “hot war” with any country.
Xi also said that China will continue to close the gaps and settle conflicts with others by discussions, in remarks that came over four months in the form of the intense military standoff between the Chinese and Indian armies in eastern Ladakh.
Addressing the general debate of the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly, he said, “Through consultation and arbitration, we will continue to narrow gaps and settle conflicts with others.”
“In a pre-recorded video message to the UN conference, Xi said,” We will never pursue conquest, extension, or sphere of influence. We have no intention of fighting either a Cold War or a hot war with any nation.
During a surprise visit to Ladakh on July 4, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the era of expansionism is over and that history is evidence that “expansionists” have either lost or died, in remarks that were seen as a direct warning to China.
Xi, both the Secretary-General of the ruling Communist Party of China and the Chinese Army Commander-in-Chief, said his country would not seek growth behind closed doors.
Instead, over time, we aspire to promote a new development model with domestic circulation as the mainstay and mutually reinforcing domestic and foreign circulations. This will provide more room for the economic development of China and add momentum to global economic recovery and expansion, “he said.”
The Chinese president also raised the question of the COVID-19 pandemic and international condemnation of the efforts by China to conceal the specifics of the epidemic.
“We should raise unity and get this through together in the face of the virus. We should follow science’s guidance, provide full play to the World Health Organization’s leadership role, and initiate a collective international effort to combat this pandemic. Any effort to politicize the topic or negativity must be rejected,” Xi said.
“Earlier, on Tuesday, US President Donald Trump criticized China for” unleashing the scourge of the “China virus” on the globe, insisting that the United Nations keep Beijing liable for failing to eradicate the coronavirus that killed almost one million people, including 200,000 Americans, around the world.
Trump requested that China be kept responsible for the inability to contain the virus and for allowing it to spread around the world, where the coronavirus originated.
“As we embrace this promising future, the country that unleashed this plague on the planet must be kept accountable: China,” he said.
About 30 million people have been affected so far by the COVID-19 pandemic and more than 958,000 people have died. The US reached the bleak mark of 200,000 deaths with 6.7 million infections.
Trump said, “The Chinese government and the World Health Organisation, practically dominated by China, have wrongly reported that there is no proof of human-to-human transmission.”
Later, they wrongly said people would not spread the disease without symptoms. He said, “The United Nations must keep China responsible for their actions.”
Trump has consistently blamed China for the coronavirus pandemic that erupted last December in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, accusing Beijing of hiding the specifics of the outbreak.
During Trump’s tenure in office, relations between the US and China deteriorated, with a trade war, tit-for-tat expulsions of diplomats, and furious denunciations coming from both Washington and Beijing.
Xi also emphasized in his speech that no nation can benefit from the problems of others or preserve peace by taking advantage of the woes of others.
“It would inevitably land one in the same trouble faced by others to follow a beggar-thy-neighbor scheme or only watch from a safe distance while others are in danger,” he said.
“In order to hold others out and resist a zero-sum strategy, we should avoid attempts to create blocs. We should consider each other as part of the same broad society, seek win-win compromise, and rise above intellectual differences and do not slip into the pit of” clash of civilizations, “he said.
More specifically, he said that one should value the “individual option of development direction and model” of a region.
In nature, the world is complex, and we can turn this diversity into a continuous source of inspiration that pushes human development. In the midst of Western pressure on the ruling Communist Party to reform, this will ensure that human cultures remain lively and diversified, Xi said.
