By Yan Yu, People’s Daily Overseas Edition
Chinese President Xi Jinping attended the World Economic Forum (WEF) Virtual Event of the Davos Agenda via video link and delivered a special address entitled “Let the Torch of Multilateralism Light up Humanity’s Way Forward”on Jan. 25.
“Yet we remain convinced that winter cannot stop the arrival of spring and darkness can never shroud the light of dawn. There is no doubt that humanity will prevail over the virus and emerge even stronger from this disaster,” he said.
His remarks have infused vitality into the world that is haunted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In recent years, whenever global development encounters headwinds or cold currents, China is always there to contribute its wisdom and strength to helping the world move forward.
The country stayed committed to its original aspirationand took on its responsibilitiesin the eventful year of 2020, serving as a driver of international anti-epidemic cooperation as well as a locomotive of the global economic recovery.
In the face of the raging COVID-19, China has done its best to provide assistance for other countries and facilitate solidarity and international cooperation for the global fight against the epidemic while ensuring strict implementation of epidemic prevention and control measures on its own land.
Itreleased the genome sequence of the novel coronavirusand other key informationat the earliest possible time, and made a cash donation of $50 million to the World Health Organization (WHO).
The country provided assistance to over 150 countries and 13 international organizations, sent 36 medical expert teams to countries in need, and stayed strongly supportive and actively engaged in international cooperation on COVID-19 vaccines.
Besides, China has provided countries around the world with over 200 billion face masks, 2 billion protective suits and 800 million testing kits.
By working in solidarity with other countries amid the pandemic, the country has put into action its proposal and initiative of building a global community of health for all.
As it endeavored to bring its own economic development back on track after the outbreak of the pandemic, China has remained steadfast in facilitating global economic recovery by promoting joint response to the pandemic.
Thanks to its various measures rolled out for the resumption of work and production amid the pandemic, the country emerged as the world’s only major economy to achieve positive economic growth and positive growth in foreign trade in goods last year, whenits GDP exceeded 100 trillion yuan (about $15.5 trillion), and its total value of foreign trade and that of exportsboth hit a record high.These achievements have greatly boosted confidence in global economic recovery.
The year 2020 has also witnessed the continuous expansion of China’s “circle of friends” for free trade and the country’s consistent support for global multilateral trading system. Last year,the countrysigned the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement with relevant parties, andcompleted investment agreement negotiations with the European Union (EU) as scheduled.
While speeding up economic development at home, China came up with the idea ofestablishinga new development pattern whereby domestic and foreign markets can boost each other, with the domestic market as the mainstay, trying to share its fruits of development with other countries and contribute to the steady growth ofthe world economy.
The countryhosted a series of important international trade events in 2020, including the 2020 China International Fair for Trade in Services, the 128th China Import and Export Fair, and the 3rd China International Import Expo, openingits door wider to the rest of the world.
China will continue to take an active part in international cooperation on COVID-19, implement a win-win strategy of opening-up, promote sustainable development, advance science, technology and innovation, and promote a new type of international relations, Xi stressed in his speech.These remarks not only represent China’s strategies for dealing with global challenges, but also the country’s promise and determination to continue shouldering its responsibilities as a major country.
“There is only one Earth and one shared future for humanity,” Xi said.
It’s believed that China will continue to make greater contributions to global efforts to get rid of the shadow of the pandemic and achieve economic recovery, and join hands with the rest of the world to move toward a community with a shared future for mankind.
