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The Global Governance Initiative presented by Chinese President Xi Jinping restores to the United Nations and its specialized agencies their fair human values and ideals that were established at the time of the world body’s founding 80 years ago.

by Nashwa Abdel Hamid

As a continuation of Chinese initiatives in the fields of global development, world security, and the dialogue of civilizations, the Global Governance Initiative (GGI) presented by Chinese President Xi Jinping at the recent “Shanghai Cooperation Organization Plus” Meeting in Tianjin, China, restores to the United Nations and its specialized agencies their fair human values and ideals that were established at the time of the world body’s founding 80 years ago.

The UN Charter is not merely a political declaration, but rather a promise from leaders to their peoples, from nations to each other, and from one generation to the next: “To save succeeding generations from the scourge of war.” It aims to formulate a set of rules, regulations, and mechanisms that guide and govern the vast UN system — and the world as well — effectively and efficiently, through transparency, accountability, participation, and justice.

Among the United Nations’ core responsibilities are promoting friendly relations among nations, improving living standards, protecting human rights, and ensuring justice. However, structural flaws in the UN institutions and weak or biased global governance mechanisms sometimes pose a real obstacle to achieving these goals, while political, economic, military, and social turmoil often renders the premier international organization unable to confront these crises.

INCREASING GLOBAL GOVERNANCE DEFICIT

Today, wealthier countries still hold disproportionate sway in international decision-making, while Global South nations are underrepresented. This, in fact, creates significant unfair pressure on emerging markets and developing countries. Take climate change as an example. Western European countries and the United States have increased the level of carbon in the Earth’s atmosphere over the past 200 years since the Industrial Revolution, but are now pressuring nascent industries in developing countries under the pretext of environmental protection.

It is worth noting that the greatest victims of climate change are poor and vulnerable communities spread across the Global South, like those along the coasts of Africa and South Asia threatened by submersion. While floods and desertification besiege developing countries, global warming has given the steppes of Canada better prospects for agriculture! The scapegoating has even reached the point where rice cultivation in China and East Asia is accused of releasing methane emissions! And so are cattle farmers in Africa and Latin America! But what caused the fish kills in the Thames in the 1980s, before China’s great industrial boom?

Meanwhile, decisions by the United Nations and its institutions are being ignored, such as the International Court of Justice’s order demanding Israel immediately halt its military offensive and any other action in Rafah, and UN Security Council resolutions calling on Israel to cease all settlement activity in the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem. And the prevailing opinion of the world often falls victim to a single obstructor. The United States repeatedly vetoed UN Security Council draft resolutions calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, despite the extensive support of other council members.

Also alarming is the fact that global corporations and vested interests are dominating decisions and policies. Half of the world’s net wealth is held by the top 1 percent, and this wealth is geographically concentrated in Western Europe and North America. U.S. tariff tantrums represent a stark example of the injustice inflicted on the struggling working classes, all for the benefit of large corporations and wealthy individuals. How can international institutions function properly when the United States opts to withdraw its funding?

In addition, how can global climate actions be truly effective if the United States, which has emitted the largest amount of carbon into the air, chooses to shirk its responsibilities? How can common development be achieved while rich countries’ high-tech bans widen the South-North digital divide? Who will pay the price when the world’s sole superpower and largest economy opts to impose deep cuts on foreign aid?

BRIDGING SOUTH-NORTH GAP

Through the GGI, China reaffirms its rejection of imbalanced representation and discrimination among countries, whether small or large, rich or poor. It also emphasizes the need to ensure equal representation of Global South countries in international economic and financial institutions, so that the global system can maintain impartiality and protect the collective interest.

To bridge the chronic gaps between the rich North and the developing South, China pushes for global prosperity through commitment to innovation-based and human-centered development, as well as the realization of the interests of all without exception. To that end, China also calls for reforming the international financial structure to better meet the needs of the Global South.

Securing common development requires achieving equity in resource use, yet arbitrary customs duties undermine it. For example, as the world seeks clean, cheap, and safe energy sources, U.S. tariffs on foreign solar panels have destabilized the global market for photovoltaic solar products. To safeguard the legitimate development rights of emerging markets and developing countries, China is leading the efforts, including resorting to the World Trade Organization, to keep the green transition afloat.

The Global South places high hopes on artificial intelligence (AI) and other digital advancements to help develop its economic and social infrastructure, seeking to take advantage of the new industrial revolution to quickly balance development between the North and the South, but monopolies hinder this. China has proposed the establishment of a global organization for AI cooperation, insisting that all countries should have the right to equal development and use of AI.

Other examples abound to illuminate the great relevance and significance of the GGI and other Chinese initiatives in today’s world. Eight decades after the founding of the United Nations, these efforts have once again galvanized the international community into action in the joint pursuit of the lofty ideals enshrined in the UN Charter and of a better future for all.

Editor’s note: Nashwa Abdel Hamid is an undersecretary of Egypt’s State Information Service (SIS) and head of the central department of the media of Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Australia at the SIS.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of Xinhua News Agency.