People's Republic of China, 2014

This year

marks the centenary of the outbreak of the First World

War. A distinguished thinker in modern China, Yan Fu,

described the devastation caused by the war: “How sad

that the air is heavy with the stench of war”.

Next year will be the seventieth anniversary of the

end of the Second World War. Over 2 billion people

across the world were affected by that calamity. In

China alone, the aggression committed by Japanese

militarists left more than 35 million Chinese soldiers

and civilians dead or injured.

The United Nations was established to keep the

scourge of the two World Wars from occurring again,

and it embodies the fervent hope of all countries for

peace and stability. To achieve that goal, the Charter

of the United Nations presented a grand vision of joint

efforts to build a better world.

In this world, we should treat each other as equals.

The principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity

must be upheld. The pursuit by different countries of

economic and social development must be respected.

Their right to independently choose their own social

systems and development paths must be safeguarded.

We should be open and inclusive. Only in that way

can we open the door of dialogue and exchange and

achieve harmony among countries with different social

systems, religions and cultural traditions. We should

pursue mutually beneficial cooperation. Each country

should align its own interests with those of others and

work to maximize areas where their interests converge.

Only by helping one another can countries prosper.

We should jointly initiate a new thinking for win-win

and all-win progress and reject the old notion of a zero-

sum game, or the winner takes all. We should uphold

justice. It is imperative to promote greater democracy

and the rule of law in international relations, to apply

fair and just rules to tell right from wrong and settle

disputes, and to pursue peace and development within

the framework of international law. All parties should

jointly uphold the authority and effectiveness of the

United Nations and reform and improve the global

governance structure.

As we have seen in Gaza, Iraq, the Central African

Republic and South Sudan, our world is far from

peaceful. In the face of all those who have been killed

in war, we must ask ourselves how we can keep the

tragedies from recurring. In the face of women and

children displaced by fighting, we must ask ourselves

when they can return home. In the face of incessant

conflicts, we must ask ourselves how we can open the

door to lasting peace. To address those problems, China

believes that we should do the following.

First, we should seek political solutions. To beat

swords into ploughshares may take time and effort, but

history and reality have repeatedly demonstrated that

to meet violence with violence will not lead to enduring

peace, and the use of force will only create more

problems than solutions. Coercive action should be

authorized by the Security Council. If a country places

its domestic law above international law and interferes

in other countries’ internal affairs at will, or even seeks

regime change, the international community cannot but

question the legitimacy of its actions.

Secondly, we should accommodate the interests

of all parties. Parties to a conflict should reject the

zero-sum approach, address each other’s concerns in

negotiations and endeavour to meet each other half

way. They should seek to meet their legitimate concerns

through consultations in a mutually accommodating

way. When conducting mediation, the international

community should uphold justice and take an objective

and balanced position. Countries should not be partial

to any party in the conflict. Still less should they avail

themselves of the opportunity to pursue their own

agenda.

Thirdly, we should promote national reconciliation.

The ongoing armed conflicts are largely caused by

ethnic and sectarian tensions. The process of national

reconciliation and the process of political settlement

should be advanced in tandem with each other. All

parties should uphold the Charter of the United

Nations, develop and practice a culture of inclusion and

tolerance and uproot the seeds of hatred and retaliation,

so that the fruit of inclusion and amity will grow on

post-conflict land.

Fourthly, we should uphold multilateralism. We

should give full play to the role of the United Nations

and observe international law and the basic norms

governing international relations. Chapter VII of the

Charter is not the only means for the Security Council

to maintain international peace and security. We should

make better and full use of the means of prevention,

mediation and conciliation stipulated in Chapter VI.

Given their familiarity with local developments, we

should leverage the strengths of regional organizations

and countries and support them in addressing regional

issues in ways suited to their regions.

The conflicts in Ukraine remain a cause of

concern. We welcome and support the Minsk ceasefire

agreement and urge all parties in Ukraine to strictly

implement it and seek a comprehensive, sustained

and balanced political solution through political

dialogue and negotiation. China hopes that the various

ethnic groups in Ukraine will live in harmony and

that Ukraine will live in peace with other countries.

That is the fundamental way for Ukraine to achieve

long-term stability and security. China hopes that

the United Nations will play its due role in finding a

proper solution to the Ukrainian crisis and supports the

international community’s constructive efforts to ease

the humanitarian situation in eastern Ukraine.

China supports Iraq in upholding its sovereignty,

independence and territorial integrity. The formation of

the new Iraqi Government has provided an important

opportunity. We hope that the Iraqi Government will

lead its people in a joint endeavour to develop their

country in the spirit of inclusion and reconciliation.

China calls for providing more humanitarian assistance

to support Iraq. To help the Iraqi people overcome

difficulties and to achieve peace and stability in their

country is the shared responsibility of the international

community.

China firmly opposes all terrorist acts and supports

the international community in responding to the

threat posed by terrorist forces in a coordinated and

concerted way in accordance with the relevant Security

Council resolutions. China believes that in conducting

international counter-terrorism cooperation, we should

take a multipronged approach and address both the

symptoms and root causes of terrorism, and that the

United Nations and the Security Council should fully

play leading roles. There should be no double standard

when it comes to fighting terrorism; still less should

terrorism be identified with any particular ethnic group

or religion.

As new developments emerge in the global fight

against terrorism, the international community should

take new measures to address them. In particular, it

should focus on combating religious extremism and

cyberterrorism, resolutely eliminate the root causes of

terrorism and extremism, block channels that spread

them and crack down hard and effectively on the use of

the Internet and other new means of communication by

terrorists to instigate, recruit, finance or plot terrorist

attacks.

The Syrian crisis has continued for nearly four

years. It is negotiation, not fighting, that offers

solutions. China urges all parties in Syria to end the

fighting and violence immediately, cooperate fully with

United Nations humanitarian assistance operations and

help bring an end to the suffering of innocent civilians

as soon as possible. We urge all the parties to act in the

overall interests of the future and fate of their country

and people, demonstrate the necessary political will,

actively support the mediation efforts of the Secretary-

General and his Special Envoy, and follow a middle

way that draws on workable practices from other

countries and regions, suits Syria’s national conditions

and accommodates the interests of various parties, in

order to give peace a chance.

The Palestinian issue is an open wound on the

conscience of humankind. China calls on Israel

and Palestine to agree on a durable ceasefire, and it

urges Israel to lift its blockade of the Gaza Strip and

stop building settlements. At the same time, Israel’s

legitimate security concerns should be respected. We

hope that Israel and Palestine will choose the way of

peace and resume and advance the peace talks as soon

as possible. The aspirations and legitimate demands of

the Palestinian people for an independent nation must

not remain unmet indefinitely. Advancing peace in the

Middle East calls for the concerted efforts of many, not

of one or two countries alone. The Security Council

should play its rightful role, and we support its efforts

to take action in response to the demands of Palestine

and the League of Arab States.

Negotiations on the Iranian nuclear issue have

entered a crucial stage. All the parties should display

good faith, continue their efforts in a spirit of mutual

respect, equality, collaboration and accommodation,

and work hard on the most difficult issues, so that a

win-win agreement that is comprehensive, fair and

balanced is arrived at as soon as possible.

The two sides of the conflict in South Sudan

should establish a ceasefire immediately, organize an

active political dialogue that addresses the interests

of the people in South Sudan in general and, through

the mediation of the Intergovernmental Authority

on Development, work with all the country’s ethnic

groups and parties to speedily reach a fair and balanced

solution and achieve national reconciliation and ethnic

unity. South Sudan is the youngest Member of the

United Nations. The South Sudanese people deserve a

life of hope and vitality, not the devastation caused by

conflicts and wars.

China welcomes the election of Mr. Ashraf Ghani

as the new President of Afghanistan and Mr. Abdullah

Abdullah as its Chief Executive, and will continue to

support the Afghan people in their work to achieve a

smooth political, security and economic transition and

to build jointly with them an Afghanistan that enjoys

unity, stability, development and amity. We support

an Afghan-led and -owned peace process, with the

international community fulfilling its commitment and

responsibility to Afghanistan and its people. China will

host the Fourth Ministerial Conference of the Istanbul

Process so that we can give Afghanistan fresh support

as it stands on the threshold of a new era.

On the issue of the Korean peninsula, China calls

on all the parties to act objectively and impartially,

remain committed to the goal of denuclearizing the

peninsula, firmly uphold its peace and stability, and

endeavour to resolve the issues through dialogue and

consultation. The Six-Party Talks remain the only

viable and effective way to resolve the nuclear issue on

the Korean peninsula, and we now have the pressing

task of restarting the talks as soon as possible. The issue

should be tackled through a sustainable, irreversible

and effective dialogue process that addresses all the

parties’ concerns in a comprehensive and balanced

way. Since there are still many uncertainties on the

peninsula today, all the parties concerned should

exercise restraint, refrain from provocative acts, work

harder to help ease tensions and jointly uphold peace

and stability.

While the Millennium Development Goals

(MDGs) established by the United Nations in 2000

have contributed greatly to improving human survival

and development, global development is still a task for

the long term. The international community is not only

dealing with the formidable challenges of reducing

poverty, eradicating hunger and improving education

and the health of women and children, it is also facing

new challenges in the form of the environment, climate

change and energy and resource security.

Next year is the deadline for meeting the MDGs,

and the post-2015 development agenda will take

over this historic mission. Building on past progress

and also breaking new ground, the international

community should formulate more effective plans

and take more robust action to advance humankind’s

shared development. As we see it, the development

agenda should have three goals. First, it should advance

people’s well-being, with a focus on eradicating

poverty and encouraging development. Secondly,

it should promote inclusiveness, in the interests of

supporting social equity and justice. Thirdly, it should

ensure the implementation of all these things. Based

on the principles of diversity in development models

and shared but differentiated responsibilities, the

agenda should aim to enhance global partnerships for

development and improve implementation tools and

mechanisms.

Climate change is a challenge that all humankind

is facing. Mr. Zhang Gaoli, Vice Premier of the State

Council, led the Chinese delegation to this year’s

Climate Summit at the United Nations as a special

envoy of China’s President. We congratulate the

United Nations on the Summit’s success and hope that

the political momentum it generated will translate

into effective actions for improving international

cooperation on climate change. All parties should

work to conclude negotiations on a new post-2020

climate-change regime as scheduled, by the end of

2015, in accordance with the principles of shared but

differentiated responsibilities, equity and respective

capabilities, with the aim of creating fairer and more

equitable and effective arrangements for international

cooperation on climate change.

The Ebola epidemic, which is raging in some

African countries, has once again sounded the alarm

on global health security. As a good brother and partner

of Africa, with whom it shares the good and the bad,

China will continue to stand firmly with the African

people and to support and assist them to the best of its

ability. We will also take an active part in the relevant

international assistance efforts. China calls on the

World Health Organization, the United Nations and

other international agencies to work closely with the

international community, come up with new initiatives

for strengthening global health security and provide

more assistance to developing countries, particularly in

Africa.

Next year is one of special historic significance,

as it marks the seventieth anniversary of victory in

the anti-fascist world war, the founding of the United

Nations and victory in the Chinese people’s war against

Japanese aggression. Remembering the past makes us

cherish peace, and recalling history will help to guide

us as we embrace the future. China welcomes the

inclusion of the seventieth anniversary of the end of the

Second World War on the agenda of this session of the

General Assembly as an important opportunity.

When we look back on what happened 70 years

ago, the historical facts are clear, and a final verdict

has been pronounced on what was right and what was

wrong. History should not be falsified or truth distorted.

Today, 70 years later, let us jointly uphold human

justice and conscience so that those who attempt to

deny aggression and distort history will have nowhere

to hide. Let us jointly defend the Charter of the United

Nations and the outcomes of the Second World War,

so that that vision of a world free of war, with lasting

peace, will take deep root in our hearts and pass from

one generation to the next.