Wang Yi Attends and Addresses the General Debate of the 77th Session of the United Nations General Assembly

On September 24, 2022 local time, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi attended the General Debate of the 77th Session of the United Nations General Assembly at the UN headquarters in New York, and made a statement titled "Making Every Effort for Peace and Development and Shouldering the Responsibility for Solidarity and Progress".

Wang Yi said that we are at a time fraught with challenges. The world has entered a new phase of turbulence and transformation. Changes unseen in a century are accelerating. But we are also at a time full of hope. Peace and development remain the underlying trend of our times. Around the world, the people's call for progress and cooperation is getting louder than ever before. How should we respond to the call of our times and ride on the trend of history to build a community with a shared future for mankind? China's answer is firm and clear:

We must uphold peace and oppose war and turbulence. We should remain committed to addressing differences through peaceful means and resolving disputes through dialogue and consultation.

We must pursue development and eliminate poverty. We should place development at the center of the international agenda, build international consensus, and see to it that everyone in every country benefits more from the fruits of development in a more equitable way.

We must remain open and oppose exclusion. We should stay true to openness and inclusiveness, uphold the multilateral trading system with the WTO at its core and endeavor to build an open world economy.

We must stay engaged in cooperation and oppose confrontation. We should engage in dialogue, consultation and win-win cooperation, and reject conflict, coercion and zero-sum game. We should jointly oppose group politics and bloc confrontation.

We must strengthen solidarity and oppose division. We should stand against drawing lines on ideological grounds, and we should work together to expand common ground and convergence of interests to promote world peace and development.

We must uphold equity and oppose bullying. We should promote and practice true multilateralism, promote equality of all countries in terms of rights, rules and opportunities, and build a new type of international relations featuring mutual respect, equity and justice, and win-win cooperation.

Wang Yi said that China, as a permanent member of the UN Security Council and the world's largest developing country, is committed to boosting solidarity and cooperation with other countries. It will follow the trend of the times and pursue the shared interests of the vast majority of countries. China has been a builder of world peace, a contributor to global development, a defender of the international order, a provider of public goods, and a mediator of hotspot issues.

Wang Yi said that in response to various challenges facing the world, President Xi Jinping proposed the Global Development Initiative, which is a rallying call to refocus attention of the international community on development and build a global community of development. President Xi Jinping also proposed the Global Security Initiative, which has contributed China's vision to reducing the peace deficit and provided China's input to meeting global security challenges.

Wang Yi stressed that since ancient times, Taiwan has been an inalienable part of China's territory. China's sovereignty and territorial integrity has never been severed and the fact that the mainland and Taiwan belong to one and same China has never changed. All of us Chinese have never ceased our efforts to realize China's reunification. The one-China principle has become a basic norm in international relations and a general consensus of the international community. Fifty-one years ago, right in this august hall, the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 2758 with an overwhelming majority, which decided to restore the lawful seat of the People's Republic of China in the United Nations and to expel the "representatives" of the Taiwan authorities from the place which they had unlawfully occupied. Once and for all, Resolution 2758 resolved, politically, legally and procedurally, the issue of the representation of the whole of China, including Taiwan, in the United Nations and international institutions. It completely blocked any attempt by anyone or any country to create "two Chinas" or "one China, one Taiwan".

Wang Yi said that China will continue to endeavor to achieve peaceful reunification with the greatest sincerity and greatest efforts. To realize this goal, we must combat "Taiwan independence" separatist activities with the firmest resolve and take the most forceful steps to repulse interference by external groups. Only by resolutely forestalling in accordance with the law separatist activities can we forge a true foundation for peaceful reunification. Only when China is completely reunified can there be enduring peace across the Taiwan Strait. Any scheme to interfere in China's internal affairs is bound to meet the strong opposition of all us Chinese, and any move to obstruct China's cause of reunification is bound to be crushed by the wheels of history.

Wang Yi said that China is fully implementing a new development philosophy featuring innovative, coordinated, green and open development for all, and it is pursuing high-quality development and fostering a new development paradigm. China will enjoy sustained and sound development, usher in even brighter prospects, and make more splendid miracles come true. As China has one-fifth of the global population, its march toward modernization has important and far-reaching significance for the world. The path that China pursues is one of peace and development, not one of plunder and colonialism; it is a path of win-win cooperation, not one of zero-sum game; and it is one of harmony between man and Nature, not one of destructive exploitation of resources. We will continue to contribute our input to meeting the challenges facing human development, and make our contribution to creating a new form of human advancement.

Wang Yi said that the upcoming 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China will, in response to the expectation of all the Chinese people, set well-conceived goals and tasks for China's development in the next five years and beyond, and it will draw an overarching plan for China's future development. Having reached a new historical starting point, China will follow the Chinese path to modernization to achieve the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. China will work with other countries to make every effort for peace and development, shoulder the responsibility for solidarity and progress, build a community with a shared future for mankind, and embrace an even better world.

On the same day, Wang Yi also met with the President of the 77th Session of the UN General Assembly, and the foreign ministers of Maldives, Egypt, Algeria, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, and Costa Rica, respectively.