President Xi further mentioned that, spanning thousands of miles and years, the ancient silk routes embody the spirit of peace and cooperation, openness and inclusiveness, mutual learning and mutual benefit 

Syed Ali Nawaz Gilani

1^stOctober 2020, the 71^st Foundation Day of People’s Republic of China, like national or foundations days of all other nations around globe, is of paramount significant. However, the Chinese President, Xi Jinping adds more value and significance to this already valuable and significant occasion for the Chinese people and its well-wishersthroughout the world. Since 2012, President, Xi Jinping hasinitiated various mega projects, including Belt and Road Initiative for collective prosperity of the wider community of the global village.

Owing to his achievements, his recent address to the united Nations General Assembly is worthwhile. Xi Jinping does not wish to engage in the new cold war, told United Nations General Assembly,“China is the largest developing country in the world, a country that is committed to peaceful, open, cooperative and common development”.He expressed that China did not has any intention of fighting either cold or hot wars with any of the countries of this world. The President, being focused at the peace of the global village largely, vowed for peaceful existence of world countries, sharing businesses.

This statement that came from the Chinese President is immensely importantas it is indicative of China’s preferences with regard to world development in general and the President’s intentions in particular. His sublime speechhighlights that how the President, Xi Jinping intends to support and favour multilateralism and safeguards international system with the United Nations at its core. He also mentioned that the world would never return to isolation and no one can sever the ties between countries.

Ever since 2012, the hon’ble President, Xi Jinping has taken steps that amicably highlight his visionary zeal of developing the world. From BRI to every single step that he has taken for the strengthening of shared community values and its prosperity, China has played its leading role not only in small regions but larger world avenues.As China claimed its strength during the last year landmark celebrations of its 70^th Founding Day, proved it by facing and fighting global challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic in a spic and span manner.

This COVID-19 affected China firstly and thenit attacked entire world, but the world community, later on,learned a lot from Chinese experience as how tohandle this fatal virus. The credit for this, however, goers to the Chinese leadership &its determined nation for their resilience, perseverance and citizenship. It is, in actual, China who taught to the world as how to face any pandemic. Thus, China becomesa role model for other nations for which we must crown under President Xi and his dedicated nation driven by his hardworking team. Chinese President, Xi Jinping warned the assembled leaders and their nations of the “clash of civilizations” as the coronavirus pandemic ravages the world, while addressing the United Nations General Assembly. President mentioned that theworld must “oppose politicization and stigmatization” over COVID-19, urging global leaders to embrace the “concept of a bigger family … and avoid falling into the trap of a clash of civilizations.”

President Xi makes this clear to the world leaders that the China had no desire for “hegemony, expansion or sphere of influence” and further mentioned that “China has no intention to enter a Cold War with any country” he said, insisting China is instead a bulwark of international systems such as the World Trade Organization and a willing partner in the face of diplomatic spats.

“We insist on dialogue to bridge differences and negotiation to resolve disputes,” Xi added.

These most recent statements show that the Chinese President Xi’s mindset that China and its leadership always prefer to work for peaceful coexistence of the world community and strictly implement anon-interference policy: avoiding any indulgenceinaffairs of other and preferring to aolve every conflict on a table through a talk. Surprisingly, the China’s picture portrayed by the US is quite different from what China in real is and it nonetheless torn face of the US. It explicitly expresses that how the US wants to paint her own choiceof colours in the picture which are not real.

While, addressing the UN, President Xi Jinping recalled that Seventy-five years ago where China made historic contributions to winning the World Anti-Fascist War and supported the founding of the United Nations. He said, “the history of development of human society is a history of our struggles against all challenges and difficulties and our victories over them. At present, the world is battling the COVID-19 pandemic as it goes through profound changes never seen in a century. Yet, peace and development remain the underlying trend of the times, and people everywhere crave even more strongly for peace, development and win-win cooperation. COVID-19 will not be the last crisis to confront humanity, so we must join hands and be prepared to meet even more global challenges”.  President Xi Jinping few years ago while speaking at BRI international summit mentioned, “Over 2,000 years ago, our ancestors, trekking across vast steppes and deserts, opened the transcontinental passage connecting Asia, Europe and Africa, known today as the Silk Road. Our ancestors, navigating rough seas, created sea routes linking the East with the West, namely, the maritime Silk Road. These ancient silk routes opened windows of friendly engagement among nations, adding a splendid chapter to the history of human progress. The thousand-year-old “gilt bronze silkworm” displayed at China’s Shaanxi History Museum and the Belitung shipwreck discovered in Indonesia bear witness to this exciting period of history.

President Xi further mentioned that, spanning thousands of miles and years, the ancient silk routes embody the spirit of peace and cooperation, openness and inclusiveness, mutual learning and mutual benefit. The Silk Road spirit has become a great heritage of human civilization.

— Peace and cooperation.

— Openness and inclusiveness.

— Mutual learning.

— Mutual benefit.

History is our best teacher. The glory of the ancient silk routes shows that geographical distance is not insurmountable. If we take the first courageous step towards each other, we can embark on a path leading to friendship, shared development, peace, harmony and a better future.

From the historical perspective, humankind has reached an age of great progress, great transformation and profound changes. In this increasingly multi-polar, economically globalized, digitized and culturally diversified world, the trend toward peace and development becomes stronger, and reform and innovation are gaining momentum. Never have we seen such close interdependence among countries as today, such fervent desire of people for a better life, and never have we had so many means to prevail over difficulties.

No doubt since start 2020, the 1.4 billion Chinese, undaunted by the strike of COVID-19, and with the Chinese leadership & people united as one, have made all-out efforts to control the virus and speedily restore life and economy to normalcy. Chinese Nation confidence to achieve our goals within the set time frame, that is, to finish the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects, lift out of poverty all rural residents living below the current poverty line, and meet ten years ahead of schedule the poverty eradication target set out in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. China is the largest developing country in the world, a country that is committed to peaceful, open, cooperative and common development. We will never seek hegemony, expansion, or sphere of influence. We have no intention to fight either a Cold War or a hot war with any country. We will continue to narrow differences and resolve disputes with others through dialogue and negotiation. We do not seek to develop only ourselves or engage in a zero-sum game. We will not pursue development behind closed doors. Rather, we aim to foster, over time, a new development paradigm with domestic circulation as the mainstay and domestic and international circulations reinforcing each other. This will create more space for China’s economic development and add impetus to global economic recovery and growth.

Now, world community referred China due to landmark initiatives and steps taken by President Xi Jinping’s China to further engraving its vital role in global stage. Apart from other challenges, China also faced internationally baseless propaganda through out 2020, but during all these times, China continued to work with the same speeding pace andproved to remain dedicated and devoted to  overcome these crises in health sector and even economic sectors through all available means which shows that President Xi Jinping’s China is now more young and energetic and will continue to work as a builder of global peace, a contributor to global development and a defender of international order.

(This writer is senior Media Consultant and could be contacted at [email protected])

By Muhammad Omar Iftikhar 

The technology industry of the world has grown by leaps and bounds during the last couple of decades. We have now entered the digital age where almost all processes are being dealt online. If in the late 1990s when the world was introduced to the Internet, then in 2010 we are using the same Internet with unimaginable speeds to complete tasks. What began as a search engine as Google in the 1990s, is now a multinational technology company that specializes in Internet-related services and products, which include online advertising technologies, a search engine, cloud computing, software, and hardware. When talking about the tech industry of the world, we do mention five of its biggest companies. They are Apple, Google (Alphabet), Facebook, Amazon, and, Microsoft. Their combined market capitalization is estimated to be more than $4 trillion. It is indeed unbelievable to see that these five companies that were mere dreams many decades ago are now a global phenomenon. These companies have been offering services to a global audience and have a strong online presence. With the advent of digital media, customers are just a click away from interacting with the customer support of these companies. Moreover, these companies have remained true to their niche, genre, and business objectives. What they were offering in the 1990s, they have evolved in the same domain. They have used innovation and market research to offer such services that fulfill the needs of individual customers and corporations. Moreover, with technology as the mainstay of these companies, they have been utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) to bring new products into their portfolio. These companies have also focused on identifying a problem and offer solutions as products and services to resolve such challenges. Indeed, their market worth and relationship with customers will only grow in the coming times.

Iqbal Khan

With regard to its primary role—Peaceful World— the United Nations faces a multitude of challenges. In the absence of any meaningful effort to mitigate these challenges, the UN has incrementally been in a nose-dive posture with regard to its credibility, as an honest peace broker, and effectiveness in term of its ability to implement its resolutions.  Unless a meaningful strategy is adopted to mitigate the impact of these challenges, the role of the UN is likely to keep shifting from substance to nuance.

Prime Minister Imran Khan, highlighted the importance of the 75th anniversary of the UN. “This is also a time for us to reflect whether as the United Nations, we have been able to realize the promise we made collectively to our peoples,” he asked.  Amid multifaceted threats to the foundations of the world order, the only way forward is through cooperation and not confrontation, he said.

He informed the General Assembly of “smart lockdowns” employed by Pakistan in its fight against Covid-19.  “We have not only managed to control the virus, stabilize our economy, but most importantly, we have been able to protect the poorest segment of our society from the worst fallouts of the lockdown,” he said, adding that in spite of the success, Pakistan is not out of the woods yet, like all other countries in the world.

Reiterating the threats posed by climate change, Imran Khan called on world leaders to ensure that all commitments made in the Paris Agreement on Climate Change are fulfilled.

He voiced deep concern over rising religious hatred, increased nationalism and worsening global tensions, factors that have accentuated ‘Islamophobia’, resulting in attacks against Muslims in many countries.  He stressed that “wilful provocations” and “incitements to hate” must be universally outlawed, calling on the General Assembly to declare an “International Day to Combat Islamophobia.”

He referred to India’s State-sponsored Islamophobia, pointing out that mosques have been destroyed, and at that Muslims have been killed and are at risk of losing their nationality due to discriminatory laws, noting that other religions are also at risk of being marginalized in India.

He underlined that for durable peace in the South Asian region, the Jammu and Kashmir dispute needs to be resolved, on the basis of international legitimacy.  “The Security Council must prevent a disastrous conflict and secure the implementation of its own resolutions as it did in the case of East Timor,” he said, calling on the body to take “appropriate enforcement actions.”

Referring to the Intra-Afghan negotiations, he said that early return of Afghan refugees, sheltering in Pakistan, must be part of the political solution. Prime Minister called upon the UN SG to take the lead in preventing global conflicts. To that end, he urged the convening summit-level meetings to address regional hot-spots and resolve outstanding disputes.

Four of the five,veto- power wielding permanent members of the UN SC, spoke in the opening session. Donald Trump, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin presented their widely divergent views of the world. Emmanuel Macron berated both the US and China for the diplomatic impasse at the UN. Boris Johnson, representing the fifth member of the permanent five, was given a speaking slot near the end of the general debate, a harsh measure of the UK’s declining influence. Seeing the divergence, the UN’s 75^th General Assembly was worse than the world’s worst Zoom meeting. Reservoir of hope was running low.

Leaders of the world’s two largest economies, China and the US, laid out their competing visions as relations between the two plunged to their worst level in decades as the coronavirus tensions are aggravating their trade and technology disputes. President Trump used the occasion to attack China’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, saying that Beijing must be held accountable for having “unleashed this plague onto the world”. By contrast, President Xi Jinping struck a conciliatory tone, calling for enhanced cooperation over the pandemic and stressing that China had no intention of fighting “either a Cold War or a Hot War with any country”. Trump, facing a November re-election with his country dealing with the world’s highest death toll from the contagion, accused Beijing of allowing people to leave China in the early stages of the outbreak to infect the world while shutting down domestic travel. In an implicit rebuke to Trump, President Xi called for a global response to the coronavirus and giving a leading role to the World Health Organisation (WHO). “Facing the virus, we should enhance solidarity and get through this together,” he added.There is wide spread Muslim perception of victimhood at the hands of UN dominant West on various counts, and rightly so. There have been recurrent failures to deliver a fair deal to Muslims, examples are: Kashmir, Palestine and Cyprus conflicts. Muslims also feel that when non-Muslims are likely to be the beneficiaries of a conflictual settlement with Muslims, Western countries and their affiliate institutions manage a quick settlement, examples are: East Timor, Ireland, Sudan etc. On the other hand when Muslims are likely to be beneficiary of conflict settlement with a non-Muslim faction, conflict is assigned to cold storage and there is a never ending foot dragging. And whenever there is a solution, due benefit to Muslim faction is marred by creating conflictual political structures; example, post conflict Bosnian political arrangement. This has generated a perpetual sense of insecurity and injustice amongst the Muslim States and the Muslim people viz a viz the UN.

Summary statement by Mr. Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary General about the matters of which the Security Council is seized, was issued on January 2, 2020; all 69 agenda items were identified “as matters of which Security Council was currently seized,” including “The India-Pakistan Question.” Some of these conflicts are almost as old as the UN itself. Most glaring are Kashmir and Palestine conflicts which have caused numerous wars.

Now more and more countries look towards other fora for settling interstate matters. Power is, slowly but continuously, shifting away from under the feed of the UN.

UNSG aptly used the event of his inaugural addressed to sound a Clarion call: “Today, we face our own 1945 moment,” António Guterres, said as he opened the annual UNGA debate. Guterres meant the historical reference as a call to action inspired by the generation who had survived the second world war and sought to build a new world. Year 1945 was also the starting point of the cold war, and he warned about a new standoff, with the rapidly escalating US-China rivalry taking the world in “a very dangerous direction”. “Our world cannot afford a future where the two largest economies split the globe in a great fracture – each with its own trade and financial rules and internet and artificial intelligence capacities,” Guterres added. Any one listening?

Writer is a freelance contributor; e-mail: [email protected]