The COVID-19 pandemic, affecting all countries, has underscored both the way 
China addresses a global challenge and its vision for a better world. 

VIDEO - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BL9kiDlb13s

As the first major country to have effectively contained the virus and the only 
major economy to register positive growth last year, China has been at the 
forefront of the global fight – believing that COVID-19 knows no borders and 
cannot be defeated without working together. 

"After a year of hardship, we can understand more than ever the significance of 
a community with a shared future for mankind," Chinese President Xi Jinping 
said in his New Year address on the last day of 2020. 

The pandemic prevented Xi from traveling overseas, but it was a busy year of 
diplomacy for the Chinese president nevertheless. He had 87 virtual meetings 
and phone calls with foreign leaders and heads of international organizations 
and attended 22 bilateral or multilateral events in the form of "cloud 
diplomacy," calling for solidarity and cooperation to tackle the crisis.

'Most powerful weapon'

China – particularly its central province of Hubei and the provincial capital 
of Wuhan – was hit hard by the COVID-19 outbreak: Nearly 90,000 confirmed cases 
have been reported on the Chinese mainland and more than 4,600 lives have been 
lost; residents in the worst-hit regions have endured weeks or even months of 
lockdowns, while people across the country have been cooperative amid travel 
restrictions, even during Chinese New Year holidays; the country's gross 
domestic product (GDP) contracted 6.8 percent year on year in the first quarter 
of 2020. 

Making people's lives and health the priority, China has largely cut 
transmission channels of the virus, despite sporadic cases emerging in winter. 
Successful epidemic control contributed to a speedy economic recovery, with the 
country's GDP expanding by 2.3 percent year on year in 2020.

Meanwhile, China is fulfilling its responsibilities as a major country and 
fighting shoulder to shoulder with the rest of the world against the common 
threat to mankind that COVID-19 poses. 

"Solidarity and cooperation is our most powerful weapon for fighting the 
virus," Xi said in a speech at the opening of the 73rd World Health Assembly in 
May. 

"This is the key lesson the world has learned from fighting HIV/AIDS, Ebola, 
avian influenza, influenza A (H1N1) and other major epidemics. And solidarity 
and cooperation is a sure way through which we, the people of the world, can 
defeat this novel coronavirus," he said via video link. 

China organized its largest global humanitarian drive since 1949, providing 
anti-virus assistance to over 150 countries and 10 international organizations 
and sending 36 medical teams to 34 countries in need.

In his speeches at the 73rd World Health Assembly, the Extraordinary 
China-Africa Summit on Solidarity against COVID-19, the 12th BRICS Summit, the 
27th APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting and the 15th G20 Leaders' Summit, Xi 
repeatedly promised to make Chinese COVID-19 vaccines a "global public good" 
accessible and affordable to people around the world. 

And China is delivering on that promise by providing vaccines to countries 
including Cambodia, Chile, Peru, Pakistan, Serbia, Hungary, Equatorial Guinea, 
the Laos, Mexico, Zimbabwe, the Dominican Republic and Thailand – most of which 
are developing countries. 

"We feel greatly honored, and this speaks volumes to the relationship between 
us and the people of China," Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa last week 
said as he thanked China for its donation of 200,000 doses of vaccine.

Aiming for a better future

As well as helping fight the health crisis brought by the pandemic, China is 
contributing to economic recovery worldwide and the improvement of global 
governance in the post-COVID-19 era. 

President Xi appealed to the world's leading economies to boost economic 
recovery as early as March, when the coronavirus was fast spreading across the 
globe. 

"I want to call on all G20 members to take collective actions – cutting 
tariffs, removing barriers, and facilitating the unfettered flow of trade," Xi 
said at the G20 Extraordinary Virtual Leaders' Summit on COVID-19. "Together, 
we can send a strong signal and restore confidence for global economic 
recovery." 

Addressing the G20 Riyadh Summit in November, he called for concerted efforts 
from major economies to promote more inclusive development and improve global 
governance.

The G20, playing a key role in the global fight against COVID-19, should uphold 
multilateralism, openness, inclusiveness, and mutually beneficial cooperation, 
and keep pace with the times, said the Chinese president. 

"We should keep our support for developing countries and help them overcome the 
hardships caused by the pandemic," he told other G20 leaders. 

To ease poor countries' debt burden, China has fully implemented the G20 Debt 
Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI), with the total amount exceeding $1.3 
billion, Xi noted. 

The G20 launched the DSSI in April to address the immediate liquidity needs of 
low-income countries, allowing the debt service payments due from May 1 to the 
end of 2020 owed by the most impoverished countries to be suspended. Later the 
debt suspension was extended by another six months until June 30, 2021.

China has also set more ambitious goals to combat climate change and drive 
sustainable development. Xi announced in September that the country would 
strive to have CO2 emissions peak before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality 
before 2060. 

"COVID-19 reminds us that humankind should launch a green revolution and move 
faster to create a green way of development and life," he said in an address at 
the General Debate of the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly. 

Xi unveiled further targets in December at the Climate Ambition Summit to mark 
the fifth anniversary of the Paris Agreement on climate change. 

By 2030, China will lower its carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by over 
65 percent from the 2005 level, increase the share of non-fossil fuels in 
primary energy consumption to around 25 percent, increase the forest stock 
volume by six billion cubic meters from the 2005 level, and bring its total 
installed capacity of wind and solar power to over 1.2 billion kilowatts, he 
said. 

The world is seeing profound changes brought by COVID-19. China, while acting 
to address the challenge at home, is shouldering greater responsibilities to 
make the world a better place after the crisis.

Original article：here 
(https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-02-16/What-is-China-s-role-in-global-fight-agai
nst-COVID-19--XVudoGgQRW/index.html).

Source: CGTN