As the first country to sign the United Nations Charter after World War II, China has always dedicated itself to safeguarding and contributing to the… - Cui Tiankai

However, nothing can sever the friendly ties between the two peoples. Over the past year, I have been much busier than before the pandemic in taking part in various kinds of online meetings and talks, and I was often overwhelmed by the passion from both countries for greater exchanges and mutual understanding. There is no place for McCarthyism in the 21st century, and no one can push the two peoples back to the era of estrangement and isolation.

First of all, China's development, China's growth, has been made possible by the hard work of the Chinese people and our more than 40 years of reform and opening-up. This is a historical fact. To say otherwise is against the facts and certainly not fair to the Chinese people. Internationally, China always stands for the basic norms governing international relations as embodied in the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter. We always support multilateral institutions, the international system centered on the United Nations, including, for instance, the WHO, the WTO and a number of others. We already contribute more troops than other permanent members of the Security Council to the UN peacekeeping operations. We are already contributing a great deal to the global economic growth. We're ready to do more.

China is still developing country. Although we have made great achievements over the years, but we know the challenges are still there, huge challenges. We have to continue to work hard to solve all of these domestic problems. We have just lifted everybody out of absolute poverty, but we have to make sure they will not fall back into poverty. This is a very huge challenge. We're also doing our best to improve the environment, to respond to issues like climate change and all these natural disasters. We do have a large number of natural disasters in China, like the situation in the United States. So we are still focusing our efforts on domestic economic and social development to give people the possibility of a better life. Internationally, we stand for building together with other countries a global community with a shared future.