Connect with us

World

China issues white paper on global community of shared future

Published

on



BEIJING:

China on Tuesday issued a white paper on building a global community of shared future, a grand vision serving as a blueprint for a better world raised by President Xi Jinping in 2013.

By putting forward the creative idea at a pivotal moment in history, President Xi has shown the correct path for the world, building a strong consensus for international cooperation, said Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

Advertisement

Wang, who is also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, made the remarks at a press conference in Beijing on the white paper’s release.

Over the past decade, Xi has systematically expounded on the vision on numerous international occasions, helping the international community deepen the understanding of the vision, Wang added.

The white paper, issued by the State Council Information Office, said the vision of building a global community of shared future rises above the exclusive rules of bloc politics, the notion of “might makes right,” and the “universal values” defined by a handful of Western countries.

It contributes to a more just and equitable international order, the white paper added.

The concept has been written into UN General Assembly resolutions for six consecutive years and incorporated in several multilateral mechanism resolutions and declarations, according to Wang.

Advertisement

Read also: China committed to opening itself wider to the world, says VP

He noted that a growing number of countries and their people have realized the importance of the vision for creating a better future for humanity.

So far, China has built communities of shared future with dozens of countries and regions, the Global Development Initiative and Global Security Initiative it proposed have gained support from over 100 countries, and the Global Civilization Initiative has received positive feedback.

China has also proposed solutions to major global challenges in fields such as health, climate change, and cyber security, said Wang.

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a vivid example of building a global community of shared future. The China-Laos Railway, for example, added 110,000 jobs in Laos.

Advertisement

China will continue to carry out BRI landmark projects and focus on “small but beautiful” programs to bring benefits to the people of all partner countries, said Cong Liang, deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission.

Zhao Fengtao, deputy head of China International Development Cooperation Agency, said China will invest more resources in global development cooperation, to accelerate the implementation of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and make new contributions to building a global community of shared future.

The Chinese and English versions of a white paper titled 'A Global Community of Shared Future: China's Proposals and Actions', Sept. 26, 2023. PHOTO: XINHUA

The Chinese and English versions of a white paper titled ‘A Global Community of Shared Future: China’s Proposals and Actions’, Sept. 26, 2023. PHOTO: XINHUA

The white paper said that China has taken concrete actions to promote the building of a global community of shared future.

Officials said China aims to advance its development as part of the development of the global community while bringing the world new opportunities through its new development.

Advertisement

Guo Yezhou, deputy head of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee, said that political parties have an indispensable role to play in the progress of human civilization and the building of a global community of shared future.

Calling strengthening cultural exchanges a crucial pathway towards building such a community, China’s Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism Li Qun said that China has signed cooperation agreements in the fields of culture, cultural heritage, and tourism with 157 countries.

Over the past decade, China has collaborated with countries worldwide to organize more than 500 exhibitions showcasing cultural relics, said Li.

“Building a global community of shared future is the way forward for all the world’s peoples,” the white paper said, adding that, however, it is not a goal to be accomplished overnight and “there will be no plain sailing.”

“To realize this goal, a sense of responsibility and a will to act hold the key,” the white paper said. “Building a global community of shared future depends on the joint actions of all countries.”

Advertisement



Continue Reading
Advertisement
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

World

Hundreds still stranded, plants closed in India’s Chennai

Published

on

By



CHENNAI:

Volunteers waded through stagnant water to hand out food and supplies, and some manufacturing plants remained shut in India’s southern tech-and-auto hub district of Chennai on Friday, four days after cyclone Michaung lashed the coast.

At least 14 people, most of them in Chennai and its state of Tamil Nadu, have died in the flooding, triggered by torrential rains that started on Monday.

Advertisement

The cyclone itself made landfall further north in Andhra Pradesh state on Tuesday afternoon.

Authorities said some low-lying areas of the state were still inundated and government officials and volunteers were taking supplies to people stuck in their homes in slums and other areas.

The larger Chennai area is home to the Indian units of several global firms including Hyundai Motor (005380.KS), Daimler and Taiwan’s Foxconn (2317.TW) and Pegatron (4938.TW) which do contract manufacturing for Apple (AAPL.O).

Read more: Chennai flooded as heavy rains from cyclone Michaung batter south India

While many of them including Pegatron and Foxconn resumed operations within a day or two of the cyclone making landfall, some plants of the TVS group located in the worst-affected areas are yet to open, industry sources said.

Advertisement

Adani Krishnapatnam Port (APSE.NS) in Andhra Pradesh, said on Friday the cyclone had “very badly affected” its operations and it was declaring a force majeure period starting Dec. 3.

Force majeure is a notice used to describe events outside a company’s control, such as a natural disaster, which usually releases it from contractual obligation without penalty.

State-run Madras Fertilizers (MDFT.NS) notified stock exchanges that its Chennai plant has been shut and is tentatively expected to resume operations within two to four weeks.

Infrastructure questioned

Information technology (IT) services providers told staff to work from home for the week, while schools and colleges closed. A few schools and colleges were converted into temporary shelters.

Advertisement

This week’s floods in Chennai brought back memories of the extensive damage caused by floods eight years ago which killed around 290 people.

In Andhra Pradesh, the damage from the cyclone was relatively contained, with roads damaged and trees uprooted as big waves crashed into the coast.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh visited Chennai on Thursday and announced New Delhi will release a second instalment of 4.5 billion rupees ($54 million) to Tamil Nadu to help manage the damage. The federal government has also approved a 5.6 billion-rupee project for flood management in Chennai, he said.

Chennai residents questioned the ability of the city’s infrastructure to handle extreme weather.

“Not only has urbanisation itself caused a problem, but the nature of the urbanisation has preyed upon open spaces, holding areas like marshlands and flood plains,” social activist Nityanand Jayaraman said.

Advertisement

Experts have, however, said better stormwater drainage systems would not have been able to prevent the flooding caused by very heavy and extremely heavy rains.

“This solution would have helped a lot in moderate and heavy rainfall, but not in very heavy and extremely heavy rains,” Raj Bhagat P, a civil engineer and geo-analytics expert, said on Wednesday.



Advertisement
Continue Reading

World

Gunman described as struggling academic with ‘target list’

Published

on

By


The gunman who killed three professors and wounded one at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, was a financially struggling academic whose job applications were rejected by several higher-education institutions in Nevada, police said on Thursday.

Anthony James Polito, 67, also had mailed nearly two dozen suspicious letters to faculty at universities across the country and had prepared a “target list” of people at both UNLV and a North Carolina university where he once worked, police said.

Polito, facing eviction from his home in the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson, had a criminal record of computer trespass dating to 1992 in Virginia, but police said there were no advance signs of violence.

Advertisement

The Taurus 9mm handgun he used in the shooting was legally purchased in 2022, according to Sheriff Kevin McMahill of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. He said Polito, who police shot dead after the attacks, was believed to have acted alone.

The precise motive for the rampage remained to be determined, though officials said it appeared students were not the primary target.

All four people shot on Wednesday inside Beam Hall, the campus building that houses UNLV’s business school, were faculty members.

Two of the dead were identified as professor Cha Jan “Jerry” Chang, 64, and assistant professor Patricia Navarro Velez, 39. The identity of the third slain professor was being withheld pending notification of family.

Read: Las Vegas campus shooting leaves 4 dead, including suspect

Advertisement

The surviving victim remained hospitalized, and his condition worsened on Thursday, McMahill said.

Letters and list 

Detectives learned Polito had visited a post office shortly before the shooting and mailed 22 letters with no return address to university personnel across the United States, and had a list of people he was seeking on the UNLV campus as well as faculty from his former employer, East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina.

His LinkedIn profile described Polito as a semi-retired associate professor of business who taught at East Carolina from 2001-2017.

Authorities intercepted the letters before any were delivered and found a suspicious white powdery substance in at least one of them, McMahill said at a news briefing on Thursday.

Advertisement

The letters’ contents remained under investigation, the sheriff told reporters, warning that anyone in higher education who received such an envelope should exercise caution and contact authorities.

He said officials were working to notify the intended recipients and had contacted nearly everyone on the separate target list to make sure all were safe.

“None of the individuals listed on the target list became a victim,” he told reporters.

He said detectives also had uncovered evidence that Polito was struggling financially, including an eviction notice taped to the entrance of his apartment. He said a document that appeared to be a will was found inside.

“We know he had applied numerous times for jobs with several Nevada higher-education institutions,” McMahill added, but he did not say whether UNLV was one of them.

Advertisement

Police searching Polito’s home also recovered ammunition similar to the 150 rounds he was carrying.

The UNLV campus will remain closed through Friday. The UNLV website said classes had been canceled through Dec. 10.



Advertisement
Continue Reading

World

Israel says Reuters journalist Abdallah was killed in combat zone

Published

on

By



JERUSALEM:

The Israeli military, responding on Friday to a Reuters investigation that determined its forces killed a Reuters journalist in southern Lebanon on Oct. 13, said the incident took place in an active combat zone and was under review.

Without directly addressing the death of visuals journalist Issam Abdallah, a military statement said Lebanese Hezbollah fighters had at the time attacked across the border and Israeli forces opened fire to prevent a suspected armed infiltration.

Advertisement

A Reuters special report published on Thursday found that an Israeli tank crew killed Abdallah and wounded six reporters by firing two shells in quick succession from Israel while the journalists were filming cross-border shelling.

Israel’s statement on Friday said that on Oct. 13, Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants launched an attack on multiple targets within Israeli territory along the Lebanese border.

“One incident involved the firing of an anti-tank missile, which struck the border fence near the village Hanita. Following the launch of the anti-tank missile, concerns arose over the potential infiltration of terrorists into Israeli territory,” the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said in a statement.

Read: Israeli tank fire killed Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah in Lebanon

“In response, the IDF used artillery and tank fire to prevent the infiltration. The IDF is aware of the claim that journalists who were in the area were killed.

Advertisement

“The area is an active combat zone, where active fire takes place and being in this area is dangerous. The incident is currently under review,” it said.

The strikes killed Abdullah, 37, and severely wounded Agence France-Presse (AFP) photographer Christina Assi, 28, just over a kilometre from the Israeli border near the Lebanese village of Alma al-Chaab.

Amnesty International said on Thursday that the Israeli strikes were likely to have been a direct attack on civilians and must be investigated as a war crime.

In a separate report Human Rights Watch (HRW) said the two Israeli strikes were “an apparently deliberate attack on civilians and thus a war crime” and said those responsible must be held to account. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday it was important that Israel’s inquiry into the killing reach a conclusion and for the results to be seen.

“My understanding is that Israel has initiated such an investigation, and it will be important to see that investigation come to a conclusion, and to see the results of the investigation,” Blinken said at a press conference.

Advertisement



Continue Reading

Trending