GUILHERME BOTACINI
BOA VISTA, RR (FOLHAPRESS)
It was not up to either Xi Jinping or the experienced Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, to deliver China’s speech to the UN General Assembly this Thursday (21). It was Xi’s deputy, Han Zheng, who took to the pulpit with new threats to Taiwan, criticism of the United States and nods to the so-called Global South.
Nothing that went beyond expectations for Chinese participation in New York, however. Without the country’s two main international political figures at the event, it was up to Han to basically list, without further commitment or emphasis, the main points of China’s foreign policy in just over 13 minutes – protocol requires that speeches not exceed 15 minutes.
The speech reinforced points of tension between the Asian country and the West, notably the United States, by renewing threats to Taiwan and criticizing what Han called the use of democracy and human rights to interfere in internal affairs – a veiled reference to international disapproval of the treatment given by Beijing to the Uyghur ethnic minority in Xinjiang-, customary signals and without variations from the usual tone.
“There is only one China in the world. Taiwan has been an inalienable part of Chinese territory, and no one, no force, should underestimate the power of the Chinese people to guarantee their sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Han said, echoing the one-China policy China, formally adopted by the United Nations following the non-recognition of Taiwan, considered a rebel province by China, has been a member of the organization since 1971.
In the speech, Beijing also poked the United States with indirect criticism of its great rival in Cold War 2.0. “A small number of countries have arbitrarily imposed illegal unilateral sanctions. The international community must jointly resist these acts,” Han said, a rebuke that also serves as a nod to allies ranging from North Korea and Russia to Iran and Cuba, which was also praised for its “efforts to combat terrorism” -Washington includes the Caribbean country on the list of states that, on the contrary, support terrorism.
In parallel events to the Assembly, the Chinese delegation avoided participating in panels with direct criticism of human rights policy in Xinjiang and Tibet and did not make substantive contributions to the debate on pandemic prevention or new targets against climate change.
Han’s presence at the podium in New York reflects Beijing’s decision to give less importance to the annual United Nations meeting while it works to strengthen other forums and multilateral initiatives, such as the BRICS summit, expanded in August in a diplomatic move seen as a victory for China in the bloc.
The messages and criticisms add to the simultaneous strengthening of ties with pariahs in the West. This Thursday, Xi Jinping preferred to sponsor Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s new attempt to break his diplomatic isolation by welcoming him to Beijing. Assad had not visited the Asian country since 2004 and arrived on an Air China plane for his third official trip since his country’s civil war began in 2011.
It was also on this Thursday that Minister Wang Yi, expected replacement at the General Assembly in Xi’s absence, ended a four-day trip to Moscow, where he met with President Vladimir Putin to “enhance mutual strategic trust” and “deepen practical cooperation” between the two countries.
It is to China that Putin, another absentee in New York, is expected to make his first official trip in October, since the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant against him in March for alleged war crimes. Neither nation is a signatory to the Rome Statute, which created the court.
The Chinese leader also chose not to participate in the last G20 summit, held in New Delhi, a decision that was seen by the Indian government as a maneuver to remove weight from the meeting amid fissures between its members on issues such as the Ukrainian War, the race for chip production and regional security issues.
The post China concludes its participation in the UN with a speech as dull as its presence appeared first in Jornal de Brasília.
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