As Beijing pushes multipolar initiatives and courts the Global South, US-China tensions linger despite easing trade disputes
Chinese Premier Li Qiang urged the United Nations on Friday to embrace multilateral values and a stable global order, took pointed swipes at the US and called for reforms that reflect Beijing’s development model.
“Solidarity lifts everyone up,” Li said, without mentioning US President Donald Trump by name. “History keeps reminding us that when might dictate right, the world risks division and regression.”
“Should the era of the Law of the Jungle return and the weak be left as a prey to the strong, human society would face even more bloodshed and brutality.”
The premier also took a slap at Trump’s “America first” tariff policies that have targeted almost every country on earth. “A major cause of the current global economic doldrums is the rise of unilateral and protectionist measures such as tariff hikes and erection of walls and barriers,” he told representatives of some 190 nations in the cavernous General Assembly hall, suggesting that they combine to circumvent Washington.
“We should collaborate more closely to identify and expand convergence of interests, promote universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalisation, and help each other succeed by moving forward in the same direction.”
Drawing on the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, the premier touted the relative peace and economic prosperity that has ensued by adhering to global rules and collective action.
Trump has made little secret of his distrust of multilateralism and has appeared to relish smashing through global norms.
Li, who studied at Hong Kong Polytechnic University after working in his youth at a tool factory and irrigation pump station, made a pitch for a new global order based on greater participation by Global South nations inspired by China’s development model.
That said, Beijing, as a founding member of the UN with a powerful veto, has generally balked at adding India and other major developing countries permanently to the UN Security Council.
The premier expressed China’s support for several policies that Trump railed against 72 hours earlier at the same dais when he told the institution it was ineffective, its headquarters building decrepit and some member countries poorly managed and “going to hell”.
These include the need to fight global warming, support the Paris Climate Agreement that Trump pulled the US out of, reform the UN without tearing it apart and respect the sovereignty of smaller nations.
Despite the markedly different tone of the two giants at the annual UN gathering of leaders in New York, however, tensions between Washington and Beijing have eased recently.
After a phone call between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping last week, an in-person meeting and a deal to divest much of TikTok to US shareholders seem to be in the works, even as Washington has repeatedly delayed the deadline for imposing high US tariffs on Chinese imports.
That said, enormous irritants remain. Trump’s bid to revitalise US manufacturing is threatened by China’s grip on lithium batteries and rare earth metals; the two militaries continue to circle warily around Taiwan and in the South China Sea; and a battle for technological supremacy is raging.
The two giants also continue to launch measured salvoes at each other despite the prospect of a Xi-Trump sit-down. China slapped trade sanctions on six US defence-related companies on Thursday, although the firms do not have significant sales in China. The same day, the US announced additional tariffs on pharmaceuticals and furniture, although analysts say these are also not hugely consequential.
China, meanwhile, continues to win plaudits at the UN even as Trump alienates members with his US import taxes, personal insults and threats to take over Canada and Greenland in violation of the UN Charter meant to safeguard sovereignty.
“China hopes to work with the rest of the world to uphold the ideals of the UN,” Li said on Friday. “China has consistently opened its door wider to the world.”
Earlier this month, China introduced its Global Governance Initiative that calls for a multipolar and inclusive global order, which Li plugged on Friday. As with many of Beijing’s global proposals, the initiative is long on high-sounding ideals and short on details.
The GDI is seen as a bid to enlist the Global South in forging an alternate foreign policy framework distinct from the liberal democracy model prevalent since World War II. It follows the roll-out in recent years of Chinese global initiatives tied to development, security and civilisation.
Wilfully resorting to force “only drives peace further away”, said Li, offering the UN a gift of moon dust from its dark side mission, US$10 million for a Global South facility and support for a sustainable development centre in Shanghai. “China has all along acted as a staunch defender of world peace and security.”
Many of China’s initiatives position the UN at their core, where Beijing’s Security Council veto ensures that little happens that does not suit their interests, and its Global South charm offensive over decades has yielded dividends.
“They wield tremendous influence at the UN,” said Jeremy Chan, senior analyst with Eurasia Group. “At UNGA, where all nations have equal voting power, it can get the developing world to gang up on the developed world.”
China’s strategy at the UN, analysts said, is to steadily push its own agenda and opportunistically benefit from US missteps even as it quietly highlights its consistency and relative lack of arrogance by remaining understated.
“I don’t say that in a braggadocios way, but it’s true. I’ve been right about everything,” Trump said Tuesday to the bemused audience.
“China continues pushing non-interference, development and financing, and that it’s a stable partner compared to the US,” said Irina Tsukerman, president of strategic advisory firm Scarab Rising.
“It has tried to weaken the US image and make the US less credible,” she added. “China, while it has similar problems, many faults, it has shifted the onus of attention to the US. China focuses on its economy and has never claimed to be a beacon of freedom, while the US has.”
