NEW YORK (AP), As tensions grow with the United States, the Chinese leader Xi Jinping reaffirmed his long-standing policy of multilateralism and told world leaders at UN that disagreements between countries should be resolved through cooperation and dialogue.
He made these remarks hours after U.S. President Joe Biden stated that he did not intend to start a new Cold War. This was in response to criticisms from the U.N. chief. Both Washington and Beijing must ensure their differences and tensions do not derail their 42-year old relationship and cause trouble for the rest of the world.
"One country's success doesn't have to be synonymous with another country's failure," Xi stated in a prerecorded speech at the U.N. General Assembly's leaders meeting in New York. "The world is large enough to support common development and progress for all countries."
Leaders of the two largest powers, which are the most powerful economies in the world, made comments that appeared to be linguistic attempts to calm the waters. This was after U.N Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had warned them over the weekend to put confrontation before productive dialogue.
China is known for its multilateralism and international cooperation. However, critics claim that China's policies towards Taiwan and South China Sea territorial disputes with its neighbours strongly contradict this view.
Xi did not let the United States get away with it, but he rarely does. He made a pointed attack on Washington and criticized countries that interfere in the affairs of other nations.
Recent developments in the international situation show that military intervention from outside and so-called democracy transformation entail nothing other than harm," he stated. This apparent reference was to the events in Afghanistan last month following the U.S. military withdrawal.
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China's Foreign Ministry has emphasized the chaos around the withdrawal of U.S. forces and NATO forces. State media also stated that Washington would be responsible for any instability in the region. Afghanistan shares a very small border with China.
Unexpectedly, Xi gave a speech at the United Nations on Tuesday. According to earlier schedules, a deputy Chinese prime minister would deliver a speech Friday. After Biden's remarks, Biden made a decision to place the supreme leader of the country in his slot. This moved him to Tuesday's first day docket.
Biden stated in his U.N. address Tuesday that the United States wasn't trying to be confrontational or divisive.
He said that we are not looking for a new Cold War, or a world split into rigid blocs. Even if there are intense differences in other areas, the United States is willing to work with any country that seeks peaceful resolutions to common challenges.
The speech didn't include the Chinese word. The language echoed what U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres said in an interview this weekend to the Associated Press that he was worried about a new Cold War between Washington and Beijing if their relationship does not improve.
Guterres stated Saturday that today's only option is confrontation. He said that we need to re-establish a functional relation between the two power.
Tuesday's opening remarks saw him reiterate that theme, saying: "I fear our world is moving towards two sets of economic, technological, and financial rules. Two divergent approaches to the development and deployment of artificial intelligence, and two different military, and geopolitical strategies.
Guterres stated that this is a recipe to trouble.
China's current Communist rulers came to power under Mao Zedong in 1949. They evicted Chiang Kai-sheks Nationalists American ally from the mainland to Taiwan. Diplomatic relations between Beijing, Washington were not established until 1979.
Over the decades, ties have fluctuated between friendly and contentious. Low points include the years following the 1989 government crackdown on democracy protesters at Tiananmen Square, and the days after a U.S. military plane was shot down by fighter jets off the southern Chinese coast in 2001.
The two countries have a variety of differences, including trade and tariffs, climate change, human rights, and online security. The United States and its allies are not happy with China's claim of complete sovereignty over the South China Sea. China protests the U.S. military presence in the region and has increased its threat of attacking Taiwan's self-governing island democracy, which it considers its territory.
China is also critical of American calls to reopen investigations into COVID-19's origins. It was first discovered in Wuhan, central China, in late 2019. China is not happy with the idea of blaming the pandemic upon a Chinese virus as former President Donald Trump and his support often did.
China will continue to support, engage in science-based global origins tracing and is strongly opposed to any form of political maneuvering, Xi stated in his speech.
China and the United States have ties to climate cooperation. They dropped critical policies related to mass detentions of Uyghurs, and other members from Muslim minority groups, in the northwestern region Xinjiang. This was in response to a crackdown on civil liberties in Hong Kong, and other human rights issues.
Xi, China's Communist Party's supreme leader for a decade has set the tone of assertive foreign policy, backed up by the nation's enormous economic influence and growing military might.
Xis addresses also come as China, second largest economy in the world, is facing increasing financial pressures.
Professor of international relations at Beijing's Tsinghua University Zhao Kejian said that there are opportunities for cooperation in pandemic control and security on the Korean Peninsula and Afghanistan. However, disputes over ideology, values, and human rights will continue.
Zhao suggested that there might have been preparations for such a meeting between the two sides. China believes that the U.N. is a symbol of multilateralism. The U.S. should also pay attention to the U.N. in order to create a basis for strategic coordination within the U.N.
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This report was contributed by The Associated Press' Beijing bureau. Ted Anthony was the director of newsroom innovation and new storytelling at The Associated Press from 2001 to 2004, and was also the director of Asia-Pacific news for AP between 2014 and 2018. Follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/anthonyted
