{"id":454059,"date":"2025-09-27T00:40:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T00:40:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/454059\/"},"modified":"2025-09-27T00:40:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T00:40:15","slug":"chinas-second-in-command-warns-against-aggressive-global-politics-in-un-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/454059\/","title":{"rendered":"China’s second-in-command warns against aggressive global politics in UN speech"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 China\u2019s second-in-command<\/a> sounded his nation\u2019s oft-repeated alarm against aggressive and unilateral action in global politics, addressing world leaders Friday in a speech brimming with references that echoed long-standing concerns about the United States and the Trump administration in particular \u2014 and cast Beijing as a defender of the world order in an era of encroaching chaos.<\/p>\n

Li Qiang\u2019s remarks also reflected his own continuing rise to prominence after being elevated to premier<\/a> more than two years ago.<\/p>\n

Li made no major announcements and offered no specific policy revelations in his speech to the U.N. General Assembly, as has typically been the practice of China in that forum in recent years. But his comments, in sweep and assertive tone, revealed several things \u2014 including what might be seen as his official debut on the world stage since his promotion 2\u00bd years ago. <\/p>\n

\u201cUnilateralism and Cold War mentality are resurfacing,\u201d Li said. \u201cHistory keeps reminding us that when might dictates right, the world risks division and regression. Should the era of the law of the jungle return and the weak be left as prey to the strong, human society would face even more bloodshed and brutality.\u201d<\/p>\n

China and the United States, the two biggest forces in the global economy, are looking to get relations back on track after a spate of fissures that include the fate of the Chinese-founded TikTok<\/a> and the prospect of harsh tariffs that Donald Trump\u2019s White House slapped on Beijing and other governments earlier this year but have been paused.<\/a> Trump and Xi are tentatively scheduled to meet<\/a> on the sidelines of the APEC regional economic summit in South Korea, which convenes late next month.<\/p>\n

Li, 66, is considered the second-highest figure in the Chinese government behind paramount leader Xi Jinping, who is the president and general secretary of the Communist Party and has, at least until recently, promoted a personality cult around him. While Xi himself has addressed the General Assembly in the past \u2014 notably via video during the pandemic \u2014 top diplomat Wang Yi has been the go-to figure for U.N. addresses<\/a> in recent years.<\/p>\n

A different kind of speech<\/p>\n

Li\u2019s remarks contrasted with a speech he made earlier this year<\/a> in a different kind of limelight \u2014 the domestic one \u2014 at the start of China\u2019s National People\u2019s Congress. Those remarks were dry and financially focused, as is the premier\u2019s general practice at that forum. <\/p>\n

Not at this one. His speech cast China as a defender of the world order and was filled with flourishes and imagery inflected with Chinese culture. \u201cThe tide of history surges forward and the great way remains smooth and steadfast,\u201d he said at one point. He also paused for a romantic, notably personal reflection about his observations as a first-time featured speaker at the United Nations \u2014 what he saw when he arrived and how he perceived it. <\/p>\n

\u201cArriving at the U.N. headquarters this time, I saw over 190 national flags lined up in front of the building and fluttering in the breeze. I saw the sculptures that have beat swords into plowshares and non-violence with their time-tested message ever so loud. And I saw staff members from different regions, of different races, and with different skin colors working in collaboration for the common goals of humanity,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I saw got me thinking: Those people, objects, and scenes that embody peace, progress, and development are exactly why we choose to commemorate victory. They\u2019re also what inspires us to forge ahead, hand in hand.\u201d<\/p>\n

China\u2019s policies do not always reflect this. From its repression of the Muslim Uyghur minority in its far-west Xinjiang region to its treatment of dissidents in Hong Kong, the Beijing government has been far less peaceable \u2014 internally, in particular \u2014 than its rhetoric suggests.<\/p>\n

Li emphasizes multilateralism with pointed remarks<\/p>\n

The aging Xi\u2019s decision to let the U.N. spotlight shine on Li, who often oversees the nation\u2019s economy, is notable. Unlike his predecessor, who was sidelined by Xi,<\/a> Li is a loyalist. China, which vigorously emphasizes multilateralism, consensus and cooperation in most of its foreign policy statements, has long looked to the United Nations as a counterbalance to what it perceives as U.S. domination and arrogance. <\/p>\n

China\u2019s continuing and vehement insistence on respect for other nations\u2019 sovereignty is not only a publicly stated cornerstone of its foreign policy but a foundational ethos for the government of a nation that has traditionally struggled to maintain control at its edges \u2014 from Xinjiang and Tibet in the far west to Hong Kong and Taiwan off its east coast.<\/p>\n

Multilateralism is always a foundational theme at the United Nations \u2014 no surprise for a world body specifically designed to promote such a notion. China, though, tends to use multilateralism as a means to its own ends \u2014 as a counterbalance to \u201chegemonists,\u201d for decades its favored synonym for the United States. Even as it rises as a world power, China emphasizes multilateralism regularly but often acts to the contrary in areas of dispute and disagreement.<\/p>\n

This is particularly true as his country tries to navigate Trump\u2019s approach to tariffs. \u201cA major cause of the current global economic doldrums is the rise in unilateral and protectionist measures such as tariff hikes and erection of walls and barriers,\u201d Li said.<\/p>\n

Like that comment, Li\u2019s speech Friday was replete with remarks that were nothing groundbreaking for his government but held particular resonance when viewed through the prism of U.S.-China relations. That applies particularly to the second Trump administration, which has emphasized its \u201cAmerica First\u201d ethos even more than during Trump\u2019s first term. <\/p>\n

\u2014 \u201cPersisting in camp-based confrontation or willful resort to force only drives peace further away.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 \u201cObsession with so-called civilizational superiority or ideology-based circles only breeds more division and confrontation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 \u201cSolidarity lifts everyone up while division drags all down.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 \u201cHow could we, when confronted with unscrupulous acts of hegemonism and bullying, remain silent and submissive for fear of might?\u201d<\/p>\n

Noteworthy, though, were two words that didn\u2019t appear anywhere in Li\u2019s speech: \u201cUnited States.\u201d Which is a small act of diplomacy in itself.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Ted Anthony oversaw China coverage from 2002 to 2004 as AP\u2019s news editor in Beijing and from 2014 to 2018 as its director of Asia-Pacific news. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 China\u2019s second-in-command sounded his nation\u2019s oft-repeated alarm against aggressive and unilateral action in global…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454060,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[3801,1395,7684,32,4179,5212,3749,285,525,152468,8406,137505,49,5213,978,659,51703,263,1773],"class_list":{"0":"post-454059","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-beijing","9":"tag-china","10":"tag-china-government","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-general-news","13":"tag-government-policy","14":"tag-hong-kong","15":"tag-politics","16":"tag-south-korea","17":"tag-ted-anthony","18":"tag-united-nations","19":"tag-united-nations-general-assembly","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-united-states-government","22":"tag-us","23":"tag-usa","24":"tag-wang-yi","25":"tag-world-news","26":"tag-xi-jinping"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115273480694101022","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}