At UN, China presents itself as alternative to a western model

China told assembled world leaders that it considers itself part of the Global South saying it identifies with the goals and challenges of lessdeveloped nations and offering them an alternative to what it has long called Western hegemony The message came from a secondtier official after the countrys powerful president Xi Jinping skipped the annual UN meeting againXi sent Vice President Han Zheng to deliver a policy statement at the General Assemblys leaders meeting that covered the governments usual positions with familiar language but appeared to focus on building coalitions around its approach to development and international relationsAs the largest developing country China is a natural member of the Global South It breathes the same breath with other developing countries and shares the same future with them Han said Thursday He also said China supports those nations development path in keeping with their national conditionsThe loosely defined term Global South which has come up frequently at the United Nations this year identifies nations around the world that are less developed and less rich than what have typically been called firstworld nations Theyre not necessarily in the Southern Hemisphere many in fact are notLeaders of a number of larger developing nations including Brazils Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Indias Narendra Modi have of late pitched themselves as leaders around whom the Global South could coalesce Just Tuesday Lula told leaders at the UN meeting that Brazil is back in a speech widely received as Global Southfocused manoeuvring And Modi in January hosted a Voice of the Global South virtual summitChina too has loosely cast itself in a similar role for more than a decade and more so since Xi launched the Belt and Road Initiative to drive Chinese development infrastructure and influence in other nations particularly developing ones The sprawling project has been widely touted but has encountered bumps along the wayChina Han promised will remain a member of the big family of developing countries That statement is in keeping with Beijings attempts to balance often adeptly the benefits of continuing to be a developing nation with the advantages of being a major global economic and diplomatic power and counterbalance to the WestFor decades since the start of the reform and opening up launched by Deng Xiaoping after Mao Zedongs death in 1976 China has positioned its approach to both domestic and international affairs as an alternative to what it has long called Western hegemony That counternarrative is a frequent cornerstone of its international identity Hans Global South statements Thursday match that longtime sensibilityAnd China benefits from association with the Global South which allows it to style statements as if it speaks for many nations nations that may not be strong enough to object if such a powerful government mischaracterises themWhether China and its USD 18 trillion GDP should actually be considered part of the Global South is a frequently debated matter In January at Modis summit 125 countries were included but China wasnt one of them That may have had more to do with Chinas oftentense relations with India than with its attitude toward the concept in generalXi was one of four leaders of permanent UN Security Council members who did not show at the United Nations this week Frances Emmanuel Macron Britains Rishi Sunak and Russias Vladimir Putin also skipped it only US President Joe Biden leader of the host nation delivered a speech Han Zhengs presence at the United Nations came at a time when Chinas diplomatic operation appears to be in a bit of disarrayMany expected Foreign Minister Wang Yi to come to the General Assembly and possibly pave the way for a XiBiden meeting Wang attended and delivered the speech last year In the months since a newly appointed foreign minister came and went with some mystery and Wang took the role on againHan in his speech covered Chinas usual topics in such meetings Among them He reiterated that Taiwan the island off Chinas coast that has its own independent government is historically a part of China and always will be a frequent message to the United States and the world The island and the mainland split in 1949 after a civil war He said China supported human rights suited to our national conditions in response to the needs of our people Beijings repressive policies toward ethnic Uighurs in the western region of Xinjiang and its policies toward dissent including in the special administrative region of Hong Kong come under frequent Western scrutiny He said as China has many times before that a ceasefire and peace talks are the only path to ending war in Ukraine China has tread a delicate line in the 18 months since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text 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