On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of China’s resumption of the legitimate seat of the United Nations, Huang Huikang, member of the United Nations International Law Commission and chairman of the International Law Consultation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, accepted an exclusive interview with Yangcheng Evening News
The concept of building a community with a shared future for mankind is gradually becoming a direction for the basic principles of international law
Yangcheng Evening News All-Media Reporter Dong Liu
Fifty years of international storm, Cinema, has been in the figure of a country in the past half century. October 25 marks the 50th anniversary of the restoration of the legitimate seat of the United Nations by the People’s Republic of China. What changes has China brought to the world on the stage of the United Nations over the past fifty years? At present, facing the world’s major changes unseen in a century, what are the challenges facing the United Nations and what are the world’s expectations for China?
Recently, Huang Huikang, member of the United Nations International Law Commission and chairman of the International Law Advisory Committee of the Chinese Foreign Ministry of Foreign Affairs, accepted an exclusive interview with Yangcheng Evening News. Huang Huikang has been engaged in diplomatic work for more than 30 years. He has served as the Chinese Ambassador to Malaysia, Director of the Treaty and Law Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Legal Advisor to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Special Representative to the Negotiation of Climate Change. He has attended many sessions of UN agencies such as the United Nations General Assembly, the Charter Special Committee, the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, and multilateral treaty negotiations under the auspices of the United Nations.
Restore the legitimate seat of the United Nations
Confirmed China’s status as a major international power
Yangcheng Evening News: How do you view the historical significance of the People’s Republic of China in restoring the legitimate seat of the United Nations?
Huang Huikang: The restoration of China’s legal seats is a major event of epoch-making significance in the history of the United Nations, and has a huge impact on the evolution of the world pattern. Starting from this day, China began its multilateral diplomatic work centered on the United Nations with a new attitude. Over the past half a century, China has made great contributions to global governance and international rule of law, which have had far-reaching influence.
In addition, the restoration of China’s legal seat in the United Nations is a milestone in the diplomacy of New China. It established China’s international status as a major power, declared the complete failure of Western countries’ containment, isolation and blockade policies against China, and showed the victory of developing countries in unity and cooperation, defeating power politics and hegemony. The Eastern powers, which account for one-fifth of the world’s population, have entered the center of the United Nations stage with a new attitude, making the United Nations more universal, representative and authoritative, and developing countries have a just force that they can rely on in the United Nations, especially the Security Council.
It also opened a new historical chapter in China’s relations with the world, and the United Nations became China’s understanding of the worldAn important window for the world and the world to understand China, and China’s foreign exchanges have entered a new stage of full participation.
Yangcheng Evening News: What contributions have China made to maintaining world peace and security since restoring its legal seat in the United Nations?
Huang Huikang: This is one of China’s most important contributions to the cause of human progress. The primary purpose of the United Nations is to maintain international peace and security. China’s diplomacy has always been aimed at maintaining world peace and promoting common development, and is highly consistent with the purposes and principles of the UN Charter. In long-term practice, China has put forward and adhered to the five principles of peaceful coexistence, established and pursued an independent and peaceful foreign policy, and made a solemn commitment to the world that it will never seek hegemony and never expand, emphasizing that China has always been a firm force in maintaining world peace. China develops itself by striving for an international peaceful environment, and maintains and promotes world peace through its own development; China insists on properly handling differences and frictions with relevant countries, and on the basis of firmly defending national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity, it strives to maintain neighboring good neighborly and friendly relations and regional peace and stability overall situation; China insists on playing a constructive role in international and regional hot issues, insists on persuading peace and promoting talks, and makes unremitting efforts to properly handle relevant issues through dialogue and negotiation.
In international relations, China advocates a new security concept of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable, and jointly creates a security pattern of justice, joint construction and sharing, emphasizing the need to respect and safeguard the security of every country. In practice, China has tried its best to strengthen international mutual trust and security cooperation. So far, China has participated in 30 UN peacekeeping operations, and has sent more than 50,000 peacekeeping personnel (military personnel, police and civilian officials) to Sudan, Lebanon, Cambodia, Libya and other countries and regions. 21 Chinese soldiers and police have died on the front line of peacekeeping. China is the country with the most peacekeeping troops among the permanent members of the Security Council and is also the second largest peacekeeping assessed country in the United Nations. At present, more than 2,000 Chinese peacekeepers are still carrying out peacekeeping missions in eight mission areas. China is also actively participating in international law enforcement and security cooperation, strengthening cooperation under the framework of international and regional organizations such as the United Nations, Interpol, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization to combat all terrorism, separatism, extremist crimes and drug crimes.
The concept of a community with a shared future for mankind
Providing new impetus for the development of the international community
Yangcheng Evening News: How has China’s diplomatic philosophy changed on the UN stage in the past 50 years?
Huang Huikang: From advocating the establishment of a new international political and economic order based on the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, to promoting the conclusion of the Paris Agreement on Responding to Climate Change, from comprehensive rule of law to promoting the rule of law in international relations, and then to building a community with a shared future for mankind, the concept of building a community with a shared future for mankind has been written into the UN resolution… In the past half century, China andKeeping pace with the times, a series of new diplomatic concepts and global governance plans have been proposed and implemented.
In 1974, Comrade Deng Xiaoping emphasized at the Sixth Special General Assembly that both political and economic relations between countries should be based on the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. “After dealing with the relationship between the country and the Babaylan, the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence is the best way to deal with the relationship between the country and the Babaylan. After the Babaylan, Deng Xiaoping clearly put forward the idea of establishing a new international political and economic order based on the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence.
Time goes on, and the solemn United Nations podium witnesses China’s unremitting efforts to advocate the establishment of a new international political and economic order in the international community. In 2000, at the United Nations Millennium Summit, Jiang Zemin reiterated that only by following the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence and strictly following the purposes and principles of the UN Charter can countries around the world truly live in harmony. In 2009, Hu Jintao proposed the “Four Use Propositions” at the United Nations, namely: to examine security with a broader perspective and maintain world peace and stability; to look at development with a more comprehensive perspective and promote common prosperity; to carry out cooperation with a more open attitude to promote mutual benefit and win-win results; tolerate each other with a broader mind and achieve harmonious coexistence.
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core has continuously injected fresh blood into the development of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. The proposal of the concept of a community with a shared future for mankind is the continuation and creative development of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence in the new era. In a series of important occasions such as the 2015 summit to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations and the 2020 summit to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations, Xi Jinping stood at a historical height, grasped the pulse of the times, looked at the future of mankind, and clearly gave a Chinese solution, namely “building a community with a shared future for mankind and achieving win-win sharing.”
Yangcheng Evening News: What impact has the concept of building a community with a shared future for mankind have on the international community?
Huang Huikang: Adhering to the principle of promoting the building of a community with a shared future for mankind is the core and essence of Xi Jinping’s diplomatic thought. Cinema is a major theoretical innovation achievement in China’s diplomacy since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. It demonstrates the long-term vision, broad mind and historical responsibility of Chinese leaders towards the future, and has become a banner of major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics in the new era.
The concept of a community with a shared future for mankind has proposed a new value pursuit and direction for where human society is going, that is, starting from the five aspects of partnership, security pattern, economic development, civilization exchange, and ecological construction, and insisting on dialogue and consultation, co-construction and sharing, and win-win cooperation., exchanges and mutual learning, green and low-carbon, and build a world of lasting peace, universal security, common prosperity, inclusiveness and openness, clean and beautiful. After experiencing two world wars and countless war disasters of all sizes, the common and urgent desire of mankind is to pass on the torch of peace from generation to generation, to allow the driving force for development to continue, and to let the light of civilization shine. However, this task is far from being completed, and promoting the construction of a common shared future for mankind will help achieve the above goals.
At the same time, at the international level, the concept of jointly promoting the building of a community with a shared future for mankind is increasingly emerging in some important bilateral political declarations (such as the Joint Statement of the People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation in June 2018, the Qingdao Declaration of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Beijing Declaration on Building a Closer China-Africa Cooperation Forum in September 2018) and the United Nations resolutions, and are gradually developing towards the direction of gradually forming the basic principles of international law.
The concept of a community with a shared future for mankind also provides new impetus for the development of international law. At present, the activities of various countries in the deep sea, polar regions, outer space and networks are urgently needed to regulate international law. The concept of a community with a shared future for mankind adheres to the principles of peace, sovereignty, universal benefits and co-governance, and will inject new impetus into solving international legislative problems and provide feasible solutions for promoting global governance. As the concept of a community with a shared future for mankind becomes increasingly popular, the international community will also think more deeply about how to achieve a common vision of lasting peace, universal security, common prosperity, openness, inclusiveness, cleanliness and beauty through rules and systems.
Take the lead in becoming an international rule of law defender
China has concluded 25,000 bilateral treaties
Yangcheng Evening News: What contributions have China made in promoting the rule of law in international relations over the past 50 years?
Huang Huikang: The Chinese government attaches great importance to the important role of international law and the international rule of law in international relations.然而，在新中国诞生至恢复联合国合法席位之前的22年间，由于东西方冷战，中国长期受到西方的敌视、孤立、制裁和打压，被阻隔在国际治理和国际法体系之外。 After restoring the legal seat of the United Nations, China gradually integrated into the international order and international legal system based on the UN Charter, and began to participate in the formulation of multilateral international rules in all aspects, firmly promoting the rule of law in international relations until it reached a high level to lead global governance reform.
重返之初（1971-1981年），中国政府加入了一大批在恢复联合国合法席位之前缔结的重要“造法性”多边条约，总数超过了100个，是恢复席位前22年加入Nearly 15 times the total number of multilateral treaties has greatly promoted the universal application of these multilateral treaties and the process of rule of law in international relations.
Since the 1980s, the international situation has undergone major changes. With the improvement of comprehensive national strength, China’s international status and influence have greatly improved, and multilateral legal diplomacy has entered a new era of all-round and in-depth participation. To date, China has participated in almost all universal intergovernmental international organizations, concluded more than 25,000 bilateral treaties, and joined 617 multilateral conventions (including amendments to the Convention), and has significantly increased its voice, influence and contribution in the field of international rule of law.
A sharp contrast is that the United States has not ratified or signed or signed or withdrawn from the important international conventions of law so far, such as the Vienna Convention on the Law of the Sea, the Basel Convention, the Kyoto Protocol, the Arms Trade Treaty, the Paris Agreement, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. However, China, which is often accused by the United States of America of “ignoring” international law, has ratified or joined and conscientiously implemented all the above conventions.
The only effective way to promote the international order from “change” to “governance” is to take the path of international rule of law. To this end, China emphasizes the need to build a world of rule of law that unites the rights, obligations and responsibilities of all countries. The relations and interests of various countries can only be coordinated by systems and rules, and they cannot listen to anyone’s fist if they are big. All countries have the responsibility to safeguard the authority of the international rule of law, exercise their rights in accordance with the law, and fulfill their obligations in good faith. Major powers should take the lead in being advocates and defenders of international rule of law, value promises, and do not engage in exceptionalism, infringe on the legitimate rights and interests of other countries and undermine international peace and stability in the name of the rule of law.
In response to the reform of the United Nations Security Council
China actively supports the cautious and steady advancement
Yangcheng Evening News: The topic of reform of the United Nations Security Council has caused a lot of discussion and controversy. What is China’s position?
Huang Huikang: The United Nations Security Council is the core of the United Nations collective security system and the cornerstone of the international order established after World War II. In accordance with the United Nations Charter, the Member States grants the main responsibility for maintaining international peace and security to the Security Council and agrees that the Council will represent the Member States when performing its duties under this responsibility. China firmly supports the concept of collective security and supports the effective operation of the United Nations collective security system.
The principle of “unity of powers” was conceived from the very beginning as the basis for the establishment and effective operation of the United Nations. Charters in the Organizational Structure of the United Nations, Organization of the Security Council, Powers, Voting Procedures, Transitional Security MeasuresAs well as issues such as the ratification and amendment of the Charter, the principle of “unity of great powers” is concretized and legalized, including: the Security Council is mainly responsible for maintaining international peace and security; the “five major powers” of China, France, the Soviet Union and the United States have permanent seats in the Security Council and enjoy “veto power” on non-procedural matters; the ratification and revision of the Charter must be approved by the permanent members. As then-Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov pointed out, the basic and principled element of the United Nations organization is “veto power.” The principle of rejecting “KomiksGreat Powers’ Unity” is actually equivalent to abolishing the United Nations agencies, because this principle is the basis of the United Nations.
Since 1995, the Council’s reform has become a hot topic. However, there is a lot of controversy about how to reform, mainly involving two specific issues, namely the expansion of the Security Council and the issue of abolition or restriction of the “veto power”. At present, several countries eager to become permanent members of the Security Council have formed an alliance and intend to overcome the situation by joining a group, but have encountered considerable resistance. The plans they proposed have not been understood and supported by the majority of UN member states.
2005 was the most intense year for the Security Council’s reform discussion. At that time Secretary-General Annan proposed two plans to increase the number of permanent members who do not have “veto power” or non-permanent members who can be re-elected. But in the end, the agreement was not reached due to too many differences.
The reform of the Security Council is related to the repositioning of major powers and the adjustment of the international pattern, and is important and complex. China has a positive support for the reform of the Security Council and is cautious and steadily advancing. First, with the changes in the international situation and the increasing number of UN member states, the calls for the expansion of the Security Council have increased year by year, and China supports appropriately expanding the composition of the Security Council at an appropriate time. Secondly, expanding the composition of the Security Council should follow the purposes and principles of the Charter, fully take into account the principle of fair geographical distribution, so that the Security Council can be more representative and handle major international issues more democratic, just, reasonably and effectively. Again, the expansion of the composition of the Security Council should be considered comprehensively and comprehensively to ensure the balance between developed and developing countries and the balance between regions. Finally, the reform of the Council should focus on strengthening without affecting the existing and proven effective mechanisms of the United Nations. China disagrees with the addition of new permanent members of the Security Council with “veto power”country. China’s propositions and positions have received extensive support from the United Nations, providing direction for the reform of the Cinema Security Council.
Regarding the “veto power” granted to the permanent members of the Security Council by the Charter, China believes that the emergence of “veto power” has certain historical necessity and progress, and is still the basis and pillar of the survival of the United Nations and a buffer for conflicts between major powers. There would be no United Nations without “veto power”, so “veto power” cannot be abolished, but appropriate restrictions can be imposed to reduce its negative effects.
China is a founding member of the United Nations and a permanent member of the Security Council. It plays an important role in the Security Council reform process and has the final legal approval authority for any amendment to the UN Charter. Therefore, any reform plan without China’s support cannot be passed.
Meet the international challenges we are facing now
China’s solution is to promote the construction of a new type of international relations
Cinema. Yangcheng Evening News: Do China have its own closeness and distant preferences in the process of playing a role as a major country on the UN stage?
Huang Huikang: As a responsible major power, on the UN stage, China has always adhered to the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, adhered to the correct view of justice and interests, and pursued the principle of democratization of international relations in international relations, which is neither big nor big, strong nor weak, rich and poor, and is an equal member of the international community. It acts according to the right and wrong of the affairs itself. It is not like some major powers, which have special closeness and distant preferences based on ideology and alliance relations. If there is any characteristic of major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics, it is to adhere to independent peaceful diplomacy and the code of conduct oriented towards fairness and justice.
China has always believed that the trend of the world’s multipolarization forward will not change, the process of economic globalization will not change, the theme of the era of peace and development will not change, the direction of change in the international system will not change, the purpose and principles of the UN Charter are not outdated, and unilateral bullying will not succeed when it goes against the world trend. Any country that relies on its own strength, believes in force, seeks hegemony, and implements expansion policies is doomed to fail. Making excuses to infringe on the sovereignty of other countries and interfere in the internal affairs of other countries will eventually bring about your own consequences. Regardless of the colorful objective reality of the contemporary world, attempting to impose one’s own social system, development model and values on others, and threaten it with isolation and sanctions at any time. This domineering behavior can only start with harming others and end up harming oneself. It is unpopular to build one’s own development on the basis of poverty and backwardness in other countries by relying on the unfair and unreasonable international economic order. The attempt to take over world affairs and dominate the fate of other people is becoming increasingly unfeasible.
China not only says that, but also does it. Since the restoration of the legitimate seat of the United Nations, in order to safeguard international fairness and justice, China has exercised the “veto power” granted to permanent members by the Charter 15 times in the UN Security Council. CompareFor example, on the Syria issue, China has used “veto power” seven times in the votes on relevant draft resolutions of the Security Council to avoid the recurrence of Iraqi and Libyan-style tragedies caused by the rough interference of the United States and the West in other countries’ internal affairs.
“The way of the great way is the public.” To uphold fairness and justice in international relations and global governance, we must first safeguard the principle of national sovereignty and equality. This is the most important norm for international relations and the primary principle that global governance must follow. Secondly, we must enhance the representation and voice of developing countries in global governance reform, so that the United Nations can reflect the interests and wishes of most countries in a more balanced manner. To this end, we must promote the transformation of unfair and unreasonable arrangements in the global governance system and strive to make the global governance system more balancedly reflect the will and interests of most countries. Finally, we must adhere to the correct view of justice and interests. Adhering to the concept of fairness and justice, leading the reform of the global governance system and promoting the democratization of international relations is an important direction for China’s diplomacy in the new era.
Yangcheng Evening News: At present, facing the major changes in the world that have not been seen in a century, what are the challenges facing the United Nations? What is the world’s expectation for China?
Huang Huikang: 76 years ago, in order to avoid “later generations of people who have experienced tragic wars twice in today’s generation”, our ancestors opened a new era of multilateralist cooperation with the purpose and principles of the UN Charter with their foresight. Over the past 76 years, the United Nations has withstood the test of international changes and has made great contributions to promoting peace and development of mankind. However, it is worrying that in the 76th year of its establishment, the United Nations and the entire multilateralist system are facing unprecedented severe challenges and have once again reached a crossroads of history.
On the one hand, the world is undergoing major changes unseen in a century, with international and regional hot issues one after another, traditional security and non-traditional security are intertwined, non-traditional security threats such as terrorism, refugee crisis, cybersecurity, climate change, and major infectious diseases continue to spread, the global governance “deficit” is intensifying, and the common challenges faced by mankind are increasing. The COVID-19 epidemic that is raging around the world is even more alarming for mankind. The great changes call for inheriting and carrying forward the original intentions of the founders of the United Nations, strengthening multilateralism, and creating a better future together. On the other hand, the former leading countries of globalization have lost the motivation to continue to promote globalization, populist thoughts are surging, unilateral foreign policy that one-sidedly pursues national interests is rampant, and the bullying “political virus” of power, that is, axioms, is bullying, spread rapidly. This is the biggest threat faced by the international community at present, and its impact is destructive and comprehensive, including but not limited to the following five aspects: First, the relatively stable beauty formed after the Cold WarBabaylanThe cooperation relationship between Russia, the United States and China and the United States-Europe bilateral relations and the United States-China-Russia and the United States-Russia and the United States-Russia-Russia-Europe trilateral relations are in a dilemma. The cooperation scope of Komiks in the relationship between major powers has decreased significantly, and the competition scope has increased significantly. The risk of the world being dragged into a “new Cold War” by the United States is intensifying. Second, the multilateral trading system with WTO rules as the core has suffered a heavy blow, seriously affecting the liberalization and facilitation of world trade and investment, and bringing great uncertainty to the global economy. Third, the international arms control system based on the US-Russia nuclear disarmament treaty has suffered a heavy blow, seriously affecting the balance and stability of the global strategic, aggravated tension and distrust, and greatly increased the danger of triggering a new round of nuclear arms race, and the world will become more insecure and unstable as a result. Fourth, the collective security system with the United Nations Security Council as its core has suffered a new and serious impact. The Security Council has once again become the main battlefield for the diplomatic game between major powers, and the frequent use of “veto power” has seriously affected the Security Council’s primary responsibility for maintaining international peace and security. Fifth, the WHO-centered international public health crisis response mechanism faces severe challenges, which seriously affects global efforts to respond to the new crown epidemic, and the American people have also suffered greatly.
Think about governance when chaos is caused, and hope for peace when danger is caused. Under the great changes, all countries are exploring the future development direction of the world. China’s plan is to promote the construction of a new type of international relations and a community with a shared future for mankind. China will continue to firmly safeguard the international system with the United Nations at its core and the international order based on international law, actively advocate the democracy and rule of law in international relations, firmly oppose hegemony, unilateralism, and protectionism, strive to promote the equal and unified application of international law, promote the building of a community with a shared future for mankind, always be a builder of world peace, a contributor to global development, and a practitioner of international rule of law, and work tirelessly to promote the peace and development of all mankind, together with countries around the world, to work tirelessly to promote peace and development for all mankind.