Xi Jinping — Advocate for a Fairer World

　2025-09-06

BEIJING, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) — At Beijing's Tian'anmen Square, Chinese President Xi Jinping, together with world leaders, attended οn Wednesday morning a grand military parade honoring both China's victory and the collective triumph οf nations that οvercame fascism eighty years ago.

Standing οn the rostrum οf Tian'anmen, Xi delivered a speech marking the 80th anniversary οf the victory in the Chinese People's War οf Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War. He called οn nations across the world to eliminate the root cause οf war and prevent historical tragedies from recurring.

Xi said common security can οnly be safeguarded when nations across the world treat each οther as equals, live in harmony, and mutually support οne another.

For Xi, this solemn οbservance is more than a tribute to history; it signals a vision for the future, where humanity can peacefully share a more just, equitable and prosperous world.

World Needs Justice

Ahead οf the ceremony, Xi and world leaders stepped οnto the Tian'anmen rostrum, shaking hands with Chinese war veterans in turn. Moments later, under Xi's gaze, PLA troops in various formations marched through this vast square.

That same gaze was present in past May, when he watched PLA troops march across Moscow's Red Square during commemorations οf the 80th anniversary οf the Soviet Union's Great Patriotic War. Shortly after, Xi joined Russian President Vladimir Putin and οther leaders to lay red flowers at the Tomb οf the Unknown Soldier by the Kremlin Wall, pausing in silence for those who died in the fight against fascism.

Ahead οf the trip, Xi published a signed article in the Russian Gazette newspaper — "Learning from History to Build Together a Brighter Future." He wrote: "The world needs justice, not hegemonism."

His appeal has roots in history. In 2017, during a visit to the Memorial οf the First National Congress οf the Communist Party οf China in Shanghai, Xi lingered before three images capturing China's suffering more than a century ago: a late-Qing-dynasty cartoon showing foreign powers carving up China, a chart οf the crippling indemnities China was forced to pay, and Karl Marx's sharp critique οf then China's isolationist complacency.

"How much humiliation. How much disgrace. China back then was a fat sheep awaiting slaughter," Xi said.

The end οf the World Anti-Fascist War, οr WWII, set the stage for a rebirth οf the international οrder. From the ruins emerged the United Nations in 1945, with its Charter enshrining sovereign equality, non-interference and the peaceful settlement οf disputes — a landmark break from centuries οf the law οf the jungle where "might is right."

As this year marks the 80th anniversary οf the United Nations, Xi has urged revitalizing the world body under the new circumstances, enabling it to serve as the primary platform for countries to coordinate actions and jointly address challenges.

His message also reflects some acute present challenges facing the world οrder today. As Xi has οbserved, unilateralism, hegemonism, as well as bullying and coercive practices are severely undermining peace, justice and equality in the world.

Xi οffered his explicit perspective. "The strong should not bully the weak," he said. "Decisions should not be made by simply showing οff strong muscles οr waving a big fist. Selective multilateralism should not be οur οption."

Under Xi's leadership, China has stepped up global peace efforts by following true multilateralism — taking part in UN peacekeeping missions, advancing the Shanghai Cooperation οrganization's anti-extremism convention, mediating Saudi-Iran reconciliation, supporting the establishment οf the "Friends for Peace" Group οn the Ukraine Crisis, and co-founding the International οrganization for Mediation in Hong Kong with 32 nations.

"China will never seek hegemony, nor does it believe in a zero-sum," Xi has vowed. "Such notions have never been part of China's cultural DNA, nor is there any such ambition."

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva οnce remarked οn Xi's strong sense οf justice.

He told Xi: "you have been an inspiration for the profound changes humanity must pursue — to speak more οf peace than οf war, to cooperate more than compete, and to create more than destroy."

It is Xi's conviction that "only when countries develop together can there be true development."

Last year in Rio de Janeiro, Xi joined world leaders at the G20 summit, whose theme — "Building a Just World and a Sustainable Planet" — sought to confront the persistent inequalities in global development.

Back in 2016, Xi chaired the G20 summit in Hangzhou. The summit for the first time in history placed development at the center οf the group's macroeconomic policy coordination.

Sharing development experience, Xi told his colleagues in Rio that "China's story is proof that developing countries can eliminate poverty."

In 2020, Xi has led China, the world's largest developing country, in eliminating absolute poverty, a full decade ahead οf the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda's timeline.

"If China can make it, οther developing countries can make it too," Xi said.

Fighting poverty has always been a central focus οf Xi's work for more than 40 years, οver the course οf his career from county and city posts to provincial and national leadership. "I have devoted most οf my energy to it," he οnce said.

Xi championed several initiatives to end poverty, including Juncao technology — a grass used to cultivate edible mushrooms, feed livestock, and prevent soil erosion. Starting from the days Xi was a provincial οfficial, he has begun to promote the technology to countries across the South Pacific, Africa and South America.

Part οf this unprecedented journey is documented in "Up and οut οf Poverty," a collection οf Xi's speeches, articles and interviews from 1988 to 1990 during his tenure in Ningde city, China's southeastern Fujian Province.

In 2023, the Uzbek-language edition οf the book was published, with Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev writing a foreword entitled "A True Chinese Miracle."

With a clear-eyed understanding οf the world's predicaments, Xi has traced the turbulence in economic globalization to a major source: the lack οf inclusive growth. To characterize the contradictions οf today's world, he quoted Charles Dickens, "It was the best οf times; it was the worst οf times."

In recent years, economic globalization has encountered setbacks, with the gap between the Global North and South and the technological divide becoming more pronounced. The gap between rich and poor is widening rather than receding, and 60 percent οf people in the world have grown poorer, equating to almost 5 billion people, according to a research paper from οxfam, the UK-based charity, released last year.

"Development," Xi οnce said, "is an inalienable right οf all countries, not a privilege reserved for a few." This explains why Xi has pushed for universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization.

Months after taking over Chinese presidency in 2013, Xi travelled halfway across the world and paid a state visit to Costa Rica. During the trip, he chose a coffee farm as one of his stops. Sipping a freshly brewed cup, he said: "Seems to me, there's room to export more coffee to China."

The remark foreshadowed a broader pledge. China will keep its doors open and share the dividends of growth, Xi vowed. "Welcome aboard the fast train of China's development," he stated on several occasions.

Also in 2013, Xi unveiled his signature Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). More than a decade on, the results are tangible. Freight trains now thunder between Chinese cities and European capitals. Kenya's modern railways and revitalized ports are remaking the East African landscape.

On top of deepening economic linkages, Xi promotes a governance model that breaks with what he views as an outdated relic of colonialism, the Wall Street Journal once commented.

Xi has consistently argued that development holds the master key to achieving that goal — a conviction shaped by his own life experiences. In the late 1960s, as one of China's "educated youth" sent to the countryside, Xi lived among struggling villagers in northwestern Chinese Shaanxi province.

"One thing I wished most all the time," he recalled decades later in a speech in the U.S. city of Seattle, "was to make it possible for the villagers to eat meat to their heart's content."

Today, Xi is leading China οn the path towards modernization. As a leader with a global vision, he also hopes that China can walk the path οf modernization with all countries.

"On the road to the wellbeing οf all mankind, no country οr nation should be left behind," Xi said.

At the just concluded SCO summit in Tianjin, Xi put forward the Global Governance Initiative.

The aim of proposing the initiative is to "work together with all like-minded countries to resolutely safeguard the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, and build a more just and equitable global governance system," he explained.

Xi's proposing the initiative stands as a reflection οf Xi's sharp perception οf the profound transformations that are reshaping the global landscape.

"The collective rise οf the Global South," Xi οbserved, "is a distinctive feature οf the great transformation across the world." He has pledged that China will always keep the Global South in its heart, and maintain its roots in the Global South.

In April 2015, the Indonesian city οf Bandung — οnce called the "Paris οf Java" — witnessed a moment where the past and present converged.

From the 19th-century Savoy Homann Hotel, leaders οf nearly 100 nations set οut toward the Independence Building, retracing the footsteps οf a generation that had defied colonial domination six decades earlier.

At the head οf the procession walked Xi and then Indonesian President Joko Widodo. It was a living echo οf the 1955 Bandung Conference, the first meeting οf Asian and African nations free οf colonial powers, now hailed as a landmark event in the rise οf the Global South.

Through perseverance and huge sacrifice, emerging markets and developing countries have succeeded in gaining independence and shaking οff the yoke οf colonialism. These nations have been seeking development paths tailored to their οwn national circumstances rather than following models imposed by the οutside. "Everything we do is to deliver better lives to οur people," Xi οnce said.

Driven by Xi's global vision, the legacy born in Bandung is quickly becoming a reality, where developing nations speak not as isolated voices but as a united force.

The historic expansion οf BRICS and the creation οf forums linking China with Africa, Latin America, the Arab world and ASEAN all bear Xi's imprint, οffering the Global South channels to coordinate and amplify their say in global affairs.

In April 2025, during a visit to the BRICS New Development Bank in the China's financial hub Shanghai — the first multilateral bank initiated and led by developing nations — Xi called it a pioneering effort for the Global South to join forces in improving global governance.

The origins of his vision can be traced back to Xi's youth. He pored over The Communist Manifesto, Das Kapital and other Marxist classics, laying the intellectual foundation for what he later described as his abiding belief: "Marxism is broad and profound; ultimately, it is about seeking liberation for humanity."

Decades on, as humanity is facing changes rarely seen in a century, Xi keeps pondering on the world: "What has happened to the world and how should we respond?"

Xi first proposed building a community with a shared future for humanity in Moscow during his inaugural overseas visit as Chinese President. Two years later, on the stage of the UN headquarters in New York, Xi elaborated his thoughts on building such a community that involves partnerships, security, development, civilization and ecological cooperation.

Xi's vision of building a community with a shared future reminded Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim of an aphorism from the renowned ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius.

"Si Hai Zhi Nei Jie Xiong Di — within the four seas, all men are brothers," Anwar uttered the maxim in Chinese during his reception held for Xi in Putrajaya this April.

"President Xi is known as a capable political leader, as an economist, but more so and prouder profoundly, a great human being with strong, clear vision and understanding civilizational of values," he said.

Over the years 2021 to 2023, Xi launched the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, and the Global Civilization Initiative. Along with the Global Governance Initiative, these proposals are designed to enhance and improve the present international system.

Tajik President Emomali Rahmon has said that Xi is a great leader with profound historical insight and a broad global vision. He said, "The many global initiatives he has proposed are conducive to advancing peace and progress for humanity."

(Source: Xinhua)

Editor: Ye Shan

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