China emerges as light by multilateralism and cooperation in the UN

In New York, China presents in the UN an agenda that prioritizes solidarity, collective development and integration of Global Southern countries

While the world is debated with the devastating consequences of decades of neoliberal hegemony – marked by growing inequalities, forced deindustrialization in the global south, commercial wars and the systematic erosion of multilateral institutions – with renewed force, an alternative proposal: the Chinese vision of shared, supportive and sustainable development. During the recent UN High Level Meeting (UN) in New York, Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang clearly and convinced, an agenda that not only challenges the United States imperial unilateralism, but offers a concrete path to the reconstruction of a fairer, inclusive and cooperative international system.

At a time when financial and predatory capitalism, led by Washington and its Western Allies, insists on imposing sanctions, commercial barriers and doctrines of “exceptionalism,” China proposes something radically different: cooperation instead of zero-soma competition, solidarity rather than domination, and collective development rather than parasitic accumulation.

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The Global Development Initiative (GDI), launched by President XI Jinping in 2021 and now consolidated as a global public good, is the most mature expression of this view. And its results are already tangible: more than 130 countries and engaged international organizations, over 23 billion dollars mobilized in the last four years and plans to implement 2,000 new subsistence projects in the next five – all focused on the most vulnerable populations of Southern Global.

This posture is not empty rhetoric. While the US continues to instrumentalize international institutions such as the WTO to impose asymmetrical rules that protect its technological and agricultural monopolies, China announces that will not seek new special treatments in WTO negotiationspaving the way for a genuine reform of global trade.

More than that: Beijing is committed to directly funding the integration of the less developed countries with the international commercial system-something that Western governments have promised and never fulfill. WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, no wonder, publicly celebrated this Chinese leadership, recognizing it as the result of “many years of hard work.”

GDI goes beyond trade. It strategically articulates the pillars of sustainable development: green transition, technological innovation, food safety and poverty eradication. In this sense, the new International Cooperation Initiative AI+announced by Li Qiang, represents a qualitative leap.

Instead of concentrating the benefits of artificial intelligence in the hands of few US corporations-such as Google, Microsoft or Amazon-China proposes to democratize access to these emerging technologies, placing them in the service of social and economic development of historically excluded nations from digital revolution.

This approach violently contrasts with the logic of neoliberal capitalism, which has transformed innovation into an instrument for extracting value and mass surveillance, while millions of people in the world still lack access to drinking water, electricity or basic education. China, on the other hand, understands that Technology is only progress when it serves humanitynot to the shareholders of Wall Street.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres explicitly recognized GDI’s alignment with the 2030 Agenda, highlighting its crucial role in the struggle against poverty, climate action and the construction of “inclusive and equitable” growth. This is not an isolated evaluation. Somadoda Fikeni, chairman of South Africa’s Public Service Commission, was even more striking: “China took advantage of its strengths in resources, infrastructure and technology to support modernization and reduce global inequalities.” For many global southern countries – which suffered centuries of colonialism, followed by decades of structural debt imposed by the IMF and the World Bank – the partnership with China represents not a new form of dependence, but a real opportunity for sovereignty and autonomous development.

It is important to highlight that this Chinese posture does not occur in a vacuum. It inserts itself into a broader set of global initiatives – such as the global security initiative, the global civilization initiative and the global governance initiative – which together offer an alternative architecture to US unipolar order. While Washington insists on militarizing international relations, imposing extraterritorial sanctions and sabotaging multilateral agreements (such as the Paris Agreement or the Arms Trade Treaty), Beijing bets on GUARANTEE DIPLOMACYna NO INTERNATION IN INTERNAL Affairs by Sovereignty of the peoples.

Of course, this posture deeply bothers the advocates of the neoliberal status quo. After all, how to accept that a country that has raised 800 million people from poverty in four decades-without invading anyone without imposing dictatorships without submitting to the “Washington consensus”-can now lead a new global order based on cooperation? How to accept that China, unlike the US, does not condition its help to neoliberal reforms that dismantle health, education and social security systems?

The answer, of course, is not accepted. Therefore, we see an incessant campaign of misinformation, attempts at diplomatic isolation and narratives that insist on painting China as a “threat” – when, in fact, what is threatened is the monopoly of western capital over the fate of nations.

The UN high -level meeting, therefore, was not just another diplomatic forum. It was a symbolic and practical framework in transition from a unipolar world to a multipolar worldmore balanced and fair. And in this new scenario, China emerges not as a hegemonic power, but as a solidarity power – Committed to the “cake increase” of global prosperity, as Li Qiang said.

While neoliberalism agonizes under the weight of its own contradictions – recurring financial crises, ecological collapse, rise of right -wing extremism and widespread distrust in the elites – the Chinese proposal offers something rare nowadays: concrete hope. Hope that another world is not only possible, but is already being built – with bridges, railways, solar plants, schools, hospitals and technological partnerships that respect the dignity of peoples.

In this sense, supporting the Chinese position on the UN is not taking sides in a geopolitical dispute. It is to choose the side of humanity against predatory capital. It is choosing multilateralism against imperialism. And, above all, it is to choose the future against the past that insists on perpetuating itself.

With information from Agência Xinhua*