Since the world entered the unipolar system, we have been witnessing too many incidents of exercising brutal forces on earth in unilateral, illegitimate, and unjust ways. The world has since been seen creating oceans of blood by its uncontested imperium and its allies through killing millions of innocent civilians in different regions. Many sovereign and independent countries have been invaded and occupied making millions of people refugees overnight.
As a result, the global conscience has long been crying for getting rid of the unjust unipolar world where might has always been right. But the coronavirus pandemic has suddenly broken out and swept through the world as an adding insult to injuries for the peace-loving people. As of Tuesday, the pandemic has globally snatched as many as 5,123,441 lives and infected a total of 254,643,880 people. According to Johns Hopkins University, The US leads the world in the number of confirmed deaths from the virus with more than 745,800 people dead from COVID-19. Brazil, with more than 607,000 deaths, and India, with more than 450,000 deaths, follow the US in the number of lives lost since the start of the pandemic.
Apart from killing and infecting such a huge number of people, the pandemic continues to take its toll on the global economy as well. COVID-19 has caused the second-largest global recession in history, with more than a third of the global population at the time being placed on lockdown. Due to the pandemic, global stock markets experienced their worst crash since 1987, and in the first three months of 2020, the G20 economies fell 3.4 percent year on year.
The COVID-19 global recession is the deepest since the end of World War II. The global economy contracted by 3.5 percent in 2020 according to the April 2021 World Economic Outlook Report published by the IMF, a seven percent loss relative to the 3.4 percent growth forecast back in October 2019. While virtually every country covered by the IMF posted negative growth in 2020, the downturn was more pronounced in the poorest parts of the world. However, China has emerged as the only major economy in the world to post positive growth in 2020.
The pandemic’s economic impacts have increased sexual exploitation and child marriage, leaving women and girls in fragile economies and refugee contexts particularly vulnerable. The combined impact of COVID-19 on employment, households’ purchasing power, food prices, and food availability in local markets severely jeopardize access to food in the most vulnerable countries.
But the pandemic has yet to stop its onslaughts and there is no virtual sign of relief from the infections of the deadly virus. Infections are increasing in the US, with 87,468 new infections reported on average each day. That’s 35 percent of the peak — the highest daily average reported on January 8. Over the last week, COVID-19 case averages have risen in 29 states, flattened in three, and dropped in 18, according to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has said that Europe was the only region in the world where COVID-related deaths increased last week after a rise of 5 percent. In its weekly report on the pandemic issued on Tuesday, the WHO also said cases jumped 6 percent globally, driven by a rise in the Americas, Europe, and Asia.
WHO said COVID-19 deaths in all regions other than Europe remained stable or declined last week, totaling 50,000 worldwide. Of the 3.3 million new infections reported, 2.1 million came from Europe, it said. Europe has again become the epicenter of the pandemic, prompting some countries to consider re-introducing restrictions in the run-up to Christmas and stirring debate over whether vaccines alone are enough to tame COVID-19.
Given the severity and gravities of the time, the world expected that major countries led by the only superpower will join hands with China to defeat the pandemic as Beijing has already controlled its epidemic and is leading developing nations in the fight against the pandemic. However, much to the world’s surprise, the allies are mud-sliding and trading blames against China. Though a pandemic is faced and controlled only by scientific measures, they have resorted to the politicization of the matter; even they have absurdly employed their detectives to find out the origins of the deadly virus.
However, China has turned up as an important champion of mankind by extending its hands to the pandemic-hit devastated world. In reply, many countries have forged ahead win-win cooperation with China. They have effectively been fighting against the coronavirus. In such a situation, the superpower now seems to have come to its senses, though late. As a result, the much-sought-after Sino-US summit was held on Tuesday.
The online summit has raised global hopes for win-win cooperation between the two superpowers. Because during the summit President Xi Jinping and President Joe Biden agreed to increase communication and cooperation, run their domestic affairs well, and, at the same time, shoulder their share of international responsibilities, and work together to advance the noble cause of world peace and development. Their cooperation must open up new prospects for a community of shared futures for mankind.
Both the presidents agreed that the US-China relationship is the most important bilateral relationship in the world. As two major countries, the US and China have a responsibility to the world as well as to their people. The two sides need to have open and candid dialogues to enhance understanding of each other's intentions and make sure that competition between the two countries is fair and healthy and does not veer into conflict.
President Xi stressed that a sound and stable China-US relationship is required for advancing the two countries' respective development and for safeguarding a peaceful and stable international environment, including finding effective responses to global challenges such as climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic. China and the US should respect each other, coexist in peace, and pursue win-win cooperation.
Biden emphasized the need for the US and China to work more closely in areas where their interests align, respond to global challenges such as the COVID pandemic and climate change, and deliver better lives to the two peoples. We should encourage the younger generation to interact more and be more exposed to each other's culture, which will help make the world a better place.
President Xi highlighted China's commitment to peace, development, equity, justice, democracy, and freedom, which are common values of humanity. Drawing ideological lines or dividing the world into different camps or rival groups will only make the world suffer. The bitter lessons of the Cold War are still fresh in memory. We hope that the US side can meet its word of not seeking a "new Cold War" with concrete actions.
President Biden echoed President Xi's comment that history is a fair judge, and that they should make the relationship work and not mess it up. China has been a major power since 5,000 years ago. Biden reiterated that the US does not seek to change China's system, the revitalization of its alliances is not anti-China, and the US has no intention to have a conflict with China.
President Xi stated China's principled position on the Taiwan question. He noted the new wave of tensions across the Taiwan Strait and ascribed the tensions to the repeated attempts by the Taiwan authorities to look for US support for their independence agenda as well as the intention of some Americans to use Taiwan to contain China. Such moves are extremely dangerous, just like playing with fire. Whoever plays with fire will get burnt. The one-China principle and the three China-US Joint Communiqués are the political foundation of China-US relations.
Biden reaffirmed the US government's long-standing one-China policy, stated that the US does not support "Taiwan independence", and expressed the hope for peace and stability to be maintained in the Taiwan Strait. The US is willing to work with China based on mutual respect and peaceful coexistence, increase communication, reduce misperception, and handle differences constructively.
It is also a matter of relief for the peace-loving world that the two sides also exchanged views on Afghanistan, the Iranian nuclear issue, the situation on the Korean Peninsula, and other international and regional issues of mutual interest. The two sides agreed to maintain close communication in different forms and steer China-US relations back on the right track of sound and steady development, for the good of the people in both countries and around the world.
Based on their exchanges during the talks, I would like to believe that the Sino-US summit has raised global hopes for win-win cooperation between the largest and second-largest economies of the world and it will open up new prospects for building a community of shared future for mankind. China has already come a long way to build it and as the US has now come forwards to join hands with China, it might be a giant leap towards the global community envisaged by China based on win-win cooperation by reducing confrontations.
Analysts are also of the view that the pandemic has left the US with no other option but cooperation with China. The superpower has already paid high prices, in both terms of public health and economy, for its policy of isolation. Hence, they might realize that as the two largest economies and members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), their cooperation is the only way to defeat the virus and face the common global challenges.
- Md Enamul Hassan is a news editor at China Media Group (CMG) in Beijing, China.
