Taking cue from Biden, Xi turns to calm language

United Nations: Choosing calm language as tensions with the United States grow, Chinese leader Xi Jinping reiterated his nation’s longtime policy of multilateralism on Tuesday, telling world leaders at the UN that disputes among countries “need to be handled through dialogue and cooperation.”

His remarks came hours after U.S. President Joe Biden said he didn’t have any intention of starting a “new Cold War” — itself a response to criticism from the U.N. chief that both Washington and Beijing need to make sure their differences and tensions don’t cause problems for the rest of the planet, AP reported.

“One country’s success does not have to mean another country’s failure,” Xi said in a prerecorded speech. “The world is big enough to accommodate common development and progress of all countries.”

China often preaches multilateralism and international cooperation in public forums, though critics say its policies toward Taiwan and in South China Sea territorial disputes with its neighbors — among other things — strongly indicate otherwise.

But Xi’s also took a dig at Washington as he criticized nations that would fiddle around in the affairs of others.

China has also been strongly critical of American calls for a renewed investigation into the origins of COVID-19. “China will continue to support and engage in global, science-based origins tracing, and stands firmly opposed to political maneuvering in whatever form,” Xi said in his speech.

He also promised that his country would stop promoting the growth of the world’s dirtiest fossil fuel overseas, in a major step to address climate change, China, he said, “will not build new coal-fired power projects abroad.”

Image courtesy of (Photo: UN Web TV)

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