David Daokui Li: China, the US, and Europe Should Assume Leadership Responsibility in the Face of the Pandemic and Other Challenges
Originally published in Chinese by The Beijing Daily on August 31, 2021. Translated by ACCEPT. For the original Chinese article, click here.
At the day before yesterday’s international online forum, “Global Governance and a Community of Shared Future for Humankind,” co-organized by the China Foreign Languages Publishing Administration’s Academy of Contemporary China and World Studies and the Europe-China Forum, David Daokui Li, Director of the Academic Center for Chinese Economic Practice and Thinking (ACCEPT) at Tsinghua University, said that China, the United States, and Europe should take a more proactive leadership role in the face of severe challenges such as the pandemic. In the absence of full agreement at the official level, experts and scholars from China, the US, and Europe should go one step ahead and reach a basic consensus at the scientific level to provide guidelines for subsequent actions.
Professor Li opened his remarks by pointing out that COVID-19 and the recent major shocks caused by climate change have taught us time and time again that humans do indeed live in a community, and our futures are connected. We must uphold the idea of a community of shared future for humankind, and must be careful to cooperate and earnestly address a range of issues at play.
"As we strive to uphold the idea of a community of shared future for humankind and to solve a series of major problems facing humanity, we must realize that solving these problems is actually a public good in itself, meaning that once these products are provided, all of humanity will enjoy them." Li pointed out that the provision of public goods requires leaders who work harder and are more dedicated than other beneficiaries of the public goods. “I call on China, the United States, and Europe to take on a more proactive leadership role. They have the three largest economies, which are also relatively well-coordinated and strong,” he said.
Li believes that the three major economies of China, the United States, and Europe should go one step ahead on some major global issues, as the G20 did after the outbreak of the international financial crisis in 2008. "If the G20 was a relatively good mechanism for dealing with the financial crisis, in addressing the pandemic and climate change today, I call on China, the US, and Europe to be a little more proactive, give up some differences, and focus on major world issues."
Professor Li also stressed that all three parties—China, the United States, and Europe—are facing significant domestic governance challenges, especially the United States and Europe. Therefore, it may not be very realistic to expect the three parties to reach agreement on some major topics in the short term.
However, he still proposed that China, the United States, and Europe should issue some statements of principle on common challenges facing humanity and reach an agreement of principles. Under an agreement of principles, China, the United States, and Europe can each appoint some scholars and experts to a joint committee that will communicate regularly on topics such as climate change, pandemic response, the future integration of the global economy, the continuous reform of the international trade order, and financial stability. The three parties should put aside some differences at the political level for the time being, coming together to reach some agreements with a scientific philosophy and attitude. Under certain circumstances, the three parties can consult and negotiate on some highly agreed recommendations of the expert group to launch some specific and feasible action programs that are conducive to concretely promoting the continuous advancement of a community of shared future for humankind.
