Interview: China always stands with int'l community in fight against COVID-19: senior diplomat

Source: Xinhua| 2020-10-28 19:20:19|Editor: huaxia

BEIJING, Oct. 28 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese Foreign Ministry official said China has been working with the people of the world to overcome difficulties and put into practice the concept of a community with a shared future for humanity in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Zheng Liqiao, deputy director-general of the Policy Planning Department of the Foreign Ministry, made the remarks in an exclusive interview with Xinhua Tuesday.

Noting the COVID-19 pandemic is a global crisis that has cast a shadow over the entire world, Zheng said unilateralism, protectionism and populism can neither prevail over COVID-19 nor solve the problems of the world today.

"We should take a responsible attitude toward the future and the destiny of mankind, stick to multilateral cooperation, and work together to protect our homeland," Zheng said.

In the face of the sudden pandemic, China was the first to warn the international community, to start the all-out war against the pandemic, and to effectively control the domestic epidemic situation in a short period of time, building a solid line of defense against the pandemic for the world, Zheng said.

At the same time, China has taken the lead in resuming work and production, and worked hard to restore world economic development as soon as possible, thus laying a solid foundation for the global fight against the pandemic, he added.

China has sincerely cooperated with the World Health Organization and the international community, unreservedly shared its anti-epidemic experience with the world, opened its market and export channels for medical supplies to the world, and resolutely combated the politicization and stigmatization of the virus, Zheng said.

"China launched the largest emergency humanitarian operation since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. As long as there is still a corner of the world that is not free from the pandemic, China's sympathy, support and cooperation will never stop," Zheng said.

China will continue to strengthen the prevention of imported COVID-19 infections, bolster international cooperation in vaccine and medicine research, and support the efforts of other countries in the fight against COVID-19, so as to block the cross-border spread of the pandemic to the greatest extent, and protect the hard-won domestic anti-pandemic results, he said.

On the premise of ensuring pandemic prevention and control, China will speed up its economic and social recovery and maintain smooth and stable industrial and supply chains by establishing "fast lanes," "green channels" and "life channels," Zheng said, adding that this will not only benefit China, but also provide strong support for the global fight against the pandemic and the world economic recession.

"At present, the pandemic is still spreading all over the world, and the global efforts to fight the pandemic cannot be slackened. China firmly believes that mutual help among people and solidarity among nations should be the main theme of this war between mankind and the virus," Zheng said.

"As long as all mankind unite together and strengthen cooperation, we will be able to overcome the pandemic at an early date," he added. Enditem

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