Addressing the global governance deficit

Countries should join hands to push forward improvement in tackling challenges

Humanity lives in a world of ever-increasing global challenges and mounting risks. To address them, global governance needs to be improved.

Only when humanity stands in firm solidarity and courageously tackles the global problems with concerted efforts can we reduce what Chinese President Xi Jinping has called "the governance deficit".The global issues will continue to deteriorate if the "governance deficit" is not eliminated.

Since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, certain countries have been trying their best to find scapegoats for their own failures in the battle against the pandemic. However, most countries in the world have actively adopted effective countermeasures and expressed their willingness to give the World Health Organization strong support and make contributions to the global health governance system.

This is, to a certain extent, a good example of anti-pandemic cooperation turning into momentum for improvement of global governance.

To continuously inject momentum into the improvement of global governance system and maximize its effectiveness, there must be leadership. The United Nations is the most universal, representative and authoritative inter-governmental organization in the world, and it is supposed to undertake a leading role in global governance.

However, the UN is not a "global government" that can give orders to countries. The report Our Global Neighborhood: The Report of the Commission on Global Governance, published in 1995, says: "Vital and central though its role is, the UN cannot do all the work of global governance. But it may serve as the principal mechanism through which governments collaboratively engage each other and other sectors of society in the multilateral management of global affairs." The report also points out that the UN and its constituent bodies that have made vital contributions to international communication and cooperation in a variety of areas continue to provide a framework for collaboration that is indispensable for global progress. But both the United Nations itself and the broader UN system need to be reformed and revitalized.

The G20 played a vital role in galvanizing global efforts to tackle the 2008 global financial crisis and promoting global economic recovery. However, this organization too cannot impose any restrictions on any country in the world. The various documents adopted at the G20 Leaders Summit only express the G20 members' opinions on major global issues. Therefore, the G20 can hardly undertake the leadership role in global governance.

Despite being a superpower, the United States lacks the international prestige necessary for undertaking such role. Especially during Donald Trump's presidency, when dealing with global issues, the US not only failed to play its due role as the world's sole superpower, but also made relentless attempts to avoid shouldering its global responsibilities and, worse still, impeded other countries' participation in global governance. Such selfish behavior putting its own interests above those of the global community has undermined its credibility as a responsible leader.

Although the Joe Biden administration may reorder some of the US foreign policy from the previous administration, there won't be any substantial change to the unilateralist nature of US policies.

Some Chinese scholars hope that China will undertake the leadership role in global governance. In the global community as well, there are calls for China and other emerging economies to undertake more responsibilities in promoting global governance.

It is well known that global governance is composed of global economic governance, global climate governance, global digital governance, etc. To date, China has made huge contributions to global governance in such areas as poverty reduction, healthcare and climate change. However, China is still a developing nation. As Chinese President Xi puts it, China will actively participate in global governance and shoulder international responsibilities, but will follow the principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities".

As a responsible major country, China has been upholding a vision of global governance featuring extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits and calling for actively advancing the democratization of global governance rules. China stands for the equality of all countries, big or small, strong or weak, rich or poor, supporting the UN in playing an active role, and calling for the enhancement of developing countries' representativeness and say in global affairs.

The right vision of global governance could not only steer global governance in the right direction, but also inject fresh momentum into global governance.

Many problems are not confined to one country and cannot be tackled by one country alone. Global challenges require concerted efforts from all countries in the world. Without doubt, if all countries can join hands and make concerted efforts in strengthening cooperation in the process of pushing forward global governance, the momentum for advancing the improvement of global governance will keep flowing in a steady stream and the governance deficit will certainly be eliminated.

The author is a distinguished professor at Shanghai University.