Politics
Global Unity Starts with Equal Opportunities
Proposing the Global Governance Initiative (GGI) at the “Shanghai Cooperation Organization Plus” meeting in Tianjin, Chinese President Xi Jinping highlighted five principles for the Initiative: to adhere to sovereign equality, to abide by international rule of law, to practice multilateralism, to advocate the people-centered approach, and to focus on taking real actions.
Reforming and improving the current global governance system starts from pursuing equality and should strive for a new system that benefits all. This is not only China’s belief, but also a principle China has acted on as a decades-long practitioner of global governance.
Equality in global governance first and foremost means all nations, regardless of political or economic system, size, history or religion, are entitled with equal rights to sovereignty and development. More importantly, it means all nations have equal rights in choosing their own national paths of development and political system. Their choices in building up a national system based on their own history, culture, tradition and national conditions should be respected. Equality would only ring hollow if such rights were not guaranteed.
This principle of equality proposed in China’s GGI is a reflection of the fundamental realities of our world today.
The first reality we need to confront is that inequality is a feature that defines our age. Although tech innovation under globalization may provide opportunities for Global South countries to overcome their disadvantaged position in a stratified global trading system, Global North countries have continued to dominate the system through their accumulated advantages in capital, human resources and knowledge. A report in January this year by the World Bank found that due to barriers in trade, tech and others, the overall economic growth for developing economies dropped from 5.9 percent in the 2000s to 5.1 percent in the 2010s to 3.5 percent in the 2020s. The gap between rich and poor countries has only widened. Adding to the disparity among countries, the income inequality within nations remains constant. A May report by the UN this year discovered that two-thirds of the world’s population live in countries where income inequality is growing and more than a third of the world’s population lives on between 2.15 and 6.85 dollars a day.
Another reality we need to acknowledge is that while the evolving issues of our shared future such as urbanization or the global decarbonization cause might provide chances for equalization, they also pose risks for further marginalization for the already disadvantaged down the road. Take the ongoing revolution brought about by artificial intelligence (AI) as an example. World Bank data shows that compared to 80 percent and 93 percent in upper-middle and high-income nations, internet access is just 27 percent in low-income countries and 52 percent in lower-middle-income countries. Thus, high-income countries are holding a distinct advantage in capitalizing on the values brought by AI thanks to their superior digital infrastructure and abundant AI development resources. Plus, AI is challenging development models in emerging markets that previously relied on export-oriented manufacturing by making manufacturing more technology and capital intensive. The traditional way of using more labor to improve productivity is gradually running out of time, which will be particularly hard for these economies moving forward.
In its decades of practices in global governance, China has been providing its answers to the question of equality. Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, equality has stayed at the core of China’s foreign policy, evident in several key policy proposals such as the “Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence,” a community with a shared future for humanity, etc. A member of the Global South community itself, China also pursued equitable global governance by advocating the rights of the Global South. China has pushed for stronger representation of Global South countries within multilateral mechanisms such as the reform of the International Monetary Fund, and supporting the African Union in becoming a G20 member, among others. China also gave its support to the growth of under-developed economies over the years. For instance, starting from December 2024, China granted zero-tariff treatment to all the least developed countries in Africa with which it has diplomatic relations on 100 percent of their products.
In all, confronting the disparity and unfairness in the global governance system we have now and upholding the principle of equal rights for all is a premise for improving it. It is also one of the starting points of the Global Governance Initiative that China has just proposed.
Huge crowds took to the streets Saturday in all 50 US states to vent their anger over President Donald Trump’s hardline policies at “No Kings” protests that Republicans ridiculed as “Hate America” rallies.
From New York and Washington to smaller cities in Michigan and Trump’s second home in Florida, demonstrations in the eastern half of the United States revved up ahead of similar events due out west.
More than 2,700 protests are planned coast to coast, and organisers say they are expecting millions to attend.
“This is what democracy looks like!” chanted thousands at a protest in Washington near the National Mall, home to the city’s iconic landmarks.
“Hey hey ho ho, Donald Trump has got to go!” said protesters, many of them carrying American flags.
Demonstrators are up in arms over what they see as strongarm tactics since the Republican billionaire returned to the White House in January, including attacks on the media, prosecuting political opponents and a vast immigration crackdown.
A US government shutdown is now in its third week, with the Trump administration firing thousands of federal workers and lawmakers showing little sign they are ready to break the impasse.
Thousands flooded New York’s Times Square, Boston Common and Chicago’s Grant Park.
“I never thought I would live to see the death of my country as a democracy,” 69-year-old retiree Colleen Hoffman told AFP as she marched down Broadway.
“We are in a crisis— the cruelty of this regime, the authoritarianism. I just feel like I cannot sit home and do nothing.”
In New York’s Queens borough, demonstrators carried colorful signs that read “Queens Say No Kings,” and “We protest because we love America and want it back!” while some chanted, “We love our country, we can’t stand Trump!”
In Los Angeles, organizers plan to float a giant balloon of Trump in a diaper. They said they expect 100,000 people to attend.
So far, Trump’s response to Saturday’s events has been muted.
“They’re saying they’re referring to me as a king. I’m not a king,” he told Fox News show “Sunday Morning Futures.”
But his top surrogates were in more fighting form, with House Speaker Mike Johnson calling the day of protest the “Hate America rally.”
“You’re going to bring together the Marxists, the Socialists, the Antifa advocates, the anarchists and the pro-Hamas wing of the far-left Democrat Party,” he told reporters.
Republican lawmaker Tom Emmer also used the “Hate America” phrase and referred to participants as the “terrorist wing” of the Democratic Party.
‘Country of equals’
Beyond the United States, the “No Kings” movement is even organizing events in Canada, and small protests took place Saturday in Malaga, Spain and Malmo, Sweden.
On Thursday, Deirdre Schifeling, chief political and advocacy officer for the American Civil Liberties Union, said protesters wanted to convey that “we are a country of equals.”
“We are a country of laws that apply to everyone, of due process and of democracy. We will not be silenced,” she told reporters.
Leah Greenberg, co-founder of the Indivisible Project, slammed the Trump administration’s efforts to send the National Guard into US cities and crack down on undocumented migrants.
Trump has ordered National Guard troops into Los Angeles, Washington and Memphis. Planned deployments to Chicago and Portland, Oregon have so far been blocked in the courts.
“It is the classic authoritarian playbook: threaten, smear and lie, scare people into submission,” Greenberg said.
Top Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer encouraged demonstrators to let their voices be heard.
“I say to my fellow Americans this No Kings Day: Do not let Donald Trump and Republicans intimidate you into silence. That’s what they want to do. They’re afraid of the truth,” he wrote Saturday on X.
“Speak out, use your voice, and exercise your right to free speech.”
More than seventy Khwarij belonging to Gul Bahadur group, including key Khwariji leader Farman alias Al-Karamah, have been killed during effective precision strikes on terrorist hideouts of Khwariji Gul Bahadur group in the areas of Paktika.
According to credible intelligence sources, these strikes were carried out in the night of 17th of October.
According to security officials, the Khwariji Gul Bahadur group is involved in major and numerous acts of terrorism in Pakistan while infiltrating from Afghanistan.
On October 17, the same group also carried out a failed VBIED attack in Khadi area of North Waziristan, in which three women, two children and a jawan were martyred.
Moreover, other Khwariji leaders Gulab alis Deewana, Rehmani, Adil,Siddiqullah Dawar, Ghazi Maddah Khel, Muqarrab, Qismat Ullah and Fazal-ur-Rehman were also killed in the attacks.
Khwariji Fazal-ur-Rehman is the close relative of Gul Bahadur. Similarly, Khwariji Ashiq Ullah alias Kausar and Younus were also killed in these strikes.
The security officials termed the killing of important Khwarji leaders as a significant and big success
- “All aircraft are safe,” says airport official Masudul Hasan.
- Blaze disrupts both domestic and international flights.
- No immediate information on what caused blaze.
Flights out of Bangladesh’s main airport were delayed or diverted on Saturday after a major fire broke out in the cargo terminal, officials said.
Thirty-six firefighting units are working to douse the flames, Talha Bin Zasim, an officer at the Fire Service and Civil Defence Media Cell, told Reuters.
Operations at Dhaka’s Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport were suspended, airport official Masudul Hasan told reporters, adding all aircraft are safe.
There was no immediate information as to what may have caused the blaze.
Both domestic and international flights were affected.
An IndiGo flight from Delhi to Dhaka was diverted to Kolkata, and an Air Arabia flight from Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates was sent on to Chittagong.
Meanwhile, a Cathay Pacific flight from Hong Kong was seen circling in the sky after failing to land at Dhaka airport, officials said.
The army, navy, and air force joined the fire service in efforts to bring the blaze under control.
This is the third major fire reported in Bangladesh this week. A fire on Tuesday at a garment factory in Bangladesh and an adjacent chemical warehouse killed at least 16 people and injured others. On Thursday, another fire burned down a garment factory building in an export processing zone in Chittagong.
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