Fierce UNGA debates highlight the timeliness and relevance of Global Governance Initiative

 

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres speaks during the General Debate of the United Nations General Assembly at the UN headquarters in New York City on September 23, 2025. Photo: AFP

 The General Debate of the UN General Assembly (UNGA)'s 80th Session opened on Tuesday local time at UN headquarters in New York. This year marks the 80th anniversary of the founding of the UN, a moment that should have been celebratory. Yet, judging from the very first day, words such as "disagreements" and "disputes" dominated public opinion. The Washington Post noted that beyond the financial strain because of the refusal of the US to make any payments to its regular budget, the UN is facing "crises that have caused deepening divisions." In his address, UN Secretary-General António Guterres bluntly stated that "multipolarity without effective multilateral institutions courts chaos" and stressed that "international cooperation is not naiveté." Behind these divisions lies the deficit in global governance and the urgent need for reform and improvement.

Amid the heated discussions at this year's UNGA, the international community once again witnessed a direct clash between two approaches to governance. On one side lies the logic of hegemony and unilateral action, which treats multilateral mechanisms as mere tools of power; on the other stands the path of genuine multilateralism, grounded in sovereign equality, solidarity, and cooperation. What international media have described as a "fierce debate" at the UN reflects a sobering reality: Outdated governance models can no longer address global challenges. The current international system suffers from three major shortcomings - serious underrepresentation of the Global South, erosion of authoritativeness, and urgent need for greater effectiveness - making systemic reform both urgent and imperative.

If one were to distill the hopes, expectations, and questions voiced by representatives at the UNGA, they would converge on a defining question of our time: What kind of global governance system should be built, and how can it be reformed and improved? 80 years ago, nations drew lessons from the ruins of World War II, founded the UN, and embarked on a new experiment in global governance. Over the past 80 years, the UN has adopted more than 40,000 resolutions and decisions, building a system of rules for global governance and helping to maintain overall peace in the world, which is no small feat. The successful experience is evident: Effective global governance does not come from the "protection of a world police," but from broad consensus on peace, democracy, development, cooperation, and win-win outcomes, as well as principles such as peaceful coexistence, collective security, the democratization of international relations, and the peaceful settlement of disputes.

The more these consensuses and principles are strengthened, the smoother coordination and cooperation among the international community, especially major powers, will become, and the greater the role the UN will be able to play. Conversely, when these principles are undermined, the UN's role is constrained. Therefore, the key to addressing today's many hotspot issues is not "whether the UN is still needed" as some claim. In fact, the more turbulent and intertwined the international situation becomes, the more important it is to uphold the UN's authority, to reaffirm its founding mission, and to renew the commitment to the purposes and principles of the UN Charter. This year's General Assembly saw the denial of the UN's role, the rejection of multilateralism, and the dismissal of the current international order expressed by a few countries, which sparked wide controversy and even "shock," underscoring that peace and development remain the mainstream aspirations of the international community.

The international community must work together to ensure the UN keeps pace with the times. Reform, however, is not about tearing everything down and starting anew, but about making the UN more adaptable to the needs of today's world. The China-proposed Global Governance Initiative (GGI) comes at a critical moment when acts of great-power bullying are causing serious harm and severely undermining multilateral mechanisms such as the UN. It offers China's solutions for enhancing and improving global governance. The core concepts of adhering to sovereign equality, abiding by international rule of law, practicing multilateralism, advocating the people-centered approach, and focusing on taking real actions are in line with the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, resonating with the common expectations of the vast majority of countries. The initiative focuses on innovation and improvement, enhancing the effectiveness and implementation of the current international system and mechanisms, so that they better reflect changes in the international landscape and situation, respond more promptly and effectively to global challenges, and better safeguard the common interests of all countries. 

Currently, unilateralism and protectionism are on the rise, severely impacting international development cooperation and weakening the momentum of global economic growth. To address the many contradictions and problems we face today, we should maintain a focus on development, fully promote growth, and work together to expand the development pie. The four global initiatives proposed by China has gained increasing international resonance precisely because it accurately addresses the strong desire of the international community for peace, development, and cooperation. 

In a world filled with uncertainty, adhering to multilateralism and promoting the development of a global governance system toward a more equitable and reasonable direction is not only the shared responsibility of the international community but also an essential pathway to building a community with a shared future for humanity. This righteous path has gathered the collaborative efforts of more and more countries.

The "intense collisions" during the 80th session of the UNGA represent a profound inquiry from the times regarding global governance. The Eastern wisdom and practical pathways embodied in the GGI provide a clear direction for addressing the global governance deficit. While the transformation of the global governance system may be fraught with challenges, historical experience demonstrates that ideas aligned with the common interests of the majority of countries and in tune with the trend of peaceful development will ultimately gain widespread recognition and translate into real momentum.

Ways to make meetings work, What to do about pointless meetings; Relaxation techniques

 

If a meeting does not make sense, can you call it into question to save time for something else? — Photo: Zacharie Scheurer/dpa-tmn/dpa

Spending the whole day in meetings that distract you from your actual work can be a major source of stress and frustration.

However, many companies find it difficult to move away from a meeting culture that has developed over the years.

"This is the way we've always done it," people often say. How do teams get out of this trap?

"There is no magic formula, unfortunately, for how to change a bad meeting culture or routine," says Teresa Stockmeyer, a trainer and consultant for team development.

There are, however, lots of small adjustments that can be made - provided that at least some of the people taking part in the meetings want to.

If a team decides they want to break out of existing meeting structures, there are various steps that can be taken, Stockmeyer says.

Structure your meetings

This includes setting and sharing the goal and agenda of the meeting beforehand. The number of participants should be limited and there should be a moderator that leads the meeting.

Ideally, the moderator should also make sure the meeting doesn't go over the given time. It may also be a good idea to take notes. "This means everyone gets the information, even if they don't attend," says Stockmeyer.

Be proactive

If you're frustrated with unnecessary meetings, have the courage to tackle the issue. Stockmeyer's advice is to not simply put up with meetings that feel unproductive and pointless.

It's better to question a meeting and get feedback from your team members to see if they feel the same way.

Being proactive also involves asking before a meeting what input or expertise is expected. A team can work together to visualise what purpose a meeting currently serves and agree on whether this purpose will or should continue to be served by having a meeting.

Get regular feedback

Stockmeyer advises carrying out a quick evaluation after each meeting, which will help you find out what is working well and where there is room for improvement.

The 'kill all meetings' experiment

If you want to go for a more radical approach, you could try the "kill all meetings" experiment for one to two weeks.

Stockmeyer advises "ruthlessly clearing" your calendar and, if necessary, the team calendar. This allows you to quickly see where there is a lack of communication, and where it is not needed.

Another way of reducing unnecessary meetings is to ask yourself some questions: "Which meetings or summaries would I need if I was coming back from a three-week holiday?" or "Which meetings or summaries could I do without if I was away for three weeks and I would still be able to carry out my tasks upon returning?"

Wrong goals: Why we keep having pointless meetings

However, there are a number of reasons why we hold on to unnecessary meetings. According to Stockmeyer, this often has to do with the veiled, sometimes unconscious goals of meetings.

For example, meetings may secretly serve the purpose of social interaction or self-promotion or presenting one's status instead of discussing business matters.

Teams may stick to meetings for no real reason, because they are thought to bring structure to the working day and strengthen a sense of belonging and motivation.

However, the opposite often turns out to be the case. Instead of structuring the working day, it is fragmented by constant meetings - "especially if meetings are poorly timed or are held too frequently," Stockmeyer says.

And instead of fostering team spirit, employees can feel like they have to be in meetings all the time. Especially when people who have little to contribute are invited - just to meet the need of "including everyone in meetings, and not excluding anyone." – dpa

Relaxation techniques: Try these steps to lower stress

Mayo Clinic

https://www.mayoclinic.org › in-depth › art-20045368

Relaxation techniques: Try these steps to lower stress ; Slow heart rate. Lower blood pressure. Slow breathing rate. Improve digestion. Control blood sugar ..

10 Best Ways To Relax After A Stressful Day - Simply Earth Blog

Chips, politics and economic dominance

Officially Huawei became the world’s number one smartphone player after shipping 55.8 million handsets, surpassing Samsung in the second quarter of 2020. — Bloomberg

SMIC'S progress in industry commendable effort despite sanctions

 

TWO weeks ago, without much fanfare or large-scale promotional event, Huawei Technologies launched a surprise pre-sale of its latest Mate flagship model.

This was out of the blue, considering that Huawei suffered for the past three years since the United States trade sanction during the Donald Trump-led administration which placed Huawei on the export blacklist depriving the phone and network giant from key semiconductor components necessary to manufacture its successful premium smartphone products.

At its peak in 2020, Huawei had 38% of China’s total smartphone market share with Vivo coming in second at 17.7% and Oppo coming in third at 17.4%.

Globally, Huawei had just over 10% with much room to catch up to Samsung and Apple, which had an estimated 30% and 26% respectively.

Despite that, it officially became the world’s number one smartphone player after shipping 55.8 million handsets, surpassing Samsung in the second quarter of 2020.

This did not last long, as in the year after the trade sanctions kicked in, Huawei suffered immensely when its revenue for the consumer division plunged 47% in the first half of 2021 and fell out of the world’s top five smartphone maker for the first time in six years. 

 If that wasn’t enough, Huawei had to endure a prolonged winter because of the sanctions with market commentators even speculating they will exit the smartphone market entirely.

To stay afloat, Huawei sold off its entire stake in Honor, the budget range smartphone business for Us$15.2bil to Shenzhen Zhixin New Information Technology Co Ltd, a consortium made up of over 30 dealers and includes a state-owned enterprise of the municipal government of Shenzhen.

Hence, when social media caught wind of Huawei Mate 60 pro with videos of long queues for the launch of the smartphone, it attracted global attention. The two questions on everyone’s mind were, “how did Huawei do it with the sanctions ongoing?” and “is this the start of Huawei’s path to reclaim its smartphone throne?”

For those who are not too familiar, one should understand that chips are denominated in different measurements such as 5nm, 7nm and 10nm. It represents the specific generation of chips made with a particular technology and the smaller numbers represent more advanced and efficient technology.

In the past, these numbers indicated the size of the smallest features or transistors that can be produced on a chip using a particular manufacturing process.

What is interesting about Huawei’s latest smartphone launch is that the Kirin 9000s System on Chip that powers the phone model appears to be manufactured using an advanced 7nm process.

Following the trade sanction which was meant to cripple Huawei’s advancement in smartphone manufacturing, most would assume that Huawei would not have access to advanced chips.

In addition, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC), China’s state-backed chip manufacturer which is widely regarded to be the top in China, is only capable of producing 14nm at that time. In addition, SMIC has not been able to procure the advanced Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) lithography systems that are used to produce chips at 7nm and below before they were sanctioned as well.

Based on teardown analysis by reviewers online, the chip’s overall performance seems to match that of Snapdragon 888 or Apple A13 chipsets which were launched in 2019-2020. But for those who might have some familiarity with the chip fabrication industry, this is likely not the case as the 7nm chip could be produced using the older generation deep ultraviolet machines which China manufacturers can still import.

This would require usage of multi-patterning, a technique that has been utilised by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd (TSMC) in 2017 of producing 7nm chips before EUV was introduced.

In fact, SMIC reportedly used this technique to produce a 7nm chip for bitcoin miners last year, so they are no stranger to the technique.

The downside of this technique is that it will waste more time, energy, water, while also resulting in higher defects and lower yield. Hence the cost of production is likely much higher.

Nonetheless, EUV machines are still needed to advance beyond 5nm process, and at 3nm and below, multi-patterning would be required even with EUV machines. Hence, we can say that the real bottleneck of the United States trade sanction will hit it hard beyond 5nm.

Currently, SMIC, while improving, is still lagging its global peers; TSMC and Samsung have already started mass production of chips using the 3nm process in 2022 which is two generations ahead of the 7nm process used by SMIC.

The gap is around four years but without access to EUV machines, it could take much longer for SMIC to reach 3nm. It is important to note that all its competitors are now working towards mass production of 2nm chips in 2025.

Considering how SMIC is also sanctioned by the United States, it is remarkable to see it making progress. SMIC will likely continue to be supported by the Chinese government in developing advanced chips.

So long as self-interest politics remains the priority over mutual prosperity and the technology transfer agenda, we will see companies and manufacturing bases move across regions based on the countries’ political alignments or foreign policies rather than merits.

Apart from the United States and European manufacturers that have been diversifying production out of China, even some Chinese suppliers are building new factories in our country as they do not want to lose their markets outside of China.

For now, most are setting up in the existing states with matured industry supply chains such as in Penang and Johor.

Hence, sad to say, while this fight between the two economic powerhouse is detrimental to the world in the long term, in the short term, it appears that it is good for our nation, and we should continue to capitalise on the opportunity.

At the end of the day, every country, especially the larger economies, hopes to maintain its economic dominance over the rest of the world. This era, thankfully, is not an era where the wars between countries are fought with guns and bullets. It is an era where the race is on technological advancement and scientific breakthrough.

Apart from the semiconductor chip competition that has been ongoing since the start of the United States-china trade war, the Covid-19 global pandemic has raised the awareness for the government on the importance on advancing research and development in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry.

Even countries with the strongest military power cannot avoid the same fate of being engulfed in the effects of the pandemic like any other Third World country.

Unlike the United States, Europe, Taiwan and South Korea, China started research and development in the semiconductor industry much later. We must remember China only started focusing on developing its advanced chip technology recently.

Before the decoupling with the United States happened in 2020, there was no urgency to do so, given that they could still rely on imported technology.

As nations around the world continue to become more tribal, it is crucial to be self-sufficient, be it in the area of technology development, healthcare or food security. It may take awhile but eventually, government leaders ought to revert to multilateralism and focus on the benefits of building a global economy in the interests of mankind.

That is the best way forward for humanity.

By NG ZHU HANN

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