Xi's whistle-stop tour cements place on world stage

President Xi Jinping met at least 50 world leaders and presented China's solutions in countering global warming and modernizing a less-developed continent - all in a week-long visit to three countries that ended on Sunday.

With his journey to France, Zimbabwe and South Africa, Xi capped his overseas diplomacy for 2015, imparting "positive energy" to the construction of a global governance system, Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi said.

Wang, a member of Xi's delegation throughout the trip, said the president had spoken from a sense of justice for developing countries at the Paris climate change conference, pushing for a pact that is fair, reasonable and effective.

At the opening of the unprecedented Paris gathering last Monday, Xi warned that the talks should reject the narrow-minded mentality of zero-sum game. He urged all countries, particularly the developed ones, to assume more shared responsibilities for win-win results.

"It is imperative to respect differences among countries, especially developing ones, in domestic policies, capacity building and economic structure," the Chinese leader said.

The legitimate needs of developing countries to reduce poverty and improve their peoples' living standards should not be denied while addressing the issue of climate change, he told an audience which included at least 150 heads of state and government.

"Developed countries should honor their commitment, mobilizing $100 billion each year before 2020, and provide stronger financial support to developing countries afterwards.

"It is also important that climate-friendly technologies should be transferred to developing countries," Xi said.

The president spent less than 36 hours in Paris, where he met with five presidents including his US counterpart Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The greater part of his seven-day trip was spent in Africa, the continent that is home to the largest number of developing countries.

Xi has visited Africa seven times and last week's was his second as Chinese president.

He joined African leaders in Johannesburg for the second summit of the 15-year-old Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, which groups China, 50 African countries that have established diplomatic ties with China, and the Commission of the African Union.

In addition to Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, who holds the rotating African Union chair, and South African President Jacob Zuma, who co-chaired the summit together with Xi on Friday and Sunday, Xi met on the sidelines separately with 14 African leaders, and 30 others collectively in two groups.

"President Xi and his African counterparts have reached important consensus in enhancing solidarity and coordination, and pushing for the democratization of international relations," Wang said.

"It will have profound implications in promoting a fairer and more reasonable world order."

Throughout the meetings, Xi had vowed to further develop relations with Africa featuring "win-win cooperation and common development". This has sent a strong signal to the world, demonstrating China's aspiration for the realization of "balanced, inclusive and sustainable development" in all countries, Wang said.

The climax of Xi's meetings came on Friday when he announced at the Johannesburg summit China's visionary action plans and policy principles to set the tone for future China-Africa cooperation.

Xi said China would pump $60 billion into development projects in Africa to help the continent address its top three difficulties: infrastructure, talent and funding.

Through his visits to both France and Africa, Xi has signaled that China remains the largest developing country, development of which will bring tremendous opportunities to the international community, including businesses, Wang said.

"China will continue to stand alongside developing countries, and staunchly support them, especially nations in Africa, to increase their presence and say in the global governance system," Wang said.

zhaohuanxin@chinadaily.com.cn