Eighty years ago, World War II came to an end. The international community made the most significant decision: to establish the United Nations (UN) to prevent another world war. Today, 80 years later, the member states are once again faced with a major choice: how to make the UN better fulfill its new missions in global governance?
After the end of the Cold War, the role of the UN was elevated. However, transnational issues such as financial crises, terrorism and climate change have continuously emerged, presenting the UN with new challenges in addressing these global problems. Global governance has thus become the new mission of the UN.
The UN has proposed the Millennium Development Goals and the Sustainable Development Goals, carried out reforms in peacekeeping operations, and advocated for new human rights concepts and norms. Positive progress has been made in global governance in security, development and human rights.
Yet the rise of unilateralism and power politics, manifested in withdrawing from treaties and international organizations, decoupling and severing supply chains, long-arm jurisdiction and small yard, high fence strategies, has severely weakened and marginalized the UN, thereby posing great threats to its fulfillment of global governance missions. Internally, the UN Security Council's inherent deficiencies - small size, lack of representation and veto abuse - undermine its authority and effectiveness, while the stalled reforms have eroded member states' trust. Whether addressing unilateralism or substantively advancing the Security Council reform, the key solution is to reaffirm global governance as the UN's core mission and strengthen its central role.
Over the past 80 years, the UN has built a global governance system that is essentially the UN system itself, requiring reinforcement through reform.
In this process, China has been playing a vital role, exerting efforts to promote global governance together with the UN. In 1971, the restoration of the People's Republic of China's lawful seat in the UN integrated China politically into the international community. Since then, China-UN cooperation has expanded and deepened. From participating in UN peacekeeping operations to supporting the Sustainable Development Goals and further engaging in South-South cooperation, human rights dialogues and humanitarian aid, China has provided comprehensive support to the UN. Politically, China firmly supports the UN's central role and actively defends its authority. On security, China advocates for reforms to improve the Security Council's representativeness and effectiveness. In terms of development, China has met, or is close to achieving, 60 percent of the Sustainable Development Goals. Financially, China is the second-largest contributor to both the UN regular budget and peacekeeping assessments, fulfilling its obligations fully and on time.
Over the past decade, China-UN cooperation has reached new heights, with outstanding contributions in global governance. First, China has demonstrated political leadership by proposing the global governance vision of extensive consultation and joint contribution for shared benefit in 2015, followed by the Global Governance Initiative in 2025, laying the foundation and charting the course for the UN's renewed mission. Second, in practical terms, China has made substantive contributions to global governance through the Belt and Road Initiative and the implementation of the Global Development Initiative, Global Security Initiative and Global Civilization Initiative. Third, China leads by example in global governance. In practice, China has set carbon neutrality targets, hosted the World Internet Conference and advocated for a new global AI cooperation organization, taking a leading role in global governance in areas including climate change, cyberspace and AI, while setting examples in other fields such as outer space and biodiversity.
The establishment of the UN opened a new chapter in global governance, and 80 years later, it now stands at a new starting point. Whether the UN can maintain its central role depends on its ability to achieve transformation and upgrade through reform - building a genuine UN 2.0.
First, the UN must serve as the primary platform and institution for global governance, as most reforms proposed in the Pact for the Future directly involve UN bodies. Second, it needs to construct a fundamental framework for global governance by turning peace operations toward global security governance, sustainable development toward global development governance and human rights promotion toward global human rights governance, while prioritizing emerging areas, such as cyberspace, outer space, polar regions and other global commons. Third, the UN must establish partnerships with regional organizations and non-state actors, creating a synergistic governance system where global and regional efforts complement each other.
The author is the director of the Center for the Study of the United Nations and International Organizations of the Institute of International Studies at Fudan University.
