If we have learned anything from the crises of the past year, it is that our fates are interrelated. As Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) said earlier this year: “Issues such as climate change bear on the very survival of mankind. No country can be insulated from these challenges or meet them on its own. The international community should intensify cooperation and respond together.”
As we move toward Copenhagen, I urge China to exercise still further the global responsibilities that come with global power. I ask China to act in the global public interest as well as its national interest.
For at the end of the day, as Premier Wen aptly put it, they are one and the same.
By changing a light bulb, and changing our mindset, we can change the world.
Ban Ki-moon is the secretary-general of the United Nations.
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