The UN at 80: A Chinese Lens on Global Cooperation, Challenges, and a Shared Future

As the United Nations approaches its 80th anniversary, it stands at a pivotal junction, navigating a world vastly different from its founding in 1945.

The founding dream - peace, progress, and partnership - still stands, but the playing field looks dramatically different. Power is more distributed, crises more complex, and global cooperation more crucial (and sometimes more complicated) than ever.

To understand what the UN’s future might look like, and where China fits into that picture, I recently speak with three remarkable Chinese professionals and academics who offer unique perspectives from within and outside the UN framework:

Qin Qian, a Gen-Z online content creator; Zhu Yixing, a Fundraising and Stewardship Analyst at the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA); Dr. Dong Xiaoman, lecturer at Beijing Foreign Studies University with prior experience at UNOPS and the UN Youth Office.

Together, their insights shed light on how the UN can stay relevant, how young people are reimagining its future, and China's increasingly pivotal role in shaping global cooperation. 

Bridging the Gap: Qin Qian on Making the UN Accessible to Youth 

My conversation with Qin Qian, a content creator with over three million subscribers on China’s leading video platforms, immediately highlighted the challenge of connecting young generations with global issues.

With his previous work experience inside the UN system, Qin felt uniquely positioned to bridge this gap. He started his channel to combat misinformation and disinformation about the UN, offering an insider's perspective in an "unconventional way" that particularly resonates with young people aged 15 to 35.

His signature approach is finding "interesting" aspects of the UN's work, like delegates debating or "uncommon" diplomatic moments, and presenting them in a more popular format through video.

This way, he transforms lengthy, often "boring" Security Council meetings into engaging 10-20 minute highlights, much like introducing an "Olympic game.”

Qin Qian is encouraged by feedback from his audience. He notes that even negative comments, which criticize the UN, actually signify an expectation for the organization to act on issues like peace and poverty reduction.

Even more rewarding are messages from viewers who, inspired by his content, pursue careers in the UN or other international organizations.

On China's role, Qin Qian emphasized its significant contributions as a representative developing country and part of the Global South. "China is the only country from the global south that holds a permanent seat on the Security Council, and is now leading the discussion regarding global, social, and economic development," Qin said during the interview.

Beyond financial support, he mentioned that China offers an alternative development narrative distinct from traditional Western models, focusing on economic and social development without imposing political systems.

This model, he believes, is welcomed by many developing countries seeking a "fair, just and peaceful international environment".

Qin Qian working within the UN system [Photo provided by interviewee].

On the Ground Impact: Zhu Yixing and UNFPA's Mission

Next, I spoke with Zhu Yixing, whose work at the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) brings the UN's mission directly to real lives.

UNFPA serves as the UN's sexual and reproductive health agency, with three core goals: "every pregnancy wanted, every childbirth safe, and every young person's potential fulfilled". 

Her "eye-opening moments" after joining UNFPA come from seeing support transform into tangible care, especially in humanitarian settings.

A donation, for example, becomes an "emergency birth kit" enabling safe delivery even under challenging conditions, or a "dignity kit" allowing a girl to attend school during her period.

She shared that these initiatives are about "protecting life and restoring dignity." However, challenges persist, like transporting emergency kits to crisis zones like Gaza, often requiring collaboration with other UN agencies. “This is a joint effort,” said Zhu.

In the interview, Zhu highlighted several of China's significant contributions within the UNFPA framework. In the past few years, China has developed a three-tier maternal care network that covers urban and rural areas, while integrating sex education into schools, communities, and online platforms, making knowledge more accessible for all demographics.

The country’s dynamic population data systems also offer deep insights for policy-making, like the two-child or three-child support frameworks. She sees future potential for China to lead in exporting integrated elder care models and digital health platforms leveraging AI and mobile tools.

 In the eyes of Zhu Yixing, that is how China is evolving from a contributor to a core builder of the global reproductive health ecosystem.

Zhu Yixing with the UNFPA [Photo provided by interviewee].

Academic Insights & Youth Empowerment: Dr. Dong Xiaoman's Vision

Dr. Dong Xiaoman provided a view spanning her personal journey, academic expertise, and UN experiences.

One of her proudest contributions was introducing the Chinese notion of a "community with a shared future for humanity" into official UN documents, which she sees as an "honest translation" that resonates with the UN's founding principles of interconnectedness and mutual prosperity. To Dong, this exemplifies how national philosophies can inform international policy.

She further elaborated on China's substantial contributions to the UN, as shown in the country’s significant financial support for peacekeeping operations, while leading in South-South cooperation initiatives and aligning major development programs like the Belt and Road Initiative with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which bring valuable perspectives on poverty reduction and infrastructure development.

She believes China's most significant contribution has been "pushing global governance away from the hegemonic dominance and towards true multilateral cooperation".

And based on all that, she envisions China's future role evolving towards greater leadership in emerging areas like digital governance, space cooperation, and green technology transfers.

In the meantime, Dr. Dong strongly emphasized that young voices are increasingly central in global conversations and governance. In her idea, sustainable development requires intergenerational perspectives and long-term thinking that the young leaders can uniquely provide. She has also actively worked to secure platforms for young leaders.

However, she pointed out that youth participation often remains "tokenistic" due to challenges like financial and bureaucratic constraints in accessing UN forums and a lack of capacity building to enable them to contribute at decision-making tables meaningfully.

Her advice to young people interested in global governance is powerful: "The question is not whether these rules will change – they must change. So, the question is whether our generation will be a passive observer of that change or an active architect of the new framework".

She specifically urged young people from the Global South, who constitute the "global majority," not to be "blackmailed by the mainstream discourse," but to unite, take power, and collectively shape new frameworks for international cooperation.

Dr. Dong Xiaoman at a UN conference [Photo provided by interviewee].

Looking Ahead: An Indispensable Platform

As the UN turns 80, one thing is clear: it’s not retiring anytime soon. The organization remains an imperfect but indispensable stage where the world still gathers to argue, negotiate, and - occasionally - agree.

The voices of Qin Qian, Zhu Yixing, and Dr. Dong Xiaoman reveal a UN that’s learning to evolve: more digital, more youthful, more open to diverse leadership and fresh narratives. And at the heart of that evolution lies China’s expanding role — not just as a participant, but increasingly as a co-designer of global cooperation.

If the UN's first 80 years were about building the system, perhaps the next 80 will be about rebuilding trust in it. With new generations stepping up and new ideas flowing from every corner of the world, there’s a chance, just maybe, that the UN can stay what it was always meant to be: humanity’s most ambitious conversation.

By: Liu Yushan

Liu Yushan, is a CGTN reporter and a regular host on Round Table podcast.

×