China's helping role in developing nations' growth

Since the 1950s, China has been providing what is known as South-South Cooperation to other developing countries in Asia, Africa, the Caribbean and elsewhere. Such cooperation has been received with open arms by all countries, and has increasingly been delivered in partnership with organizations such as ours, the United Nations Development Programme.

During his recent visit to China, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon emphasized the need to reflect on the past. In 2004, the strongest earthquake the world had seen in 40 years - 9.3 in magnitude - unleashed a tsunami that swept across the coastlines of Asia and Africa, killing more than 290,000 people. China, then evolving into a responsible global power, provided an unprecedented package to support the victims that totaled $62 million. In that same year, Hu Jintao, then Chinese president, visited Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Cuba and signed 39 cooperation agreements with the four countries.

Elsewhere, Facebook was launched as a social networking site for Harvard students, and the European Union underwent its largest extension, accepting countries such as Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic into its fold.