Global youth leaders gather in Beijing to shape UN agenda

The Youth Pre-Meeting for the UN Summit of the Future was held in Beijing on Tuesday, bringing together over 300 youth ministers, youth leaders, and youth representatives from nearly 100 countries.

Participants engaged in a series of in-depth discussions on global issues related to the upcoming UN Summit, with the outcomes of the roundtable discussions set to be compiled into a report for submission at next month's summit.

The UN Summit of the Future, scheduled for September, is poised to play a critical role in revitalizing multilateralism and advancing the development agenda. It will focus on youth-related topics and produce documents such as the "Future Covenant," "Global Digital Compact," and "Declaration for Future Generations."

The young participants, representing a diverse range of backgrounds and perspectives, tackled five key themes: sustainable development and financing, international peace and security, scientific and technological innovation and digital cooperation, youth and future generations, and global governance reform.

Those taking part are well-informed and passionate about driving change in the world.

"I want to change the narrative when it comes to women's issues. At my place, women don't have any decision-making [power]," said Jemilatu Jalloh, founder of JemsAgro, a female-led agricultural initiative in Sierra Leone aiming to promote the role of rural women in the sector.

"I am going to listen [to debates] about peace and security," said Kaarel Taimla, chairman of the Estonian National Youth Council.

Rodrigo Reis, a keynote speaker on Global Governance Transformation, stressed the importance of youth not just being heard, but also exerting influence and informing decision-makers at the United Nations.

"The next stage is how they can exert influence, and put pressure in terms of the decisions that are being made in so many topics debated at the United Nations," said Rodrigo Reis, executive director of Instituto Global Attitude.

While the specific opinions collated from the discussions remain undisclosed, a wide range of ideas were brought to the table.

"The bottom line for all the young people is pretty much similar. On top of the agenda was democratization of the UN structures, and especially the Security Council. Because we know in this world, and recently veto powers have been used by major powers to actually sabotage peace efforts," said Moaaz Awan, senior manager of China Three Gorges Asia-Africa, a major energy firm.

"Some of my group members said if we are to achieve SDG goals, those funds should be donated directly to the grassroots – so that they would be able to implement the projects that they were intended for," said Jeremiah Moore, program director of the All Africa Students Union Presidential Office.

Organized under the World Youth Development Forum, this Youth Pre-Meeting is just one of the events lined up to facilitate further discussions and expressions of opinions on global issues by young people.

Global youth leaders gather in Beijing to shape UN agenda

China is to impose a matching 34 percent tariffs on all U.S. imports, plus export controls, and trade restrictions, in response to the U.S. move to impose a 34 percent "reciprocal tariff" on Chinese imports, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce announced on Friday.

The spokesperson said that the U.S. imposition of so-called "reciprocal tariffs" seriously violates WTO rules, harms the legitimate rights and interests of the WTO members, and undermines the multilateral trade system and global economic order.

Calling it a typical act of unilateral bullying that threatens global trade stability, China has filed a complaint against the U.S. move under the WTO dispute settlement mechanism, the spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council announced on Friday that the imposition of the 34-percent tariffs on all products imported from the United States would take effect on 12:01, April 10, while the U.S. imposition is set to take effect on April 9.

Also on Friday, the Ministry of Commerce issued announcement No.18 of 2025, imposing export controls on seven types of middle-heavy rare earth elements, including samarium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, lutetium, scandium, and yttrium.

The Ministry of Commerce also issued announcement No.21 of 2025, adding 16 U.S. military-related entities to the export control list, prohibiting the export of dual-use items to these entities.

The work mechanism for the unreliable entity list issued announcement No.7 of 2025, which added 11 U.S. companies on the unreliable entity list, prohibiting them from engaging in import and export activities related to China, and prohibiting them from making new investments in China.

The Ministry of Commerce issued announcements No.19 and No.20 of 2025, launching an anti-dumping investigation into imported medical CT tubes originating from the U.S. and other regions, and initiating China's first industry competitiveness investigation into imported medical CT tubes.

Also on Friday, the General Administration of Customs issued announcements No.54 and No.55, stating that in order to protect the health of Chinese consumers and ensure the safety of China's livestock production, it has decided to suspend the qualification of one U.S. company for exporting sorghum to China, suspend the qualification of three U.S. companies for exporting poultry bone meal to China, and suspend the export of poultry products to China from two U.S. companies, as their imports are found problematic in the inspection and quarantine.

China to control export, restrict trade with US plus tariffs