CHINA / National
Wen: China follows path of peaceful development
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-04-03 17:21
Following is the translation version of full text of Chinese Premier Wen
Jiabao's speech delivered at the welcoming banquet hosted by Australian
Prime Minister John Howard here on Monday:
China - On the Path of Peaceful Development for World Peace and Prosperity
Delivered by Wen Jiabao, Premier of the State Council of the People's
Republic of China At the Welcoming Banquet Hosted by Prime Minister John
Winston Howard of the Commonwealth of Australia, April 3, 2006
The Honorable John Howard, Prime Minister of Australia, The Honorable Kim
Beazely, Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Friends,
It is a great pleasure for me to be with you today and to meet with all
the Australian friends present. May I begin by expressing our heartfelt
thanks to you, Prime Minister John Howard, for your gracious hospitality.
I would also like to take this opportunity to send our best wishes to the
Australian people.
I visited Australia in 1995, which left me a memorable impression. Coming
back after 11 years, I have once again personally experienced the
goodwill of the Australian people toward the Chinese people. In
particular, I am deeply impressed by their growing interest in China. I
think that people are paying greater attention to China because of the
tremendous changes that are taking place in my country, made possible by
the reform and opening-up program. Indeed, from 1978 to 2005, China's GDP
increased by 11 times in dollar terms, from 215.3 billion US dollars to
2,225.7 billion dollars, or from 225 dollars to 1,707 dollars in per
capita terms. Last year, China's foreign trade amounted to 1.42 trillion
dollars. As of last February, China's foreign exchange reserves stood at
853.6 billion dollars.
As China grows stronger, people are asking: What future path
ofdevelopment will China take? What responsibilities will China assume
for the international community? Will China become a force for world
peace and prosperity? I am glad to respond to these questions.
The path embarked upon by China is one of peaceful development. In
essence, it means that China seeks to develop itself by working to
sustain a peaceful international environment and promotes world peace
through its own development. China mainly relies on its own strength,
reform and innovation to achieve development. At the same time, it
remains open to the outside world. China conducts exchanges and
cooperation with other countries on the basis of equality and mutual
benefit in order to achieve win-win outcome and common development.
China's development is peaceful, open and cooperative in nature.
To pursue the path of peaceful development is a natural choice for China.
First, this is determined by China's history and cultural traditions. The
Chinese nation believes in harmony, peace and honoring commitment. "do
unto others as you would have them do unto you." "Facilitate and not harm
... and provide and not compete." These Chinese mottoes tell a lot about
the character of the Chinese nation, which is "embrace the world and
promote morality and nationality."
Second, this is determined by China's need for development. Expediting
economic and social development to build China into a modernized country
is a historic mission undertaken by the Chinese people. To achieve this
goal, we must have mutual confidence and live in harmony with other
countries.
Third, this is dictated by the global trends. The pursuit of peace,
development and cooperation is the shared aspiration of all peoples. As a
member of the international community, China needs to achieve its own
development goals. At the same time, it also needs to keep pace with the
global trend, and shoulder, together with other countries, international
responsibilities for maintaining peace.
In short, the path of peaceful development taken by China is by no means
an expediency. Rather, it is a fundamental choice and solemn commitment
made by the Chinese government and people.
Mr. Prime Minister, you have said that China's development is good to
both China and the world. This shows your understanding of and support
for China's path of peaceful development. Anyone without bias can easily
see that while working to develop itself, China is, through its own acts,
playing a responsible role in the world, as shown in the following ten
aspects:
-- China endeavors to develop social productive force and improve the
material and cultural life of its people and remains committed to
promoting human progress. China has succeeded in feeding its 1.3 billion
people, lifted over 200 million people out of poverty, and basically
extended nine-year compulsory education nationwide. The Chinese
government provides assistance to more than 60 million people with
disabilities and offers equal development opportunities to all ethnic
groups. China now enjoys social stability, and the Chinese people are
pursuing prosperity in peace. A developing and stable China in itself is
the biggest contribution to world peace and prosperity.
-- Drawing upon its practices and experiences, China has embarked on a
road of scientific development. We take energy conservation and
environmental protection as basic state policies, and we are striving to
build a resource conservation and environment friendly society to ensure
China's coordinated and sustained social and economic development.
China's development does not pose a threat to the world.
-- China pursues an independent foreign policy of peace and takes
position on issues based on their respective merits. In international
affairs, China works to promote peace and development through cooperation
and strictly observes the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and
commonly recognized norms governing international relations. We do not
define our relations with other countries on the basis of ideology, and
we do not enter into alliance with any other country. China seeks to live
in friendship with all other countries on the basis of the Five
Principles of Peaceful Coexistence.
-- China strives to safeguard global peace, and is actively involved in
preserving and building the international system. China is a member of
over 100 inter-governmental organizations and is a party to nearly 300
international treaties. China works for the establishment of a fair and
equitable new international order, promotes democracy in international
relations and upholds the diversity of civilizations.
-- China continues to foster good-neighborliness and partnership with
countries adjacent to itself and will always be a good neighbor and good
partner of them. China advanced bilateral and regional cooperation for
common prosperity through APEC, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization,
China-ASEAN cooperation and the Greater Mekong Sub-regional Cooperation
Program. We stand for openness in regional cooperation and closer
relations with other countries and international organizations.
-- China supports peaceful settlement of disputes and plays a
constructive role in addressing hot-spot issues. On major international
issues such as the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula, the Iranian
nuclear issue and the Middle East, China has worked on the parties
concerned to seek peace through negotiations. China also takes an active
part in international cooperation in addressing non-traditional security
issues, including major natural disasters. Last year, we carried out a
major international rescue and relief operation, the largest of its kind
in China's history, to assist countries struck by the Indian Ocean
tsunami.
-- China takes an active part in counter-terrorism and cooperation in
non-proliferation and strives to maintain global security and strategic
stability. China opposes terrorism and has played a constructive role in
international anti-terrorism cooperation. China is a party to the Treaty
on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and the Comprehensive Test
Ban Treaty and supports the implementation of the Biological Weapons
Convention and the Chemical Weapons Convention. China has set up a
comprehensive legal regime governing export control to prevent
proliferation and is stepping up its law-enforcement efforts toward this
end.
-- China honors its WTO accession commitments and is actively involved in
building an equitable and free international trading regime. After
joining the WTO, China has taken steps to open its domestic market and
its average tariff has dropped to 9.9%. China has pledged to open 100
sectors or sub-sectors out of a total of 160 in service trade defined by
the WTO. Major intellectual property rights (IPR) laws in China have been
amended to make them compatible with relevant WTO agreements. In
addition, the threshold for meting out criminal punishment for IPR
violation has been lowered to strengthen law enforcement for IPR
protection.
-- China strives to realize the UN Millennium Development Goals and
provides sincere and selfless assistance to other developing countries.
Up to now, China has undertaken over 2,000 aid projects for more than 110
countries and regional organizations and canceled or reduced a total of
over 20 billion Chinese yuan of debt contracted by 44 underdevelopment
countries. In addition, China will provide 10 billion dollars in
concessional loans and preferential export buyer's credit to
underdevelopment countries in the next three years to help them
strengthen infrastructure development.
-- China pursues a military strategy defensive in nature and works to
promote international disarmament and arms control. China has reduced its
military forces by more than 1.7 million over the past two decades and
more. The share of China's military spending in its GDP and government
budget is fairly low by international standard. The modest increase in
China's military expenditure is mainly for improving the welfare of its
servicemen, strengthening its defense capabilities and achieving national
reunification. Thus, it will not pose a threat to anyone. China's defense
policy is transparent.
China sincerely hopes to make greater contribution to world peace and
development. But to do so, China needs, first and foremost, to step up
its development. Development, and only development, can enable China to
resolve its problems and assume greater responsibility in the world.
Despite all it has achieved, China remains a developing country faced
with a huge task of development. A big population, low productivity and
unbalanced regional development: these are the basic features of China's
national conditions.
China still ranks behind the 100th place in terms of per capita GDP, and
23.65 million of its rural population still live in poverty. China needs
to provide jobs for close to 24 million people every year, 60 million
people with disabilities need care and assistance, and over 100 million
surplus rural labor force need to be transferred to other sectors. China
still has a long way to go before it achieves modernization. This calls
for the unremitting efforts of several, a dozen or even several dozens of
generations.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear friends,
Peace and development are the common pursuit of mankind, and the building
of a harmonious world is the shared desire of all peoples. To achieve
amity among people, harmony between man and nature and peaceful
coexistence of countries requires the common effort of the international
community. Former Australian Prime Minister Robert Gordon Menzies said
that we need "to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield." We are
prepared to continue to work with the international community and
Australia to build a harmonious world of enduring peace and prosperity.
Australia is endowed with rich resources and has a developed economy and
advanced technologies, whereas China has a large population, a huge
market and tremendous potential for development. Our economies are highly
complementary. China is now the largest source country of overseas
students to Australia and the number of Chinese tourists to Australia is
growing faster than any other country. Cultural links and
people-to-people exchanges between our two countries will become even
closer with the inauguration of the second Confucius Academy in Australia
and the success of the series of activities entitled "Experience the
Chinese Culture in Australia." There are no fundamental differences
standing in the way of China-Australia relations. Rather, we enjoy
extensive converging interests. A long-term and stable relationship and
cooperation between China and Australia serve the fundamental interests
of both countries and peoples. The Chinese side views its relationship
with Australia from a strategic perspective and wishes to become a good
friend and good partner of Australia.
Prime Minister John Howard and I have had fruitful discussions today and
we have reached broad agreement on developing China-Australia
relationship of all-round cooperation for mutual benefit and win-win
outcome in the 21st century. We both agreed to strengthen bilateral
political exchanges and strategic dialogue to enhance mutual trust. We
are committed to expanding cooperation in trade, investment, energy and
resources and other fields and accelerating the China-Australia FTA
negotiations for mutual benefit and common progress. We will promote
cultural, educational and tourism exchanges to enhance understanding and
friendship between our peoples. And we will work together to promote
sound and orderly development of regional cooperation in the interest of
prosperity and stability in the Asia-Pacific region.
I am firm in the belief that, with the concerted efforts of both
countries, China-Australia relations of all-round cooperation will yield
rich fruits!
Now I wish to propose a toast, to the health of Prime Minister John
Howard.
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