China’s peaceful development
The Chinese nation loves peace. From their bitter sufferings from war
and poverty in modern times, the Chinese people have learned the value
of peace and the pressing need of development. They see that only peace
can allow them to live and work in prosperity and contentment and that
only development can bring them decent living. Therefore, the central
goal of China’s diplomacy is to create a peaceful and stable
international environment for its development.
In the meantime, China strives to make its due contribution to world
peace and development. It never engages in aggression or expansion,
never seeks hegemony, and remains a staunch force for upholding regional
and world peace and stability.
Cooperative development
Great Hall of the People |
There are always competition and conflicts in international
relations. Each country should draw on others’ merits to offset its own
weakness through fair competition, find opportunities for cooperation,
expand areas of cooperation, and improve common interests. China uses
cooperation as a way to pursue peace, promote development and settle
disputes. It seeks to establish and develop cooperative relationships of
different forms with other countries and effectively meet growing global
challenges by constantly expanding mutually beneficial cooperation with
other countries, and works with them to solve major problems that affect
world economic development and human survival and progress.
Common development
Countries are becoming increasingly interdependent. Only when common
development of all countries is realized and more people share the fruit
of development, can world peace and stability have a solid foundation
and be effectively guaranteed, and can development be sustainable in all
countries. Therefore, China unswervingly follows a strategy of
opening-up and mutual benefit. It pursues both its own interests and the
common interests of mankind and works to ensure that its own development
and the development of other countries are mutually reinforcing, thus
promoting the common development of all countries. China sincerely hopes
to work with other countries to realize common development and
prosperity.
Thanks to its pursuit of peaceful development, China has undergone
profound changes. It has made remarkable achievements in development,
made major contribution to world prosperity and stability, and is more
closely linked with the rest of the world.
Economic zones
China’s overall strength has grown considerably. Its total economic
output reached US$5.88 trillion in 2010, over 16 times that of 1978,
rising to 9.3 percent of the world’s total from 1.8 percent in 1978. The
material basis for China’s modernization drive has become more solid;
steady progress has been made in turning China into an industrialized,
information-based, urbanized, market-oriented and internationalized
country, and the cause of socialist development is being advanced in all
respects.
The Chinese people, once inadequately fed and clad, are leading a
decent life on the whole, a historic breakthrough. The share of China’s
per capita income comparable to the world average grew from 24.9 percent
in 2005 to 46.8 percent in 2010. A historic transformation from a highly
centralized planned economy to a dynamic socialist market economy has
been achieved in China. A basic economic system in which public
ownership takes the lead and different economic ownerships grow side by
side has come into being. The market plays an increasingly important
role in allocating resources, and the system of macro-economic
regulation is improving. A social security system covering both urban
and rural residents is taking shape, and culture, education, science and
technology, health care, sports and other social programmes are
flourishing.
A historic transformation turning China from a closed or semi-closed
state to one featuring all-round opening up has been realized. With the
setting up of special economic zones, opening of coastal areas, regions
along the major rivers and the borders and inland areas to the outside
world, absorbing foreign investment and making Chinese investment
overseas, and entry into the World Trade Organization, China has taken
an active part in economic globalization and regional economic
cooperation, and its opening-up has steadily deepened.
The country’s total import and export volume grew from US$20.6
billion-worth in 1978 to US$2,974 trillion-worth in 2010. Utilized
foreign direct investment from 1979 to 2010 totaled US$1.04838 trillion.
China maintains business and trade ties with 163 countries and regions.
It has signed ten free-trade-zone agreements, bilateral investment
treaties with 129 countries, and double taxation avoidance agreements
with 96 countries.
All this shows that China is actively promoting liberalization and
facilitation of trade and investment. To honor its commitments to the
WTO, China has reduced its total tariff rate from 15.3 percent before
its entry into the WTO to the present 9.8 percent and abolished most
non-tariff measures.
China has been working to build a framework in which its relations
with other major countries are generally stable and mutually beneficial
and develop in a balanced way, and which ensures that China and its
neighbours share opportunities and develop together. It has strengthened
traditional friendship, solidarity and cooperation with other developing
countries. China is becoming increasingly interdependent with other
countries, it is more closely linked with them in terms of interests,
and its exchanges and cooperation with other countries are becoming more
extensive than ever before.
Asian financial crisis
China has made important contribution to the stable development of
the world economy. Since its entry into the WTO in 2001, China has
imported goods worth nearly US $750 billion every year, and created over
14 million jobs for those exporting countries and regions. Over the past
decade, foreign-funded companies in China have remitted a total of US $
261.7 billion of profits, with an annual increase of 30 percent. From
2000 to 2010, China’s annual non-financial direct overseas investment
grew from less than US $1 billion to US$59 billion, thus boosting the
economic development in the recipient countries. In 2009, overseas
China-invested companies paid taxes worth US $10.6 billion, and employed
439,000 local people. China has contributed over 10 percent to world
economic growth every year in recent years.
In 1997 when the Asian financial crisis caused a dramatic devaluation
of currencies in countries and regions close to it, China succeeded in
keeping the RMB exchange rate basically stable, contributing to regional
economic stability and development. Since the international financial
crisis erupted in 2008, China has taken an active part in the G20s
efforts to build a global economic governance mechanism, promoted the
reform of the international financial system, got involved in
multi-country macroeconomic policy coordination, and participated in
international trade financing schemes and financial cooperation. It has
sent large overseas purchasing missions and helped countries in
difficulties.
China conscientiously meets the Millennium Development Goals of the
United Nations, and is the only country in the world that has halved the
number of people living in poverty ahead of schedule. In addition, China
provides assistance to other countries and regions as its capacity
permits. By the end of 2009, China had given assistance worth RMB 256.3
billion to 161 countries and over 30 international and regional
organizations, reduced and canceled 380 debts incurred by 50 heavily
indebted poor countries and least-developed countries, trained 120,000
people for other developing countries, and sent 21,000 medical personnel
and nearly 10,000 teachers abroad to help other countries. China
encourages the least-developed countries to expand exports to China and
has pledged zero tariff treatment to over 95 percent of the exports to
China by all the least-developed countries which have diplomatic
relations with China.
Global challenges
China plays an important role in safeguarding world peace and meeting
global challenges. China is the only nuclear-weapon country that has
publicly stated that it will not be the first to use nuclear weapons, or
use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear-weapon states
or nuclear-weapon-free zones. China has dispatched about 21,000
personnel on 30 UN peacekeeping missions, which is the highest number
among the permanent members of the UN Security Council.
China takes an active part in international cooperation in
anti-terrorism and nonproliferation. It provides humanitarian aid and
dispatches rescue teams to countries hit by severe natural disasters and
deploys naval escort fleets to combat piracy in the Gulf of Aden and off
the coast of Somalia. China is a member of over 100 intergovernmental
international organizations, a party to over 300 international
conventions, and an active participant in building the international
system. China is the first developing country to formulate and implement
the National Climate Change Program. It is also one of the countries
which have made the greatest efforts in energy saving and emission
reduction and which have made the fastest progress in developing new and
renewable energy sources in recent years.
China has played a constructive role in addressing international and
regional hotspot problems. For instance, it calls for resolving the
Korean nuclear issue, the Iranian nuclear issue and other hotspot issues
through peaceful talks, and has helped to establish the Six-Party Talks
mechanism on the Korean nuclear issue. China has settled historical
boundary issues with 12 land neighbours.
Peace and stability
It calls for settling disputes over territory and maritime rights and
interests with neighbouring countries through dialogue and negotiation.
For instance, China has made a constructive proposal to ‘shelve disputes
and seek joint development’ and done its utmost to uphold peace and
stability in the South China Sea, East China Sea and the surrounding
areas. China seeks to promote common development and prosperity in the
Asia-Pacific region by pursuing bilateral cooperation and participating
in regional and sub-regional cooperation.
China’s development since New China was founded in 1949 and
particularly since the reform and opening-up policies were introduced in
1978 shows that China is an important member of the international
community which has contributed its due share to bringing about a more
just and equitable international political and economic order.
Courtesy: Information Office of the State Council, The People’s
Republic of China
‘Colombo is not Sri Lanka’
The results of the Grade Five scholarship exam held in August have
been released. According to the Commissioner of Examinations 19 of the
20 students who were ranked thus 1 to 20 are from the schools outside
Colombo. This proves the statement that Colombo 7 is not Colombo and
that Colombo is not Sri Lanka!
This calls for a very good government handled and managed system of
education in the country that will help every student in every part of
the country. Over to those responsible.
Sydney Knight |