China will continue to pursue an independent foreign policy of peace in the new year, said Premier Zhu Rongji in a report on government work he delivered at the opening of the annual session of the National People's Congress Tuesday.
On the basis of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, China will strengthen solidarity and cooperation with other developing countries, further consolidate and deepen good- neighborly friendship and cooperation with surrounding countries, and continue to improve and develop the relations with developed countries, Zhu said.
China will play an active part in the affairs of the United Nations and other international affairs, stand with people of all other countries for the cause of peace, development and progress and against hegemony, power politics and terrorism in all its forms, promote the establishment of a just and reasonable new international political and economic order, and make even greater contributions to the maintenance of world peace and promotion of common prosperity.
The premier said that the international situation changed dramatically in 2001. However, peace and development are still the main themes of the times, and the trend toward a multi-polar world remains unchanged, he stressed.
Zhu said that China's international environment is still one more of opportunity than of challenge. He said that the general picture of the international situation for a period of time to come will be that of overall peace and local warfare, overall relaxation and local tension, and overall stability and local turbulence.
The premier said that amid the changes in international relations, China's diplomatic work has entered a new stage, and its international status and influence continue to rise.
China and other developing countries have strengthened their friendly relations. The good-neighborly friendship and cooperation between China and its surrounding countries have enjoyed all-round development.
In July last year, China, Russia and four Central Asian countries jointly announced the establishment of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. At the Fifth China-ASEAN Summit, the two sides agreed to gradually establish a China-ASEAN free trade zone in the next 10 years.
The relations between China and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the Republic of Korea and South Asian countries have developed steadily. China's friendly relations and cooperation with African and Latin American countries have made fresh progress, and China's friendly relations with the Arab states and other Islamic countries have been further improved.
The premier pointed out that development and improvement have been achieved in China's relations with the US, Russia, the European Union and Japan.
China is participating actively and pragmatically in multilateral diplomatic activities in the international political, economic, cultural, social and disarmament arenas, firmly safeguarding its sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity, national security and national dignity.
China has joined the international community in condemning and fighting terrorism and is playing a constructive role in the international counter-terrorism struggle, he said.
(China Daily March 5, 2002)
