Pursue Peaceful Development and Achieve Win-win Cooperation

By Li Wuwei

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Pursue Peaceful Development and Achieve Win-win Cooperation

By Li Wuwei

Vice Chairman of 11th CPPCC and CPAPD Vice President

Lately, the "Chinese Dream" becomes a heated topic in China and internationally. I'd like to take this opportunity to share with you my personal observations. Everyone has his/her dream of life, while every country has its aspiration for the future. The revival of the nation is a great dream of all Chinese people in the recent century -- we call it the "Chinese Dream", which basically means to materialize a prosperous country, a strong nation, and happiness of its people. The Chinese Dream is a culmination of the traditional Chinese philosophy of "dedicating oneself to the well-being of his/her family, country and the world". It is also a new and important concept that China shares with the international community after coming up with the theories of the Peaceful Development and Harmonious World.

Concrete objectives and timetable are set for the Chinese Dream to come true. According to the Report to the 18thCPC National Congress, China will double its 2010 GDP and per capita income of rural and urban residents by 2020, complete the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects when the Communist Party of China celebrates its centennial in 2021, and will develop into a modern socialist country, prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced and harmonious when the People's Republic of China marks its centennial in 2049.

In the development process, we are soberly aware of the basic national conditions and development level of this country, namely its huge population, weak economic base, big gap compared with the developed countries, low per capita GDP in the 80thplace in the world, and the 100 million population still living under the UN poverty line. China's international status as the largest developing country remains unchanged.

To fulfill the Chinese Dream, we will continue to take economic development as a priority, deepen the reform and opening up, accelerate the shift of growth pattern, and promote science and technology innovations. We will fully implement the overall plan of promoting economic, political, cultural, social and ecological progress, sustain healthy economic growth, expand people's democracy, significantly increase cultural soft power, improve people’s life, and transit into a resource-saving and environment friendly society. China will advance unswervingly along the path of peaceful development, and dedicate itself to promoting development in an open, cooperative, and mutually beneficial manner. At the same time, China appeals to all other countries to follow peaceful development.

The Chinese Dream embodies the common aspirations of all countries and peoples in the world, as it highlights peace, development and cooperation for mutual benefits.

First, China is a safeguarding and leading force in pursuing world peace.

China has embarked upon the path of peaceful development and will adhere to it for reasons as follows. As a developing country, a peaceful and stable international environment is in favor of China's development, which remains a long-standing top priority for the country. China was historically a victim of wars and aggressions, and therefore the Chinese people cherish peace heartedly. The pursuit of peace roots deeply in the Chinese tradition and culture, as the philosophy of "harmony being the most previous", "peaceful coexistence of all states in the world", and "turning hostility into friendship" is passed down through generations. Genetically, the Chinese are not fond of craving for military expansion. A historical example is the seven Chinese expeditionary voyages commanded by explorer Cheng Ho in Ming Dynasty, which were missions of peace and friendship reaching over 30 countries in Asia and Africa. China is achieving its revival through peaceful development instead of military expansion and plundering. In a word, China values peace now and in the past, and will not seek military expansion even when it gets really strong in the future.

Peace remains at the core of China's foreign policy. We always promote international relations based on the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, by which all countries in the world, big or small, are all equal members of the international community and shall respect each other's sovereignty and territorial integrity, mutual non-aggression, non-interfere in others’ internal affairs, treat each other as equals and pursue mutual benefit, and coexist peacefully. We stress that countries shall settle disputes and conflicts through consultation and dialogue, and we are against the use or threat of use of military forces, violation of other country's sovereignty, or interference into other country's internal affairs with power.

China is a staunch protector of world peace. It pursues a national defense policy that is defensive in nature, and does not engage in arms race or impose military deterrence to any other country. China is also committed to fulfilling its international obligations and duties, and has dispatched the largest number of engineering, transportation and medical PLA corps in the UN peacekeeping missions among the 115 participating countries in the operation. China insists on resolving territorial and maritime disputes with neighboring countries through dialogue, and has successfully addressed its historical territorial border issues with 12 neighboring countries. China's development exerts positive impact on the world since the more open and more developed China becomes, the stronger ties it has with various countries, and the more active it will be in safeguarding world peace.

China adheres to the path of peaceful development and hopes that other countries would follow the peaceful development too, given that all countries shall be protectors, builders and facilitators of a benign international order, and shall create harmonious and stable international and regional environment with joint efforts.

Second, China is a contributor and promoter of world development.

China's substantial growth is, by itself, a great contribution to global development, given its 1/5 of the world population. China has maintained an average annual growth rate of 10% over the past three decades since reform and opening up, with its total economic volume increased by 18 times. It has successfully lifted 600 million people out of poverty and contribution over 70% of the global poverty reduction. China's 2012 GDP hit RMB 51.93 trillion, grew by 7.8% y.o.y. and took the second place in the world.

China's rapid growth has created tremendous opportunities for other countries. Since its accession to the WTO in 2001, China's annual import averages US$ 750 billion which potentially generates 140 million jobs in related countries. In 2012, China became the world's largest trader with total import and export of over US$ 3.8 trillion. In the wake of the international financial crisis, China twice contributed a total of US$ 93 billion to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) capital replenishment and made itself an important force in the international community's recovery endeavors. A Goldman Sachs' research suggests that over the decade of 2000-2009, China contributed over 20% of global economic growth, slightly outperformed the United States and was three times that of the Euro zone.

With its sustained rapid development, China is able to better play the roles asandof the world economy. In the five years from now, China's total import and export volume is projected to reach US$10 trillion, total overseas investment US$500 billion, and total outbound personnel over 400 million. All these are undoubtedly good news for the world economy experiencing slow recovery. On the other hand, a single flower does not make a spring and global peace and stability shall blossom with the development of all countries. We advocate the awareness that human beings share a community of common destiny, in that each and every country shall strive to make itself and the world a better place to live.

Third, China is a beneficiary and facilitator of international collaboration.

Great goals can be achieved with mass efforts. China's remarkable accomplishment over the past thirty years since reform and opening up is the fruit of not only hard work by the Chinese people, but also the comprehensive, multi-stratum and broad international collaboration.

China pro-actively improves and develops its relations with developed countries, constantly broadens the range of cooperation and appropriately resolves disputes. The China-US partnership is in a good shape with ever increasing interwoven mutual benefits. The bilateral trade between China and United States in 2012 hit US$484.7 billion. Recently, President Xi Jinping met with U.S. President Obama in the China-US Strategic Dialogue. Both leaders agreed that China and United States shall establish a new type of major powers relationship centered by non-conflict, non-confrontation, mutual respect, and cooperation for mutual benefits. China and EU are comprehensive strategic partners and each other's largest trade partners.

China upholds the principle of building friendship and partnership with neighboring countries, and seeks to strengthen relations and mutually beneficial collaboration with the aim to share China's own development benefits with them. China is in partnership with most surrounding countries and high-level visits are frequent. In 2012, China's total import and export with neighboring countries reached US$ 1.2 trillion dollars, exceeding that with the United States and EU.

The cooperation with developing countries and emerging economies is also high on China's agenda. We have provided developing and especially poor countries with aids to the best we can and with no political conditions. By the end of 2011, China had cancelled debts of 50 heavily indebted poor countries and least developed countries, and trained over 60,000 professionals for developing countries. China is now closely working with Russia, India, Brazil and South Africa under the BRICS mechanism to increase the overall power of the emerging economies and developing countries.

China has been an active player in bilateral affairs, pushing the international system and global order toward better justice and fairness. In light of the fact that various security concerns nowadays are beyond state and region, collaboration has become a rational choice for the international community to address those concerns. As a member of over 100 inter-governmental organizations and signatory state of over 300 international conventions, China is playing the roles as a participant, builder and contributor of the global order.

Fourth, China has been the initiator and performer of the philosophy of mutual benefit.

Cooperation for mutual benefit is the corner stone for the world's durable peace. Stability is an increasingly important prerequisite for China's sustainable development as the second largest economy in the world, while its own growth is increasingly linked with the prosperity of other countries. For this reason, mutually beneficial cooperation is, for the first time, highlighted as China's foreign policy in the 18thCPC National Congress Report. Mutual benefit is a timely conception under the circumstances of ever deepening interdependency and unprecedented interweaving of interests among various countries, the zero-sum philosophy among players in the international arena is already obsolete. Based on this awareness, China is now keenly devoted to building a more equal and balanced new type of development partnerships among countries in order to share development opportunities and achieve common prosperity.

The philosophy of mutual benefit bears strong Chinese characteristics. China is a socialist country and common prosperity is the fundamental principle of socialism. In international relations, that means to promote common development, safeguard equity and justice, achieve durable peace, and boost prosperity and harmony of the world. Mutual benefit is a highlight in China's foreign policy in the new time, and a new concept of international relations, which China would vigorously promote. China is practicing this concept in its relations with other countries, pursuing greater political mutual respect and equal treatment, mutual economic benefit and common growth, mutual security and cooperative security, and mutual learning and enriching each other’s culture. Collaboration with the world on the basis of mutual benefit is not an empty talk, but a concrete guiding principle in China's foreign policy and successful experience in shifting its role from a supporter to a leading player on the international stage.

The Chinese Dream is about peace, development, cooperation and mutual benefit. To create a peaceful and stable international environment, China has and will adhere to its stance for complete prohibition and thorough destruction of nuclear weapons. China will unshakably pursue its national defense policy that is defensive in nature, and never threaten other countries with its nuclear weapons. China will keep the promise, and 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 under any conditions. This nuclear policy of openness, clarity and transparency is unique among all nuclear-capable countries. China never deploys nuclear weapons beyond borders in the past, and will not engage in nuclear arms race in any form in the future. It will continue to keep its nuclear capacity to the lowest possible level, in line with the need to safeguard national security, and will continue to endeavor in the cause of global nuclear disarmament.