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.