China remained committed to pursuing peaceful development and it
had not posed, did not and would never pose any threat to other
countries, Premier Wen Jiabao said in Hamburg on Wednesday at a
Sino-European economic summit.
In pursuing peaceful development, China aimed at only one thing
that was, to secure a peaceful international environment for its
development and to promote world peace through that development,
said Wen in a speech at the 2nd Hamburg Summit entitled "China
meets Europe."
China had the largest population in the world, a vast land,
fairly rich resources and a market with huge potential, and all
those assets enabled China to develop itself mainly through its own
efforts, said the premier.
Admittedly, China had met with challenges regarding energy,
resources and environment; however, after years of hard work, the
country had succeeded in embarking on a path of realizing
comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable development, that is, to
form and pursue a scientific outlook on development and build a
resources-conserving and environment-friendly society, said
Wen.
Meanwhile, China would continue to promote economic and
political reform, become more open to the outside world, remove
institutional obstacles to development, and ensure steady progress
in China's modernization drive, said Wen.
In international affairs, China would continue to adhere to its
independent foreign policy of peace, by strictly observing the UN
Charter and the generally recognized norms governing international
relations. To that end it would continue to explicitly foster
friendships with all other countries on the basis of the Five
Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, he said.
"We do not differentiate between countries according to their
ideologies and social systems. We do not seek to impose our values
on others. We do not interfere in the internal affairs of other
countries. We oppose hegemonism and power politics and will never
seek hegemony," Wen said.
China's defense policy, as its name clearly suggested, was
defensive in nature, said the premier.
Having suffered from foreign aggression and bullying, the
Chinese people knew only too well what it meant to be subjected to
aggression and oppression, he said.
"That is why we are both sincere and determined in pursuing
peace and we will not engage in an arms race or military
expansion," said Wen.
China was a responsible country and the Chinese people would
remain trustworthy friends and reliable partners of the world's
people, he said.
The Chamber of Commerce Hamburg, which initiated the summit,
expected more than 350 economic, political and scientific leaders
from both China and Europe to attend the event which will run until
Friday.
Germany's Federal Minister of Economics and Technology Michael
Glos, the Mayor of Hamburg Ole von Beust, and former German
Chancellor Helmut Schmidt were among the German leaders who
attended the summit on Wednesday.
Wen arrived in Germany on Wednesday for a two-day visit, the
third leg of his four-nation tour, which has taken him to Finland
and Britain and will also include a visit to Tajikistan.
Wen will meet German President Horst Koehler and Chancellor
Angela Merkel in Berlin on Thursday.
(Xinhua News Agency September 14, 2006)
