A Common Future in mutually beneficial cooperation
Speech by Ambassador Guan Chengyuan
At the 2nd annual meeting of ECAN
Brussels, 11 December 2007
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Dear friends,
Let me begin by congratulating European and Chinese scholars for their fruitful brainstorming this afternoon. I am honored and delighted to have the opportunity to come here and exchange views with you.
Today, I want to focus on the main themes of China after the 17th party congress and the Tenth Summit between China and the EU Leaders and their implications for the prospects of China-EU relations.
The Communist Party of China held its 17th National Congress 2 months ago, at a time when the world is undergoing profound changes and China's reform and development have entered a crucial phase. The theme of the Congress is how to build a harmonious society in China and how to push for the construction of a harmonious world. In terms of foreign affairs, the meeting made a review of China's diplomacy for the past five years and set out future foreign policy objectives in light of the new international situation. There are three main messages coming out of the congress, namely, peaceful development, win-win opening-up, and building a harmonious world. I would like to touch on them one by one.
First, China will unswervingly pursue the path of peaceful development. This is our strategic choice and its essence is that we seek to develop ourselves in a peaceful international environment and contribute to the cause of world peace through our own development. In an era of globalization and interdependence, China cannot develop itself in isolation from the world and the development of the world cannot be realized without China. Countries can only achieve sustained development in an environment of enduring peace and fully share the benefit of peace through common development.
China's peaceful development is conducive to the fundamental interests of the Chinese people as well as the common interests of people of other countries, and China's foreign policy objectives are consistent with the call for progress of people of the whole world. We stand for cooperation as the way to resolve disputes and achieve peace and development. In short, we are committed to peaceful, open and harmonious development.
Second, China will unswervingly follow a win-win strategy of opening-up. Reform and opening-up have transformed China from a closed society to one that fully embraces the world. A multi-faceted opening-up pattern has taken shape in China. Our interaction with other countries in the political, economic, cultural, security and other fields have never been as extensive and close as they are today.
To achieve development in China, a big developing country with a population of 1.3 billion, we have to rely mainly on our own effort. But we also have to get actively involved in international economic and trade cooperation and learn from the experience of other countries. Reform and opening-up have not only benefited the Chinese people, but also contributed significantly to world economic growth and the cause of progress of mankind. China is now a major engine driving the economic growth of Asia and beyond. In the past three decades, China's imports have been growing by an average annual rate of 15%, making China the third largest importer in the world and the biggest one in Asia. China's exports have also brought benefits to consumers around the world. The size of China's market and overseas investment will get bigger as the country continues to develop, enabling China to make even greater contribution to stability and prosperity of the world economy.
China's opening-up is comprehensive and mutually beneficial. China does not pursue opening-up at the expense of the interests of other countries. Instead, our opening-up is based on mutual benefit, mutual complementarity and mutual assistance. While seeking its own development, China will make efforts to accommodate the legitimate concerns of other countries. We will properly manage economic and trade frictions with other countries, increase market access, optimize foreign trade structure and ease trade imbalances in accordance with international trade rules. We will be more actively engaged in economic globalization and international economic and technological cooperation and competition.
Third, China will remain firmly committed to building a harmonious world of enduring peace and common prosperity. The concept of building a harmonious world is deeply rooted in China's cultural tradition. It gives full expression to our desire for peace, our commitment to be a responsible member of the international community, and our willingness to work with other countries to achieve peace and prosperity. It also serves our cause of peaceful development.
China observes the following principles in developing relations with other countries: Politically, all countries should respect each other, settle differences through consultations on an equal footing and live together in amity. The right of all countries to choose their own social system and development path should be respected. All countries have the right to equal participation in international affairs and should work together to promote democracy in international relations. Economically, we should cooperate with each other, draw on each other's strengths and make joint efforts to ensure balanced progress of economic globalization so that it can benefit all. Culturally, we should learn from each other, expand common ground while shelving differences, respect diversity, and advance the progress of human civilization through a common endeavor. In the area of security, we should build mutual trust, strengthen cooperation, settle international disputes by peaceful means, and work together to safeguard world peace and stability. On environmental issues, we should help and cooperate with each other and take good care of the Earth, the only home of mankind.
A harmonious world is a long-term goal that requires persistent and painstaking efforts. It will be a process in which countries work together to meet challenges, build consensus and expand common interests. It will also be a process in which different civilizations and cultures interact with one another, draw upon one another's strengths and achieve common development and prosperity.
Dear friends,
Reform and opening up have brought about historic changes in the relations between China and the rest of the world and ever closer interconnection between China and Europe. With over 30 years of development, relations between China and Europe have now reached an unprecedented level, both in depth and in breadth, despite our differences in ideology and social system. The 10th China-EU Summit successfully held in Beijing, two weeks ago, is a powerful testimony of China-EU strategic comprehensive partnership.
My personal impression is as follows: firstly, the summit was held in a positive, frank and friendly atmosphere. During the meeting, the two sides congratulated each other on their respective developments. China welcomed the new and significant progress made in EU integration. And the EU welcomed the 17th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party. Both sides expressed the hope that major achievements would be made in their respective developments in future. Chinese president Hu Jintao met cordially the EU leaders. And the newly elected member of the standing committee of the politburo of the CPC, Li Keqiang also met Mr. President Barroso. This was his first-ever diplomatic activity and it was with a EU leader. So it is very symbolic.
Secondly, both sides expressed their determination to strongly push forward the development of the bilateral relations. The EU leaders reaffirmed that the EU has, as always, regarded its cooperation with China as a highlight and its relations with China as one of its priorities. And Chinese premier Wen Jiabao declared at the summit that China welcomed a stronger and more united European Union which served the peace, stability and development of the world. China valued heavily its relations with the EU and this relationship had and will continue to have an important and strategic position in China’s whole diplomacy. They were satisfied with the substantial progress in the bilateral cooperation. Both China and the EU decided to continue to enhance the overall strategic partnership by deepening the cooperation in all fields.
Thirdly, the summit defined a blueprint for the future development of China-EU relations and bilateral cooperation in all fields. At the summit, the Chinese premier Wen Jiabao made four proposals in this regard.
1. making full use of the existing mechanisms and exchanging views on bilateral and global issues in a timely and more effective manner, to build stronger political trust. As two major forces in the world, China and the EU shoulder the responsibility of safeguarding world peace and promoting common development. We should increase high level and strategic dialogues to gain a more objective appreciation of each other's development policies and to get more balanced ideas on regional and international hotspot issues. ;
2. optimizing trade structure, expanding trade scale, and properly handling the problems in bilateral trade. China will continue to expand market access in accordance with the commonly adopted international economic and trade rules. The EU should lift restrictions on high technology exportation.
3. accelerating the negotiations on promoting China-EU partnership cooperation agreement. This will be the first PCA on China-EU relations, encompassing the full scope of the bilateral relationship and offering it a more solid legal framework;
4. developing common plan for scientific and technological cooperation, strengthening pragmatic cooperation in climate change, energy and environmental protection, signing educational exchange cooperation accord as early as possible, implementing cultural dialogue and cooperation working plan.
These proposals were welcomed by the European side.
Fourthly, both sides attached great importance to their respective concerns. The EU side at the summit made positive commitments to the issues of Chinese concerns. On the questions of Taiwan, the EU reaffirmed its commitment to one-China policy and reiterated its concern over the intended referendum on UN membership in the name of Taiwan as this could lead to a unilateral change of the status quo across Taiwan straits to which the EU is opposed. And on the issue of arms embargo, the EU also confirmed its willingness to carry forward work towards lifting the embargo.
China also took note of the concerns of the EU side in terms of trade imbalance, IPR protection and market access. Despite the different statistics and case analysis, both sides expressed the strong political will to resolve the problems arisen from the rapid development of China-EU relations.
The Chinese premier Wen Jiabao made an initiative at the summit to establish by the end of March 2008 a high level economic and trade dialogue at the level of Vice-Premier which will discuss strategies in EU-China trade, investment and economic cooperation and coordinate bilateral projects and studies and develop plans in priority sectors. It will also cover issues affecting the trade imbalance, effective market access and intellectual property rights, environment, high technology and energy in order to find concrete means to increase trade in a balanced way. A working group will also be launched which will deal with monetary and financial issues.
The two sides also agreed to endorse cooperation in energy security and climate change and decided to establish a China-EU Clean Energy Center in 2008. Another concrete result is to create a China-EU school of law in Beijing with common efforts of both sides. Both sides expressed their mutual satisfaction with the successful launch and start of negotiations on PCA. Apart from that, both sides also had in-depth exchanges on regional and international issues of common concern, for example, climate change, energy security, Africa, Middle East, Iran and other hotspot issues.
To sum up, the summit has sent a positive signal to the whole world. That is, both China and the EU view their partnership from a strategic perspective. With stronger and more matured China-EU overall strategic partnership, both sides have the wisdom and ability to overcome the difficulties that are standing in the way and solve the problems that are yet to be solved, just as two real partners do. In the next ten years, major headways will surely be made in the development of China-EU relations. And a closer China-EU overall strategic partnership will surely make new contribution to the world peace, stability and development.
As the director general of the European affairs of the MFA and then the ambassador to the European Union, I’m the only person who has attended all the ten China-EU summits. I witnessed with my own eyes the progress of the China-EU relations. And I’m fully confident that the overall strategic partnership between China and the EU will have a brighter future.
Thank you for your attention.
