China aims to safeguard World peace, says Hu

HANOI—Visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao said here Tuesday that China’s foreign policy aims to safeguard world peace and promote common development, and urged the international community to work together to realize lasting peace and common prosperity.
Chinese President Hu Jintao delivers a speech to the deputies of the National Assembly at Ba Dinh Hall in Hanoi November 1, 2005.
In his speech to the Vietnamese National Assembly, Hu said China will unswervingly pursue peaceful development and uphold peace, development and cooperation as the prime purposes of the country’s policies.
“China will actively promote the process of multipolarization, globalization and the establishment of a fair political and economic world order,” he said.
“All countries, regardless of their size, wealth, or strength, should be treated equal and different civilizations and social systems of the world ought to pursue common development by seeking common points while reserving differences,” Hu said.
The president also proposed setting up a new security order of mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality and collaboration.
All conflicts should be solved through dialogue instead of force while hegemony, power politics and any form of terrorism must be opposed, he said.
Hu stressed that China’s development shall be peaceful, open and cooperative, saying the country will base its economic development on boosting domestic demand and make this a long-term strategy.
However, China will also adhere to the policy of opening up to the outside world and expand cooperation with all countries, he said.
“China’s development will neither obstruct nor threat anyone but will only be conducive to world peace, stability and prosperity,” the president said.
The Chinese president, who started a three-day official goodwill visit to Vietnam on Monday, pointed out that peace and development remain the theme of the times even though the world has undergone complex and fundamental changes.
“The process of multipolarizaion and globalization, the growth momentum of the world economy, the progress in science and technology, and the strengthening of international economic cooperation have provided precious opportunities for development,” he said.
However, he warned that severe challenges exist and they include regional wars and conflicts, the widening gap between the North and the South, the three forces of terrorism, separatism and extremism, environmental pollution and other problems.
He called on countries in the world to enhance cooperation and join efforts in achieving lasting peace and common prosperity.
On relations with Asian neighbors, Hu said China will enhance friendly ties with them, improve mutual trust via dialogue and seek common prosperity through regional cooperation.

—The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item

China urges Japan to show political will to improve ties
From Max Lee
The Daily Mail’s Special
Correspondent in Beijing

BEIJING—China urged Japan to show its “political will” for improving and developing Sino-Japanese ties, according to a Foreign Ministry spokesman here Tuesday.
The key to the return of Sino-Japanese ties back to normal track should not lie in “lip words” but on “actual deeds,” the spokesman Kong Quan told a regular conference.
Responsibility for the difficulties emerging on Sino-Japanese relations does not rest with the Chinese side, he said.
Kong made the remarks in response to a question on the recent Japanese cabinet reshuffle, through which Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi replaced most of the 17 ministers.
“We have noticed the happening,” Kong said.
China has already advocated improving and developing Sino-Japanese ties on the principled basis set forth in the three important political documents signed between the two nations and in line with “taking history as a mirror and looking forward to the future,” he reiterated.
Under no circumstance will China alter such a basic policy, he said.
Koizumi’s last term as the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) expires next September. He has dismissed the possibility of serving a new term as the party’s president as well as the Prime Minister.
The recent reshuffle was regarded as a move through which Koizumi intends to have his policies carried through smoothly after his stepping down.
At the press conference to announce the new cabinet, Shinzo Abe, the new chief cabinet secretary, assumed a hard attitude toward Japan’s foreign policy, saying he will continue to visit the war criminal-related Yasukuni Shrine and stick to the strategy of pressure and dialogue in the relationship with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
The visits to the shrine by senior Japanese officials, with the most recent one paid by Koizumi himself, have time and again triggered protest from neighboring countries, especially China and the Republic of Korea.
 

China proposes date for 6-way nuke talks

BEIJING—China, as the host country of six-party talks, has proposed the specific date for the next round of the talks, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman at here Tuesday.
Spokesman Kong Quan did not disclose the proposed date and said China was still waiting for the confirmation from the other parties concerned.
UP to now all the parties involved in talks on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue still agreed in principle that the new round of the negotiation would be held in Beijing in early November, Kong told a regular press conference.
The spokesman also mentioned the just-concluded visit by Li Bin, Chinese envoy in charge of Korean Peninsula affairs, to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea(DPRK), the United States and the Republic of Korea(ROK).
Li consulted with relevant departments of the countries on the fifth round of the talks and scored some achievements, said the spokesman.
Kong expressed the hope that all parties concerned could work together for new progress in the fifth round of the six-party talks, which involves China, the DPRK, the United States, the ROK, Russia and Japan.
 

China invites Pakistan to attend Bangkok group moot
From Javed Akhtar ( APP)

BEIJING—The first Ministerial Council of the Bangkok Agreement will be held here Wednesday, promoting intra-regional trade through exchanges of mutually agreed concessions by the member countries.
According to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, Pakistan has also been invited to attend the meeting. The Bangkok Agreement, signed in 1975 as an initiative of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) is a preferential tariff arrangement.
China, Republic of Korea, India, Laos, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are signatories to the agreement.
The meeting will discuss the current development and future prospect of the Bangkok Agreement, the rectification of the revised text of the Bangkok Agreement, the renaming of the agreement, the implementation time for the third round of tax reduction talks and a declaration of ministers.
“ We are expecting delegates from Pakistan, Hong Kong, Macao, Georgia, Mongolia, Indonesia and the Philippines to participate in the conference in their capacity as associate members, the sources added.
A Pakistani official told APP that Pakistan has applied for membership of BA since 1998 in its efforts to enter into the agreement to take advantage of tariff preferences of the other countries to enhance its share in the regional trade. China and some other countries have assured to support Pakistan to get its full-membership, when the matter will formally come under consideration.
By joining the Bangkok Agreement, Pakistan hopes to mitigate the possible negative effects on its exports of the World Trade Organization (WTO) regime.

China’s red parade continues on track & field

MACAU—China put in a near-perfect track and field performance at the East Asian Games, falling just one victory short of a nine-event clean-sweep. Double gold in the men’s and women’s 100 metres along with wins in the women’s 10,000m, high jump, triple-jump, shot-put and hammer emphasised China’s dominance of the Games, which have been a one-team show from the outset.
Only Japan’s Yuki Nakamura could stem the red tide with victory in the men’s 10,000m. China also won the men’s discus as it stretched its tally of gold medals to 48 from a possible 67. No other team has made double figures. Bespectacled student Hu Kai made a name for himself with victory in the day’s blue ribbon event, the men’s 100m, despite clocking a relatively slow 10.40 seconds.
Hu, an economics student at Tsinghua University, shrugged off a pair of false starts as he powered to the front from 30 metres and finished two metres ahead of Japan’s Shingo Kawabata. “The false starts helped me because it enabled me to find my rhythm out of the blocks,” said Hu, nicknamed ‘Flying Spectacles Man’ by Chinese media after his silver medal at the National Games.
“The time wasn’t important. I just wanted to win the gold medal,” said 23-year-old Hu. Qin Wangping won the women’s 100m in another slow time, 11.65, complaining of tiredness after last month’s National Games where she won both the 100m and 200m.
Another Chinese, Shu Yan, was second in 11.76 and Ayumi Suzuki of Japan clocked 11.95 for third. “There were no heats, just the final so that may have affected my time, and I’ve just been in the National Games so that may have affected my performance,” said Qin.
Meanwhile world champion Liu Xia jerked a Games-record 133kg on her way to gold in the women’s 63kg, and Lu Changliang and Jiang Hairong won the men’s 77kg and 85kg respectively as China remained unbeaten in the weightlifting. In the pool, 13-year-old Jiang Lishuang, who stands just 1.48m (four foot 11) tall, won the women’s 10m platform diving and Xu Hao and Chen Jiaming took the men’s 3m synchronised springboard.
Olympic champions Guo Jingjing and Li Ting encountered little difficulty in the 3m springboard, finishing more than 50 points clear of nearest rivals Misako Yamashita and Ryoko Nishii of Japan.
“This was a pretty good performance and I’m satisfied. Tomorrow I go back to Beijing,” said the glamorous Guo, who has been hounded by the media here.
China, who have won all but one diving event, also triumphed in both the men’s and women’s individual all-round gymnastics through Feng Jing and Zhang Nan.
South Korea’s Yang Tae-young, robbed of the gold medal at the last Olympics by a judging error, came third to add to his Athens bronze.
Earlier, Bao Guiying won the women’s 10,000m to kickstart China’s athletics campaign.
Bao, understudy to Olympic champion Xing Huina who is running in the 5,000m, burst up the final straight to clock 32 minutes, 35.07 seconds, beating Hiromi Ominami of Japan by one-and-a-half seconds.
North Korean bronze medallist Paek Hyan-gok crossed the line more than two minutes later in 34:53.06.
In the women’s shot put, Li Meiju’s opening throw of 18.12 metres was enough for victory, despite falling well short of her personal best of 19.05.
Jing Xuezhu edged out team-mate Zhen Xingjuan in the women’s high jump with a superior faults record after both jumped 1.85m.
Wu Tao hurled the discus 61.74m to win the men’s competition ahead of compatriot Tulake Nuermaimaiti’s 59.27m, and Zhang Wenxiu won the women’s hammer with a throw of 72.23m.
The meagre pickings left for the other teams on Tuesday included South Korea’s third and fourth 10-pin bowling golds of the Games and victories for Taiwan and Japan in the soft tennis.
China has brought its biggest ever squad, including 11 Athens Olympics gold-medallists and a host of younger talent, as it bids to top the medals table at the next Olympics in Beijing.
About 1,900 athletes are competing for 234 gold medals in 17 sports at the fourth East Asian Games, the biggest tournament ever held in this autonomous southern Chinese territory.—Agencies