Good neighbors, good friends and good partners

Situation has turned for the better with the Six-Party talks on the Korea Peninsular nuclear issue, which has been stalemated or at a standstill for over a year, with the active maneuvering of China, and Sino-Japanese political relations have eased due to joint efforts of leaders of both nations. Chinese President Hu Jintao visited Vietnam, Laos, India and Pakistan in mid and late November after attending the 14th Economic Leaders' Informal Meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and has erected a new milestone on the broad road of good neighborliness and friendship.

For years, China has scored fruitful outcome of friendship and mutual benefit with its neighboring countries by resorting to a good-neighborly diplomacy "to take them as friends and partners". The country has been dedicated itself to the construction of a harmonious Asia and a harmonious world.

China is a nation with most neighbors globally as it has nearly 30 neighbors, and 14 of them are linked directly with it. China's good-neighborly policy is of special importance, since it has ties of special complexity with its neighbors owing to rich historical traditions, diversified cultures and religious beliefs, and differential social systems and cultural development.

Proceeding from this special complexity, new China started conscientiously to lay a foundation stone for its foreign policy with regard to its "adjacent neighbors". At the first Asia-African Conference held in Bandung, Indonesia back in 1955, the five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, namely, mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, mutual non-aggression, non-interference in each other's internaal affairs, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence, accepted by scores of participating countries, were jointly proposed and initiated by China and its two major neighbors, India and Myanmar (then called Burma).

Peaceful coexistence was once an ideal concept long aspired and pursued by people globally during the cold war era and, with the end of cold war, peace, development and cooperation became a new world trend. And the rapid advancement of economic globalization and regional integration have given rise to numerous, in-depth changes in international relations. To cope with the new global situation, the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) held in 2002 clearly set forth China's good neighborly policy of "taking its neighbors as friends and partners". This new policy is the inevitable choice of conforming to a new trend and responding to new challenges, so as to win over a sound external environment for development and to promote regional tranquility and prosperity.

The policy of "taking neighbors as good friends and partners" represents the inheritance of fine traditions of the Chinese nation. The people of China have become long aware of the importance of being friendly with their neighbors in their prolonged historical periods.

For the past 100-plus years, China regretted deeply for opportunities that it had lost for its development since it was subjected to the bullying and plunged into the abyss of war by big powers. Until recent decades, the reform and opening-up enabled the nation to embark on a road of fast development and scored remarkable achievements that attract world attention. China, nevertheless, is still the biggest developing nation, which is not affluent on the whole. So it sincerely hopes to retain and further develop a benign environment together with its neighbors to concentrate its effort to seek common progress and prosperity with its neighboring countries.

China's policy of "taking neighbors as friends and partners" constitutes a crucial impetus for the building of a harmonious world and, in its trying endeavor in this regard, the work has, beyond any doubt, to proceed from its relations with its neighbors. It is imperative for China to respect the justified rights and interests and legitimate rights of the people of other nations, neither meddling in the internal affairs of other nations, nor imposing its own will onto others or seeking its sphere of influence. In the new world situation today, it is of particular importance to adhere to a new security outlook with its core of mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality and cooperation, Only in this way, can concerted efforts with the neighbors succeed in building a peaceful and secured regional environment based on friendship and harmony.

Moreover, efforts should be made with neighbors to initially step up mutual cooperation, deepen regional and sub-regional cooperation, actively advance the integration of regional economy, so as to seek the common development of Asian countries. Only by the means of combining the fundamental interests of the Chinese people with the common interests of its neighboring nations, can a benign circulation take shape, in which cooperation promotes development.

Since 1990s, China has, through repeated consultations on equal-footing and mutual accommodation and mutual concessions, have properly settled border disputes with Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Laos and Vietnam that have been left over by history, so that its long borders with these countries have become genuine ties of peace and harmony.

Moreover, Coexistence in peace and harmony and cooperation for development effected through regional cooperative mechanism has become a "bright spot" in China's good neighborly policy. The mechanism of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization of five countries (SCO) was established five years ago, has propped up a broad stage for good neighborliness and mutual trust and mutual cooperation between China and central Asian nations, and the SCO has won extensive acclamations from the international community for its "Shanghai Spirit".

Meanwhile, China has gone all out to promote good neighborliness and cooperation in the region through cooperation with the ASEAN plus cooperation with China, Japan and the Republic of Korea (ROK), the ASEAN regional forum, the Asian Cooperation Dialogue, and China-Russia-India and China-Japan-ROK multilateral dialogue mechanisms. On the Korea Peninsular nuclear issue, China, by taking the interests of the whole into account, keeps to the goal of the non-nuclearization of the peninsular and stands for peaceful settlement through dialogue and negotiations and has done a great deal of persistent, substantial and down-to-earth work.

The sustained, steady and fast growth of Chinese economy has benefited from its close cooperation with China's neighbors and in turn provides them with new opportunities. With its average annual import rate of over 15 percent in recent years, China has been turned into Asia's first import market and the third global import market, according to relevant statistics. In 2005, it imported a combined value of 440 billion US dollars from Asian countries and regions, a year-on-year rise of 20 percent, or 67 percent of China's total import volume. Meanwhile, the outbound investment of Chinese firms rose over 20 percent a year, and 80 percent of the investment was in the Asian region. And China is expected to import two trillion US dollars of commodities from the Asian region in the next five years.

At present, it is universally recognized that China and its adjacent region is an "economic plate" with the most dynamic energy and potential, and the country has also offered aid for its neighbors to the best of its ability. In the wake of the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 and the ensuing earthquake in south Asia in 2005, China made a prompt response and plunged itself into an unprecedented nationwide donation drive for the victimized brothers in the neighboring countries.

Through China is amid a period of relative good amity with its neighbors at present, the complex ethnical and religious disputes in its surrounding areas give rise to new contradictions frequently, some "hot spot" issues are intensified at times, and threats from traditional and non-traditional aspects have not yet been removed, so China's good neighborly diplomacy still faces new tests in the course of practice. After its entry into 21 century, China has been enriching and innovating its diplomatic concept to explore a brand-new road for the civilized progress of the humankind. China's development is a development for peace, a development of cooperation and also a development for a new emergent force. And as a responsible nation, China will, as always, work hard for the wellbeing of its people, the people in its neighboring nations and proceed to do good for the entire humanity.

By People's Daily Online