The Communist Party of China (CPC) has, by capitalizing on a new opportunity to open up, pioneer and charge ahead along a new trail, scored gratifying progress in the work of external relations in 2006. People's Daily reporter Liu Huaxin recently interviewed Wang Jiarui, head of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee on the Party's exteral relations in the outgoing year. The detailed account of the interview is as follows:

Exerting to do work well in three fields around overall diplomacy

Q: Could you first of all outline the CPC's external work this year?

A. It is another good-yield year for the Party's work in external relations which, by voluntarily serving the overall international and domestic situations, and exploiting the advantages to open up and forge ahead along new trails, has contributed to further improving China's overall diplomacy of actively spurring the construction of a harmonious world and promoting China's concept of taking the road for peaceful development and adherence to the "win-win" open strategy. So the work has become increasingly diversified with a more eminent superiority.

Q. Could you enunciate the Party's external work around the overall foreign policy?

A. First of all, the Party's external work is dedicated to the enhancement and development of the state-to-state relations. Shortly after the congresses of the Vietnamese Communist Party (VCP) and the Laotian People's Revolutionary Party (LPRP), Nong Duc Manh, the re-elected general secretary of the VCP, Choummaly Sayasone, general secretary of LPRP and state president, visited China. In less than half a year, Hu Jintao, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and Chinese president, paid a state visit to the two nations respectively. Moreover, China and Vietnam established their high-level, trans-departmental bilateral cooperation steering committees.

At the same time, ruling and opposition parties in Germany, Britain, Australia, New Zealand, India, the Republic of Korea (ROK), Japan and some countries in Latin America, Africa, western Asia and east Europe have dispatched groups to visit China this year; and delegations sent by CPC have also toured Italy, Austria, Mexico, Peru, Colombia and other countries.

Secondly, the Party's external work actively serves China's major diplomatic deployment. Leading political parties either in power or in opposition and their think-tanks in India have been invited to visit China, and this has enriched the connotation of "Sino-India Friendship Year". Meanwhile, to comply with the requirements for rescuing the situation in Sino-Japanese relations, the International Relations Department of the CPC steps up its contact with the Japanese ruling party through the platform of the China-Japanese ruling parties exchange mechanism. Shortly after the China trip of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, I (head of the CPC International Relations) attended the second meeting of the China-Japanese ruling parties exchange mechanism, which helped increase the mutual understanding and consensus of both sides.

Moreover, the CPC kept up its contact and exchanges with political parties of the relevant nations in a bid to coordinate with the Beijing Summit of the Sino-Africa Cooperation Forum, the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) nations and the 15th memorable Summit of the institutionalization of China-ASEAN dialogue ties. More important, extensive visits by senior Chinese officials to regions worldwide have contributed directly to the unfolding of China's major diplomatic moves, which include Wu Guanzheng's visit to Africa, Li Changchun's tour of central Asia and Europe, Liu Yunshan's visit to ASEAN and He Yong's trip to India.

Thirdly, the CPC International Department actively prompts the settlement of international and regional "hot spot" issues. CPC received top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Kim Jong-Il on his China trip, and invited delegations from leading parties of Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Iraq and Iran. In addition, Wang Lequan and Liu Qi, among other ranking officials, visited the Middle-East as heads of their delegations. In such diplomatic maneuvering, political parties have an extensive contact with different factions for a candid exchange of views and this gives scope to the role of mediation and promotion of negotiations.

Serving overall domestic situation and prompting self development

A. How the Party's external work serve China's overall domestic situation?

Q. The first is to heed the exchange of experience in governing the country and managing state affairs. In the past year, China has indulged in penetrating explorations into how to build up new-type villages with political parties in Latin American and African regions, and compared note with European parties on how to construct a harmonious society. The second is to focus on all-out effort to boost trade and economic cooperation, and new successes have been scored by the way of using bilateral political ties to spur economic ties and using economic ties to beef up bilateral political ties. Political figures from Finland, Belgium, Malta and Senegal have been invited to visit China in their dual capacity, and they effectively advanced the mutual cooperation in the economy and trade, development assistance, infrastructure construction, energy resources, and other spheres. The third is to serve local development in the provinces and municipalities concerned and to facilitate the work of the relevant departments of central authorities.

Q. What specific work in CPC's external relations has been done for the Party's self-development?

A. Since early this year, the CPC International Department has, through the means of forming topic selection groups, dispatching study teams and holding international forums or symposiums, drawn on all useful ideas and opinions to provide reference for the self development of CPC. It has completed about 100 special-topic theses on the practice of foreign ruling parties in building a harmonious society, on the study of social development theory and practice overseas, on the relationships between reform and governance security, as well as on both the practice and experience of some countries concerning their rural development.

Improving environment for public opinions with a focus to win the popular will

Q. The recent Central Foreign Affairs Work Conference set forth a new task for building an objective friendly environment for public opinions, and what positive role the Party's external work is able to play in this regard?

A. More than 200 political party delegations have come to visit China this year, and CPC has sent approximately 100 delegations on tours of the five continents worldwide, and so several thousand people are involved in the exchange of visits via party-to-party channels in the past year. They swapped views in a profound way on the multilateral and bilateral ties and the related problems. More such contact is relevant to China's political structure and polity party setup. From this sense, the Party's external relations work constitutes an important front for beefing up the construction of the country's soft strength, and those working in the Party's foreign affairs sphere represent a vital force in the work of presenting China to outside world.

Q. What do you take the most eminent advantage in the CPC's external relations with overseas?

A. The dominant advantage in the CPC's external relations work is to do work relating to the man, as the old Chinese proverb says, "Of all things under the heaven, the man is most precious and valuable." To date, CPC has maintained ties of varying types with more than 400 political parties and organizations from over 160 countries around the globe. Through party-to-party channels, CPC has kept up its friendly contact with some 1,000 political figures, and make new friends of out of them while retaining and renewing friendship with the veteran ones. Among these people, some are leaders in power, while some others are leaders of parties in opposition, and there are also leaders of political parties of those nations without diplomatic ties with China. Hence, it is of particular significance to do the work relating to these people well so as to ensure China's expanding ties of friendship with other countries.

Q: Finally, could you give us a gist of the work for 2007?

A. The year 2007 is a year for the continued implementation of the guidelines of the 16th CPC National Congress and the fourth, fifth and sixth plenums of the 16th Central Committee, a year to implement the guidelines of the Central Foreign Affairs Conference, as well as a year to prepare for and greet the upcoming the 17th CPC National Congress. So the work of the CPC International Department for the coming year is designed to pave way for the convocation of the 17th CPC National Congress, summarize what guides the work of China's external relations for the new era in a scientific way, so as to give a fuller scope to the related advantages, advance new, great projects to spur Party building in an all-round way, and contribute more still in implementing the important strategic plans for the Central Foreign Affairs Work Conference.

By People's Daily Online