China yesterday defended its rising global status, saying countries should view themselves as “passengers in the same boat” and not fear Beijing’s “peaceful” economic and political development.
In a two-page commentary carried by the English-language China Daily, State Councilor Dai Bingguo (戴秉國), the country’s most senior foreign policymaker, urged the world to work with China — but warned it would not be bullied.
China respected human rights, Dai wrote in the article, which comes just days after the Nobel committee held a ceremony in honor of peace laureate Liu Xiaobo (劉曉波), a jailed rights advocate.
“Countries should consider themselves passengers in the same boat and cross the river peacefully together instead of fighting one another and trying to push one another off the boat,” Dai said.
“Those selfish practices of conquering or threatening others by force, or seeking development space and resources by non-peaceful means are losing ground,” Dai said.
“It has also become very unpopular for some countries to identify friends and foes on the basis of ideology and gang up under various pretexts in quest of dominance of world affairs,” he wrote.
He, however, cautioned: “We respect others, but do not allow others to bully us.”
Dai’s commentary came amid growing international concern at China’s global rise, especially in regard to territorial disputes in adjacent waters and Beijing’s refusal to condemn the provocative behavior of close ally North Korea.
Beijing has also robustly defended its trade and currency policies, despite a flurry of spats with trading partners and ongoing pressure for it to allow the yuan to trade more freely.
“The international community should welcome China’s peaceful development rather than fear it, help rather than hinder it and support rather than constrain its effort,” Dai said.
“The international community should understand and respect China’s legitimate interests and concerns in the course of its peaceful development,” he said.
China cannot isolate itself from the world, nor can the world achieve peace and prosperity without China, he said.
“Some people in the world have the unnecessary worry that China will turn its growing economic power into military might,” Dai acknowledged, but “China pursues a defense policy that is defensive in nature ... it is neither driven by arms race nor the desire to seek hegemony or expansion.”
THE ‘MONSTER’: The Philippines on Saturday sent a vessel to confront a 12,000-tonne Chinese ship that had entered its exclusive economic zone The Philippines yesterday said it deployed a coast guard ship to challenge Chinese patrol boats attempting to “alter the existing status quo” of the disputed South China Sea. Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela said Chinese patrol ships had this year come as close as 60 nautical miles (111km) west of the main Philippine island of Luzon. “Their goal is to normalize such deployments, and if these actions go unnoticed and unchallenged, it will enable them to alter the existing status quo,” he said in a statement. He later told reporters that Manila had deployed a coast guard ship to the area
HOLLYWOOD IN TURMOIL: Mandy Moore, Paris Hilton and Cary Elwes lost properties to the flames, while awards events planned for this week have been delayed Fires burning in and around Los Angeles have claimed the homes of numerous celebrities, including Billy Crystal, Mandy Moore and Paris Hilton, and led to sweeping disruptions of entertainment events, while at least five people have died. Three awards ceremonies planned for this weekend have been postponed. Next week’s Oscar nominations have been delayed, while tens of thousands of city residents had been displaced and were awaiting word on whether their homes survived the flames — some of them the city’s most famous denizens. More than 1,900 structures had been destroyed and the number was expected to increase. More than 130,000 people
A group of Uyghur men who were detained in Thailand more than one decade ago said that the Thai government is preparing to deport them to China, alarming activists and family members who say the men are at risk of abuse and torture if they are sent back. Forty-three Uyghur men held in Bangkok made a public appeal to halt what they called an imminent threat of deportation. “We could be imprisoned and we might even lose our lives,” the letter said. “We urgently appeal to all international organizations and countries concerned with human rights to intervene immediately to save us from
RISING TENSIONS: The nations’ three leaders discussed China’s ‘dangerous and unlawful behavior in the South China Sea,’ and agreed on the importance of continued coordination Japan, the Philippines and the US vowed to further deepen cooperation under a trilateral arrangement in the face of rising tensions in Asia’s waters, the three nations said following a call among their leaders. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and outgoing US President Joe Biden met via videoconference on Monday morning. Marcos’ communications office said the leaders “agreed to enhance and deepen economic, maritime and technology cooperation.” The call followed a first-of-its-kind summit meeting of Marcos, Biden and then-Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida in Washington in April last year that led to a vow to uphold international
RSS