China is on the road of peaceful development, that is shaped by the country's traditions, culture, development needs and interests, said Premier Wen Jiaobao while meeting the press on Tuesday after the conclusion of the Fourth Plenary Session of the 10th National People's Congress (NPC) in Beijing.
Wen emphasized that China is "a responsible country" that is part of the international community.
He cited China's progress in the following 10 aspects:
1. Through reform and development, China has successfully solved the problem of feeding 1.3 billion people and lifting 200 million out of poverty.
2. After much effort, China has decided on a more scientific development path, one that stresses resource conservation and environment protection.
3. China adheres to an independent foreign policy of peace, neither discriminating against any country because of ideology nor entering into an alliance with any country or group of countries. Instead, it is willing to live peacefully with all nations on the basis of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence.
4. It also adheres to the principle of building friendship and partnership with neighboring countries.
5. China is a participant in and guardian of many international regimes. It has participated in over 100 international organizations and is a signatory to nearly 300 international conventions. It is now contributing to the establishment of new international political and economic orders together with the international community.
6. China persistently promotes and encourages world peace. All important regional and international disputes including the Korean Peninsular and Iranian nuclear issues should be settled through negotiation and dialogue. It is also ready to cooperate in international relief efforts. China organized the largest-scale rescue operation in 2004 following the tsunami that devastated areas around the Indian Ocean in December 2004.
7. China strongly opposes terrorism and nuclear proliferation.
8. China is working toward fulfilling all its commitments to the World Trade Organization.
9. Although a developing country itself, China has always actively carried out the UN Millennium Development Goals, mitigating or nullifying the debts of 44 underdeveloped countries worth 20 billion yuan (US$2.5 billion). China will provide US$10 billion in preferential loans to these countries over the next three years without any attached conditions.
10. China's national defense policy is based on self-defense, and the limited increases it has made in military expenditure will be used mainly to improve the living conditions of officers and soldiers, in addition to improving its self-defense capabilities. The country's defense policy is transparent. China has never dispatched even one soldier abroad except on peacekeeping missions, and has not occupied one inch of foreign land.
Wen concluded: "Even if China does become powerful in the future, it will never interfere with other countries' affairs or try to exert influence on others. China will never become a hegemony."
