Press conference: CPC's united front and international relations
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E-mail China.org.cn, October 23, 2017
Associated Press of Pakistan:
Mr. Guo, we have taken note of the close exchanges between the CPC and parties in countries neighboring China. Can you shed some light on the role that these exchanges have played in promoting bilateral ties between China and its neighbors?
Guo Yezhou:
Your question is much appreciated. Pakistan is called "Batie" (iron friend) by many Chinese people. A Chinese colleague working in Pakistan for a long time told me that China-Pakistan friendship is higher than the mountains, deeper than the ocean, stronger than steel and sweeter than honey. I hope you can tell your people at home of our great desire to value and deepen China-Pakistan relations.
As you indicated in your question, China has many neighbors. It shares a land border with 14 countries and faces some across the sea. As a Chinese saying goes, "With a border dispute unsolved, a country cannot enjoy peace." The CPC and the Chinese government have always paid close attention to aspects of neighborhood diplomacy. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, in particular, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has placed great value on this. The first work seminar on neighborhood diplomacy convened by the CPC long ago proposed the principles of amity, sincerity, mutual benefit and inclusiveness and the policy of building friendship and partnerships with neighbors to intensify exchanges and promote practical cooperation on all fronts. Guided by the principles and the policy I mentioned just now, the CPC and parties in neighboring countries have expanded contacts in the past five years, which has played a positive role in promoting overall relations.
For instance, General Secretary Xi Jinping met with Nguyen Phu Trong, general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, and Bounnhang Vorachith, general secretary of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party on many separate occasions and they reached a consensus on inter-party relations and cooperation in a number of fields, promoting mutual understanding and growth of friendship among the peoples, charting the future course of bilateral ties. Moreover, the CPC holds periodic theoretical seminars with the Communist Party of Vietnam and the Lao People's Revolutionary Party; we have taken measures for cooperation on training their leaders together. Those arrangements have played an important role in building socialism in each country and expanding the governing capacity of the respective parties.
Just as I mentioned in the previous question, we have maintained close communications and dialogue with the Workers' Party of Korea. For our neighbors to the north, we have also kept up a very close dialogue and cooperation with the major parties in Mongolia and Russia. The China-Russia ruling party dialogue mechanism, and the China-Russia political party forum, constitute a fine mechanism and platform for inter-party dialogue, and have contributed much to consolidating and coordinating the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership. We have also maintained exchanges with Japanese parties, which is seen as a major feature of Sino-Japanese relations.
As the CPC has expanded its international influence, neighboring countries around the perimeter, such as those in northeast, southeast, south and central Asia, have attached more importance to exchanges and dialogues with it. Many of their leaders take the opportunity of visiting China to come to the International Department of the CPC Central Committee and see their old friends. With unremitting efforts, we have established multi-level, multi-sectoral and diversified cooperation with the major parties of neighboring countries, which is not only conductive to better bilateral relations, but also helpful to promote regional cooperation and appropriate solutions to longstanding issues. The CPC will follow the four principles of inter-party exchanges to proactively advance the relationship with parties of neighboring countries.
General Secretary Xi Jinping reaffirmed in his report to the 19th CPC National Congress that we will follow the principles of amity, sincerity, mutual benefit and inclusiveness, and the policy of building friendship and partnership to strengthen relations, which is the guideline for our neighborhood diplomacy. What we want to achieve is that, through exchanges with parties of neighboring countries, we can have a friendlier neighborhood, build stronger political trust, cement closer economic ties, deepen cooperation on security, and further people-to-people exchanges, thus making contributions to the development of China and neighboring countries as well as regional peace and stability. Thank you for your question.
AP:
For Mr. Zhang, you noted in your report that a large part of your work involves mobilizing overseas Chinese to protect the core interests and to further the core interests of China. And I am sure you are aware that there have been numerous reports in the media and from government and academics, particularly in Australia and New Zealand, that say some of the actions of your organization constitute a degree of spying or manipulating the overseas Chinese communities and the media there in ways that could undermine the sovereignty and political systems of those countries. Just wonder how you respond to those accusations. Thank you.
Zhang Yijiong:
China has a large number of Chinese nationals living overseas due to historical reasons. Since China's reform and opening up, a new wave of citizens have settled and lived overseas. Historically, some Chinese traveled abroad and lived in different countries and regions around the world and became overseas Chinese without Chinese nationality. I noticed that you mentioned overseas Chinese in Australia and New Zealand. We have clear policies regarding overseas Chinese. We welcome the strengthening of communication with local citizens under the premise of respecting the laws, regulations, culture, history and customs of local countries. This is comparable to what we require for foreigners working and living in China, who should respect China's laws, regulations, history, culture and custom. We also warmly welcome overseas Chinese to come back and visit their own country or their motherland to know more about China and its development so that they can make contributions. We encourage overseas Chinese to conform to local laws and regulations and thus become welcome in their local communities. Thank you.
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