China adheres to its peaceful development road and tries to establish and maintain harmonious relations with other countries in the world, said Yang Yi, Director of the Institute for Strategic Studies, National Defense University of China, in Singapore Thursday.

"In the future, China will continue its clear geo-strategic options in order to maintain and prolong its period of strategic opportunity that has been proved to be in the right direction," said Yang at the Regional Outlook Forum held by Singapore's Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.

He admitted that China's international role has been changing with its ever-strengthening power while its rapid economic development has an important and positive impact on the evolution of geo-strategic patterns in the Asia Pacific region.

"China will need a strong military force to protect its national interests. As in the past, China will continue to adhere to defensive military strategy," Yang explained, adding that the strengthening Chinese military forces will be conducive to regional peace and stability.

Reiterating that China advocates to establish harmonious international relations, Yang said that China will try to form a stable and healthy relationship with the United States, instead of challenging or confronting the latter or replacing its role as a dominant power.

"It is undesirable for China to see other Asia Pacific countries becoming a 'sandwich' between the US and China with no other choice, either siding with the US or with China," Yang said.

He continued that China will stick to principle when it comes to Sino-Japan relations. China will seek common ground while shelving differences between the two nations to build a win-win relationship of cooperation.

As for India, Yang said that China "will make efforts to enhance the strategic partnership of cooperation and join in hands with India to follow the common peaceful development road".

China will also cultivate all-dimension cooperation in economy, politics and security with members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which include Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, according to Yang.

(Xinhua News Agency January 6, 2006)