Ladies and Gentlemen,

The founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949 put an end to China's miserable history of humiliation and aggression by Western powers. The Chinese nation became an equal member of the international community. Since reform and opening up in 1978, historic changes have taken place in China's relationship with the rest of the world. The future and destiny of China is more and more closely linked with that of the world. As a responsible member of the international community, China is firmly committed to the path of peaceful development, an opening up strategy for win-win results and friendly cooperation with all countries on the basis of the five principles of peaceful coexistence. While pursuing its own development, China has made positive contribution to the lofty cause of world peace and development.

China has sustained rapid economic growth for over 30 years, since the beginning of reform and opening up, which has enhanced its overall national strength and turned it into the world's third largest economy, top exporter and second largest importer. Through its own efforts, China has managed to feed over 20 percent of the world's population with less than 10 percent of the world's farmland, raising the living standards of the Chinese people from below subsistence to overall moderate prosperity. By properly balancing reform, development and stability, we have achieved a significant historic transition from a highly-centralized planned economy to a dynamic socialist market economy, from a closed and semi-closed country to a fully open one, while maintaining social and political stability and order. China, a country with a population of 1.3 billion, has focused its efforts on managing its own affairs well, sustained growth and maintained stability. This is important for both the region and the world at large.

China's development would not have been possible without the world. China's development also brings huge development opportunities to countries in Asia and beyond. Increasingly, it has become a major engine for world economic growth. On average, China has been importing $687 billion of goods annually since the beginning of the century, generating more than 14 million jobs in the countries and regions concerned. In the process of tackling the international financial crisis, China, as one of the first to realize an economic upturn, has made an additional contribution of $50 billion to the IMF replenishment plan, worked for the establishment of a $120 billion Asia foreign exchange reserve pool and signed international currency swap agreements worth 650 billion yuan, thus playing a major role in facilitating the stabilization and recovery of the world economy. With the growth of its national strength, China has provided more assistance to developing countries according to its ability. We have cancelled the debts owed by 49 heavily-indebted poor countries and least developed countries and introduced zero-tariff treatment to imports from over 40 least developed countries, contributing to the attainment of the UN Millennium Development Goals.

China is always a staunch force for world peace. The new security concept of mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality and coordination that we advocate has gained the understanding of a growing number of countries, who have come to identify with such a concept. China is committed to peaceful solutions to international disputes and hotspot issues. On the Korean nuclear issue and the Iranian nuclear issue, we urge the parties concerned to stay calm and exercise restraint, pursue engagement and dialogue and avoid escalation of tensions. China is the largest contributor of peacekeepers among all the permanent members of the UN Security Council, having sent a total of over 14,000 peacekeepers to 24 UN peacekeeping missions, according to statistics. China is also actively engaged in the international cooperation on counter-terrorism, non-proliferation, arms control, disarmament and counter-piracy and has worked with countries the world over to jointly address global issues and non-traditional security issues, including climate change, energy and resources security, food security, public health security, transnational crimes and drug trafficking.

China's relationship with the international system has changed profoundly. China is an important participant, builder and contributor in the international system. With the restoration of China's lawful rights at the United Nations in 1971 through the resolution of the 26th General Assembly and the accession to the World Trade Organization in 2001, China fully integrated into the international system. To date, China has joined more than 130 intergovernmental international organizations and concluded more than 300 multilateral treaties. We always stand for equality between all countries in the international system, increased representation and say of developing countries and greater democracy in international relations. We take an active part and play a constructive role in the reform of the international system, coming up with reasonable policy proposals on international rule-making and revision and encouraging the international system to go with the trend of the times with a view to solving various issues and challenges more effectively. China believes that the international system should be reformed in a way that strengthens justice and fairness and that the principle of proactive, reliable and gradual progress must be adhered to. All the parties should have full consultation, maximize consensus and minimize obstacles and resistance to the reform so as to achieve mutual benefit and win-win results.

I want to emphasize that despite China's achievements and its rising international status and increasing role, it is still a developing country due to its huge population, weak economic foundation and development disparity. At roughly $3,700, China's per-capita GDP accounts for only 30 percent of the world's average and lags behind more than 100 countries in the world. There is overall moderate prosperity, albeit at a low-level, incomplete, imbalanced and far from the level of developed countries. By UN standard, 150 million Chinese still live under the poverty line and, even by China's standard, over 43 million are in poverty. In terms of economic structure, the World Development Report 2010 of the World Bank shows that in 2008, China's agriculture, industry and services sectors accounted for 11 percent, 49 percent and 40 percent of the GDP respectively, reflecting a relatively heavy dependence on the primary industry, a severe dependence on manufacturing and a backward services sector. This is a typical example of lower-middle-income countries. For China, a problem, however small, becomes huge when multiplied by 1.3 billion, the size of China's population, and a sizeable amount of financial resources becomes a small per capita figure when divided by 1.3 billion. The scale and complexity of the problems and difficulties faced by China are rarely seen in the world. China has a long way to go and needs to work hard for decades before it achieves modernization on all fronts.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

There are all kinds of discussions about where a growing China is heading and how it will approach its relations with the rest of the world. These questions might be in your mind as well. Here, I wish to share with you some of my observations.

First, to pursue a peaceful development path is not a short-term convenience, but a long-term strategic choice of China.

A peaceful development path is, in essence, to seek a peaceful international environment for one's development and, at the same time, uphold and promote world peace through one's development. China follows an independent foreign policy of peace and works to develop friendly and cooperative relations with all countries in the world on the basis of the five principles of peaceful coexistence regardless of the differences in ideology and social system. We pursue a win-win strategy of opening up, strive for greater convergence of interests, accommodate the legitimate concerns of our cooperation partners while developing our own country and never seek to gain at the expense of others or shift trouble onto our neighbors. In the spirit of peace, development and cooperation, we endeavor to build a harmonious world of lasting peace and common prosperity. We follow a national defense policy that is defensive in nature, oppose arms race, and stand firmly for peaceful solutions of disputes over the territory, territorial sea and maritime rights and interests through negotiations. China will never seek hegemony or expansionism even if it grows stronger. China's peaceful development path is fundamentally different from the historical rise of colonial powers through plunder and expansion. China has chosen to tie its interests closely to the interests of the international community and follow a path that leads to development for all.

Peaceful development is an inevitable choice given China's historical and cultural tradition, national conditions and trend of the times.

China's historical and cultural tradition determines that the Chinese are a peace-loving nation. We cherish such values as "peace is of supreme value," "harmony exists in diversity," and "do not do unto others what you would not have them do unto you," and hold the aspiration that "all men within the four seas are brothers." More than 600 years ago, Zheng He, the famous navigator of China's Ming Dynasty, led seven voyages to the Western Seas. His fleet, then the most powerful in the world, visited more than 30 countries and regions in Asia and Africa. The Chinese brought with them tea, ceramics, silk and craftsmanship. They did not occupy a single inch of foreign land. As long-time victims of foreign aggression and humiliation, the Chinese people are keenly aware of the meaning of national independence, sovereignty, security and world peace. We will never inflict such sufferings upon other nations.