Chapter IX International Security Cooperation
Adhering to the purposes and principles of the
UN Charter, China persists in developing friendly relations and strengthening
cooperation with other countries on the basis of the Five Principles of Peaceful
Co-existence, and devotes itself to promoting international security dialogues and cooperation of all forms.
Strategic Consultation and Dialogue
In recent
years, China has intensified bilateral and multilateral strategic consultation
and dialogues with countries concerned in security and defense fields which
contribute to better mutual trust and mutual exchange and
cooperation.
With the strengthening of the strategic and
cooperative partnership between China and Russia, the two countries have
established a senior-level meeting mechanism to exchange views on major issues.
They have also held consultations on major strategic issues between relevant
departments. In 2003, China and Russia conducted a number of
vice-foreign-ministerial level consultations on the nuclear issue on the Korean
Peninsula, the questions of Iraq and the Middle East, and other international,
regional and bilateral issues of common concern. In 2004, the two countries held
a counter-terrorism working group meeting and consultation on strategic
stability at the vice-foreign-ministerial level. The two militaries established
a consultation mechanism in 1997, and the General Staff headquarters of the two
militaries held the seventh and eighth rounds of strategic consultations in 2003
and 2004 respectively.
China and the United States maintain
consultations on non-proliferation, counter-terrorism, and bilateral military
security cooperation. In the past two years, the two countries held three rounds
of consultations at the vice-foreign-ministerial level on strategic security,
multilateral arms control and non-proliferation, the sixth Defense Consultative
Talk, the third and fourth counter-terrorism consultations, and the second
financial counter-terrorism consultation. The military maritime and air safety
working groups under the Military Maritime Consultative Agreement held the third
and fourth meetings in Hawaii and Shanghai respectively.
China has
conducted extensive strategic consultations and dialogues with other countries.
China and France established the relationship of strategic dialogue in 1997, and
have since held six rounds of such consultation. China and the United Kingdom
held two rounds of strategic security dialogue in October 2003 and March 2004
respectively, and established the Sino-British strategic security dialogue
mechanism. The Chinese Ministry of National Defense and its South African
counterpart signed an agreement on the establishment of a defense commission in
April 2003. The Seventh Sino-Australian Defense Strategic Consultation was held
in October of the same year. The two militaries of China and Germany held their
second round of strategic consultation in July 2004. China has also held
fruitful security consultations and dialogues respectively with Canada, Mexico,
Italy, Poland, New Zealand and other countries.
China attaches
importance to security consultations with its neighboring countries. China and
Pakistan held their second defense and security consultation in July 2003. The
defense ministries of China and Thailand held their second defense security
consultation in September of the same year. The Chinese Ministry of National
Defense and Japanese Defense Agency held their fourth and fifth security
consultations respectively in January and October 2004. In April this year,
China and Mongolia held their first defense and security consultation. In
September, the Chinese Ministry of National Defense held the second strategic
consultations respectively with its counterparts of Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.
In October this year, China and Australia held their eighth Defense Strategic
Dialogue, and the Chinese Ministry of National Defense held the third security
consultation with its Thailand counterpart.
Regional Security Cooperation
China
pursues a foreign policy of building a good-neighbor relationship and
partnership with its neighbors, trying to create an amicable, secure and
prosperous neighborhood, and vigorously pushing forward the building of a
security dialogue and cooperation mechanism in the Asia-Pacific
region.
Since its establishment more than three years ago, the
Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) has been evolving into an important
mechanism for promoting regional security, stability and development. It has set
up a relatively complete organizational structure and laid a sound legal basis,
and successfully initiated cooperation in security, economic and other fields.
The Shanghai Convention on Combating Terrorism, Separatism and Extremism and the
Agreement of State Parties of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization on the
Regional Counter-terrorism Agency took effect in 2003. In pursuance of the
convention and agreement, the SCO held meetings of chief procurators and
ministers of defense, and conducted joint counter-terrorism military exercises.
The SCO Secretariat and regional counter-terrorism agency were formally
inaugurated in Beijing and Tashkent in January 2004. The Tashkent Summit Meeting
of the SCO signed the Tashkent Declaration and the Agreement on Cooperation in
Combating Illegal Turnover of Narcotic and Psychotropic Substances and the
Precursors Thereof in June 2004. The SCO also set up the mechanism of regular
meetings between security committee secretaries of its member states to
strengthen security and cooperation.
China attaches great importance to
the role of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), and is devoted to its sound
development. At the 11th ARF Foreign Ministers' Meeting in 2004, China proposed
the following initiatives for the future development of ARF: to maintain its
forum nature and adhere to the basic principles of decision-making through
consensus, taking an incremental approach, and moving at a pace comfortable to
all members so as to encourage the initiative and active participation of all
members; to continuously strengthen and consolidate confidence-building measures
(CBMs) while actively addressing the issue of preventive diplomacy, so as to
gradually find out cooperative methods and approaches for preventive diplomacy
that are suitable to the region and fitting the current needs; to increase
participation of defense officials, promote exchanges and cooperation among
militaries of the countries concerned and give full play to the important role
of the militaries in enhancing mutual trust; to highlight cooperation in
non-traditional security fields such as counter-terrorism and combating
transnational crimes. As its co-chairmen, China and Myanmar hosted two
intersessions in Beijing and Rangoon respectively on CBMs for the 2003-2004
Forum. China hosted the ARF Workshop on Drug-Substitute Alternative Development
in September 2004 in Kunming, Yunnan Province, and the ARF Conference on
Security Policies in November 2004.
In October 2003, the leaders
of China, Japan and the Republic of Korea held their fifth meeting, and issued
the Joint Declaration on the Promotion of Tripartite Cooperation Among the
People's Republic of China, Japan and the Republic of Korea, which confirmed
that the three countries would work together to intensify security dialogues and
extend exchanges among defense and military officials in East Asia, and
strengthen cooperation in the fields of disarmament and non-proliferation, and
the realization of a nuclear-free Korean
Peninsula.
Cooperation in
Non-Traditional Security Fields
China attaches great
importance to security cooperation in the non-traditional security fields with
other countries, maintaining that in jointly combating non-traditional security
threats, it is imperative to address both the symptoms and root causes and to
adopt comprehensive measures.
Cooperation in non-traditional
security fields within the frameworks of ASEAN and China (10+1) and ASEAN and
China, Japan and the Republic of Korea (10+3) has developed gradually in recent
years. In November 2002, leaders of China and ASEAN signed the Joint Declaration
Between China and ASEAN on Cooperation in Non-Traditional Security Fields. In
April 2003, leaders of China and ASEAN held a special meeting in Bangkok,
Thailand, on SARS and issued a joint declaration. In January 2004, the two sides
signed the Memorandum of Understanding Between China and ASEAN on Cooperation in
Non-Traditional Security Fields. China initiated and participated in the first
ministerial meeting between ASEAN and China, Japan and the Republic of Korea on
combating transnational crimes, held in Bangkok, Thailand, in January 2004, and
submitted a concept paper. The meeting agreed to set up a cooperation mechanism
between ASEAN and China, Japan and the Republic of Korea for combating
transnational crimes, and adopted the first Joint Communique of the ASEAN Plus
Three Ministerial Meeting on Combating Transnational Crimes.
China
continued to strengthen its international counter-terrorism cooperation. It
supported the UN, particularly the Security Council, in playing a leading role
in this regard, and seriously implemented Security Council resolutions on
counter-terrorism issues, as was shown by its reports to the Council on the
implementation of Resolution No. 1373. It has actively supported and
participated in the drafting of the Comprehensive Convention on International
Terrorism and the International Convention on the Suppression of Nuclear
Terrorism. In January 2003, China put forward four proposals on deepening
international counter-terrorism cooperation at the foreign ministers' meeting of
the UN Security Council on counter-terrorism. China also conducted exchanges and
cooperation with Russia, the United States, Pakistan, India, the United Kingdom,
France and Germany in this regard.
The PLA has taken an active
part in cooperation in non-traditional security fields such as joint
counter-terrorism, maritime search and rescue, combating piracy, and cracking
down ondrug production and trafficking. The ministers of defense of China,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan signed the Memorandum of the
Ministries of National Defense of the SCO Member Countries on Holding the
"Joint-2003" Counter-terrorism Exercise in May 2003. The armed forces of the
five countries successfully conducted the first multilateral counter-terrorism
exercise in the vicinities of Ucharal in Kazakhstan and Yining in China's
XinjiangUygur Autonomous Region within the framework of the SCO in August 2003.
The armed forces of China and Pakistan conducted Friendship-2004, a joint
counter-terrorism exercise, in the border area between the two countries in
August 2004. The Chinese navy conducted joint maritime search-and-rescue
exercises off the Chinese coast with visiting Pakistani navy in October and
Indian navy in November 2003. It also held joint maritime search-and-rescue
exercises with French navy in March, British navy in June, and Australian navy
in October in 2004 in the Yellow Sea area.
Participating in UN Peacekeeping
Operations
China has consistently supported and actively
participated in the peacekeeping operations that are consistent with the spirit
of the UN Charter. It maintains that the UN peacekeeping operations should abide
by the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and other universally
recognized principles governing peacekeeping operations. China will continue to
support the reform of the UN peacekeeping missions, hoping to further strengthen
the UN capability in preserving peace.
Since its first dispatch
of military observers to the UN peacekeeping operations in 1990, China has sent
3,362 military personnel to 13 UN peacekeeping operations, including 785
military observers, 800 (in two batches) engineering personnel to Cambodia,654
(in three batches) engineering and medical personnel to Congo (Kinshasa), 1,116
personnel in transportation, engineering and medical units to Liberia, and seven
staff officers to the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations. Since January
2000, China has sent 404 policemen to the peacekeeping operations in six UN
peacekeeping task areas including East Timor. In 2004, China has sent 59
policemen to East Timor, Liberia, Afghanistan, Kosovo of Serbia-Herzegovina and
Haiti, and a 125-member organic police detachment to Haiti to serve with
MINUSTAH at the request of the UN. In the past 14 years, six Chinese servicemen
lost their lives and dozens wounded in UN peacekeeping
operations.
At present, 845 PLA personnel are working in eight UN
peacekeeping task areas. They included 66 military observers, an engineering
unit of 175 personnel and a medical unit of 43 personnel in Congo (Kinshasa), an
engineering unit of 275 personnel, a transportation unit of 240 personnel and a
medical unit of 43 personnel in Liberia, and three staff officers at the UN
Department of Peacekeeping Operations.
Military
Exchanges
The PLA conducts active military exchanges and
cooperation with militaries of other countries, and has created a military
diplomacy that is all-directional, multi-tiered and
wide-ranging.
China has established military relations with more
than 150 countries in the world. It has set up over 100 military attach's
offices in its embassies abroad, and 85 countries have set up military attach's
offices in China. Over the past two years, the PLA has sent high-level military
delegations to over 60 countries, and played host to over 130 delegations of
military leaders from over 70 countries. The military-to-military relations
between China and Russia continued to strengthen and develop. The Chinese
Minister of National Defense visited the United States in October 2003, the
first such visit in seven years. The Director General of the Japanese Defense
Agency visited China in May 2003, after an interval of five years. The Indian
and Chinese ministers of defense exchanged visits in April 2003 and March 2004
respectively, the first of its kind in many years. Meanwhile, military exchanges
between China and European countries developed in depth. China also strengthened
military relations with its surrounding countries, extended military exchanges
with other developing countries, and continued to provide militaries of some
countries such assistance as personnel training, equipment, logistical materials
and medical treatment.
In October 2003, the PLA
invited for the first time military observers from 15 countries to observe the
joint exercise NorthernSword-0308U organized by the Beijing Military Area
Command. In September 2004, it invited observers from foreign militaries to
watch Exercise Dragon-2004 organized by the Chinese navy. In the same month,
military leaders or observers from 16 neighboring countries and their military
attachs stationed in China were invited to observe Exercise Iron Fist-2004
organized by the Jinan Military Area Command. In June 2004, China invited
foreign naval attachs from 15 foreign embassies in China to observe a
Sino-British joint maritime search-and-rescue exercise. Besides, the PLA sent
delegations to observe military exercises in Russia and Japan, as well as joint
military exercise by the United States, Thailand and Singapore. From October to
November 2003, Chinese naval ships paid friendly visits to the US territory of
Guam, Brunei and Singapore. Meanwhile, naval ships from the United Kingdom,
Russia, the United States, Pakistan, India, France, Indonesia and other
countries visited China. The PLA pursued active military academic exchanges with
foreign militaries. The PLA Academy of Military Science and other Chinese
research institutions had extensive academic exchanges with scientific research
institutions of other countries. The PLA increased the number of military
students sent abroad and received more overseas military students in China. In
recent years, it has sent over 1,000 military students to more than 20
countries, and 19 military colleges and universities in China have established
inter-collegiate exchange relations with their counterparts in 25 countries,
including the United States and Russia. Over the past two years, 1,245 military
personnel from 91 countries have come to study in Chinese military colleges and
universities, and officers from 44 of these countries have participated in the
fifth and sixth International Symposium Course hosted by the PLA National
Defense University.
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