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China's National Defense in 2004
Updated: 2004-12-28 09:52 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 strategicissues between relevant departments. In
2003, China and Russia conducted a number of vice-foreign-ministerial level
consultationson 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 onstrategic stability at the
vice-foreign-ministerial level. The twomilitaries 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 heldtwo 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
anddialogues 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 strategicconsultations respectively with its counterparts of
Kyrgyzstan andKazakhstan. 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
ShanghaiCooperation Organization (SCO) has been evolving into an
importantmechanism for promoting regional security, stability and development.
It has set up a relatively complete organizational structure and laid a sound
legal basis, and successfully initiatedcooperation 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 Narcoticand 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 encouragethe
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 ofdefense 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 Developmentin 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, whichconfirmed 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 inthe 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 recentyears. 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 ofthe UN Security Council on counter-terrorism. China
also conductedexchanges 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 MemberCountries 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 thevicinities 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
ofthe 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 militaryobservers, 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 withmilitaries 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'soffices in
its embassies abroad, and 85 countries have set up military attach's offices in
China. Over the past two years, thePLA 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 ofthe 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 exchangesbetween 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 overseasmilitary
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 tostudy 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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