International

Beijing DeclarationOf the Conference Marking the 70th AnniversaryOf the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence

On June 28, 2024, the Conference Marking the 70th Anniversary of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence was held in Beijing. President Xi Jinping of the People’s Republic of China attended the conference and delivered an important address. Premier Li Qiang of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China moderated the conference. Former political leaders from countries including Viet Nam, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Laos, Thailand, Indonesia, the Maldives, Egypt, Ethiopia, South Africa, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Brazil, Guyana, Japan, Republic of Korea, Italy, France, Croatia and Slovenia, representatives of international/regional organizations, and diplomatic envoys, academics, friends, as well as representatives of the press and the business community from more than 100 countries were present at the conference. The conference issued the Beijing Declaration.

Under the theme of “From the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence to Building a Community with a Shared Future for Mankind” and with four sub-forums focusing respectively on the Contemporary Value of Asian Wisdom, the Vision and Mission of the Global South in a Shifting Landscape, Contributing to Global Prosperity through Chinese Modernization, and Promoting Global Governance Featuring Extensive Consultation and Joint Contribution for Shared Benefits, the commemorative events broadened consensus among the parties on building a community with a shared future for mankind.

As the host of the commemorative events, the Chinese side summarized the key viewpoints of the participants as follows:

1. Seventy years ago, Chinese leaders put forth in full the following Five Principles, i.e. mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, mutual non-aggression, mutual non-interference in each other’s internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence. These principles were included in China’s joint statements with India and Myanmar, which called for establishing the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence as the basic norm in state-to-state relations. The appeal has had an epoch-making significance.

2. Over the past seventy years, the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence have shown everlasting relevance. Informed by Asian wisdom, they have become open, inclusive, and universally applicable basic norms for international relations and fundamental principles of international law. They have made indelible historic contributions to the cause of human progress.

3. The Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence are consistent with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, and reflect the underlying trend of international relations. With a greater emphasis on mutuality and equality, these principles provide a whole set of basic norms for peaceful coexistence among countries across political, security, economic and diplomatic domains, and have a far-reaching impact on the development of international relations and international law.

4. The Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence have opened a new path for the establishment and development of relations between countries with different social systems. These principles enable countries to break free from antagonistic and confrontational mindsets, coexist peacefully on the basis of equality and mutual respect, and resolve disagreements and disputes by peaceful means.

5. The Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence have bolstered the efforts of developing countries to deepen solidarity and cooperation and seek strength through unity. These principles have inspired developing countries to find independent paths of development, and contributed to the improvement and development of North-South relations.

6. The Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence were designed to protect the legitimate rights and interests of developing countries, and redress the systems of imperialism, colonialism and hegemonism. These principles have laid an intellectual foundation for and lent impetus to a more just and equitable international order.

7. The Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence are showing greater vitality amidst global transformations not seen in a century. Building a community with a shared future for mankind is a natural step for carrying forward the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence under the new circumstances, and enriches the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence with the imperatives of the new era.

8. The Vision of Building a Community with a Shared Future for Mankind carries forward the essence of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, and builds on them to better reflect the reality that all countries share the same future. The overarching goal is to build a world of lasting peace, universal security and shared prosperity and one that is open, inclusive, clean and beautiful, which points the direction for all countries to work together on Earth, the planet we call home.

9. The participants spoke positively of China’s proposals for advancing high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, and the Global Civilization Initiative, and recognized their great significance for safeguarding international peace and security, promoting global sustainable development, and contributing to human civilization and progress. These initiatives offer concrete and workable pathways toward building a community with a shared future for mankind.

10. The essence of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence is sovereign equality, which is the most important norm in state-to-state relations. All countries are equal. The big should not subdue the small, the strong should not bully the weak, and the rich should not exploit the poor. World multipolarity should be characterized by equality and order. International law should be applied in an equal and uniform manner to all countries. Double standards and exceptionalism should be rejected.

11. Mutual respect is a ground rule of state-to-state interaction and the basis of building a new type of international relations. Considering that countries differ in historical and cultural traditions and development stages, it is imperative to respect the development paths and systems chosen independently by the people of other countries, not to impose one’s will on other countries, and not to interfere in their internal affairs. Major countries should set an example.

12. All countries should take the path of peaceful development, act on the vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security, work for building a more balanced, effective and sustainable security architecture, and resolve major international and regional issues through dialogue rather than confrontation.

13. In the era of economic globalization, it is important to promote development and achieve mutual benefit through cooperation. It is also important to make the global economy bigger and let more countries have an equitable share in the benefits of development, thus making globalization more universally beneficial and inclusive. Unilateral and protectionist measures in violation of the laws of economics and market principles will end up harming all sides.

14. Promoting the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence is conducive to safeguarding international fairness and justice and upholding true multilateralism. It is important to jointly defend the international system with the United Nations at the center and advance global governance characterized by extensive consultation and joint contribution for shared benefit. Hot-spot issues, such as the Ukraine crisis and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, can only be resolved by a political settlement through dialogue and consultation. Global challenges, such as those emanating from climate change and artificial intelligence, must be addressed through open cooperation.

15. Exchanges and mutual learning between civilizations drive human progress. It is important to respect the diversity of civilizations in an open and inclusive spirit, reject the discriminatory and exclusionary notion of “civilizational superiority,” and refrain from inciting clashes of civilizations. Peace, development, equity, justice, democracy and freedom are humanity’s common values. They command the greatest global consensus and should be upheld by all.

16. The Global South is a key force that advocates and practices the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. It should be the staunch force for peace, the core driving force for open development, the construction team of global governance, and the advocates for exchange among civilizations. It can make a greater contribution to South-South and North-South cooperation as well as human progress.

17. The participants commended the announcements by China for supporting Global South cooperation, which include:

Establishing a Global South research center, providing 1,000 scholarships under the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence Scholarship of Excellence and 100,000 training opportunities to Global South countries in the next five years, and launching a Global South youth leaders program;
Further leveraging the China-U.N. Peace and Development Fund, the Global Development and South-South Cooperation Fund, and the Climate Change South-South Cooperation Fund, and working with interested parties to set up a tripartite center of excellence for implementing the Global Development Initiative, so as to facilitate growth in Global South countries;
Renewing the China-IFAD South-South and Triangular Cooperation Facility and making an additional Renminbi contribution equivalent to U.S.$10 million to be used to support agricultural development of the Global South;
Discussing free trade arrangements with more Global South countries, continuing to support the WTO’s Aid for Trade initiative, renewing contribution to the WTO’s China Program, and welcoming more Global South countries to join the Initiative on International Trade and Economic Cooperation Framework for Digital Economy and Green Development; and
Between now and 2030, China’s import from fellow developing countries is expected to exceed U.S.$8 trillion.

18. The participants spoke highly of the enormous achievements in Chinese modernization and China’s relentless efforts for and contribution to safeguarding world peace, promoting friendly cooperation with other countries, and advancing common development of the world.

19. The participants were grateful for China’s thoughtful organization of the commemorative events. They expressed readiness to work with China to turn into reality the wide-ranging consensus reached at the events, continue championing the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, and build a community with a shared future for mankind in order to create a better future for human society. (PR)

International

TAIWAN’S LINK TO CHINA REITERATED BY ZHU FENGLIAN

A Chinese mainland spokesperson on Tuesday slammed the Taiwan region’s leader, Lai Ching-te, for his recent “motherland fallacy,” reiterating that Taiwan is part of the sacred territory of China.

Zhu Fenglian, a spokesperson for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, said that the sovereignty and territory of China have never been divided and will never be divided.

The fact that the mainland and Taiwan both belong to one China has never changed and will never be allowed to change, she added.

What has caused the Taiwan question? And why is Taiwan an inalienable part of China’s territory? Here are some facts you should know.

Taiwan has been part of China since ancient times

Taiwan has belonged to China since ancient times. The earliest written account of Taiwan was in the Seaboard Geographic Gazetteer, compiled more than 1,700 years ago by Shen Ying of the State of Wu during the period of the Three Kingdoms.

Starting as early as the mid-12th century, Chinese governments of different periods set up administrative bodies to exercise jurisdiction over Taiwan.

The Song Dynasty set up a garrison in Penghu, putting the territory under the jurisdiction of Jinjiang County of Fujian’s Quanzhou Prefecture. The Yuan Dynasty installed an agency of patrol and inspection in Penghu to administer the territory. During the mid- and late-16th century, the Ming Dynasty reinstated the once abolished agency and sent reinforcements to Penghu to ward off foreign invaders.

In 1662 (under Qing Emperor Kangxi), General Zheng Chenggong established Chengtian Prefecture on Taiwan. Subsequently, the Qing Dynasty government expanded the administrative structure in Taiwan. In 1727 (under Qing Emperor Yongzheng), the administration on the island was reconstituted as the Prefecture Administration of Taiwan and incorporated the new Penghu Canton. The territory then officially became known as Taiwan. In 1885 (under Qing Emperor Guangxu), the government formally made Taiwan a full province.

Taiwan was ceded due to Japan’s aggression

However, through a war of aggression against China in April 1895, Japan forced the defeated the Qing government to cede Taiwan and the Penghu Islands.

In July 1937, Japan launched an all-out war of aggression against China. In December 1941, the Chinese government issued a declaration of war against Japan, announcing to the world that all treaties, conventions, agreements and contracts regarding relations between China and Japan had been abrogated and that China would recover Taiwan and the Penghu Islands.

In December 1943, the Cairo Declaration was issued by the Chinese, U.S. and British governments, stipulating that Japan should return to China all the territories it had stolen from the Chinese, including northeast China, Taiwan and the Penghu Islands.

The Potsdam Proclamation, signed by China, the U.S. and Britain in 1945 (later adhered to by the Soviet Union), stipulated that “The terms of the Cairo Declaration shall be carried out.” In August 1945, Japan surrendered and promised that it would faithfully fulfill the obligations laid out in the Potsdam Proclamation.

On October 25, 1945, the Chinese government recovered Taiwan and the Penghu Islands, resuming the exercise of sovereignty over Taiwan. From that point forward, China had recovered Taiwan de jure and de facto through a host of documents with international legal effect.

Two sides of the Straits belong to one China

On October 1, 1949, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) was founded. The new government replaced the previous Kuomintang (KMT) regime, becoming the successor to the Republic of China (1912-1949) and the only legitimate government of the whole of China.

As a natural result, the government of the PRC should enjoy and exercise China’s full sovereignty, which includes its sovereignty over Taiwan, according to a white paper titled “The Taiwan Question and China’s Reunification in the New Era,” published by the Chinese government in 2022.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has said that both the Cairo Declaration and the Potsdam Proclamation stated in explicit terms that all the territories Japan had stolen from the Chinese, such as Taiwan and the Penghu Islands, shall be restored to China, and this constitutes an important part of the post-war international order.

Speaking at the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly in late September, Wang told world leaders in the audience that Taiwan being “an inalienable part of China’s territory” is both “the history and the reality.”

Noting the 26th session of the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 2758 in 1971 with an overwhelming majority, deciding to restore all the rights of the People’s Republic of China at the UN, to recognize the representatives of the Government of the People’s Republic of China as the only legitimate representatives of China to the UN, and to expel forthwith the representatives of the Taiwan region from the UN and all the organizations related to it, Wang said “once and for all, the resolution resolved the issue of the representation of the whole of China, including Taiwan, in the UN.”

The resolution, Wang continued, made clear that there is no such thing as “two Chinas,” or “one China, one Taiwan.”

“On this matter of principle, there is no gray zone or room for ambiguity,” Wang said.

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, has stressed on many occasions that the one-China principle is the political foundation for cross-Straits relations.

Xi said that compatriots from both sides of the Taiwan Straits belong to the same Chinese nation during a meeting with Ma Ying-jeou, former chairman of the Chinese KMT party, in April.

“The over-5,000-year history of the Chinese nation recorded successive generations of ancestors moving and settling down in Taiwan, and people from across the Straits fighting side by side to recover the island from foreign invaders,” Xi said.

“The distance of the Straits cannot sever the bond of kinship between compatriots from across the Straits, and the difference in systems does not alter the reality that both sides of the Straits belong to one China, and external interference cannot hold back the historical trend of national reunification,” he said.

International

One-China principle is consensus of international community

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Thursday that no matter what they say or do, the Lai Ching-te authorities cannot change the fact that both sides of the Taiwan Straits belong to one and the same China or stop the historical trend that China will and must achieve reunification.

Spokesperson Mao Ning made the remarks in response to the speech by the leader of the Taiwan region, Lai Ching-te, today at a daily press briefing.

Mao said Lai Ching-te’s words attempt to sever the historical connections between the two sides of the Taiwan Straits. He is again peddling various versions of the “Taiwan independence” narrative, such as “China and Taiwan are not subordinate to each other” and “Taiwan has sovereignty.”

It once again exposes that he is hellbent on advancing “Taiwan independence” and has the ill intention of heightening tensions in the Taiwan Straits for his selfish political interest, Mao said.

There is but one China in the world. Taiwan is an inalienable part of Chinese territory. The government of the People’s Republic of China is the sole legal government representing the whole of China, Mao said, adding that the attempt to seek independence and make provocations will lead nowhere.

Noting that the one-China principle is a basic norm in international relations and prevailing international consensus, Mao said Taiwan has never been a country and will never be a country and thus has no so-called sovereignty.

Upholding the one-China principle, opposing “Taiwan independence” and opposing “two Chinas” and “one China, one Taiwan” is our consistent position on the Taiwan region’s external exchanges and participation in international activities, she said.

“Let me stress once again that China opposes all forms of official interactions between Taiwan and countries having diplomatic relations with China and interference in China’s internal affairs in any way and under any excuse,” Mao said.

We urge the few foreign politicians who visit Taiwan to correct their wrong words and deeds, stop meddling in China’s internal affairs, and stop conniving at and supporting “Taiwan independence” and heightening tensions in the Taiwan Straits, she said. (PR/GIS)

International

SENIORS CELEBRATED AT THE SOUBLE NINTH FESTIVAL

China honours its elders

Across China, seniors are joyfully celebrating the Double Ninth Festival, a traditional holiday that falls on the ninth day of the ninth month in the Chinese lunar calendar. This day, officially recognized as Senior’s Day, embodies new meanings of respect, care and support for the elderly. Communities are hosting vibrant events such as long-table banquets, singing competitions and dance performances, all filled with joy and harmony. Let’s honor our elders and cherish their wisdom as we come together in celebration.