China

Please allow me to extend my warm congratulations to you, Sir, on your assumption of the presidency of the General Assembly at its current session. I am confident that, with your wisdom and experience, and with the support and coordinated efforts of the member States, the Millennium Assembly will successfully complete all its work. At the same time, I would like to express my appreciation and thanks to Mr. Gurirab for the contribution he made as President of the General Assembly at its last session. The Millennium Summit, which attracted worldwide attention, has just concluded. The United Nations Millennium Declaration is a consensus reached by world leaders on how to meet the major challenges facing mankind today. The Declaration reviews and sums up the course that the United Nations has travelled over the past 55 years. More importantly, it offers a blueprint for the United Nations in the new century and the new millennium and important guidance to people around the world in their pursuit of peace, development and common progress. I would like to add my voice to the call to action made by Secretary-General Kofi Annan at the closing ceremony of the Summit. We should work together to turn the consensus reached at the Summit into action and usher in a new era of peace and development for people all over the world. It is the primary mission of the United Nations in the new century to uphold the purposes and principles of its Charter, promote democracy in international relations, maintain world peace and stability and facilitate the development and prosperity of all countries. The United Nations Charter is a manifestation of the peoples' aspiration to equality, justice and freedom. Over the past 55 years, the United Nations has adhered to the Charter aims of safeguarding peace, developing friendship and promoting cooperation, as well as the core principles guiding international relations, such as sovereign equality and non-interference in the internal affairs of States. It is precisely for these reasons that the United Nations has grown in strength and its membership increased from 51 to 189. This Organization is still playing an irreplaceable role in world affairs. The history of the past 55 years has amply proved the effectiveness of the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter. Today, global issues have made our interests intertwined and modern technology has made our communication easier. In these circumstances, we need more than ever to face our common challenges together on the basis of equality, mutual respect and democratic consultation. The purposes and principles of the Charter are by no means outdated, but are rather of greater relevance today. Democracy in international relations requires compliance with the principle of sovereign equality, as 5 provided for in the United Nations Charter. Countries differ in size, strength and wealth, but they are all equal members of the international community. None should be discriminated against and their state sovereignty brooks no encroachment. The internal affairs of a country should be managed by the people of that country and major world affairs should be decided by all countries through consultation. The response to global challenges calls for worldwide cooperation and coordination. This is a necessity of our times and a prerequisite for the establishment of a fair and just new international political order. It is also the foundation and source of vitality for the United Nations in the new century. The reform of the United Nations should give full expression to democracy in international relations. The reform is aimed at better safeguarding the fundamental rights and interests of all Member States and, especially, at truly reflecting the will of developing countries, which make up the bulk of United Nations membership. It should not merely satisfy the needs of a few countries. The reform of the Security Council should seek primarily to increase representation of developing countries and should be based on extensive deliberations among Member States. It is against the will of the overwhelming majority of Member States to set arbitrar deadlines or to force the passage of immature plans. There is general agreement among the United Nations Member States on basing the scale methodology of regular budget and peacekeeping assessment on the principle of the capacity to pay. This methodology is also one that has been confirmed time and again by the General Assembly through its resolutions and should therefore be abided by in whatever circumstances. Any adjustment to this methodology should take into full account the specific economic conditions of developing countries. Such adjustments should be made only when there is consensus among all Member States through extensive consultation, thus facilitating the normal and sound operation of the United Nations. Another important historical task facing the United Nations is to respond to globalization and to achieve the common development of mankind. The twentieth century has seen both unprecedented economic prosperity and the greatest polarization. In the last decade of the century, economic globalization has advanced at the fastest pace, while the gap between the North and the South has continued to widen. According to the World Bank, the revenue of the low- income countries accounts for only 6 per cent of the world's total, although they make up more than half of the world's population, while that of the developed countries is 80 per cent with only one sixth of the world population. It is especially worrisome that there is an even wider gap between developing and developed countries in the field of advanced technology. The new economy is so far benefiting only the rich countries. Most developing countries are still information have-nots. Should this situation be allowed to continue, many developing countries will long remain deprived of the opportunity to participate in technological progress and economic growth and the world will be further polarized. To prevent poverty from swallowing up achievements of development and to prevent social injustice from shaking the basis of global stability, the United Nations must play its due role in narrowing the gap between the rich and the poor and bringing about common prosperity to the world. It is an unavoidable major responsibility of the United Nations in the new century to promote the establishment of a new international economic order based on cooperation on an equal footing and aimed at common development and to ensure that economic globalization benefits everybody in the world. The United Nations should give top priority to the issue of development, make efforts to change the current situation in which global economic affairs are dominated by only a few countries and ensure developing countries their right to equal participation in economic decision-making. In making or revising global economic rules of the game, consideration should first be given to the need of developing countries in order to facilitate their development and reduce the risks they may face when participating in globalization. The United Nations should also mobilize all the resources available and encourage the international community to narrow the “digital divide”, and it should help developing countries to seize, as far as they can, the opportunities brought about by the scientific and technological advancement driven by the information revolution. The United Nations also has the responsibility for introducing new rules to the world to make science and technology truly serve all of 6 mankind and the lofty cause of peace and development in the world. As drastic and profound changes are taking place in the international situation, what kind of security concept should be embraced is a major subject before the United Nations and all its Member States. Global strategic stability is the foundation on which world security rests. And the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty is an important cornerstone for global strategic stability. Any move to undermine the totality and effectiveness of the Treaty will have a profound negative impact on world peace and security. The proposal for a national missile defence system that is prohibited by the ABM Treaty is essentially aimed at seeking unilateral military and strategic supremacy, and thus a typical example of the cold war mentality. Such a plan, if implemented, will only bring serious negative consequences to the security of the whole world. The adoption by the General Assembly of the resolution on preservation of and compliance with the ABM Treaty (A/54/54 A) at its fifty-fourth session by an overwhelming majority is an indicator of the firm will of most countries in the world to maintain and strictly observe the ABM Treaty. The United Nations should continue to show serious concern over the attempt by a certain country to develop a missile defence system to the detriment of global strategic stability, and it should take necessary measures to stop this dangerous development. Security is mutual and relative. No country should enhance its security at the expense of that of the others. To seek absolute unilateral security is not feasible and will lead to greater insecurity. With increased international contacts and exchanges, countries of the world will find themselves sharing more common interests and facing more common challenges. Security can only be realized through dialogue on an equal footing and in the spirit of mutual understanding and mutual accommodation. It can only be maintained on the basis of mutual respect and peaceful coexistence, and it can only be consolidated through mutually beneficial cooperation and common development. The only way to protect the fundamental interests of all countries and enhance universal security is to replace the old security concept based on military alliances and military build-up with a new one that is characterized by equality, mutual trust, mutual benefit, cooperation and settlement of disputes through dialogue. In recent years, China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have reached, within the framework of the Shanghai Five and through consultation and cooperation based on equality, an agreement among themselves on confidence-building in the military field and reduction of military forces in the border areas. This offers something useful for the international community to draw upon in its exploratory efforts for a new security concept. We have noted with pleasure the positive changes in the situation on the Korean Peninsula and the positive outcome of the successful historic summit between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the Republic of Korea. It has shown once again that dialogue and consultation based on equality serve to enhance mutual trust and improve relations between States. We appreciate the efforts made by both the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the Republic of Korea to promote peace, stability and development on the peninsula and in the region. We deeply regret that the tripartite summit at Camp David failed to produce any agreement. We believe that the Middle East peace process will move forward as long as the parties concerned earnestly, patiently and unswervingly engage themselves in negotiating and seriously implement the agreements that have already be reached among them on the basis of the relevant United Nation resolutions, in accordance with the principle of land for peace and in the spirit of mutual trust and mutual accommodation. In the twentieth century, mankind suffered a great deal from the scourges of war. In the twenty-first century, humanitarian crises of a massive scale must be prevented, and the tragedy of innocent people being slaughtered on a large scale must not be allowed to repeat itself. The United Nations shoulders a primary responsibility for the maintenance of world peace, and therefore it should work harder to stop conflicts and eliminate wars. In the present-day world, hegemony and power politics still exist. Territorial disputes, ethnic feuds and religious rifts have all led to incessant regional conflicts. Some countries and regions hope that the United Nations will assist them in stopping conflicts, which we fully understand. At the same time, we must not fail to see the complexity of international intervention and the danger of inappropriate intervention. The United Nations intervention should 7 aim at eliminating the root causes of a given conflict rather than delaying its settlement. It should aim at facilitating reconciliation between the conflicting parties rather than deepening their hatred and hostility. We are of the view that major powers and groups of countries should respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the countries concerned rather than meddling in their internal affairs or triggering new conflicts. In the new circumstances, peacekeeping operations remain an important means for the United Nations to fulfil its obligations in safeguarding world peace and security. In this regard, it is essential to ensure and enhance the Security Council's responsibility and political leadership in peacekeeping operations and to ensure the observance of the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter. United Nations peacekeeping operations should be launched with a sense of realism and within the capacities of the United Nations. The limited resources should be put to where they are most needed. Human beings are the most precious among all the creatures on earth. To promote human development and protect all the rights and interests of mankind is the primary responsibility of all countries. China is the most populous country in the world. The Chinese Government has taken upon itself to safeguard the independence and dignity of the Chinese nation and to ensure the almost 1.3 billion Chinese the right to a decent life and all-round development. It has regarded this as its sacred duty and will do all it can to achieve this end. Human rights improvement is an ongoing process. The human rights conditions of a country are up to the people of that country to assess and improve. Since people live under different circumstances, the form in which human rights are embodied changes with these circumstances and with time. Therefore, how to protect and promote human rights depends on the actual conditions and specific needs of a country. To arbitrarily impose a fixed set of human rights rules, regardless of the differences in the specific environment and reality, will not serve the interests of the people of any country. To interfere in other countries' internal affairs in the name of protecting human rights in order to advance one's own political agenda is simply to blaspheme and betray the human rights cause. The United Nations should vigorously encourage dialogues and exchanges among different civilizations and countries on human rights and discourage confrontation and exclusion — which are the general trend of the human rights movement. In providing humanitarian assistance, the United Nations should give equal priority to the prevention of conflicts and the protection of human rights, on the one hand, and to the reduction and elimination of poverty and the promotion of human development, on the other hand. In this context, the United Nations should work in close coordination and cooperation with the countries and Governments concerned, instead of bypassing them, and ensure human rights for the majority of the people. Otherwise, such operations will trigger a humanitarian disaster of a greater scale. Only when the above-mentioned principles are abided by can the United Nations play a useful role in protecting human rights. A few days ago, from this solemn podium Chinese President Jiang Zemin proclaimed to the whole world the Chinese people's firm determination to turn China into a strong, prosperous and united country with a high degree of democracy, and to promote world peace and development. In the past 20 years and more since the inception of reform and opening-up, China completed the first and second phases of its modernization strategy. With the advent of the new century, China will begin the third phase of the strategy and enter a new stage of accelerated modernization. Once China becomes a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), there will be major breakthroughs in its opening-up. China will honour its commitments and seriously fulfil its obligations, while enjoying its rights. Although there will be difficulties, risks and challenges on the road ahead, China is capable of removing every obstacle and achieving its grand objective of modernization. China will unswervingly stick to its independent foreign policy of peace and further develop its friendly relations with the rest of the world on the basis of the five principles of peaceful coexistence. A strong and developed China will not only benefit more than a billion Chinese people but also serve prosperity and progress worldwide. To resolve the question of Taiwan once and for all and complete the reunification of the motherland is a shared aspiration of the entire Chinese people, including our Taiwan compatriots. Adherence to the 8 principle of peaceful reunification and one country, two systems in resolving the Taiwan question will serve the development of the two sides on either side of the straits, contribute to amity and unity among compatriots on both sides, and facilitate peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region. The Chinese Government and people have committed themselves more strongly than anyone else to a peaceful reunification. They have demonstrated the utmost sincerity and made the greatest efforts to this end. We are convinced that — with the concerted efforts of the entire Chinese people, including those living in Taiwan — China will be able to realize its complete reunification at an earlier date. We are entrusted with the important task of charting a course for mankind for the coming century. Let us join hands and work together to build a more secure, prosperous and progressive world in the new century.