China issues white paper on national defense
(Xinhua) Updated: 2006-12-29 10:15
China says it pursues a national defense policy which is purely defensive in
nature, according to a White Paper on China's National Defense in 2006 issued in
Beijing Friday.
The White Paper, issued by the Information Office of the
State Council, says China's national defense provides the guarantee for
maintaining China's security and unity, and realizing the goal of building a
moderately prosperous society in an all-round way.
"To build a powerful
and fortified national defense is a strategic task of China's modernization
drive," the White Paper says.
The White Paper says China pursues a
three-step development strategy in modernizing its national defense and armed
forces in accordance with the state's overall plan to realize modernization.
The first step is to lay a solid foundation by 2010, the second is to
make major progress around 2020, and the third is to basically reach the
strategic goal of building informationized armed forces and being capable of
winning informationized wars by the mid-21st century.
China's national
defense policy for the new stage in the new century is defined as follows:
-- Upholding national security and unity, and ensure the interests of
national development. This includes guarding against and resisting aggression,
defending against violation of China's territorial sea and air space, and
borders; opposing and containing the separatist forces for "Taiwan independence"
and their activities, taking precautions against and cracking down on terrorism,
separatism and extremism in all forms.
-- Achieving the all-round,
coordinated and sustainable development of China's national defense and armed
forces. China pursues a policy of coordinated development of national defense
and economy. It keeps the modernization of China's national defense and armed
forces as an integral part of its social and economic development, so as to
ensure that the modernization of its national defense and armed forces advance
in step with the national modernization drive.
-- Enhancing the
performance of the armed forces with informationization as the major measuring
criterion. The PLA, taking mechanization as the foundation and
informationization as the driving force, promotes the composite development of
informationization and mechanization to achieve overall capability improvement
in the fields of firepower, assault, mobility, protection and information.
-- Implementing the military strategy of active defense. The PLA ensures
that it is well prepared for military struggle, with winning local wars under
conditions of informationization and enhancing national sovereignty, security,
and interests of development as its objective. Taking joint operations as the
basic form, the PLA aims to bring the operational strengths of different
services and arms into full play.
-- Pursuing a self-defensive nuclear
strategy. Its fundamental goal is to deter other countries from using or
threatening to use nuclear weapons against China. China remains firmly committed
to the policy of no first use of nuclear weapons at any time and under any
circumstances. It unconditionally undertakes not to use or threaten to use
nuclear weapons against non-nuclear-weapon states or nuclear-weapon-free zones,
and stands for the comprehensive prohibition and complete elimination of nuclear
weapons.
-- Fostering a security environment conducive to China's
peaceful development. China maintains military contacts with other countries on
the basis of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, and develops
cooperative military relations that are non-aligned, non-confrontational and not
directed against any third party. It plays an active part in maintaining global
and regional peace and stability.
China's security still faces
challenges
China's security still faces challenges that must
not be neglected, says the white paper. The White Paper says the growing
interconnections between domestic and international factors and interconnected
traditional and non-traditional factors have made maintaining national security
a more challenging task. The struggle to oppose and contain the separatist
forces for "Taiwan independence" and their activities remains a hard one.
By pursuing a radical policy for "Taiwan independence", the Taiwan
authorities aim at creating "de jure Taiwan independence" through
"constitutional reform", thus still posing a grave threat to China's sovereignty
and territorial integrity, as well as to peace and stability across the Taiwan
Straits and in the Asia-Pacific region as a whole, the White Paper says.
It says the United States has reiterated many times that it will adhere
to the one-China policy and honor the three joint communiques between China and
the United States. But, it continues to sell advanced weapons to Taiwan, and has
strengthened its military ties with Taiwan. A small number of countries have
stirred up a racket about a "China threat", and intensified their preventive
strategy against China and strove to hold its progress in check. Complex and
sensitive historical and current issues in China's surrounding areas still
affect its security environment.
The White Paper stresses that the
international community is increasingly facing comprehensive, diverse and
complex security threats. The world is not yet peaceful. Political, economic and
security problems and geographical, ethnic and religious contradictions are
interconnected and complex. Hegemonism and power politics remain key factors
undermining international security.
Non-traditional security threats
present greater danger, and local turmoil caused by war is on and off, and some
hot spots cannot be removed in a short time, says the White Paper. The impact of
economic globalization is spreading into the political, security and social
fields. Global economic development is uneven, and the gap between the North and
the South is widening. Security issues related to energy, resources, finance,
information and international shipping routes are mounting. International
terrorist forces remain active, and shocking terrorist acts keep occurring.
Natural disasters, serious communicable diseases, environmental degradation,
international crime and other transnational problems are becoming more damaging
in nature.
The White Paper indicates that a revolution in military
affairs is developing in depth worldwide. Military competition based on
informationization is intensifying. There has not been major change in the
imbalance in relative military strength. Some developed countries have increased
their input into the military and speeded up R&D of high-tech weaponry to
gain military superiority. Many developing countries are also upgrading their
armaments and modernizing their military forces. The situation regarding the
non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction remains grave and complex.
The White Paper says the international non-proliferation regime faces
major challenges. The practice of a small number of countries that have
intensified their military alliances and resorted to force or threats of force
in international affairs has shown new developments, which hinder efforts to
improve international security.
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