In the just over year, China's partnerships with various big countries of different types experienced new development, in the new round of adjustment to its relations with big countries, China continued to be in an active and advantageous position, said Liu Huaqiu, director of the Foreign Affairs Office of the CPC Central Committee in his article published in the New Year issue of "Qiu Shi", a Party-run magazine.

The Foreign Affairs Office of the CPC Central Committee is a ministerial-level work unit specialized in the foreign affairs activities of the CPC Central Committee. Liu Huaqiu had held long-term post in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, serving as vice-foreign minister, now he is director of the Foreign Affairs Office of the CPC Central Committee and member of the 16th CPC Central Committee.

Speaking about the international situation in the past year, Liu Huaqiu said in this article titled "The Strong Vitality of the Independent Foreign Policy of Peace--the International Situation and China's Foreign Work in 2004": "There was chaos amid stability" in the international situation 2004, but, on the whole, "stability outweighed disorder". This is manifested mainly in the following three aspects: First, there was no major emergency like the Iraq war that seriously impacted relations between big countries; second, the sole superpower, complying with the need of safeguarding its strategic and economic benefits and considering the general election, made a certain degree of tactical adjustment to its foreign policy and adopted some measures to ease its relations with big countries; and third, various big countries enhanced consultations and coordination on major international and regional issues.

However, Liu also pointed out: "local chaos caused by war, conflicts and strife existing in the world situation, some contradictions, intensification of which originally could be avoided, were sharpened, throwing the world into disorder and instability, there are still many unstable and uncertain factors. The main root causes of world turbulence and instability still exist. The jeopardy of terrorism continues to rise. Factors of traditional security threat and non-traditional security threat are interwoven. The gap between the poor and the rich in South and North continues to widen, contradiction between the South and the North further stands out. Local conflicts triggered off by national and religious contradictions and by boundary and territorial disputes rise and fall in a wave-like manner. Contentions for strategic resources, strategic points, strategic channels and strategic dominant power tend to become increasingly fierce. There still exist many predictable and hardly predictable risks in the world economic field."

Talking about China's diplomacy over the past year, Liu held that 2004 was a "year in which China's diplomacy was extremely active and gained new major achievements". He said China's relations with other developing countries were in a good period witnessing "pragmatic cooperation and rapid development"; China's ties with surrounding countries were in "one of a fairly good periods since the founding of New China"; China's partnerships with various big countries of different types gained new development, in a new round of adjustment to the relationships between big countries, China continued to be in an advantageous position with initiative in its own hands; China's multilateral diplomatic activities entered the period of unprecedented, active development. Liu also dwelled upon China's adherence to the independent foreign policy of peace.

Liu Huaqiu said that China has made major strategic adjustments to its diplomacy in different historical periods, but its adherence to the principle of independence is consistent, ", "no matter what change may take place in the international situation, China has never sacrificed the principle of its own independence".

By People's Daily Online