China focuses discussion on world peace at ASEM People's Forum
China attacks Bush’s mentality of seeking absolute security via military means and his dream of seeking world hegemony as striking examples of the unjust political and economic order.
-Am
www.chinaview.cn 2004-09-07 23:38:39
HANOI, Sept. 7 (Xinhuanet) -- China on Tuesday focused its discussion on world peace safeguarding at the ongoing ASEM People's Forum V, while touching peace and security issues with other member countries of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM).
During the five-day forum's conference with the main theme "Peace and Security" held here, Chen Huaifan from the Chinese People's Association for Peace and Disarmament, mentioned major challenges faced by world peace, and made five suggestions about peace safeguarding.
"We long for peace, but the fun fire and endless bombings in Iraq keep on warning us that the world is far from tranquil. We wish to see development, but what we see is that with the development of globalization, the gap between the South and the North is widening, and human beings are not enjoying common prosperity," Chen stated.
He pointed out three threats and challenges, namely the existence of traditional security factors, non-traditional security issues and the unjust international political and economic order. "Local conflicts originated from ethnic and religious clashes, and border or territorial disputes keep cropping up one after another.. We are faced with such non-traditional security factors as raging terrorism, rampant transnational crimes, widespread diseases, huge gaps between the rich and the poor, and serious environmental pollution."
Chen cited the existence of the mentality of seeking absolute security via military means and the dream of seeking world hegemony as striking examples of the unjust political and economicorder.
"Some unilateral actions have already challenged the basic norms of international laws, and have impeded the process of democratization of international relations. The economic globalization has not brought universal benefit to all countries, but instead has made quite a few developing countries marginalized," he said, noting that economic and social destabilizing effects generated by globalization would ignite more conflicts which may threaten peace of human beings.
To deal with the situation, Chen called for ASEM members to bring their strengths into full play to work together for a better world "with the sincerity of treating one another as equal partners, the willingness to heart-to-heart exchanges, and the spirit of pragmatic cooperation."
Specifically, they should join hands in beefing up multilateralism and democratization of international relations, safeguard the authority of international laws and honor the UN Charter and the Five Principles of Peaceful Co-existence, seek newways to address new challenges to security, speed up the multinational arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation process, and promote dialogues among civilizations.
"Lasting and comprehensive security can only be built upon mutual trust and cooperation", he stated, adding that to cope with the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and the possibility of the weapons being used by terrorist groups, countries should use political and peaceful means as well as boost international cooperation.
During the conference with six workshops, Chen and other delegates touched many issues, including measures to solve armed conflicts, anti-terrorism activities, peace movements in Asia and Europe, impacts of weapons of mass destruction on the two continents and people's response to the rise of militarism.
At the forum, which will conclude on Sept. 10, over 500 representatives of nearly 350 national people's organizations and non-governmental organizations from ASEM members are to discuss the issues of common interests with the main theme "People's actions for human security in Asia and Europe".
The ASEM People's Forum is a network of organizations in Asia and Europe whose main activities include the organization of parallel civil society conferences on the occasion of the official ASEM summits.
ASEM is an informal process of dialogue and cooperation bringing together 15 European Union member states and the European Commission, with 10 Asian countries, namely China, Brunei, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The ASEM dialogue addresses political, economic and cultural issues, with the objective of strengthening the relationship between the two regions. Enditem
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