by H.E. Cheng Xueyuan ( Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to Sri Lanka )
August 1st 1927 was the founding date of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army. In the past 92 years, from war to peace, PLA had gone through arduous struggles to epic accomplishments of national independence, people’s liberation and peaceful development. Chinese people and PLA are peace-loving. China will continue to develop itself by securing a peaceful international environment and, at the same time, uphold and promote world peace through its own development.
China never seek hegemony, expansion or spheres of influence. China pursues a national defense policy that is defensive in nature. Since the foundation of People’s Republic of China(PRC), border conflicts that were obliged to happen with individual neighboring countries are defensive counterattack when the Chinese territory, sovereignty, maritime rights and interests, people’s life and properties were severely infringed even all the peaceful measures have been adopted. China has been always upholding the principle of settling international disputes and hotspot issues by peaceful manners. China advocates “One Belt One Road” through engaging in international collaboration, achieving shared benefits and win-win situation, which signifies China will never follow the old path of rising of Big Powers by establishing colonial system, contesting sphere of influence. The growing military strength of China is the powerful positive energy to safeguard world peace and boost the common development rather than the tool for expansionism. The important thought to “Build a Community with a Shared Future for Mankind” has been written into the Constitution of the Chinese Communist Party and the Constitution of PRC, further respected and accepted by United Nations. It once again declares to worldwide that Chinese military development does not pose a threat to any country. No matter what stage of development it reaches, China will never seek expansion or spheres of influence. For considerable time of period, Chinese expenditure for national defense is approximately 1.3% of GDP, which is the lowest among the permanent members of UN Security Council, far below 2.3% -2.5% of the world average percentage and over 3% of several military superpowers such as USA and Russia. Since 1978, the disarmament has involved more than 4 million military personnel.
Chinese military is open and transparent. The Chinese military has published the white paper ‘China’s Military Strategy’ for several times, which clearly illustrated the trends of Chinese military strategy. Through organizing Xiangshan Forum, the Chinese military provided equal dialogue platform for militaries from other countries to discuss global security issues. The Chinese military introduced herself to the World in a timely manner by building “National Defense Release” Wechat and Microblog platforms. The Chinese military has continuously presented the open and transparent sincerity and attitude to the world by various measures.
China has established military ties with more than 150 countries and has put in place 54 defense consultation and dialogue mechanisms with 41countries and international organizations. Chinese and Russian military ties have continued to operate at a high level. China and USA maintain overall stability in military ties. Chinese military has strived to make the military ties of both sides a stabilizer of bilateral ties based on the principles of non-conflict, non-confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation. Focusing on building a community with a shared future for mankind, China has established defense and security consultation mechanism with 17 neighboring countries and their strategic mutual trust has been continuously strengthened. In 2018, the Chinese military has participated in about 40 joint exercises with more than 30 countries, and strengthened the friendship and mutual trust with foreign militaries.
Chinese military is actively providing more and more international public safety products. Chinese military is actively promoting the international and regional security cooperation, participating the problem solving of significant international security and tackling the challenges to security. PLA has made significant contribution in the operations of peacekeeping and humanitarianism as well. Since 1990, Chinese military has been participating in 24 UN peacekeeping operations, dispatched more than 39,000 peacekeeping military personnel, 13 of them died in the frontline of the operation. Mr. Atul Khare, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, spoke highly of China’s important role in the peacekeeping operations, noting China is the Permanent Member of UN Security Council, one of the largest contributors of troops and the second largest financial contributor to peacekeeping budget. China is the only country undertaking the three glorious missions. Since December 2008, the Chinese military has dispatched naval taskforces to the Gulf of Aden and the Somali waters to carry out regular escort operations, providing safety protection for more than 6,600 Chinese and foreign ships in 10 years. Chinese PLA Navy’s hospital ship Peace Ark (Hull 866) has visited 43 countries, and provided free medical service to more than 230,000 people, since its commission to the PLA Navy a decade ago.
Recently, the state council of the People’s Republic of China published the white paper China’s National Defense in New Era, in which China again solemnly declare her commitment to peaceful development and work with people of all countries to safeguard world peace and promote common development. China is fully supporting the developing countries to strengthen the security including Sri Lanka. In December, 2018, the China-aided office and auditorium complex was handed over to the Sri Lanka Military Academy. On 8th July, 2019, The China-gifted frigate “P625” to the Sri Lanka Navy arrived in Colombo Port. After the Sri Lanka Easter Sunday Attacks on 21st April, China provided emergency anti-terrorism training for more than 20 senior officials, donated a large number of security equipment and police vehicles. Furthermore, China will continue to provide various training for Sri Lanka military and police, aid more security equipment at Sri Lanka’s request. It should be noted that China’s aid has no any political condition, no interfering the internal affairs of the recipient country, only aims to improve the ability of security in recipient country, realize the peace in the countries and world peace.
