(18 December 2011)

President Qin Yaqing,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Friends from the media,

Good morning.

First of all, let me thank the China Foreign Affairs University for inviting me to this seminar on China's Diplomacy in 2011 and its Prospect under the theme "Volatile World, Courageous China".

At this time of the year-end, thanks to the invitation by the CFAU, experts, scholars and friends from the media have the opportunity to get together here to discuss China's diplomacy over the past 12 months. This is a useful gathering, as it will help us to better understand China's diplomacy, and to pool our wisdom for diplomatic work in future.

This year, under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, thanks to the close cooperation of various departments and the vigorous support of people throughout the country, and focusing on the central tasks of the Party and the country, we have overcome various difficulties, made new headway and achieved notable progress in all-round diplomacy. We have firmly safeguarded China's interests concerning sovereignty, national security and development, and further enhanced China's international standing and influence.

Chinese leaders have directly engaged in summit diplomacy and leaders' diplomacy. China has taken part in the G20 summit and other multilateral meetings at international and regional levels, hosted the BRICS leaders meeting, actively participated in and facilitated reforms of global governance mechanisms, and promoted regional cooperation.

We have worked hard for domestic economic development and guarded against external economic risks. We have promoted closer coordination and cooperation on global macro-economic policy , opposed trade protectionism, and made new progress in major cooperation projects.

We have steadily developed relations with other countries. China and the United States reached important agreement on developing a cooperative partnership based on mutual respect and mutual benefit. China-Russia relations were elevated to a comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination. China and the EU have further grown their mutual trust and cooperation, and have become each other's largest trading partner. China-Japan relations maintained the momentum of steady growth. The new type of strategic partnership between China and Africa was further strengthened. China's cooperation with Latin America have continued to deepen.

We have made active efforts to build a stable, prosperous and harmonious surrounding environment. China and its neighboring countries have maintained frequent high-level exchanges, deepened cooperation in various fields, and steadily advanced the development of connectivity. China and ASEAN members reached agreement on the guidelines for the implementation of the DOC, announced the establishment of a RMB3 billion yuan China-ASEAN maritime cooperation fund, and maintained the overall stability in the South China Sea.

We have properly responded to the turbulences in West Asia and North Africa. We have adhered to the principle of non-interfering in other's internal affairs, respected the will and choice of the people of countries in these regions, and properly handled relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council. China's relations with relevant countries achieved stable transition.

We have done our utmost to safeguard the lawful rights and interests of overseas Chinese citizens. We evacuated Chinese citizens trapped in Egypt, Libya and Japan, successfully rescued Chinese crew members and engineering personnel abducted overseas, and properly handled other major incidents such as the case of killing Chinese crew in the Mekong River.

We have made new progress in public diplomacy and people's diplomacy. We have given wide publicity to such major events as the implementation of the 12th Five-Year Plan, the 90th anniversary of the founding of the CPC, the centenary of the 1911 Revolution and the release of the White Paper on China's Peaceful Development. We have conducted wide exchanges with other countries in culture, education, sports, science, technology and public health.

Today, you, as experts in the field, will have a full discussion on China's diplomacy this year. I wish to share with you my personal assessment and understanding of China's diplomacy in 2011.

First, we must know that the achievements of China's diplomacy have not come by easily. The 6th plenary session of the 17th CPC Central Committee pointed out that today's world is undergoing major developments, changes and adjustments. I believe you all agree with this judgement. At the beginning of the year, no one would have imagined that the self-immolation of a Tunisian youth would have triggered such large scale turbulences in West Asia and North Africa. Also at the beginning of the year, Greece was hit by debt crisis. But since its GDP accounts for merely 2% of that of Europe, this was not expected to be a big trouble for a wealthy Europe. Yet it induced the serious European debt crisis and even reversed the trend of recovery in world economy. On March 11, Japan was hit by an earthquake, which unexpectedly caused a massive tsunami and then nuclear leaks, whose impact has not been completely removed up to now. According to the recently announced plan, it will take Japan eight to ten years to clear away all the debris left by the devastating disaster. Moreover, the world faces daunting challenges from energy, climate change and terrorism. 2011 was a year with many unpredicted strategic contingencies. Even far-sighted people would not have anticipated such serious turbulences and complicated situation in the year. On top of that, there was the shooting incident in Norway, riot in London, the "Occupy Wall Street" movement, and the collapse of governments in a number of countries. Last week, new shooting incidents in Belgium and Italy caused over 100 deaths and injuries. In such a difficult situation, stability and development of various countries are under challenge.

In today's world, China, the second largest economy, plays a significant role in international affairs. All sides, including our own people, pay closer attention to China's diplomacy with higher expectation and demand. Outside China, there are still some misgivings and misunderstanding on our development. We must balance our domestic and international interests and take into consideration many factors in our diplomatic work, which has become much more complicated than before.

Under these circumstances, China was still able to maintain overall stability, achieve relatively fast economic growth, and significantly enhance its international standing and influence. These are hard-won achievements, and should be cherished.

Second, we must recognize that China's diplomacy follows the world people's wish for peace, development and cooperation. As globalization deepens, we people in the world live ever closer in a "global village" and the interests of countries are more intertwined. Countries are interdependent and no one can live alone. This is a whole new world where, in diplomacy, we must discard the cold war mentality that sees one country's prosperity as the decline of another or views the world in terms of a zero-sum game. Recently China released the White Paper on China's Peaceful Development. Peaceful development is a solemn pledge of the Chinese government to the world and our basic state policy. In all sincerity, we will unswervingly follow this policy. This is also the only path we can choose given the current situation. China cannot follow the footsteps of western powers down the path of colonization, exploitation, aggression and expansion. It also runs contrary to the trend of the times to strengthen military alliances, engage in arms race or wantonly resort to military intervention. A Chinese aphorism says stratagem void of morals can never take you far. We must foster a new security thinking. More weapons cannot make the world a safer place. Only greater development and cooperation can bring us greater safety.

Recently, the United States has adjusted its policies toward the Asia-Pacific and increased its input in this region. Some people are thus worried and doubt if China and the US can coexist peacefully in the Asia-Pacific. Some even believe that China's surrounding environment has deteriorated. In my view, the US has never left the Asia-Pacific, so there is no "return" to speak of. China does not want to and cannot push the United States out of the Asia-Pacific. We hope the US can play a constructive role in this region, and that includes respecting China's major concerns and core interests. The Pacific Ocean is vast enough to accommodate the coexistence and cooperation between these two big countries. A few days ago Mr. Liu Chuanzhi, chairman of Lenovo, said to me that people were really worried when China first joined the WTO and they thought here came the wolves. Now ten years have passed, and we have got better and better at "dancing with the wolves". We should also follow his way of thinking when it comes to our diplomacy. In the face of the changing situation, we should seek cooperation, not confrontation, to solve issues. We must be confident that as long as China is committed to peaceful development, openness and cooperation and can attend our own affairs well, nobody can encircle us or keep us out.

Third, China's diplomacy cannot be labeled simply as "soft" or "hardline". Some people in the world, especially in western countries, accuse China of becoming more assertive in diplomacy not as easygoing as before. But, some in China say that China's diplomacy is too "soft" and should "show our sword" to teach certain countries a lesson. We can see that different perspectives can lead people to different conclusions. I don't think only the use of force can make diplomacy strong, or dialogue and negotiation only make diplomacy "soft". We Chinese believe in combining firmness and flexibility, which is to say that "firmness" and "flexibility" are two sides of a coin. A man may be gentle at one time but angry at another time. Sometimes an army needs to march forward bravely while at other times it needs to avoid a direct confrontation. Confrontation and compromise are not the goals of diplomacy, nor are they the yardstick for our diplomatic work. They are just means to achieve our diplomatic goals or options we can choose from. This means we must know when to fight, when to cooperate, and when to avoid direct confrontation. Wisdom is way more important than fists.

In our diplomatic work, we must always have a larger picture of the world in mind and make plans accordingly. We must take into consideration the immediate and long-term, partial and general, and political and economic interests as well as China's national interests, image and responsibilities. At the end of the day, diplomatic successes are evidenced by greater national strength, higher national status in the world, and stronger national interests. China's remarkable development achievements in the past decade after its accession to the WTO should be attributed to the hardworking people from all walks of life including those on the diplomatic front. It is fair to say that among the major countries in the world, China has been very successful in its diplomacy, as it has created an enabling external environment for its economic growth and social stability. We have reason to be proud of that.

Fourth, we must be clearly aware of the difficulties for our diplomatic work in the new world situation. The world is undergoing unprecedented changes, and China is developing rapidly. The outside world even finds it difficult to define China's position. Our GDP has become the second largest in the world, but compared with the US, Europe, or Japan, the "pie" of the Chinese economy is still not big enough, and its quality not good enough. Our pie is made of coarse flour while theirs of cream. Besides, their pies are shared among far less people. Under the complex national conditions, people in China may have different understandings about the country and different ideas about our diplomacy, therefore making different impressions on the rest of the world. We have also encountered many new situations and new problems in our diplomatic work. For example, earlier this year, we had to evacuate more than 30,000 people in a very short period of time from as far as Libya, where the situation was unprecedentedly complicated. We need to ask ourselves as many of our enterprises are "going global", how can our diplomacy help with that? We also need to ask: how should we solve and tackle issues such as climate change, energy security and food security? There is a long list of questions we need to think about. As China's diplomacy continues to forge ahead, our workload and the pressure on our shoulders are much heavier. Let me give you a simple example. We have altogether about 600 consular officials in our missions around the world for the protection of overseas Chinese. But every year, about 60 million Chinese people go abroad, which means, on average, one consular official has to provide possible consular protection service to 100,000 people. The ratio is 1:100,000. For the US and Japan, the ratios are 1:5,000 and 1:12,000 respectively. The US embassy in Iraq is said to have 16,000 diplomats and staff, while the Chinese embassy there only has 9 people. As diplomats, we are proud to be able to work for China's development and rejuvenation, and our work, hard as it may be, is totally worthwhile.

As for next year, I don't think it will be doomsday for the world as depicted in the movie 2012, but the international situation will again undergo great changes. The downward risk of the world economy is rising, the European debt crisis and the turbulence in West Asia and North Africa will continue, and major countries such as the United States, Russia and France will have elections. Many important international summits will take place next year. We must get ready to properly address changes in the external economic environment and various risks and challenges. We must continue to strengthen our relations with major countries, work hard to promote good-neighborliness and friendship with our neighbors, and expand cooperation with emerging and developing countries. We should actively participate in global governance, do our best to contribute to stability and economic growth at home, continue to work for world peace and development, and create a sound external environment for the success of the 18th CPC National Congress.

Lastly, I wish to thank you, our experts, scholars and friends from the media, for your continued support for our diplomatic work. You are playing an important part in China's diplomacy. Your academic exchanges and reports contribute to the deepening of China's ties and mutual understanding with the rest of the world. I am confident that as long as we continue to work hard together, China's diplomacy will stride forward and China's international standing and influence will be raised to a higher level.

I wish you a happy new year!