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By Wang Yu, Chinese Ambassador to Afghanistan
China consistently pursues an independent foreign policy of peace and conducts friendly cooperation with other countries in line with the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. On this basis, China has diplomatic relations with 179 countries in the world and partnerships of various forms with 110 countries and regional organizations. With an original aspiration to seek happiness for the Chinese people and contribute to the progress of mankind, China has always played a constructive role in world peace and development. China does not interfere in the internal affairs of other countries, or export its own system or model, or engage in selfish beggar-thy-neighbor practices.
China’s diplomatic goal in the new era is to promote the building of a community of shared future for all mankind. In the words of Chinese President Xi Jinping, “Human beings live in the same global village, at the same time and space where history and reality meet. We are becoming more and more a community of shared future. No country can address on its own the various challenges facing mankind.” China maintains that all countries in the world should develop global collaboration, follow the path of peaceful development together and jointly build a new type of international relations featuring mutual respect, equity, justice and win-win cooperation and an open, inclusive, clean, and beautiful world of lasting peace, universal security and common prosperity.
China is the advocate and an active practitioner of building a community of shared future for mankind. It played a pivotal role in the international responses to the 1997 Asian financial crisis and the 2008 international financial crisis. As the largest developing country, China’s heart is with its fellow developing country partners. By the end of 2019, China had provided nearly RMB 400 billion in development assistance to more than 160 countries and international organizations and dispatched over 600,000 aid workers, over 700 of whom laid down their lives in aiding the development of other countries. Since the outbreak of COVID-19 over a year ago, China has actively promoted international cooperation in pandemic response. It has launched the largest global humanitarian relief operation in the history of New China, with assistance delivered to more than 150 countries and international organizations, including six batches to Afghanistan. It has also gone all out to manufacture and supply materials in support of global pandemic response. History and facts have proven that China has never been absent when the fate of the world is at stake.
China is committed to the Asian community with a Shared Future. Neighboring countries have always been a main focus of Chinese diplomacy. In accordance with the principle of amity, sincerity, mutual benefit and inclusiveness, China has always adhered to the diplomatic policy of building friendship and partnership with its neighbors and fostering an amicable, secure and prosperous neighborhood, and regards its neighbors as partners in common development and sincere friends for peace and stability. We will strengthen good-neighborly and friendly ties, promote friendly cooperation and build a close partnership network with our neighbors. China is actively cooperating with them in pandemic response and on other practical matters, with more converged interests and people-to-people ties and solid progress in building the Asian community of shared future.
China and Afghanistan have long been partners with shared destiny. Our friendship dates back to the ancient Silk Road period. In the over 2,000 years of exchanges, there has never been any conflict between the two countries, which is a miracle in the history of international relations. Bilateral ties continue deepening in the new era. In their fights against imperialism and colonialism, China and Afghanistan have sympathized with and supported each other, strived in parallel for national independence and self-strengthening, supported together the Non-Aligned Movement and the UN Development Agenda, and jointly fought international terrorism and transnational organized crimes.
China has in the course of its own development supported the reconstruction of Afghanistan. We welcome Afghanistan to board our express train of development, make full use of its geographical position and resources and take an active part in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). We encourage viable Chinese enterprises to invest and develop business in Afghanistan, build schools and hospitals here and help local agricultural produces such as saffron and pine nuts to explore the Chinese market, thus benefiting Afghan farmers and businessmen. Since 2001, China has provided billions of RMB in gratuitous assistance to Afghanistan and built a number of infrastructure facilities that benefit Afghan people, including the Jamhuryat Hospital in Kabul and the National Vocational and Technical College. China has been Afghanistan’s second largest source of imports and third largest destination of exports for quite a few years. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Chinese side has delivered six batches of supplies to support the local response and held several online medical experts meetings to share the Chinese experience.
China has always been a supporter, mediator and facilitator of the peace and reconciliation process in Afghanistan. We sincerely hope for and promote an early realization of peace, tranquility and prosperity in Afghanistan. We support the Afghan-led, Afghan-owned principle, encourage all parties to the conflict to enhance dialogue and foster a common understanding for reconciliation within Afghanistan and across the region, and support the intra-Afghan negotiations. China has advocated and created China-Afghanistan-Pakistan Foreign Ministers’ Dialogue to help the other two countries to improve relations. We work to make Afghanistan a haven of cooperation for all countries rather than a new platform of gaming between major powers. We steer the international community to forge synergy for peace in Afghanistan.
Not long ago, a senior official said that former President Donald Trump had received information that China was trying to fund non-state actors to attack US troops in Afghanistan. It is sheer nonsense and outright fake news made up to smear China. This shows how crazy some people have become in order to tarnish China’s image and disrupt relations with China. In addition to continued smears, rumors and fabricated news about Xinjiang and so called human rights, they have played the new trick of alienating China from other countries, using “facts” and “evidence” already proven false and groundless. China has always pursued an independent foreign policy of peace. It has never taken the initiative to launch a war against any other country, much less to fund attacks by non-state actors against other countries. China has also consistently adhered to the principle of non-interference in internal affairs, supported the peace and reconciliation process and refrained from involvement in its internal affairs in Afghanistan. It is for the world to decide who truly is rattling the sabre and waging proxy wars in the world and who truly is creating conflicts and undermining regional peace and stability.
According to our Afghan friends, China has never bullied Afghanistan and is the most trustworthy country for Afghanistan, and at a time when the world is full of uncertainties and destabilizing factors, the rock-solid friendship with China has been a rare source of warmth for the Afghan people. These reflect China’s peaceful foreign policy and its commitment to deepening good-neighborly friendship with its neighbors. China will continue to work with Afghanistan to build a community of shared future and work together for common development and progress so that the Afghan people will enjoy peace, stability and development at an early date.
