People-to-people friendly exchanges with foreign countries, an important part of China's diplomatic work, yielded remarkable results in the year 2001, said Chen Haosu, president of the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC).
In an interview with Xinhua, Chen said that non-governmental bodies made their contributions to Beijing's successful bid to host the 2008 Olympic Games.
He also pointed to CPAFFC's participation in the "Three Tenors" concert at the Forbidden City in June and the Sino-Russian friendship concert in July in Moscow, saying that these activities helped introduce China to the world.
Since 1954 when the CPAFFC was set up in Beijing, the CPAFFC has forged friendly links with nearly 400 non-governmental organizations in over 100 countries.
Besides, the association has helped more than 1,000 Chinese cities to set up sister-city relations with cities in over 100 countries, said Chen.
In its friendly contacts with foreign countries over the past year, the CPAFFC, in the principle of boosting friendship for China and safeguarding peace, has striven to gain overseas understanding of China's modernization drive, Chen said.
The CPAFFC conducted fruitful exchanges with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), the Republic of Korea, and members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), India, Pakistan, the Arab world, Israel, African countries, Cuba and Latin American countries in the year.
He singled out the China-Arab friendship association set up recently and the more active working mechanism employed by the China-Africa and China-Latin America friendship associations.
Talking about people-to-people contacts with developed countries, Chen listed the CPAFFC's efforts in holding a Sino-Russian environmental cooperation seminar, issuing a Sino-Japanese new century friendship declaration, cooperating with Japanese friendship bodies in an effort to protect the Sino-Japanese friendship, establishing a China-European Union association, promoting the Euro, and making down-to-earth efforts for the normal development of Sino-US relations.
Meanwhile, the CPAFFC sponsored a series of activities focusing on peace and friendship and expressed Chinese people's position on securing world peace.
Chen said that the CPAFFC sent immediate condolences and support to the US people when world peace was threatened by terrorism, and expounded China's consistent and firm counter-terrorism stance.
In October this year, the CPAFFC sent a delegation to the United States, reiterating China's desire to cooperate on fighting terrorism, Chen said. The delegation also put forward the view that terrorism cannot be rooted out with force alone, he added.
He said the CPAFFC stands for promoting trust and understanding among people of all countries and a democratic international relationship so as to ensure security for world people and world peace and development.
The CPAFFC also took an active part in multi-lateral non-governmental activities and conducted cooperation with all friends around the world, he said.
The CPAFFC will continue to carry out a wide range of people-to-people friendly exchanges with all countries in 2002 in a bid to create conditions for the development of state-to-state relations,said Chen.
He listed a series of non-governmental activities now being prepared such as celebrations to mark the 10th anniversary of diplomatic ties between China and the ROK, Israel and the Commonwealth of Independent States, the 30th anniversary of diplomatic ties between China and Germany and Greece, the 30th anniversary of the normalization of Sino-Japanese relations, and the 30th anniversary of Sino-US Shanghai Communique, as well as the cultural year between China and France.
(Xinhua News Agency December 30, 2001)
