Extensive Contacts with Political Parties in Neighboring Countries

  The contacts between the Communist Party of China (CPC) and other political parties throughout Asia have always been an important element of the Party’s foreign contacts. In recent years, centering on the contemporary themes of peace and development, the CPC has actively developed exchanges and cooperation with political parties and organizations throughout Asia on the basis of the principles of independence, complete equality, mutual respect and noninterference in each other’s internal affairs, and in the spirit of transcending ideological differences and seeking friendship and cooperation. At present, the CPC maintains various kinds of relations with more than 100 political parties in 34 Asian countries. The Party’s exchanges with political parties in neighboring countries have basically entered a new stage, devoting main efforts to exchanges with the major parties in those countries. Its purpose is to promote all-round development of state-to-state relations and mainly involves the parties exchanging experience on running their parties and governing their countries and working together for peace, development and cooperation.

  1. Giving play to the unique role of high-level party contacts, comprehensively and strategically keeping to the direction in which state-to-state relations develop and promoting their sound and stable development。

  High-level contacts with political parties throughout Asia occupy an important place in the CPC’s contacts with political parties in neighboring countries. During recent years, CPC’s leaders meet with many visiting party delegations and statesmen from Asian countries every year, among them a large number of party chairpersons and general secretaries. At the same time, they lead delegations to Asian countries to confer with their statesmen and party leaders. During these high-level party-to-party contacts, party leaders thoroughly exchange views on matters of common interest, seek consensus, wisely deal with important issues in their state-to-state relations, and set the direction these relations develop. For example, at their turn-of-the-century meeting, the general secretaries of the CPC and the Communist Party of Vietnam not only set the principle of “long-term stability, looking toward the future, good-neighborly friendship and comprehensive cooperation” for the future development of relations between their countries, but also set a definite timetable for solving the problem of their boundary questions, thus establishing a foundation for the friendly relations between the two countries to enter a new stage oriented to the 21st century.

  Party leaders in Asian countries believe that close contacts and friendly relations between high-level party leaders are beneficial to promoting various kinds of friendly cooperation between countries and bringing their standpoints on many important questions closer. It can be seen that party-to-party contacts, especially high-level ones, help the two sides find comprehensive and strategic solutions to important problems in state-to-state relations and play a unique, irreplaceable role in solidifying and developing these relations.

  2. Extensive party-to-party exchanges and cooperation play an important role in enabling the good-neighborly, friendly relations between China and its neighboring countries to enter a new stage of all-round development.

  Strengthening good-neighborly, friendly relations with neighboring countries is an important objective of China’s diplomatic work in the 21st century. In recent years, in order to implement the foreign policy of friendship and partnership with our neighbors set forth at the CPC’s Sixteenth National Congress, the CPC has established friendly relations with nearly every major political party in its neighboring countries.

  The contacts between the CPC and the governing parties of three socialist countries—Vietnam, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and Laos—are deepening daily. Not only are the parties in constant contact at the highest level, but friendly exchanges at every level and in every area are also constantly increasing. This new kind of party-to-party relations is not only beneficial for the all-round development of state-to-state relations between China and these three countries, but it also makes a positive contribution to Asian regional peace and development. The relations between the CPC and the major political parties in Japan, ROK and Mongolia are steadily developing, and these party-to-party relations play a role in promoting state-to-state relations, a role that cannot be overlooked. At present when Chinese-Japanese relations are confronted with a number of new developments, the CPC maintains comprehensive contacts with the major Japanese political parties and constantly enriches the content of its party diplomacy, and this provides an important stimulus for the relations between China and Japan to continue to develop in a sound, steady way. As the friendly cooperative relations between China and ASEAN improve, so do the CPC’s relations with the major parties in such Southeast Asian countries as Singapore, Malaysia, Kampuchea, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines, and the levels at which the parties engage in dialogue continually rises, the areas in which they cooperate continually expand, and their consensus and mutual trust continually increase. The CPC’s friendly relations with the major political parties in the ASEAN countries have already become an inseparable part of China’s political relations with these countries. The CPC’s relations with the major political parties throughout South Asia have expanded further. Its contacts with the major political parties in Central Asian and West Asian countries are also showing a good momentum of development.

  All in all, the CPC’s wide-ranging party-to-party contacts and cooperation with neighboring countries play an important role in increasing understanding between the statesmen and ordinary people of China and those countries, building consensus, promoting mutually beneficial economic, cultural and scientific cooperation, and promoting the good-neighborly, friendly relations between China and those countries to a new level of all-round development.

  3. Exchanging experience in governing one’s country through the avenue of party diplomacy to help raise the Party’s ability to run the country and its level of governance.

  Human society is an integrated whole. Different cultures and development models have to draw on others’ strengths to overcome their weaknesses if they want to stay innovative and constantly progress. In its foreign contacts, the CPC takes the standpoint of mutual respect for diversity, and it attaches great importance to having meaningful exchanges of experience with political parties and statesmen in other countries on running their countries and to understanding the trends of the times and new economic, social and scientific developments in other countries. Through the channel of party-to-party contacts, the CPC studies other countries’ new experience in their successful development and their new measures in order to enrich its own development ideas. This provides it with useful reference materials for solving various kinds of problems that arise in China’s reform and opening up. Many political parties in Asia also want to learn from the CPC’s strategy for governing China and its experience in development, and they actively carry out with the CPC various forms of theoretical discussions at different levels and other activities. The leaders of the political parties in power in some countries have clearly indicated that exchanges of experience in running their countries can help them better apply the consensus they acquire to their parties’ political practice.

  The CPC has always attached great importance to party building and has always tried to grasp the laws governing the building of a party in power from the broad perspective of world political and economic development. During recent years, the CPC has always taken foreign contacts to be an important aspect of its party building and development and has drawn political nourishment from the lessons learned from the rise and fall of some foreign parties. Since the important thought of Three Represents was put forward and particularly since the CPC’s Sixteenth National Congress took place, its various departments have drawn heavily on the valuable resources the Party obtained in its foreign contacts, and they have extensively studied the lessons from the rise and fall of some large, long standing parties that have long been in power in some Asian countries as well as the new problems parties in power in Asia face and the new measures they are taking to address them. Theoretical discussions on these issues have a direct bearing on the Party’s foreign contacts and have deepened the whole Party’s and the entire society’s understanding of the laws governing the changes of political systems in Asia and the whole world and the rise and fall of political parties. This has provided a powerful intellectual support for the CPC to promote innovation in theory and practice, reform methods of leadership and raise governing capacity, and improve the leadership and working systems.

  4. Actively participating in multilateral activities of political parties and projecting the CPC’s good image as upholding reform and opening up, progressing with the times and being devoted to peace and development.

  Against the present backdrop of economic globalization and world multipolarization, multilateral contacts between political parties are constantly becoming more dynamic and political parties throughout Asia are doing more to strengthen regional cooperation. The CPC has adapted to this new situation by actively participating in a number of multilateral activities of Asian political parties. It sent a delegation to participate in the First International Conference of Asian Political Parties (ICAPP) in Manila, the Philippines, in September 2000. It also sent a delegation to attend the Second ICAPP in Bangkok, Thailand, in November 2002 and helped with the conference preparations. In addition, the CPC sends delegations to a number of countries every year to attend congresses and conferences of friendly political parties, and it makes full use of these occasions to have exchanges with the representatives from other friendly parties. The CPC has hosted and often attended different kinds of international forums. On the basis of this variety of meaningful multilateral contacts, our friends in political parties throughout Asia have acquired a deeper understanding of the CPC’s ideas about governance and the policies it advocates, particularly the independent foreign policy of peace. China’s state-to-state relations with other Asian countries are developing; the traditional friendships between the Chinese people and the peoples of other Asian countries are becoming stronger; and there are greater prospects for the future growth of the unfolding Asian regional cooperation. Throughout Asia, political parties and the common people are highly appreciative of the positive role the CPC is playing in multilateral contacts between political parties in Asia.

  This September, the CPC will host the Third ICAPP in response to the request of a number of Asian political parties and the suggestion of the ICAPP Standing Committee. The CPC’s hosting this international party conference for the first time is not only a significant event in China’s overall state diplomacy but also a great event in the history of Asian political parties. This conference will give Asia and the whole world a positive image of the CPC as a party that is carrying out reform and opening up, steadfastly progressing with the times and always devoted to world peace and common development.  

   (People’s Daily)