BEIJING, March 15 (Xinhua) -- China reinforced
parliamentary exchanges with foreign countries in 2007 to create a favorable
global environment for domestic development and bolster the construction of a
harmonious world.
Parliamentary exchanges conducted by the National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature, is an
important supplement to inter-governmental diplomacy to enhance mutual political
trust and step up pragmatic cooperation, said Wu Bangguo, chairman of the NPC
Standing Committee.
Last year, the NPC sent out more than 110
delegations, mostly for legislative exchanges. Meanwhile, the NPC received 91
delegations with nearly 1,000 members from 56 countries, among whom were
speakers from 22 countries including the United States, Russia, Japan, the
Republic of Korea, India and South Africa.
Former European Parliament (EP) President Josep
Borrell Fontelles traveled to China in July 2006, marking the first visit by a
top EP official to China in 13 years. Fontelles said that he witnessed huge
changes happening in China through this visit and thus had a new understanding
of China.
"Getting to know the real China is the best way to
dispel any misunderstandings and to solve any problems," he said.
Thereafter, the former president rebutted the theory
of "China threat" in an article, noting that there was no reason for the
Europeans to feel threatened by an awakening China.
China's parliamentary exchanges used to be temporary
and symbolic until the reform and opening-up, said Liu Ming with the Center of
Contemporary International Studies of the Communication University.
In the past few years, China's economic growth put
forward higher requirements for the country's diplomacy, lending NPC a more
active role in global arena.
Indeed, compared with inter-governmental diplomacy,
parliamentary exchanges seem to be more casual with subtle influences. On behalf
of public opinions, legislators tend to be less limited by their political
status and more candid and pragmatic in communication.
After the June 4 event in 1989, many Western
countries imposed sanctions on China and high-level exchanges were once frozen.
NPC then took the initiative in 1990 to invite the commission des affaires
etrangeres of the French Senate and the Chamber of Deputies of the Italian
Christine Democratic Party. Delegations were helpful to lifting the sanctions.
With regular exchanges with China, Congress of the
United States played a key role in reducing bias in the country. Newt Gingrich,
former Speaker of the House, was impressed by China's religious freedom and
democracy after his visit in 1997. While the U.S. Congress was wrestling with
the White House over diplomatic policies to China, parliamentary exchange was a
good channel bolstering relations of the two countries.
Against a backdrop of globalization, parliamentary
exchanges also help boost economic and trade cooperation.
During Wu Bangguo's fruitful visit to South Africa
from last Aug. 28 to Sept. 9, China and Brazil signed a series of cooperative
agreements on trading in jet planes, jointly building hydro-electricity plants
and other important projects.
China and Chile inked a referendum of understanding
on cooperation in the production and trade of copper. Wu and Chilean President
Michelle Bachelet also announced that free trade agreement between the two
countries would be brought into effect from Oct. 1, and that free trade
investment and service trade talks would also be officially launched then.
Talking about future development, Wu Bangguo
underscored the establishment of regular bilateral dialogue mechanism with
foreign parliaments. "It is an important step to ensure the consistency and
stability of diplomacy and beef up its efficiency," he said.
In 2007, the NPC will start the regular bilateral
dialogue mechanism with the parliaments of seven more countries including
Australia, Brazil, Chile, Egypt, India, South Africa and the Republic of Korea,
bringing the total number of countries under such a mechanism with China to 15.
By Xinhua writers Bai Xu and Xu Song
