Preface     

    The year 2008 was an extraordinary one in the history of the People's Republic of China (PRC). In that year China overcame a devastating earthquake, with the epicenter in Wenchuan County, Sichuan Province; successfully hosted the 29th Olympic Games and Paralympics in Beijing; and greeted the 30th anniversary of the adoption of reform and opening-up policies.

    Historic changes have taken place in the relations between contemporary China and the rest of the world. The Chinese economy has become an important part of the world economy, China has become an important member of the international system, and the future and destiny of China have been increasingly closely connected with the international community. China cannot develop in isolation from the rest of the world, nor can the world enjoy prosperity and stability without China.

    Starting from this new historical turning point, China is unswervingly taking the road of peaceful development, unswervingly carrying out its policies of reform and opening-up and socialist modernization, unswervingly pursuing an independent foreign policy of peace and a national defense policy solely aimed at protecting its territory and people, and endeavoring to build, together with other countries, a harmonious world of enduring peace and common prosperity.

    China adheres to taking the Scientific Outlook on Development as an important guiding principle for national defense and armed forces building; is actively adapting itself to new trends in world military development, taking it as its fundamental purpose to safeguard national sovereignty, security and development, taking reform and innovation as its fundamental driving force, and advancing the modernization of its national defense and armed forces from a higher starting point.

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