Middle East Special Envoy: Dialogue Not Interference the Key

By staff reporter LI WUZHOU

In the early part of this year, political demonstrations swept Tunisia and Egypt, spreading into various countries of the Middle East and North Africa, escalating into large-scale bloody conflicts in some places.

What is China's standpoint on the Middle East revolution? China Today posed this question to Wu Sike, China's special Middle East envoy since March 2009. A former Ambassador to Saudi Arabia and Egypt he was also China's first plenipotentiary representative to the League of Arab States. This was his response:

China, from the central government to the general public, has paid close attention to recent happenings in some countries in the Middle East. When visiting the United Arab Emirates this February, Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi had a telephone dialogue with his Egyptian opposite number, expressing the concerns of the Chinese government. China's media have also tracked and reported the unfolding events.

Our general position is that we think they are internal affairs of the nations concerned. Accordingly, in line with China's basic principle in foreign affairs, we respect the choices the people of these countries make to solve their problems by ways they think appropriate. Of course, it is very important to stress our hope that they can solve problems through peaceful means and dialogue.

China has explicitly stated that it does not support foreign countries interfering with the internal affairs of other countries, and we are confident that the Arab peoples, with their ancient history and splendid civilization, have the wisdom and capability to solve their own problems, and that via discussion and exchange of opinions they can find a development mode and system that is right for them. This has been China's consistent attitude throughout these events.

The Middle East is of great importance to China: the region's strategic position and its rich energy resources both have huge implications for world economic development. Also, the interdependency of the Middle East and China has grown rapidly, so China's relations with the Middle East have become closer. It is natural for us to pay attention to this region.

That attention is not confined to concern about oil: we have been developing relations across the board. The Chinese nationals recently evacuated from Libya include railway constructors and people working on telecommunications and irrigation projects. Those in the petroleum sector are just part of the bigger picture, illustrating a much wider degree of involvement. Our hope is for regional stability, which is in the interests of those nations and their peoples, of the world, and of China too. We hope they can solve their problems through dialogue and negotiation.