Page 5 - ON BUILDING A HUMAN COMMUNITY WITH A SHARED FUTURE

SPEECH AT THE KÖRBER FOUNDATION

purpose of its foreign policy is to protect world peace and promote
common development. China has stated on numerous occasions that it
opposes all forms of hegemonism and power politics, does not interfere
in other countries’ internal affairs, and will never seek hegemony or
expansion. In our policies, this is what we reflect; in our institutions,
this is how things are designed; and in our practice, this is what we have
always followed. Of course, China will resolutely protect its sovereignty,
security, and development interests. No country should expect us to
swallow the bitter fruit of an injury to Chinese sovereignty, security, or
development interests.
In short, China’s pursuit of a peaceful development path is not an
act of expediency, still less is it diplomatic rhetoric. It is the decision we
came to through an objective assessment of our history, present, and
future. It represents confidence in our thinking and a readiness to act
on it. A peaceful development path is in the interests of China and the
world. We can think of no reason that we should not take this approach
that has proven so effective in practice.

Ladies and Gentlemen,
Friends,
Last November, the 18th CPC Central Committee held its Third
Plenary Session. The Session produced top-level planning on the future
of reform and opening up, and introduced a roadmap and timetable for
reform. It also enunciated that our overall goal is to improve and develop
the socialist system with Chinese characteristics and to modernize our
system and capacity for governance, thereby putting in place better
institutional foundations for China’s long-term development.
China is currently speeding up efforts toward a new kind of
industrialization, the application of IT technologies, urbanization, and
agricultural modernization, and this is going to unleash tremendous
investment and consumer demand. With a per capita GDP of now
close to US$7,000, China has entered a period of rapid upgrading in the
structure of private consumption and of industry. In 2013, the service
sector for the first time overtook industrial manufacturing to represent
a bigger share of the economy. The service sector’s share of and
importance in the Chinese economy will continue to grow; high value-

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