Multilateral meet to promote trust
By Xing Zhigang (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-11-24 05:44

The influential Trilateral Commission, which initiated the establishment of G7, will hold its first regional conference in China as a new move to recognize the growing importance of the world's biggest developing country and build mutual trust among nations wary of China's rise.

"The conference suggests the increasing significance of China as an emerging global power as well as the world's greater attention on China's development," said Qin Yaqing, vice-president of the China National Association for International Studies, in an interview with China Daily.

"What's more important, it offers an opportunity and platform for China to build mutual trust with other nations through frank consultation and dialogue."

Qin, also vice-president of China Foreign Affairs University, acknowledged that the whole world is still deeply anxious about China's future development, given its fast-growing economy and overall national strength.

That is despite Beijing's repeated assurance that it will adhere to the road of peaceful development and will never threaten any other country.

"That tells why we strongly need closer exchanges with more overseas organizations such as the Trilateral Commission to dispel misgivings and reduce misunderstandings about China," Qin noted.

Qin said the conference will play a positive role in helping to create a peaceful and favourable international environment for China's development.

The meeting, co-organized by Qin's organization and the Trilateral Commission Pacific Asia Group, will run from Friday to Sunday in Beijing.

The event is expected to draw more than 100 participants, including former government officials and business leaders from China, Japan, the United States, the Republic of Korea, France and other countries.

Qin said the conference will focus its theme on the rise of China and its global implications, the building of the East Asia Community and common regional challenges in Asia.

Senior Foreign Ministry officials and experts on international studies will be invited to address the meeting to elaborate on China's development strategy and foreign policies, he added.

The Trilateral Commission, founded by David Rockefeller in 1973, is a non-governmental policy-oriented discussion group consisting of 350 leaders in business, banking, government, and mass media from North America, Western Europe, and Japan.

Over the past three decades, it has been wielding clout on government policies in countries of the three regions.

The commission has long proposed to expand the G7 mechanism to include regional powers such as Russia, China, India and Brazil with the principle of sharing leadership responsibilities.

(China Daily 11/24/2005 page2)