Ambassador Lu: China’s Role in Bringing about Peace and Development
“At present, changes unseen for a century are taking place at an accelerated pace, giving rise to unprecedented transformations of our world, our times and history.” With those words, H.E. Lu Shaye, Ambassador of China in France, began his speech to the Schiller Institute conference in Strasbourg. We highlight a few excerpts here, and the full speech will be published in the upcoming issue of EIR (larouchepub.com).
“The ongoing conflict on the European continent is attracting worldwide attention. More than a year after the start of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, where does the outcome lie?… Depending on the positions and interests of the various parties, there are two diametrically opposed options: the first is to continue hostilities until one side prevails over the other; the second is to promote peace talks to find a solution acceptable to both antagonists…
“The Russian-Ukrainian conflict highlights two ways of thinking in today’s world, pitting two strategic choices against each other: that of confrontation and conflict versus that of dialogue and cooperation, or that of the zero-sum game versus that of mutual benefit and win-win. Moreover, the conflict between Russia and Ukraine is itself the disastrous consequence of America’s obsession with the logic of bloc confrontation after the end of the Cold War, reflected in NATO’s continued eastward expansion to restrict Russia’s strategic space and drive it into a corner.
“And today, the USA is trying to launch a ‘new Cold War’ against China. On the political front, it is sticking ideological labels on other countries, calling China an ‘authoritarian dictatorship’ and rallying ‘value allies’ under the banner of defending ‘democracy’ to launch a ‘new crusade’ against China. On the military and security front, the US is busy creating ‘little clans’: from bilateral military alliances to the trilateral partnership (AUKUS), from the quadrilateral dialogue (Quad) to the Five Eyes alliance, via the ‘Indo-Pacific version of NATO’. On the economic, commercial and technological fronts, projecting its own model onto China by assuming that any great power practices hegemony, the US is building ‘little courts surrounded by high walls’, and seeking to decouple and break supply chains in order to crack down, comprehensively, multi-sectorally, intensively and continuously, on China’s high-tech enterprises and critical industries such as semiconductors. European countries have been forced to choose sides….”
Ambassador Lu then reviewed the achievements of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, as well as the aims of the Global Initiatives it has launched to resolve conflicts in the world and help other countries to develop and to defeat poverty.
“On the question of Sino-American relations, we have no intention of challenging or supplanting the United States, nor of becoming a new United States, nor of waging a ‘new Cold War’ of bloc confrontation….
“On China-EU relations, China and Europe have no fundamental conflict of interest. On the contrary, we both benefit from each other’s development, both advocate strategic autonomy and multilateralism, and we have a broad consensus on global issues such as the fight against climate change. China and Europe should strengthen mutual trust, remove doubts through fruitful cooperation, and work hand in hand to inject stability, certainty and positive energy into the world….
“Europe was the main battleground of the two world wars and is the scene of the current conflict. Europe should therefore have a more direct experience and a deeper understanding of the importance of peace and development. As we stand at a critical new crossroads in history, I hope that Europe’s far-sighted leaders will engage in deep reflection, actively play their part and contribute their wisdom and strength to lead their respective countries and the whole of humanity to make the right choice.”
