Hu calls for peaceful exploitation of arospace
President: Nation doesn’t believe in military expansionism, arms race
Aerospace should be used for peaceful purposes only, and China is ready to take part in any interntional cooperation to ensure aerospace security, President Hu Jintao said on Friday.
Hu made the remarks while meeting 30 heads of foreign airforce delegations in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
At the opening of the two-day forum, PLAAF Chief General Xu Ciliang urged all airforces in the world to join hands to safeguard aerospace.
The People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) invited all the foreign guests to stay for an additional day to watch one of its units during training in Shandong, the home province of Confucious and Sun Tzu, the author of the Art of War.
Xu’s remarks came just a few days after China’s top political advisor Jia Qinglin called for making better use of Sun Zhu’s dialectical philosophy of war to establish lasting peace and promote common prosperity in the world.
English translations of The Art of War were distributed among the delegates at the forum.
Defense Minister Liang Guanglie echoed Xu’s call for harmony and understanding and urged the delegates to work together to safeguard aerospace. His call was in response to some foreign media’s misinterpretation of Xu’s Nov 1 speech as a declaration of China’s plans to put weapons into space.
ACM Chris Moran, commander-in-chief, Air Command of the UK’sRoyal Air Force, said the forum was a platform to enhace understanding, and that the lack of transparency remained the main obstacle to achieve that goal.
China Daily 7th November 2009