Spotlight: Foreign experts speak highly of China's new defense white paper

Foreign experts have lauded China's 9th defense white paper published on Tuesday, saying the document proves that China is honoring its commitment to peaceful development and its promise to improve military transparency.

Commenting on China's strategy of "active defense," Vladimir Kozin, a professor with the Russian Academy of Military Sciences, pointed out that there was a difference between China's active defense and the preemptive strike doctrine employed by the United States.

"China is going to actively prevent any negative developments and challenges that could potentially harm its national interests," Kozin said. "But it must be clearly understood that active defense has nothing in common with hegemonism or threatening the other countries."

"On the opposite, the new doctrine would help better counter new global security challenges and changing international relations."

Kozin also commended China's reiteration of its pledge of never using nuclear weapons first, urging that all nuclear powers ought to follow China's initiative.

"This strategy could be seen as a key sector of China's peaceful development path, as the armed forces will remain a staunch force in maintaining world peace. In that regard, China's doctrine is very positive and facilitates global stability, so no one would dare to challenge it," the Russian professor concluded.

Pierre Picquart, a French specialist in geopolitics and professor at the University of Paris-VIII, said that with an emphasis on active defense and closer cooperation on international security, China's defense white paper will enhance its army's participation in international peacekeeping and humanitarian aid missions.

Mohamed Abdel-Wahhab al-Saket, former Arab League Ambassador to China and a member of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs, said that China's general policy regarding issues of islands has always been based on resolving them through peaceful ways.

The release of the white paper is a positive step of China and is aimed to prevent any future harms, he said. The move is a strategic necessity and a right for China, giving a kind of early warning in anticipation of any issues that might happen in the future, he said.

This does not contradict with China's general peaceful policy. For a long time, China has been making joint efforts with neighboring states to maintain a peaceful environment for economic growth and sustainable development through agreements and active interaction, al-Saket noted.

"China has always been keen on creating concord with its neighbors and on the non-presence of foreign military bases in the region, which helps for peace and development," he said.

Bambang Suryono, president of the Nanyang ASEAN Foundation based in Jakarta, told Xinhua that China is facing threats from such aspects as hegemonism as well as militarism while the situation in the surrounding region is getting more and more complicated.

The release of the white paper is aimed at not only protecting China's national security, but also deterring continuously growing power politics and imperialism, he said.

"By releasing the white paper, China revealed to the world its military strategy, indicating the increasing transparency of its defense policy as well as the determination to maintain global peace," Suryono said.

As the second-largest economy and the most populous country in the world, the release of the white paper will contribute to regional military and defense transparency and have a positive effect on global and regional peace, he added. Endi