Commentary: China's overseas military operations demonstrates concept of peaceful development

China's overseas military operations have demonstrated that China sticks to the path of peaceful development and pursues a national defense policy that is defensive in nature.

Saturday marks the 88th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) on August 1, 1927. Over recent years, the PLA has conducted overseas military operations under basic principles of the International Law and basic norms governing international relations.

The operations such as military exercises, peacekeeping missions and search and rescue operations, as well as those aimed at escorting civilian shipping and evacuating Chinese nationals out of dangerous spots are not only justifiable, but are also necessary.

Firstly, China, as a responsible country, is tasked with safeguarding state and nationals' interests abroad.

With the reform and opening up deepening, China has expanded its overseas interests through increasingly frequent exchanges with the outside world in culture, trade and economy as well as mutual visits of people.

Last year, the number of outbound travels by Chinese citizens surpassed 100 million. Chinese citizens travelling abroad have become the country's biggest overseas floating population. Besides, more than 20,000 Chinese enterprises have set up overseas representative offices while millions of Chinese nationals are living and working abroad.

However, turbulence, terrorism, piracy, natural disasters and epidemics in some areas have posed threats to China's overseas interests. Within such a context, China bears the responsibilities and obligations to provide aid and protection for Chinese nationals and companies, which is common for any country that are of corresponding capacity and that are under similar circumstances.

In the beginning of this year, Chinese warships evacuated 613 Chinese citizens and helped 15 countries evacuate 279 foreign citizens from conflict-torn Yemen. The act has not only ensured the safety of Chinese nationals, but also shown China's spirit of internationalism and humanitarianism.

In fact, in a globalized world nowadays, no country can seal itself off from the rest of the world. Therefore, one nation always has intertwined interests with others and homeland security is not defined within its boundary lines any more.

Therefore, China, in its white paper on military strategy released in May, defines protection of the country's overseas interests as a strategic task for the Chinese army.

"In response to the new requirement coming from the country's growing strategic interests, the armed forces will actively participate in both regional and international security cooperation and effectively secure China's overseas interests," the document said.

For instance, the Chinese navy has escorted about 6,000 Chinese and foreign vessels in the Gulf of Aden and the Somali sea area since it started the mission in December 2008 under the authorization of the United Nations (U.N.) Security Council, which has protected China's national security in a broad sense.

Moreover, of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, China has become the one that sends the largest number of peacekeepers overseas.

It has participated in more than 20 U.N. peacekeeping missions and sent nearly 30,000 peacekeepers overseas. Currently, there are around 2,100 Chinese peacekeepers fulfilling duties in conflict regions.

Amid growing doubts about China's purpose behind its overseas military operations, China has reiterated its national defense policy that is defensive in nature.

"Pursuing a security concept featuring common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security, China's armed forces will continue to develop military-to-military relations that are non-aligned, non-confrontational and not directed against any third party," the military strategy white paper said.

The defense policy, determined by the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of China after the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, has won a relatively stable international environment and opportunities for the development of China.

China, which is still dedicated to peaceful development, has no reason to deviate from the original intention of its defense policy. Endi