Extracts. China Attaches Importance to Sino-African Relations: Vice President Chinese Vice President Hu Jintao Wednesday said the Chinese government has attached great importance to its relations with African countries, noting that it is a major part of China's peaceful and independent foreign policy to strengthen and develop friendly cooperation with African countries. The visiting vice president made the remarks during talks with his Ugandan counterpart Speciosa Kazibwe at the International Conference Center in the Ugandan capital Kampala on Wednesday afternoon. China supports African countries in deciding their political systems on their own and choosing the development roads which best suit their national conditions, said Hu. It also supports African countries to guard themselves against external interference, safeguard their national sovereignty and political stability, promote the development of their economy, and to enjoy an equal say in international affairs, he added. China will continue to give economic assistance within its own power to African countries with no political conditions attached and develop trade and economic cooperation with them in various fields, said the vice president. Hu stressed that China will forge a long-term, stable and new-typed relationship of equality and mutual benefit with African countries based on the principle of "sincere friendship, equal treatment, unity and cooperation, common progress and looking forward to the future". Recalling the successful China-Africa Cooperation Forum held in Beijing last October, the vice president said the event was aimed at strengthening unity and cooperation between China and African countries. The forum has formed a good framework for the further development of relations between China and African countries, he said. During the talks, Ugandan Vice President Kazibwe spoke highly of China's support to Africa's development, saying the China-Africa Forum shows China' s willingness to support the development of African countries. She said the Ugandan people appreciate it very much that China will write off part of African countries' debt, adding that this move will surely promote friendship between China and African counties. **** It's Time for US to Pay Debts "It's right and proper to pay off the money one owes". However, what is inconceivable is that for more than a decade, the United States <http://www.peopledaily.com.cn/english/data/usa.html> has all along been in arrears with the UN membership due, with the result that the United Nations has been in financial straits and has had to borrow all around in order to keep it running. In the past two years, the UN fiscal budget has experienced a zero growth of about US$2.5 billion. Meanwhile, according to statistics, the United States has so far been in arrears with US$1.5 billion worth of UN membership due. On the Christmas Eve last year, the plenary session of the 55th UN General Assembly passed, by the method of reaching unanimity through consultation, a new program on UN regular budget and the ratio of share of expenditures. This was a similar resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly for the first time since 1973. According to the resolution, the rate of assessment on the regular budget for the United States is to be reduced from the original 25 percent to 22 percent, its share for peace-keeping expenditure will also be cut from the original 30 percent to 27 percent. The resolution says, if the United States fails to clear off all the membership due it owes by 2003, the ratio of its share of membership due will be restored to the previous level. The establishment of the United Nations was one of the major events that affected the process of human history in the 20th century. At present, its activities have covered many fields of human life, in particular, it is playing an irreplaceable role in safeguarding world peace and promoting common development. The final resolution passed by the United Nations at the end of the century was a resolution concerning the rate of the share of membership due, an issue that concerns its own subsistence. People cannot help asking: Many poor developing countries can pay membership due in time, why then the United States, the richest country in the world, cannot fulfill its bounden duty as set in the "ability to pay" principle and thus becomes the country owing the most debts to the United Nations? Could it be that it is really so poor as to be unable to pay the membership due? The answer is definitely negative. At present, the US economy is in a stage of unprecedented growth with its annual GNP reaching as high as nearly US$10,000 billion, representing about 30 percent of the world total. Compared with the huge sum of US$10,000 billion, the petty amount of US$1.5 billion is just like "a hair from nine cows' back-the least amount". In sharp contrast to this, the United States, in its bid to maintain its strategic superiority, consolidate and strengthen its position as a superpower, stints no money in increasing its military expenditures. According to the Americans' own estimation, from 1940 to 1996, the money the US spent on the development and production of nuclear weapons alone had reached as high as US$5,000 billion. After the conclusion of the Cold War, the United States had twice substantially increased its defense expenditures. Last year, the 2001 defense budget passed by the US Congress stands at US$288 billion, a sharp rise of US$18 billion over that of the previous fiscal year. If only the United States can use less than one-tenth of its newly increased military spending to repay its overdue membership fee, it can readily remove the label "a country which repudiates a debt". Regrettably, the United States simply does not want to do so. The US defaults of UN membership due is not an "economic issue", but rather, it does so out of "political consideration". As everybody knows, the United States has special relationship with the United Nations. The United Nations was the cornerstone for post-war international cooperation designed by former US President Roosevelt. The United States held the dominant right over the whole process from the proposal and formulation of the UN Charter to deciding on the founding members. The United States not only provided the United Nations with a seat for its headquarters, but had all along been the biggest financial supporter of the United Nations. However, the United States has also gained inestimable benefits from the United Nations. Leaving aside the fact that the establishment of the UN headquarters in New York has brought considerable economic benefits for the United States, from the political point of view alone, the United States has long been flaunting the banner of the United Nations to pursue its global strategy, therefore, in the eyes of many Americans, the United Nations is only "an extremely effective tool" in the hands of the United States. However, along with the participation of numerous developing countries, the combination of forces of the United Nations has undergone tremendous change and its role has experienced qualitative change, it is no longer a "voting machine" to be willfully controlled by the United States, in the view of some US Congressmen, the "membership due paid by the United States is incommensurate to its right to speak in the United Nations". That is one of the main reasons why the United States has "turned hostile" to the United Nations. On the other hand, US defaults of membership due have put the UN finance in a straitened circumstance. This can further "prove" the colossal expenditures of the United Nations and its poor management, it also serves as a foil to the necessity for the United States to tighten its control over the United Nations so as to incorporate the reform of UN agencies into the American concept. In addition, although globalism after Cold War continues to sway US diplomatic policy, US domestic politics tend to be conservative, the trend of new isolationism has raised its head, the United States is unwilling to participate too many UN actions which bring not much repayment to it. This pragmatic attitude characterized by "utilizing it when necessary; throwing it away when unnecessary" naturally also dampens its enthusiasm in paying membership due. The American long-term defaults of huge sum of membership due are very unpopular, it is not only widely reproached within the United Nations and thus seriously harms the image of the United States, but domestically also goes against the popular will. Seven US former Secretaries of State once sent letters to US Congress, earnestly urging the latter to approve allocations to repay its UN membership due in arrears as soon as possible. At the turn of the century, acceptance of the UN's new program on the ratio of share of membership due by various UN member states demonstrates the determination and political will of various countries to strengthen the role of the United Nations. The United States has long been complaining that the proportion of its share of membership due is too big and demanding a reduction. Now, this demand of the United States has largely been satisfied. As the saying goes, "Credit is weightier than gold", if the United States still fails to pay its overdue membership fee timely, fully and unconditionally, what else can it have to say. **** Venezuela Rejects US Dollar as National Currency The Venezuela <http://www.peopledaily.com.cn/english/data/Venezuela.html> Central Bank (BCV) discarded the plan to adopt the US dollar as national currency on Tuesday. In a statement to the press, Diego Luis Castellanos, president of the BCV, said that the Venezuelan Constitution only recognizes the bolivar as national currency. If a sole regional currency is proposed, the US dollar will not be considered either, he added. Among South American countries, only Ecuador uses the US dollar as its national currency. Regarding the proposal by the Inter-American Development Bank President Enrique Iglesias to use a unique regional currency -- similar to the European Union -- Castellanos said the plan will be discussed at the next meeting of the multilateral organization in Santiago, Chile. **** Anti-cult Association Set up by Former Falun Gong Practitioners One hundred and fifteen former Falun Gong practitioners recently launched an anti-cult association in Yunnan <http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/data/province/yunnan.html> Province, southwest China and they themselves become the first group of members of the association. This is the first non-governmental anti-cult association formed by former Falun Gong followers in China, local sources said. Xu Taiyuan and Xu Xiaohua, two major tutors of the former Yunnan general station for promoting Falun Gong, were among the first members of the anti-cult association. They said that they support the Falun Gong ban from the bottom of their hearts. "We hope to do something to assist the Party and the government to root out all cult organizations," they said in a message advocating the setup of the association. The two former Falun Gong followers said that they have realized, from their own experience, the significance of uprooting Falun Gong and other cult organizations in saving hundreds of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners and maintaining social stability and economic development of China. **** Chinese Vice President Ends Visit to Cyprus Chinese Vice President Hu Jintao <http://www.peopledaily.com.cn/english/leaders/vpresident.html> left Nicosia for Kampala on Wednesday, winding up his two-day official visit to the Mediterranean island of Cyprus <http://www.peopledaily.com.cn/english/data/Cyprus.html> . During his stay in Cyprus, Hu held talks with Cypriot President Glafcos Clerides and President of House of Representatives Spyros Kyprioanou on bilateral ties and regional issues of mutual concern. Three bilateral agreements on investment protection and cooperation in telecommunications were also signed during the visit. _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
