Chinese President Hu Jintao said Saturday that the nation must
carry out comprehensively the guideline of maintaining a
coordinated development of national defense and economy, so as to
ensure a favorable security environment for the nation's
modernization drive.
On the basis of economic development, China must make efforts to
push forward the construction of national defense, Hu, also general
secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China
(CPC), said.
Hu made the remarks when presiding over a group study focusing
on how to coordinate the military and economic development. Members
of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee participated
in the study.
Hu said the current international situation in general favors
China's goal of building a "xiaokang", or relatively well-off,
society.
"We should hold high the banner of peace, development and
cooperation, adhere to the independent foreign policy of peace,
unswervingly persist in the way of peace development, and
unswervingly safeguard world peace and promote common development,"
he said.
"At the same time, we should put national sovereignty and
security first, resolutely safeguard the fundamental interest of
the country, resolutely safeguard national sovereignty and
territorial integrity," he said.
He urged party committees and governments at various levels to
support the reform and development in the field of national
defense, further improve the construction of the reserve forces of
national defense, establish a prompt and efficient mobilization
system, and further improve the construction of the national
defense-related legal system.
Hu also extended sincere festival greetings on behalf of the CPC
Central Committee and the State Council to all soldiers and
officers of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) as well as the armed
police, as the 77th founding anniversary of the PLA, which falls on
August 1, nears.
(Xinhua News Agency July 24, 2004)