Middle East turmoil unlikely to go global
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GT: How will the present turmoil in the Middle East affect China? What should China do when faced with the drastic change?
Wu: First, I'd like to mention that China has sound and firm friendly relationships of mutual respect, trust and cooperation with these Arab countries. Since the 1950s when we first established relationship with these countries, there have been big changes in many countries and even in the regional and international situation, but our relationships with the Arab countries have managed to stay stable.
Today there are platforms like the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum and China-Arab States Economic and Trade Forum to push forward the development of the relationships and to cooperate in various areas. I'm optimistic about the future relationships between China and countries in this region.
Sure, the present turmoil in this region has affected China negatively. We had many Chinese workers in Libya to participate in the infrastructure construction and other projects. When the turmoil emerged, without a peaceful and safe environment, the cooperation has to be stopped and even people's lives were threatened. Thus, there will be economic losses.
Besides, the turmoil has caused rising oil prices, setting a record high for the past two and a half years, which will affect the struggling recovery of the world economy. China is no exception.
Therefore, it is important to solve the problems and restore peace and stability in this region through peaceful methods and negotiation. It is in both China and other countries' interests.
In such a situation, we should first of all make sure Chinese nationals in the countries involved are safe. Meanwhile, as more and more Chinese companies are going global, we should strengthen our abilities at risk assessment.
The Chinese economy is increasingly linked to the world. We must make more efforts in building an emergency mechanism and risk-aversion mechanism to reduce the loss to the least.
In addition, we should continue to push forward the peacemaking process in this region and advocate solving some hot issues through negotiation and dialogue.
The large-scale evacuation from Libya shows our strength in protecting our people's lives and property. We should continue to increase our strength so when emergency happens we will be able to protect our interest.
