On May 4, 2002, Vice Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing, who accompanied Vice President Hu Jintao on his just-concluded official visit to Malaysia, Singapore and the United States, briefed the accompanying Chinese reporters on the major achievements of Hu's visit.

Li said that Vice President Hu Jintao's official visit to Malaysia, Singapore and the United States from April 23 to May 3 is a major diplomatic move taken by China since the beginning of this year. During the visit, Hu held meetings and talks with heads of states, governments and parliamentary leaders of the three countries respectively, and made broad contacts with personages from various fields. Vice President Hu's visit to the United States took place against the backdrop of the profound shifts of the current international situation and after the U.S.-China relations went through some major interruptions. The aims of strengthening contacts, increasing mutual understanding, seeking for common grounds while shelving differences and promoting cooperation are achieved through the visit. Malaysia and Singapore are China's friendly neighbours. Mutual understanding and trust between the two countries and China have increased and the cooperation and exchanges in various fields deepened in recent years. Vice President Hu's visit has played an active role in promoting the friendly cooperation between China and the two countries as well as the ASEAN.

Li summaried the achievements of this visit in the following four aspects:

Firstly, the visit has contributed to consolidating the political basis of China's relations with the three countries.

Since last year, President Jiang and President Bush have held two meetings in Beijing and Shanghai and reached important consensus on the development of the Sino-U.S. constructive and cooperative relationship. Hu's visit meant the maintenance of the momentum of high-level dialogue between the two countries. Hu noted that despite their differences and disagreements, China and the United States, as major countries of influence in the world, share extensive common interests on safeguarding of peace and stability of Asia-Pacific region and the world at large. China attaches great importance to the Sino-U.S. relations and stands ready to work with the U.S. side to further implement the consensus reached in the meeting of the heads of state of the two countries. President Bush said that he is looking forward to President Jiang's visit to U.S. this fall and will make good arrangements. Vice President Hu invited U.S. Vice President Cheney to visit China and Cheney accepted it with pleasure. Both sides agreed to expand the cooperation in the fields of trade and economy, anti-terrorism, technology, environmental protection and energy and take measures to resume and reinforce military exchanges, in order to promote the bilateral relations.

In Malaysia and Singapore, Hu and the two countries' leaders expressed a strong aspiration to further develop partnership based on good neighborliness and mutual understanding, and had in-depth exchange of views on how to further strengthen bilateral exchange and cooperation in all areas.

Secondly, the visit has contributed to enhancing the three countries' understanding of the domestic and foreign policies of China, and promited the development of mutually beneficial cooperations.

During his major speech in Washington, Vice President Hu made a comprehensive elaboration on the domestic and foreign policies of China. He emphasized that domestically, China will adhere to the reform and opening-up policy and unswervingly follow the developing path which conforms to its national situation; externally, China will continue to carry out the independent foreign policy of peace and commit itself to the maintenance of world peace and stability. And China wishes to develop friendly relationship with all countries including the U.S. With regard to the doubt some countries have about whether China can fulfil its promises to the World Trade Organization (WTO), Hu noted that the Chinese government will honour its commitments in real earnest and strictly follow the rules of WTO. China is gradually pushing forward the opening up of various industries, and the total import volume within the next five years is to reach US$1.5 trillion, which will bring about huge business opportunities to foreign enterprises. U.S. business community responded enthusiastically to Hu's remarks and expressed their full confidence in China's future, and promised to take an even more active attitude to support Sino-U.S. relationship and expand the cooperation with China.

During his speech in Malaysia's Asia Strategy and Leadership Institution, Vice President Hu focused on the development of China and Asia, which is an issue of common concern to the audience. He pointed out that the development of China cannot do without Asia, while the prosperity of Asia cannot do without China. History has proved and will continue to prove that China is a positive force in promoting the development and maintaining the stability of Asia. Hu's speech was warmly welcomed in Malaysia and drew positive responses from the neighboring countries. Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad stated that Malaysia has always regarded China as a friend and cooperation partner. Singaporean President Nathan noted that Hu's speech is a goodwill announcement expressing China's willingness to share its development achievements with other countries in this region. Singaporean Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong said the development in China has brought more opportunities for Singapore in fields of investment and trade.

During Hu's visit in Malaysia, the two sides signed the cooperation agreement on the establishment of the Sino-Malaysian bilateral business council. In Singapore, Hu and Singaporean leaders reached consensus on the reinforcement of the bilateral cooperation in the fields of information technology, life science and new material. The two sides signed the understanding memorandum on the training projects of the Chinese mayors, with the aim to further strengthen the cooperation on the human resources development. Leaders of Malaysia and Singapore highly evaluated the contribution China has made to promoting cooperation between East-Asian countries, noting they are willing to work together with China to push forward the construction of the Chinese and ASEAN free trade zone.

Thirdly, Hu's visit has contributed to strengthening the mutual understanding and coordination between China and the three countries in handling major international issues.

During his visit, Hu expounded on many occasions China's views on the current international situation and hot issues such as anti-terrorism. Upon his arrival in New Nork, Hu went to the ruins of the World Trade Center and paid his condolence to the victims of "9.11" Incident from U.S., China and other countries. During the meetings and talks, Hu expressed that China is against all forms of terrorism and is willing to strengthen anti-terrorism cooperation with all countires. Speaking highly of China's principled stance in this regard, leaders of the three countries stated they attach great importance to the constructive role China plays in international affairs and expressed the hope to continue consultations with the Chinese side in international issues.

Fourthly, Vice President Hu had a frank exchange of views with the U.S. leaders on the issues of Taiwan, human rights and non-proliferation. The two sides agreed to expand their common points and appropriately handle their differences on the basis of mutual respect, equality and seeking common ground while shelving differences, so as to prevent the deliberate interuptions to the healthy development of the bilateral relations.

Hu reiterated to the U.S. side on many occasions that the Taiwan issue is the most important and sensitive question at the core of Sino-US relations. It bears on the reunification cause of China and touches upon the hearts of 1.3 billion Chinese people. The Chinese government adheres to the basic policy of "peaceful reunification and one country, two systems" and the eight proposals by President Jiang Zemin on the resolution of the Taiwan question. It is dedicated to the early peaceful reunification of China. We cannot allow "the independence of Taiwan " and any harm to the integrity of China's sovereignty and territory. If the "Taiwan independence" forces and their splittist activities are left to develop without restraint, the outcome will be catastrophic. Hu hopes the U.S. side will strictly follow the One- China policy and the principles of the three Sino-U.S. joint communiques, and play a constructive role in China's peaceful reunification rather than sending wrong signals to "Taiwan Independence" forces. U.S. leaders said that they understand the sensitive nature of the Taiwan question. They reinterated they will stick to One-China policy and the three joint communiques, and will neither support "Taiwan independence"nor encourage any splittist activities of "Taiwan Independence" forces.

Li said that Vice President's visit to the three countries has reached expected goals and was a satisfactory success.

During the visit to U.S., wherever they went, the Chinese delegation could feel the earnest aspirations of American people from all walks of life on strengthening of the China-US relations, and was deeply moved and encouraged by the warmth and sincere friendship of the American people and the Chinese community. It is beyond doubt that as long as both sides can regard and handle the bilateral relations from a strategic perspective and implement the consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries, Sino-U.S. relations can develop healthily and stably, for it is in the fundamental interests of the two countries and is beneficial to the world peace, stability and development. Hu's visit has contributed to enhancing mutual understanding between China and U.S., and will have a positive impact on implementing the consensus reached between the two heads of state and promoting the bilateral constructive and cooperative relationship. Malaysia and Singapore are China's important neighboring countries, and it is China's set policy to develop good-neighborly relationship of friendship and cooperation with the two countries. The Vice President's visit marks a solid step forward in strengthening China's relations with the two countries and will also serve the interests of the people of Asia and the world.