China wishes to see a peaceful, stable, growing, prosperous Myanmar: vice FM

YANGON, June 9 -- China wishes to see a peaceful, stable, growing and prosperous Myanmar which accords with the interest of the Myanmar people as well as China and other countries in the region, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin said on Monday.

Liu made the remarks at a joint interview here on the sidelines of senior official meetings for the ASEAN plus China, Japan and South Korea (ASEAN+3) cooperation mechanism, East Asian Summit and ASEAN Regional Forum.

From a strategic and long-term perspective, he said, China will as always work with Myanmar to strengthen mutually beneficial cooperation and do more to help improve the well-being of people in Myanmar and capacity building of the country in an effort to boost the comprehensive strategic partnership of cooperation between the two countries.

Noting that Myanmar's society is becoming more diversified in the midst of transition, which has brought new challenges to China- Myanmar relationship, Liu stressed that since the two countries established diplomatic relations over 60 years ago, China has neither interfered in the internal affairs of Myanmar nor imposed its own development pattern on the country either before or after Myanmar undertook its reform.

"China opposes any form of sanctions against Myanmar by external forces and supports Myanmar in finding a development path that suits its own national condition," he said.

Noting that China is the biggest source of foreign investment for Myanmar, he said Chinese government has demanded Chinese enterprises investing in Myanmar to abide by local laws, assess environmental and social impacts by international standard and assume corporate social responsibility.

He called for cherishing, inheriting and carrying forward the long-standing bilateral traditional friendship, citing Myanmar friends' frequent saying that "we can choose our friends but we cannot choose our neighbors" and a similar Chinese saying that "a good neighbor is better than a family relative far apart."

He expressed delight to see Myanmar's achievement and belief that Myanmar will achieve greater success.