Measures to Eliminate International Terrorism

(November 14, 2000)

Mr Chairman:

Over the past 4 years, the Ad Hoc Committee Established by GA Resolution 51/210 has achieved remarkable results in strengthening international legal measures against terrorism. The Chinese Delegation appreciates the determination, patience, sincerity, understanding and spirit of cooperation demonstrated by member states in this process, and hopes that these indispensable features can be maintained and prevail in our future work.

In the view of the Chinese Delegation, terrorism brings great losses of life and property to innocent civilians, undermines friendly relations among countries and peoples and threatens the security and territorial integrity of states. It poses a great threat to international peace and security. It also constitutes an unscrupulous violation of fundamental human rights.

The Chinese Government has always condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. It firmly opposes using terrorist acts as a means for achieving political or any other objectives. It denounces all terrorist acts committed by any state, organisation, group or individual. It has been a fundamental policy of the Chinese Government to suppress terrorism.

The Chinese Delegation believes that the cross-boundary feature of terrorist acts is becoming increasingly evident in all its aspects. From the preparation and commission of terrorist acts to its result and from the perpetrators to the victims of the crime, there often involves a cross boundary factor. This calls for close international cooperation, especially in the elaboration of international treaties, strengthening domestic legislation, and extending judicial assistance and extradition, so as to effectively suppress all forms of terrorist acts.

China has been party to almost all the international treaties on combating terrorism. The Chinese Government is in the process of going through the necessary domestic legal procedures for acceding to the International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings, and is seriously considering signing or acceding to the International Convention on the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism in due course. The Chinese Government has thus fully demonstrated its political will to suppress all kinds of terrorist acts through concerted efforts with other counties. Presently, China is co-operating with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan in effectively combating terrorist acts within the framework of the "Shanghai Five States". In there Dushanbe Statement adopted on July 5th this year, the Five States reiterated their determination to jointly combat terrorist acts that pose major threats to regional security, stability and development, and their commitments to never allowing their territories to be used for acts harming the state sovereignty, security and social order of any of the Five States. We believe that this regional mechanism for international cooperation can play an active role in combating international terrorism.

At the same time, the Chinese Government has always held that international cooperation in combating terrorism should abide by the established norms of international law including the principles of respecting the state sovereignty, territorial integrity and non-interference of internal affairs of states, and should be conducive to the maintenance of international and regional security and stability.

Mr. Chairman:

This year, the Ad Hoc Committee has started its consideration of the draft Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism. Here, we would like to reiterate our support for the Indian initiative and express our appreciation to India for putting forward the draft convention. We believe that the adoption of the Comprehensive Convention will strengthen the existing counter-terrorism legal framework composed of the sectoral conventions on terrorism. It will serve as an important complement to the existing sectoral conventions rather than replacing them. We are happy to notice that the working group on terrorism of this Committee has conducted a preliminary consideration on the draft provisions of the convention, and has made positive progress on a number of technical points. We are quite aware that the Comprehensive Convention would also touch upon some very sensitive and complex political and legal issues, the solution of which depends on the imperative political will of all parties concerned, and on their imagination and creativity in accommodating various interests and concerns. We hope that the Ad Hoc committee can complete its work on the elaboration of the Comprehensive Convention next year.

With regard to the draft International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism that has almost commanded consensus in the Ad Hoc committee, we would like to express our appreciation of the efforts made by all parties for tackling the outstanding issues in the draft, as well as our concern over the failure to find a suitable solution. We support Ms. Cate Steains, the co-ordinator from Australia, in her efforts to have further consultations with parties concerned to reach a compromise on an early date.

As to the high level conference on terrorism under the auspices of the UN, we would like to reiterate our support in principle for the Egyptian initiative. We believe that for the high level conference to be meaningful and fruitful, and for it to obtain the anticipated goals, necessary preparations are needed beforehand.

I thank you, Mr. Chairman.