Mr. President,

The Chinese Delegation was deeply shocked by and strongly condemns the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.  The item of Measures to Eliminate International Terrorism has been deliberated at the General Assembly for quite some years.  But this year, the item has become more special and urgent than ever before.

Terrorism, which endangers innocent lives, causes losses of social wealth and jeopardizes state security, constitutes a serious challenge to human civilization and dignity as well as a serious threat to international peace and security.  The international community, therefore, must pool wisdom together and strengthen international cooperation against terrorism.

Mr. President,

The United Nations, which is the important forum for States to cooperate with each other in combating terrorism, should play a leading role in the international effort to this end.  The main organs and other relevant agencies of the United Nations should step up their coordination and cooperation in preventing and combating international terrorism.  The Security Council should play its due part and establish an international anti-terrorism mechanism.  Since the adoption in 1994 by the General Assembly of the Declaration on Measures to Eliminate International Terrorism, commendable progress has been made in strengthening measures to combat international terrorism, as represented by the adoption of the International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombing and the International Convention for the Suppression of Financing of Terrorism as well as the on-going formulation of an International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism and a Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism.  States should be encouraged to become parties as soon as possible to the existing international anti-terrorism conventions and implement them faithfully. More positive and constructive efforts should be made in order to finalize the above-mentioned two draft anti-terrorism conventions that are still under negotiation. States should take necessary measures, in accordance with their national laws and international obligations, to cut off any financial, material, military and all other sorts of support to terrorists, be determined in bringing perpetrators of terrorist acts to justice and refrain from supporting or tolerating them for whatever reason or in whatever manner.  Resolution 1373 adopted by the Security Council on September 28th should be faithfully implemented.

The fight against international terrorism, which will be a protracted as well as complicated task, should be guided by the Purposes and Principles of the Charter of the United Nations and other well-established norms of international law. An integrated approach involving political, diplomatic, economic, legal and other means should be adopted in this regard.  We are strongly against linking terrorism to a certain religion or ethnicity.  In order to eliminate international terrorism, efforts must be made to address both the symptom and its underlying causes.  In the international fight against terrorism, the diversity of civilization should be respected and the issue of development be addressed vigorously so as to enable people of all levels in all countries to benefit from globalization.  The international community should strengthen its efforts to solve regional conflicts in a more positive manner and seek just and reasonable solutions on the basis of the Purposes and Principles of the UN Charter.

Mr. President,

The Government of China firmly opposes and condemns terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.  It is China’s basic policy to prevent and combat all terrorist activities.  China has already been party to nine out of the twelve international conventions against terrorism and active preparations are under way for it to join the two recently adopted conventions, i.e. the International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombing and the International Convention for the Suppression of Financing of Terrorism.  The Chinese Government has dedicated itself to the promotion of regional and bilateral cooperation against terrorism and has, within the framework of the Shanghai Organization on Cooperation, concluded with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan the Shanghai Convention on Combating Terrorism, Separatism and Extremism. The Chinese Government is determined to fight resolutely, together with all other States, against terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.

Thank you, Mr. President.