Xi vows to continue improving Russia ties

Russian guest Party chief Xi Jinping greets Boris Gryzlov, chairman of the United Russia party’s supreme council, in Beijing on Wednesday. Xi highlighted the importance of further developing ties as he met a number of political leaders from Russia. Photo by Wu Zhiyi / China Daily

China's Party chief guaranteed on Wednesday that Beijing will not change its diplomatic priority of developing Sino-Russian relations, as the third meeting of the dialogue mechanism between the countries' two ruling parties took place in Beijing.

Xi Jinping, China's top political leader and head of the military, told the representatives from Russia's ruling party, United Russia, that the new Chinese leadership will not change its friendship policy toward Russia and its strategy to develop preferential Sino-Russian ties.

China sees Russia as one of its most important strategic partners and will favorably maintain and develop the comprehensive Sino-Russian strategic partnership, he added.

With his remarks, Xi sent a clear signal to the Russian ruling party that the two nations' sound bilateral relations will continue under the new Chinese leadership, said Xing Guangcheng, a Russian studies researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Meanwhile, ruling-party representatives from China and Russia exchanged their views on national development and party-building during their meeting on Wednesday morning.

Expanding the parties' exchanges on state management and party building is in line with the needs of the two countries' development, said Wang Jiarui, head of the International Department of the CPC's Central Committee, the Party's central leadership.

The dialogue has become a platform for the parties to discuss strategic issues and is important to bilateral cooperation, he said.

Boris Gryzlov, chairman of United Russia's Supreme Council, said the Russian party is willing to enhance exchanges with the CPC and deepen their cooperation in various fields.

At the meeting, representatives from China and Russia attached great importance to building inner-party democracy and fighting corruption.

Inner-party democracy plays an important role in the unity within the Party, said Chen Baosheng, vice-president of the Party School of the CPC Central Committee, a training base for China's top Party leaders.

The CPC has made reforms on the election of Party leaders and introduced a competitive election mechanism that made the election of cadres within the Party more transparent, he said.

To boost inner-party democracy, Chen said, the CPC also opened more of the Party work to the public and optimized the news briefings of governmental institutions.

Inner-party democracy and competitiveness are the key guarantee to the progress of the Russian ruling party, said Andrei Klimov, a member of the Supreme Council of United Russia.

According to Klimov, members of the ruling party will discuss proposals at the inner-party clubs — an open and progressive platform for party work.

An Ling, a leader from the CPC's top anti-graft body, introduced China's anti-corruption work to the Russian representative, emphasizing the importance of public supervision and re-adaptation of power distribution.

Seeing corruption as a threat to Russia's development, representatives from United Russia also talked about its anti-corruption work at the meeting.

Representatives from the two ruling parties exchanged views on the media's role in national and party development and the training and selection of cadres.

These topics highlight the challenges facing the two ruling parties, and such party-to-party exchanges show that the interparty cooperation between the two countries has deepened in recent years, Xing said.

The dialogues enrich their ties and cooperation, and indicate that the political foundation between the two countries has expanded, he added.

The dialogues were launched in Beijing in June 2009, and the second meeting was held in Moscow in March 2010.

Contact the writer at zhouwa@chinadaily.com.cn