Jiang Jianguo delivers speech in African Digital TV seminar

The world will by no means fall into Thucydides' trap, a term named after the eponymous Greek historian for his description of strife resulting from escalating tensions between rising and existing powers, said Jiang Jianguo, the head of the State Council Information Office (SCIO).

Jiang delivered his speech at the 6th African Digital TV Development Seminar on June 23 in Beijing.

It is ludicrous for the United States, while calling China a threat, to deploy its aircraft carrier, bombers and missile destroyers to the maritime territory of the South China Sea in the name of demilitarizing the region, Jiang said.

Regarding the sovereign disputes over the isles in the South China Sea, Jiang believes they should be put on the table for talks and negotiations, even though those islands in fact have belonged to China since remote antiquity and China's sovereignty over them has been reconfirmed and granted since the Second World War (WWII) after the signing of "the Cairo Declaration" and "the Potsdam Proclamation", he said.

Speaking on the recent unilateral proposal of the Philippines to the international community for arbitration over the sovereign rights of several isles in the South China Sea, Jiang said that the country has broken its vows by breaching "The Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines" issued in 1935, "An Act to Define the Baselines of the Territorial Sea of the Philippines" in 1961 and "The Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea" in 2002.

The seminar was held between Chinese and African media guests, who are looking forward to maintaining and developing the bilateral and multilateral relations between them.

"We'll further improve the lives of African people by encouraging Chinese enterprises, such as Star Times, ZTE Corporation and Huawei, to continue their cooperation with the African media outlets by supplying hardware equipments, technologies and management training and by reducing costs and loads to enable the African people to better enjoy the digital media service," Jiang said.