The China Modernization Report 2008 was released on Monday in Beijing. The report proposed a "Dove of Peace Strategy" that promotes China’s modernization for the first time.

According to the report, the "Dove of Peace Strategy" would make the United Nations the head of the Dove. Asian nations, as per the Boao Forum for Asia and Asia Cooperation Dialogue, would stand on the foreside; the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation would comprise the eastern wing, and the proposed "Asia-Europe Economic Cooperation", upgraded from the existing Asia-Europe Meeting, would make up the western wing. The South American, Oceania and African nations would take up the rear.

The strategy calls for the building of a favorable international environment for China's modernization with the principle of "Follow the UN Charter and Promote World Peace". The strategy, which centers on Asia and faces the world, calls for cooperation among all member nations on an equal, mutually beneficial basis.

The strategy would help optimize the structure of China's international modernization strategy and improve China's national capacity and the country's interaction with the international environment in 20 to 50 years, according to the report.

He Chuanqi, head of the Center on the Study of China's Modernization under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, explained that the strategy is based upon 300 years of international experience in addition to the history and realities of China's current international modernization.

The China Modernization Report, which was first published in 2001, is an annual report published by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS).

The China Modernization Report 2008 also suggested setting up a free trade area in Hainan Province to increase cooperation capabilities among Asian nations. 

The area would enjoy extremely favorable policies including: zero tax on exports and imports; free foreign direct investment on environmentally friendly projects; tourist visas upon arrival; no consumption tax and national treatment for foreign students from Asian areas.

Hainan would become a special ecotype island in Asia, providing an ideal place to conduct Asian federation conferences, if the government adopted the plan, said the report.

(China.org.cn by Wu Nanlan, January 29, 2008)