Li Peng Quotes
China has always maintained that all countries, big or small, rich or poor, strong or weak, are equal members of the international community and they should stand and speak in the world as such.
Li, Peng. "Deepen Understanding, Foster Friendship and Strengthen Cooperation." Address at the India International Centre, New Delhi, 13 Jan. 2001.
American Presidents after Wilson have not, in general, shared this view. By the latter part of the 20th century judgmentalism was a major component of American foreign policy and reached its zenith with the administration of George W. Bush.
The Vice President and the President were at odds over the theory of “nullification” by which the states could supersede and nullify federal law of action in their states. The President had just given a toast to the Preservation of the Union (See {587324}). So Calhoun embellished upon it and gave this toast. The President then strengthened the version of his toast that was given to the press so that it was clear that he did not support his Vice President’s position on nullicication.
He used the “united nations” as a general description as the UN had not been created or named yet, However, as this quotation demonstrates, the President was already thinking about a UN idea, but as a realist, he explained that the great powers had to come to some agreement of interests. Actually China and France, at the time, would go along with whatever the United States and Britain wanted to do and had a great common interest, and there was already a strong association of interests between Britain and America. Russia was to be the problem and a complete common interest was never to be, but there was enough to get the United Nations started.
Li Peng was a Chinese politician who was the fourth Premier of the People's Republic of China from 1987 to 1998, and as the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, China's top legislative body, from 1998 to 2003. For much of the 1990s Li was ranked second in the Communist Party of China (CPC) hierarchy behind then Party General Secretary Jiang Zemin. He retained his seat on the CPC Politburo Standing Committee until his retirement in 2002.
