China, Nepal vow to step up partnership

China and Nepal on Wednesday vowed to make concerted efforts to step up their comprehensive and cooperative partnership. The pledge was made in a meeting between Zhou Yongkang, a senior Communist Party of China (CPC) official, and visiting Nepalese Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha. Zhou, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee as well as the secretary of the Commission for Political and Legal Affairs of the CPC Central Committee, also voiced his appreciation for Nepal's firm support of China on issues concerning Taiwan and Tibet. Zhou noted that China is always committed to good-neighborly and friendly foreign policies with neighboring countries. Japan should bear the sole responsibility for the recent hardship in the China-Japan relationship, Zhou told Shrestha, adding that the Chinese government has taken a series of effective counter-measures on Japan's so-called "purchase" of China's Diaoyu Islands. China is a country under the rule of law, Zhou said, noting that the country allows its citizens to express their appeals in rational and law-abiding ways and will continue to protect the safety of foreign diplomatic missions, personnel and institutions. Shrestha, visiting China for a Nepalese cultural festival, applauded China's foreign policy of non-interference in other countries' internal affairs as well as the unselfish assistance it has offered to Nepal for the country's economic and social development. He said Nepal will continue to adhere to the one-China policy by acknowledging that Taiwan and Tibet are inalienable parts of China and granting no permission for any force to conduct secessionist activities on Nepalese soil.