WILL CHINA REPLACE THE UNITED STATES ?

China does not want to "replace" the United States from its dominant role in the world, and the world should not fear China's rise, the country's top diplomat wrote in an essay.

State Councilor Dai Bingguo said that China would not engage in an arms race, as the country's resources were better spent on development and ensuring its people had enough to eat.

"The notion that China wants to replace the United States and dominate the world is a myth," Dai wrote in the essay carried on the Foreign Ministry's website (www.mfa.gov.cn) late on Monday.

"Politically, we ... respect the social systems and development path of the different peoples of the world," he added.

"Economically, we wholeheartedly want to continue to develop," Dai wrote. "Militarily, we are not engaged in an arms race."

China's growing military clout and rising defense spending have raised concern in Asia, especially in Japan and Taiwan, as well as in Washington. China says its military expenditure is purely for defensive purposes.

Dai said the world had no reason to fear China.

"The international community should welcome and not fear China's peaceful development, help it and not hinder it, support it and not hold it back," he wrote.

But the world also needed to "understand and respect China's reasonable interests and concerns."

Such issues included China's territorial integrity and foreign arms sales to Taiwan, the self-ruled island China claims as its own, Dai said.

China will also be "actively involved" in global issues relating to the North Korean and Iranian nuclear programs, the Arab-Israeli conflict and Sudan's Darfur, and "a responsible participant in the international system," Dai said.

The United States, Japan and South Korea have pressed China to bring its old ally North Korea to heel following renewed tension on the Korean peninsula, though Beijing has refrained from doing so, calling instead for multilateral talks.

South Korea To Begin Fingerprinting All Foreigners.

S Korea 'to fingerprint all foreigners

South Korea will demand fingerprints from all adult foreign visitors by 2012 to tighten immigration controls and prevent criminals entering the country, officials said on Tuesday.

The justice ministry said a bill to be submitted to parliament next month requires foreigners aged over 17 to provide prints of their index fingers and an identity photograph upon entry.

Those intending to stay more than three months must provide full fingerprints in addition to the photo.

South Korea previously took fingerprints of foreigners intending to stay for more than a year. The requirement was abolished in 2004.

"A database of physical information on foreigners is urgently needed to stop illegal immigrants, criminals and terrorists from entering the country," said Lee Bok-Nam, an immigration official at the justice ministry.

Crimes by foreigners rose nearly fivefold over the past eight years from 4,328 in 2001 to 20,624 last year, JoongAng Ilbo newspaper reported Tuesday, quoting national police data.