VIENNA, April 26 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese Embassy in Austria held a launch ceremony Thursday for the book titled "China as an international player in world politics."

The book contains papers and articles on such topics as China's peaceful development, the history and future of EU-China relations, Chinese economic prospects and the country's role in overcoming the world crisis.

The writers include experts, scholars and government officials both from Austria and China, for example Mei Zhaorong, former Chinese ambassador to Germany, Wolfgang Wolte, former Austrian ambassador to China, and Andreas Schieder, secretary of state for the Austrian Ministry of Finance.

The editor in chief of the book, Gerd Kaminski, executive vice president of the Austria-China Friendship Association, said, "I hope this book can help the world better understand China's foreign policy. As shown on the cover of this book, China's foreign policy is peaceful rather than dangerous."

Also, he said the Austria-China Friendship Association's mission is to help Westerners understand China better.

Over the past 40 years, more than 100 seminars have been held and 63 books introducing Chinese history, culture, society and politics have been published in German, English, Swedish, Chinese and other languages, he said.

Chinese Ambassador to Austria Shi Mingde also spoke at the ceremony. "Now China has developed from a backward agricultural country into the world's second largest economy and has become an active participant in international affairs," he said.

However, he said, along with China's development, there are debates about whether a powerful China will be an opportunity or a threat to the world.

If the world can better understand China's history and culture, it is easy to recognize that China has chosen a path of peaceful development, he said.

More than 100 Austrian experts, scholars and government officials attended the ceremony.