Here is the speech by Ambassador Ouyang Yujing at the China-Malaysia Readers Forum on the English Edition of Xi Jinping: The Governance of China (Volume V).

Honorable Tan Sri Dato’ Dr. Johari bin Abdul, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Malaysia,
Honorable Mr. Anthony Loke Siew Fook, Minister of Transport, Malaysia,
Honorable Dato’ Dr. Mohd Anuar bin Haji Rethwan, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Institute of Language and Literature of Malaysia, 
Honorable Mr. Chang Bo, President of China International Communications Group, 
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen:

Good morning!

It’s a great pleasure to attend the China-Malaysia Readers Forum on the English Edition of Xi Jinping: The Governance of China (Volume V). First of all, on behalf of the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Malaysia, I would like to express my sincere gratitude and warm welcome to the Malaysian Parliament and Government, especially Speaker Tan Sri Dato’ Dr. Johari and Minister Loke Siew Fook, who graced the event with their presence. My thanks also go to all distinguished guests and friends present today!

All volumes of Xi Jinping: The Governance of China have included 470 important works written by President Xi Jinping, comprehensively presenting China’s exploration and practice of building a modern socialist country in a vivid way. The fifth volume, published last year, focuses on explaining the five distinctive features, nine essential requirements, and five major principles of Chinese modernization, as well as the strategic arrangements and policy measures across various fields of China’s economic and social development. It serves as an important window for the international community to understand China in the new era and a key to decoding “China’s effective governance.” On this occasion, I would like to share a few reflections on reading the serials with reference to China-Malaysia relations.

First, the Chinese modernization offers a useful reference for modernization of other countries in the world. President Xi Jinping has pointed out that, “realizing modernization is the right and inevitable choice of people of all countries, and the key is to find a development path that suits one’s national conditions and the laws of human social development.” It has no precedent in human history for a large country of more than 1.4 billion population to achieve modernization. Over the course of long-term development and reform, the People’s Republic of China has continuously explored and taken socialism with Chinese characteristics as its path to modernization. In just a few decades, China completed the industrialization process that the Western countries took several hundred years to complete; China has been transformed from a poor and backward country into the world’s second-largest economy and the largest manufacturer. China began a great journey in which Chinese modernization is comprehensively advancing China’s national rejuvenation to be a strong country. China has achieved remarkable accomplishments in this process, attracting worldwide attention.

China’s development and successful practice has demonstrated that modernization does not equal “Westernization.” There is no standard model for modernization, nor is there a universally applicable formula for all. China is willing to share its experience of modernization with other developing countries, and support them in independently exploring their own modernization paths suited to their unique national conditions. This year marks the first year of China’s 15th Five-Year Plan and the 13th Malaysia Plan. China is willing to take this opportunity to deepen strategic alignment and policy communication with Malaysia, further strengthen exchanges and mutual learning in country governance, and jointly step into a new historical stage of modernization.

Second, China’s high-level opening-up injects stable momentum into global development and prosperity. Opening up is a distinctive hallmark of Chinese modernization. Working with China means working with opportunities. China is the world’s largest trader in goods and a major trading partner of over 160 countries and regions, contributing around 30 percent on average to global economic growth for many years. China is also the world’s largest potential consumer market. In 2025, China’s total retail sales of consumer goods exceeded RMB 50 trillion for the first time in history. In the coming decade, China’s middle-income group is expected to exceed 800 million.

During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, China will continue to leverage its comprehensive industrial system, ultra-large-scale market, and strong innovation capacity, keep the high-quality development and high-level opening-up, and continuously inject stability and certainty into the turbulent world to derisk and help recover global economy. China is willing to share its development dividends with other countries, and continue to provide opportunities for global development based on achievements made in the Chinese modernization. China remains committed to promoting a world of peace, development, win-win cooperation, and common prosperity.

China and Malaysia enjoy highly aligned development philosophies and visions, and they are deeply complementary in industrial structures and comparative strengths. Malaysia is China’s second-largest trading partner in ASEAN and its largest source of imports, while China remains Malaysia’s largest trading partner for 17 consecutive years. China will work with Malaysia to fully implement the outcomes of President Xi Jinping’s visit to Malaysia, continuously tap the potential of cooperation in emerging industries such as digital economy and green economy, and at the same time focus on cultivating new growth drivers in cutting-edge fields such as advanced manufacturing and artificial intelligence. Together, we will jointly build a regional hub in new quality productive forces. We will support each other’s industrial transformation and upgrading, and accelerate the modernization process of each other.

Third, China’s major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics is committed to shaping a better future for all humanity. The Chinese modernization is not a modernization that pursues its own interests; rather, it is a modernization aiming for bringing benefit to both its people and people of the world. Building a community with a shared future for humanity is the noble goal of China’s Chinese-characteristic major-country diplomacy in the new era. Standing at the height of seeking progress for all humanity and achieving common prosperity for the world, President Xi Jinping has proposed the four Global Initiatives of development, security, civilization, and governance, and has continuously advanced the high-quality BRI cooperation with partner countries. President Xi closely integrates interests of the Chinese people with those of people of other countries in the world. Also, the Chinese modernization is organically aligned with the modernization processes of other countries. Through concrete actions, China has helped pool a broad international consensus and strong synergy for building a community with a shared future for humanity, fully demonstrating its broad vision and strong commitments as a responsible major country in our times.

China and Malaysia are close partners and exemplary practitioners in building a community with a shared future. From Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s visit to China in 2023 to President Xi Jinping’s visit to Malaysia in 2025, positioning of the China-Malaysia relations achieved two major leaps in just two years, opening a new chapter in jointly building a high-level China-Malaysia community with a shared future. Malaysia was the first country to sign the cooperation documents with China on implementing the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, and the Global Civilization Initiative, as well as the first to support the Global Governance Initiative. Malaysia has actively joined the Group of Friends of Global Governance started by China. The China-Malaysia flagship BRI project, the East Coast Rail Link, has entered its final construction stage. It is the largest single infrastructure project undertaken overseas by a Chinese company. Under the strategic guidance of the leaders of both countries, another “golden fifty years” of China-Malaysia relations is in promising expectation. The building of the China-Malaysia community with a shared future will continue to deepen, which will deliver more substantial benefits to people of both countries.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Against the international landscape marked by turbulence and transformation, the Chinese modernization is of particular significance, as it points out the direction of human civilization progress, reveals the comprehensive achievements delivered from “China’s effective governance,” and shows China’s firm commitments to jointly addressing global challenges. I hope that Malaysian friends from all sectors can deepen their understanding of the Chinese ideas, Chinese solutions, and Chinese wisdom by reading Xi Jinping: The Governance of China (Volume V). I hope, by reading books, you can catch the strong pulse of China’s development in the new era, better understand the concise saying which is “when the world is good, China is good; and when China is good, the world will become even better.” The true and exact understanding of China will help to lay a solid foundation and inject lasting momentum for the steady and long-term development of China-Malaysia relations.

Thank you!