Beijing, October 11, 2024
Friends,
Distinguished Guests,
It is a great pleasure to have you here in Beijing to jointly celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC).
The CPAFFC is an important window for deepening friendship between the Chinese people and people of other countries. It was founded on a mission to grow people-to-people friendship and promote international practical cooperation. Over the past seven decades, the CPAFFC has cultivated friendships far and wide, forging cooperation relationships with more than 400 friendship organizations around the world, and building bridges between over 3,000 pairs of sister cities and states. Thanks to these efforts, the seeds of people-to-people friendship have overcome geographical distances and cultural differences to take root, sprout, and bear fruits.
All of you here are long-time and good friends of the Chinese people. You have dedicated years of efforts to support the work of the CPAFFC, and made important contributions to better mutual understanding and closer ties between the people of your countries and China. Here, I wish to salute you all and express my heartfelt appreciation.
Friends,
During his meeting with you this morning, President Xi Jinping elaborated on China’s proposition to jointly build a community with a shared future for mankind in a spirit of global solidarity, based on a vision of win-win cooperation, and with an open and inclusive mind. His important remarks point the way forward for China’s people-to-people diplomacy on the new journey of the new era. At the commemorative conference this afternoon, Vice President Han Zheng expressed his new hopes for deepening people-to-people friendship, exchanges and cooperation between China and the rest of the world.
As we speak, transformation not seen in a century is accelerating across the globe. The world has entered a new period of turbulence and change. Standing at a historical crossroads, President Xi Jinping pointed out that the people are the creators of history, and building a community with a shared future for mankind is the way forward for all the world’s peoples. To build such a community, there are a number of things we should do together.
We should garner people’s conviction in peace, and safeguard the tranquility of the world. Peace is like air and sunshine. It should not be the prerogative of a few countries or individuals; it should be shared by all people in all countries. The Chinese nation is a peace-loving nation, and the Chinese people know too well that peace does not come easily. Over the 75 years since the founding of the People’s Republic, we have been firmly committed to a path of peaceful development, an independent foreign policy of peace, and the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. We have worked for a peaceful international environment to develop ourselves, and contributed to world peace through our own development.
We should pool people’s efforts for development, and work for shared prosperity. Every country has a modernization dream and is rightly entitled to pursue this dream. As President Xi Jinping stated, on the path to modernization, no one and no country should be left behind. China always places its own development in the larger context of human development, and integrates the interests of the Chinese people with the common interests of people around the world. We have been actively implementing the Global Development Initiative, pursuing high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, and generating new opportunities for global modernization through the latest achievements in Chinese modernization. These efforts have injected fresh impetus into global development.
We should respond to people’s desire for more communication, and promote mutual learning among civilizations. Diversity of civilizations is a defining feature of the human society. For millennia, the Chinese civilization has embraced “harmony without uniformity” and “harmonious coexistence of all beings.” These notions are deeply rooted in the philosophy and mindset of the Chinese nation and reflected in our interactions with other nations throughout history. China stands for humanity’s common values of peace, development, equity, justice, democracy and freedom, and advocates equality, mutual learning, dialogue and mutual accommodation between civilizations. We never impose our own values or models upon others. On the contrary, China has been actively engaged in international cultural exchanges and cooperation, leading the efforts of promoting people-to-people friendship and progress in human civilization.
Friends,
Always standing with the people is the fundamental political stance of the Communist Party of China. All the CPC’s endeavors are guided by a people-centered approach. Facilitating people-to-people exchanges is an important mission of China’s diplomacy. China welcomes people of foresight from all countries to join the worthy cause of people-to-people friendship, work to cement its foundation, and contribute your wisdom and strength to the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.
First, I encourage you to foster closer bonds, and build more bridges of people-to-people exchanges between China and your countries. Friendship groups and organizations in and outside China should interact with and visit each other more often to build on your traditional ties, carry forward the spirit of friendship, and nurture a new generation of friendship forces among the young people. On our part, China will facilitate international travel by providing smoother channels and more convenient arrangements, to make trips to China hassle-free for our foreign friends and pave the ground for more in-depth interactions between the Chinese people and visitors from around the world.
Second, I encourage you to facilitate converging interests, and provide a stronger boost to practical cooperation between China and your countries. Sister cities serve as bonds between our countries and should promote mutually beneficial cooperation and enhance synergy between development strategies at the subnational level. They should solidify cooperation in traditional areas of economy, trade, culture, education, and sports, while expanding cooperation into emerging areas such as science, technology, innovation and green development. By doing so, they can open up new pathways and create more platforms for practical cooperation between China and relevant countries, and jointly make the pie of common interests bigger.
Third, I encourage you to promote mutual understanding, and create the conditions for developing friendly mutual perceptions. As globalization and the Internet are profoundly changing the way how people view things and interact with each other, we in China need to keep abreast with the times, project our voices both online and offline, and present stories of China, of China’s external interactions and of a community with a shared future for mankind in a powerful way. By working together with our friends, we hope to galvanize more positive energy of amity and mutual trust, and help shape rational and amicable perceptions of each other’s countries.
Friends,
As an ancient Chinese saying goes, “Heart-to-heart communication makes lasting friendship.” China stands ready to join hands with all peoples committed to justice, peace and development, to reinforce our faith in amity, deepen friendship, advance a community with a shared future for mankind, and usher in a brighter future for humanity as a whole.