Op-ed: Remarks by H.E. Ambassador Wang Lixin on the Occasion of the 74th Anniversary of the Founding of the People’s Republic of China

The following is the statement by the Chinese ambassador Wang Lixin regarding the 74th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China and the 50th anniversary of the establishment of official diplomatic relations between Maldives and China.

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Dear friends,

 Today marks the 74th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Over the past 74 years, under the strong leadership of the Communist Party of China, the Chinese people have successfully embarked on the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics.We have made great achievements of finishing the building of a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way and eliminating absolute poverty in a historic way. We are now taking great strides towards the realization of the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

 Last year, the 20th National Congress of the CPC was successfully concluded. It mapped out a grand blueprint to advance the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation on all fronts through a Chinese path to modernization, which anchored the direction and injected impetus into China’s development in the new era.

 At the new starting point, China continues to promote high-quality development and high-standard opening-up unswervingly. Since the beginning of this year, the Chinese economy has maintained continued recovery and upturn. It achieved a year-on-year growth of 5.5% in the first half of the year, taking the lead among major economies in the world. The IMF predicted that China's economy will grow by 5.2% this year and contribute one-third to the world economic growth. The Chinese economy has strong resilience, enormous potentials and great vitality and its long-term positive fundamentals will not change. China still remains an important engine of world economic growth and will continue to provide steady flow of impetus for the world economic recovery.

 In the face of a world intertwined with transformation and uncertainties, in order to deal with the common challenges of human society, Chinese President Xi Jinping put forth the global development initiative, the global security initiative and the global civilization initiative, advocating and promoting the building of a new type of international relations. We follow the cooperation concept of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits and the road of jointly building the "the Belt and Road" is getting much broader. We actively contribute Chinese wisdom and strength to promote the building of a community with a shared future for mankind with greater strides and more progress.

 This year, under the strategic guidance of the leaders of both countries, our bilateral relations have witnessed new momentum after we jointly celebrated the 50th anniversary of our diplomatic relations last year. The Maldivian side firmly pursues the one-China principle and firmly supports China on the issues related to its core interests and major concerns. China always supports the efforts of the Maldives for economic and social development and more active role in international affairs.

 We have pressed together the "fast forward button" for post pandemic recovery of China-Maldives relations. We have resumed direct flights, which helped speed up China-Maldives tourism cooperation. The China-Maldives Mutual Visa Exemption Agreement has officially come into effect, which further facilitated people-to-people exchanges between the two countries. The China-Maldives Ophthalmic Center Assistance Cooperation Project has been officially launched, starting a new model of assistance cooperation between the two countries. The successful visit of Governor Wang Yubo of Yunnan Province of China to the Maldives has injected new impetus into local government cooperation between the two countries. Friends from all walks of life including senior government officials as well as representatives from political parties, media and local governments have successively visited China, enhancing people-to-people exchanges and friendship between the two countries.

The officials from multiple sectors have been invited to participate in various training courses in China, remarkably enhancing the administrative capacity building of the Maldivian government. The projects under our joint efforts to build the "the Belt and Road" have made continuous progress, which has brought tremendous benefits to the Maldivian people. Our relations are greatly accelerated and will have a brighter prospect of greater development.

 Looking into the future, let’s take greater strides together on the track of continuing traditional friendship and deepening mutually beneficial cooperation with greater speed and higher quality. I am sure we will jointly write a new chapter for the future-oriented all-round friendly and cooperative partnership between our two countries!

May I wish our great motherland happy birthday and prosperity, and the great Chinese people happiness!

May I wish China-Maldives relations more progress and achievements!