Let the Voice of China Featuring Mutual Trust, Mutual Benefit and Win-win Cooperation Resound in the South Pacific Ocean
Foreign Minister Wang Yi Talks about President Xi Jinping's Attendance of the 9th G20 Leaders' Summit, Visits to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji and Meeting with Leaders of Pacific Island Countries with Established Diplomatic Relationship
From November 14 to 23, 2014, President Xi Jinping attended the 9th G20 Leaders' Summit in Brisbane at invitation, paid state visits to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji and held a group meeting with leaders of Pacific Island countries which have established diplomatic relationship with China. At the end of the trip, Foreign Minister Wang Yi briefed reporters on the visits.
Wang Yi said the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders' Meeting just concluded successfully at the Yanqi Lake, Beijing. When people were still savoring the brilliance of the meeting and looking forward to a bright future with regional economic integration, President Xi Jinping embarked on a new journey to write a new chapter of friendly cooperation with footprints of thousands of miles and interpret the Asia-Pacific dream and the world dream which seek common development and prosperity..
President Xi Jinping visited seven cities of three countries in ten days, conducted more than 80 bilateral and multilateral activities and extensively contacted and exchanged ideas with nearly 40 state leaders, heads of international organizations and people from all walks of life of the host country, putting forward initiatives, promoting cooperation and spreading confidence, during which major good news successively released. The domestic and foreign media are keen to report and comment that these visits are a new milestone of China's diplomacy and will have an important and far-reaching impact on the development of the Asia Pacific region and the world.
1. Lead the direction of cooperation among G20 and boost recovery and growth of the world economy.
The world economy is entering a period of weak recovery after the financial crisis. Regional hot-spot issues and non-traditional security factors keep on emerging, developed countries generally experience weak growth and economic downturn appears in emerging markets. The theme of the G20 Leaders' Summit is economic growth, employment and anti-risk ability. It aims to tap into economic growth points and stimulate new impetus so as to achieve a global economy featuring strong, sustainable and balanced growth.
To achieve strong world economic growth, there must be the driving force and China has started the engine
China is an important driving force of world economic growth. The annual increment is equivalent to a medium-sized developed country. According to the estimate of an international organization, the contribution rate of China in the overall growth strategy made by the G20 this time reaches as high as 30-odd percent. China's economy continues to maintain a sound development momentum, which not only speeds up towards the "two centennial goals", but also is of great significance to the world's prosperity and stability, becoming the focus of attention of all sides. President Xi Jinping pointed out at the meeting that China's economy has entered a "new normal" phase of medium to high growth, with a more optimized structure, more abundant dynamics and brighter prospects. It will provide more demand to the world and create more market opportunities, investment opportunities and growth opportunities. The message delivered by President Xi Jinping not only strengthens the confidence of the outside world in China's development, but also enhances the confidence of people in the world economic recovery and growth.
To achieve sustainable world economic growth, reforms and innovation must be rigorously enforced and China has provided solutions.
President Xi Jinping introduced China's comprehensive and in-depth reform and showcased the positive results including stabilizing growth, adjusting structure, promoting reform and improving people's livelihood. He emphasized that all countries should be courageous to make breakthroughs, innovate the development model and improve the global governance so as to become development partners to jointly promote economic reform. The meeting calls on various states to adjust the economic structure and accelerate the implementation of the reform scheme of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). BRICS countries held meetings to coordinate positions and make decisions to accelerate the establishment of the BRICS Development Bank and emergency reserve mechanism. Backward infrastructure is the bottleneck that restricts development and China has successful experience in this aspect and moves ahead. President Xi Jinping stressed the need to pay attention to the pulling effect of infrastructure construction on the economy. China supports that the G20 establishes a Global Infrastructure Center and the World Bank establishes Global Infrastructure Fund. China will make contributions accordingly through building "One Belt and One Road ", setting up the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), launching the Silk Road Fund and so on.
To balance world economy growth, open economy must be built and China has set an example.
In Brisbane, President Xi Jinping introduced that the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting held in Beijing has launched the process of Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP). He emphasized that the G20 should establish a sense of community of common interests and destiny, oppose protectionism, strengthen coordination of macro-policy and promote each other so as to achieve win-win cooperation. Under the trend of economic globalization, connectivity is the only way to build open world economy and China takes the lead in advocating and vigorously promoting it. Following the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting held in Beijing, President Xi Jinping advocated to strengthen connectivity again in Brisbane to promote various countries to connect policy, roads, trade, currency and people's heart, which was positively responded by the participating leaders. The leaders spoke highly of open ideas and initiatives put forward by China and reached consensus that they can be generally taken as an example.
At the meeting, President Xi Jinping also pushed forward the enhanced cooperation in energy cooperation, anti-corruption and pursuit-evasion, fighting against the Ebola epidemic, tackling climate change and so on among the G20 members. The initiatives and propositions put forward by President Xi Jinping in Brisbane are in line with and complement the results made at the Yanxi Lake. With coordination and promotion of China, a joint communiqué was adopted and issued at the meeting, fully reflecting China's position and propositions. It was announced at the meeting that China will host the G20 Leaders' Summit in 2016, which shows world's confidence and trust in China.
2. Enhance the level of China-Australia and China-New Zealand relations and elevate the bilateral cooperation to a new stage
Australia and New Zealand are important countries in the Asia-Pacific region and they are also active participants of regional cooperation. Recent years have seen rapid development and fruitful cooperation initiated by China-Australia and China-New Zealand relations. China has become the largest trade partner and the largest source country of overseas students of the two countries. Both countries are positive about China's prospects, attach importance to the opportunities from China and hope to strengthen cooperation with China. To enhance the level of the bilateral relations is in line with the common interests of the two parties and it will happen in due time. The aim of President Xi Jinping's visit is lofty, which is to strengthen strategic understanding and the long-term stability of the bilateral relations between China and the two countries through political mutual trust and to strengthen the ties of interests and facilitate the bilateral cooperation to a new stage through economic mutual benefit.
President Xi Jinping jointly announced with the two leaders to upgrade the China-Australia and China-New Zealand relations to comprehensive strategic partnerships and make strategic plans from a higher perspective so as to chart the general direction for the future development of the bilateral relations. President Xi Jinping stressed that we should continuously insist on equality, mutual benefit, win-win cooperation, strengthening understanding and furthering cooperation so as to drive the bilateral relations forward continuously. The leaders of both Australia and New Zealand stressed that President Xi Jinping's visit is of historic significance and that the establishment of comprehensive strategic partnership with China creates a broad prospect for bilateral cooperation, which is conducive to maintaining regional peace and prosperity.
With President Xi Jinping's care and promotion, China and Australia announced the substantial conclusion of the negotiation for the free trade agreement (FTA), just as forging a sword with ten year's effort. This agreement will be a comprehensive FTA of high quality reached by China and a developed economy in the world. The agreement embodies the spirit of practicality, cooperation and mutual benefit, bringing unlimited business opportunities for the two sides. It also signifies that a new beacon is set up in the South Pacific Ocean for the ship of the course of Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP) that set off from the Lake Yanqi. People in Australia all support this agreement, and it also gains unanimous support from the Australian government and parties and other sectors of the society, believing that the China-Australia cooperation will see a new opportunity of development and that it will turn from "the prosperity in mining industry" to "the prosperity in free trade". Prime Minister Tony Abbott of Australia called it an action changing the pattern of world trade. President Xi Jinping promoted new breakthroughs of the cooperation in areas including energy, mining, finance, infrastructure construction, new energy, agriculture and animal husbandry. He also contributed to a batch of projects and the early formation of China-Australia all-round and all-dimensional pattern of cooperation.
China-New Zealand relations have always been taking the lead in the cooperation between China and other developed countries. New Zealand is the first developed country to sign and implement a bilateral free trade agreement with China. Over the past six years, the volume of trade between China and New Zealand has been increasing with an average annual rate of over 20 percent. Under new circumstances, the bilateral cooperation should be enhanced to another level. President Xi Jinping pointed out that the two sides should keep pace with the times, dock development strategies, give play to complimentary advantages and capture the integrating point, so as to continuously improve the level of trade and investment and build the community of common interests for China and New Zealand. The two sides have agreed to consolidate and upgrade the cooperation in traditional areas such as agriculture and animal husbandry, and speed up fostering new growth points in financial service, information technology, energy conservation, environment protection, biological medicine and other areas so as to realize the goal of achieving a bilateral trade volume of 30 billion New Zealand dollars by 2020 at an early date. The two countries signed the agreement of cooperating to make television programs, which is the first agreement on jointly producing television programs that has been signed by the Chinese government with a foreign government. This is another "first" created by China-New Zealand cooperation.
During the visit, China has signed over 50 cooperative agreements with Australia and New Zealand in a vast array of areas such as politics, economy, investment, finance, energy and mining, infrastructure construction, culture, education, tourism and climate change, many of which are both strategic and long-lasting. China has signed agreements of Antarctic cooperation respectively with Australia and New Zealand. President Xi Jinping inspected Chinese Antarctic research vessel "Snow Dragon" in Australia, encouraging Chinese and Australian researchers to strengthen communication and cooperation. The two leaders spent long time witnessing the signing of documents every time, but President Xi Jinping said that it is a good sign of standing for a long time because it indicates that there are multiple documents to sign and multiple cooperative achievements scored.
3. Deepen relations between China and the Pacific Island countries and improve the overall layout of neighboring diplomacy.
Pacific Island countries are members of the great Asia-Pacific family, rich in marine resources and blessed with geographical advantages. They are the natural extension of the construction of the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road and an important component of Asia-Pacific integration.
President Xi Jinping's visit to Fiji marks the first state visit by Chinese President to Pacific Island countries and thus caused great excitement among the local people. Fijian people expressed their joy by holding grand ceremony with strong national characteristics. President Xi Jinping and Fijian leaders conducted strategic planning and top-level designs concerning bilateral relations, and agreed to maintain exchanges and cooperation at high-level and all levels so as to constantly push forward the development of China-Fiji relations. President of Fiji expressed that China is a sincere friend that Fiji made in adversity. Prime Minister of Fiji stressed that to be a good partner of China is a priority of Fiji's foreign policy. Local media praised President Xi Jinping for visiting from afar, showing that China attaches importance to and respects Fiji and the Pacific Island countries. Fijian people cherish this very much.
In Fiji, President Xi Jinping held a group meeting with leaders of eight Pacific Island countries having established diplomatic relationship with China and made a joint decision to establish a strategic partnership featuring mutual respect and common development. President Xi Jinping expounded on China's policy toward the Pacific Island region in the new era and stressed that China respects the island countries' rights to independently choose their social system and development path and supports their equal participation in international and regional affairs and supports them safeguarding their legitimate rights and interests. President Xi Jinping announced the package plan to support the economic and social development of the island countries, including granting zero-tariff treatment to 97 percent tax items of exports of the least developed countries. In the following 5 years, China will provide 2000 scholarship quotas and 5000 quotas for study and training in various fields for the island countries and extend support within the framework of South-South cooperation for the island countries to deal with climate change and so on. All these efforts will help the island countries convert resource advantages into development advantages as well as enhance the capacity for sustainable development.
President Xi Jinping also held bilateral talks respectively with the participating leaders of the island countries, reached broad consensus on strengthening cooperation in the field of agriculture, forestry, fishery, mining, infrastructure construction, tourism and so on, and signed a series of cooperation documents.
Participating leaders of the island countries spoke highly of China's policy of strengthening bilateral cooperation and boosting the development of the island countries, holding that the cooperation between China and the island countries is practical and timely and fits the countries' needs. They hoped that they can take the express of China's rapid development and actively participate in the construction of the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road and the AIIB. They said that China is a true friend of the island countries and they are willing to be good neighbors of China. What is worth special attention is that leaders of Australia and New Zealand also told Xi Jinping that the two countries are neighbors of China. For the past two years, President Xi Jinping has traveled to Central Asia, East Asia and South Asia. China's influence continues to radiate and both the connotation and denotation of China's surroundings are increasingly expanded. President Xi Jinping's visit further shortens the distance between China and the South Pacific countries and the overall layout of neighboring diplomacy has been increasingly improved.
4. Be a good storyteller of Chinese anecdotes and impress the world with China's amiability and inclusiveness.
Reform and opening up is the most successful event happened to modern China and even the world. All countries are studying China's success, closely following China's development path and concerned about China's future and destiny. If China is to develop smoothly, it has to enhance the comprehensive understanding and correct recognition of the outside world toward China, and to promote China's appeal and affinity.
During President Xi Jinping's visit, he made use of meetings, talks and lectures on different occasions to introduce Chinese history and culture and achievements of reform and opening up, exchange experience of administration and governance of state affairs, advocate the "two centennial goals" and stress that the pursuit to bright future of all peoples are closely linked. President Xi Jinping elaborated slowly, explaind the profound in simple terms and expounded sensibly and reasonably, and enhanced the understanding of host countries to China, making the world feel at ease about China's development and be confident in their cooperation with China.
President Xi Jinping delivered an important speech in Australia and New Zealand respectively, focusing on international concerns on major topics of common interest such as how China will develop and what will it become with its development. He explained the Chinese Dream and depicted the Asia Pacific Dream with vivid metaphors, moving stories and profound truths. All these demonstrate the fact that China is a peace-loving country and China's development is an opportunity for the world. President Xi Jinping mentioned that although China is huge, it loves peace, needs peace and maintains peace. The better China develops, the more benefits it will bring to world peace and development. President Xi Jinping reiterated that China adheres to the path of peaceful development, insists on the philosophy of common development and upholds the cooperation and development of the Asia-Pacific region. China is sincerely willing to work together with countries in the region to build the Asia-Pacific region featuring harmony and prosperity. The speech was companied by a warm atmosphere and the audiences constantly responded with applause and praise. Prime Minister Tony Abbott of Australia said that China's reform and opening up has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty, which is the greatest progress in the history of mankind. China's prosperity is of great significance to the world. Prime Minister John Phillip Key of New Zealand said that New Zealand stands ready to work with China for the future.
The relationship between two countries is based on the affection between the two peoples. President Xi Jinping attaches great importance to people-to-people and cultural exchanges and local cooperation. During the demanding visit, President Xi Jinping specially managed to find time to see the families of the old friend and primary school students who wrote letters to him, planting the seed of friendly cooperation and being passed on as a much told tale. Promoted by President Xi Jinping, China and Australia established the exchange and cooperation mechanism between Provincial/State leaders, China and New Zealand established the mayor forum mechanism, China set up new Chinese Culture Centers and Confucius Institutes in Australia, New Zealand and Fiji, China has mutual-recognition of academic degrees with Australia and New Zealand, Australia and New Zealand will simplify visa procedures for Chinese citizens and China and Fiji signed the visa exemption agreement. People-to-people and cultural exchanges have become the third largest pillar for China to develop bilateral relations with the three countries.
Comrade Peng Liyuan visited local schools and museums, spreading love, growing friendship, boosting communication and demonstrating China's unique soft power as a cultural envoy.
At last Wang Yi said President Xi Jinping's trip to the South Pacific region is the "grand finale" of China's diplomacy this year. China's diplomacy, once again, yielded another year of harvest. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the CPC central committee, under the leadership of Secretary General Comrade Xi Jinping, has followed the general trend, taken initiatives, seized opportunities and risen to challenges. President Xi Jinping always proceeds from the domestic and international overall situation, inspects China's interactive relations with the world, reflects on the issues of peace and development and integrates China's destiny with that of the world, China's development with world development and China's opportunities with opportunities of the world, mapping out strategies and making momentous decisions. President Xi Jinping visited all the continents, came up with new concepts, proposed generous packages and established new mechanisms, manifesting China's strategy and diplomatic art as a major characteristic country and enriching China's diplomatic theory and practice with content of new era. Under the new circumstances, China's diplomacy improves more in its layout, enhances in its momentum, strengthens in its influence and takes a broader path. We should study and implement President Xi Jinping's diplomatic thinking and practice in real earnest, keep pace with the times, strive to become better, implement well various results scored during the visits and well plan next year's diplomatic work so as to realize the "two centennial goals" and make new contributions to promoting world peace and development.