BEIJING: As the People’s Republic of China marked the 77th anniversary of its founding on Oct 1, celebrations in many parts of the world have brought together government officials and business leaders, who lauded China’s development and called for enhanced bilateral cooperation.
At a reception at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Wednesday to celebrate the anniversary, President Xi Jinping called on the nation to forge ahead with firm confidence and take solid steps to achieve the great national rejuvenation.
Xi said: “We are immensely proud of the remarkable achievements of New China and fully confident in the bright prospects for Chinese modernization.”
In recent days, Chinese embassies and consulates worldwide have hosted a series of events to celebrate the National Day. Attending officials from various countries highly praised China’s development achievements and expressed a desire to deepen mutually beneficial cooperation.
At the United Nations’ headquarters in New York, leading officials emphasized China’s important role in multilateral cooperation.
Guy Ryder, UN under-secretary-general for policy, said China is “a very active defender of multilateralism”.
“It’s difficult to imagine, impossible to imagine, the United Nations without the People’s Republic of China,” Ryder said.
Movses Abelian, UN under-secretary-general for General Assembly and Conference Management, also extended his greetings, offering wishes “for prosperity, harmony, and the best to all people of China”. The celebrations were also observed by Chinese Americans in the US. Jack Ding, a city council member in Sonoma, California, said that, as a Chinese American, he drew strength from Xi’s speech.
Sherry Hu, mayor of Dublin, California, said that a trip to China in April gave her a firsthand look at the country’s development.
“I saw how fast the high-speed trains are, how convenient they are to board, and how efficiently crowds are managed at the airports. I felt proud of these achievements,” Hu said.
The celebrations also came at a significant moment for China-US relations, shortly after Xi concluded his state visit to the US.
Rachel Washington, regional director of the US Department of State’s Office of Foreign Missions in Los Angeles, congratulated China on the National Day and highlighted the importance of continued high-level bilateral engagement.
“As Chinese citizens around the globe prepare to celebrate National Day and Golden Week, the United States congratulates the People’s Republic of China on its founding, and we celebrate with you,” Washington told China Daily.
“We celebrate the United States and China as the world’s two largest economies. We celebrate the continued diplomacy between our nations at the highest level, and we celebrate the fact that continued leader-level diplomacy is helping build a constructive US-China relationship and strategic stability based on respect, fairness and reciprocity.”
Paul Triolo, a partner at DGA-Albright Stonebridge Group who works with companies doing business in China, said: “I think going forward the most important thing will be that the two nations continue to work on how to have a more constructive and strategic and stable relationship.” –The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
