Hon. Baindu Dassama, Minister of Social Welfare,
Respected Leaders and Representatives of Religious Organizations,
Dear Muslim brothers and sisters,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Good Afternoon!“Eid Mubarak”！
It’s a great pleasure to attend today’s hand-over ceremony. Today is the traditional Muslim festival of Eid-al-Fitr which means end of Ramadan. For Muslims, Ramadan is the holiest and most auspicious month of the year. It is a time for discipline, both spiritual and physical, a time for reflection, and a time for sharing, blessing and being together with family and loved ones. Just like you, more than 23 million Muslim brothers and sisters in China are honoring the Ramadan traditions of fasting, praying and doing charities, carrying forward the spirit of unity and generosity. So first of all, I wish to convey the warm greetings and best wishes from 23 million Chinese Muslims to their Muslim brothers and sisters in SL.
As usual, as a friendly gesture to support our Muslim brothers and sisters in SL, the Chinese Embassy donate some food to the Muslim community through the major Muslim and Islamic organizations. Here are the items:
30 tons of rice(600 bags , 50kg per bag),
600 litre cooking oil (30 cartons, 20 litre per carton),
1.5 tons of sugar (30bags, 50kg per bag),
I wish this donation will help the religious organizations here in providing support to the less privileged persons and communities. Since over 70% of Sierra Leone’s population are Muslims, I also hope this can help to further strengthen the friendship between our two peoples and consolidate the foundation of China-Sierra Leone relationship.
Honorable Minister, Ladies and gentlemen,
China and Sierra Leone are long standing good friends. Since the establishment of diplomatic relations 52 years ago, China-Sierra Leone relations have been constantly enhanced on the basis of sincere friendship, equality, mutual trust, mutual support and mutual benefit. In recent years, under the strong leadership of H.E. President Xi Jinping and H.E. President Julius Maada Bio, cooperation between our two sides has yielded countless tangible results. As the new Chinese Ambassador, in the past three months I have visited many Chinese-aided projects. The National Stadium, Youyi Building, China-Sierra Leone Friendship Hospital, Wilberforce Barracks and the Fixed Biosafety Laboratory have become landmark projects of China-Sierra Leone friendship.
In January, China-Aided the Foreign Service Academy has been commissioned by H.E. President Julius Maada Bio. Last week, the 1100 tons of Chinese Emergency Humanitarian Rice Assistance has arrived Sierra Leone timely. Along the street of Freetwon, I can always see the China-Aided Mobile Clinics, solar street lights, boreholes and water tankers. These have effectively help to improve Sierra Leone people’s livelihood. It makes me very happy and proud.
China-SL cooperation is about mutual support between developing countries. By doing our best to provide assistance to SL, China sincerely hopes that SL and other African countries will grow stronger and their life will get better. China-SL friendship has its roots and lifeblood in the people, and the goal of China-SL relations is to benefit the people. The two sides have long valued people-to-people exchanges, so that the Chinese people and SL people know each other well and China-SL friendship has grown on a solid social base. So I wish to take this opportunity to thank the Sierra Leonean government and people including all the religious organizations for your attention and support to the development of China-SL relations.
Hon. Minister, ladies and gentlemen,
The world is undergoing profound changes. We hear calls for mutual respect and equality among nations, calls for enhanced communication and mutual learning, and calls for openness, inclusiveness, win-win cooperation and mutual benefit. But at the same time, there are also voices preaching the “clash of civilizations”, “superiority of some civilizations”.
We Chinese believe in harmony in diversity. We think tolerance, coexistence, exchanges and mutual learning among different religious, different civilizations play an irreplaceable role in advancing humanity’s modernization process and making the garden of world civilizations flourish.
A few days ago, President Xi Jinping proposed the Global Civilization Initiative. He pointed out that diversity spurs interaction among civilizations, which in turn promotes mutual learning and their further development.
China is a multi-ethnic, multi-religious country. We have a huge population of Muslim. The Chinese Government stand firm to support Muslims brothers and sisters to freely exercise their ethnic and religious rights, and people from all ethnic backgrounds live in harmony as equals. In Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region which has the largest population of Muslims in China, there are now over 12 million Muslims, 20,000 mosques, 29,000 Islamic clerical personnel, 103 Islamic associations and 10 religious colleges. In the past several years, a lot of government officials and media groups from other countries visited Xinjiang, met face-to-face with the people and witnessed how local Muslims lived and worked in peace and fully enjoy the freedom of religion.
China also stay committed to promote dialogue and exchanges among different religions and civilizations, enhance mutual trust and understanding, and make remarkable contributions to world peace. Centuries back, via the famous silk road both by land and sea, many Islamic traditions and other cultures were introduced into China, while the Chinese culture also found its way into the rest of the world. People along the silk road enjoyed harmony and prosperity brought by such interaction and mutual learning. Today, with cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative, China is making contributions to promote and deepen cooperation with the Islamic countries, and work together to promote world peace, stability and sustainable development. Last month we just witnessed the normalization of diplomatic ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran under the mediation of China.
Hon. Minister, ladies and gentlemen,
China and SL are both champions and partners for closer exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations. Going forward, we will continue to join hands, guided by the spirit of mutual respect, equality, openness and inclusiveness, understand and appreciate the diversity of our civilizations, draw on each other’s strength, and explore new impetus for further development, towards the goal of building a closer community of shared future.
Lastly, let me wish all the Muslim brothers and sisters “Eid Mubarak”! Wish you continue to preserve SL as a shining example of religious harmony!
And May the friendship between China and Sierra Leone last forever.