By: James Kamara-Manneh
Chinese Embassy Sierra Leone in their quarterly engagement with pressmen in Face to Face session with China-Sierra Leone’s Friendship on 27th July 2023 shared experiences with members of the fourth Estate and Sierra Leonean beneficiaries from China.
The session was call-to-order by the Acting Political Director of the Embassy Mr. Ge Yao and also introduced the purpose of this month gathering.
By order of status, the Chinese Ambassador Wang Qing expressed delight meeting the audience and to listnen to purest experiences and exchanges on the development between China and Sierra Leone. As they have truly realized “face to face with China” and shared what they have seen and heard during their stay in China through this platform.
Amb. Qing hinged his submission on four thematic areas; firstly on the continuous growth of the Chinese economy. He said during the first half of this year, China’s economy showed sound momentum of recovery with the GDP up by 5.5 percent year-on-year, one percentage point higher than that of the first quarter. The fundamentals sustaining China’s steady and long-term economic growth remain unchanged. The economy’s remarkable resilience, potential and vitality have not changed and the conditions underpinning high-quality development have not changed. As factors conductive to China’s development increase, the economy is expected to continue to recover.
Several international organizations and institutions such as the UN, the World Bank and the IMF have recently raised their forecast for China’s growth. Some of them even revised up the forecast more than once. It shows their confidence in China’s economic prospect.
The second area is the fruitful China-Africa relations. As the biggest platform for economic and trade cooperation under the framework of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, the China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo has been popular since its launch was announced in 2018.The third China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo was held in Changsha, Hunan from June 29 to July 2 this year. The expo brought together thousands of Chinese and African exhibitors to Hunan to jointly work for China-Africa “Common Development for a Shared Future.”
This year’s expo has been bigger in scale and attracted more people than previous ones. Fifty-three African countries, 12 international organizations, 30 Chinese provinces, regions and cities, and more than 1,700 Chinese and African businesses, chambers of commerce, associations and financial institutions were present at the expo, making the expo the biggest one in its history in terms of scale. Close to 1,600 products from 29 countries were registered for exhibition, up by nearly 166 percent than the last expo. A large variety of African goods can be found at the expo, including essential oil from Madagascar, gems from Zambia, coffee from Ethiopia, wood carvings from Zimbabwe, flowers from Kenya and wine from South Africa, attracting over 100,000 people.
Such a bustling scene at the expo epitomizes the thriving economic and trade cooperation between China and Africa. This year marks the 10th anniversary since President Xi Jinping put forth the principles of sincerity, real results, amity and good faith for China’s relations with Africa. With the concerted efforts of the two sides, China-Africa economic and trade cooperation has been larger in scale, higher in quality and more diverse in areas, becoming a model for South-South and win-win cooperation.
As of today, China has signed Belt and Road cooperation documents with 52 African countries as well as the AU Commission, and set up working groups in areas of trade connectivity, investment cooperation, industrial capacity cooperation and e-commerce. China-Africa cooperation has also extended from traditional areas of trade and projects building to emerging areas of digital economy, green development, aerospace and finance. In particular, Chinese companies have taken an active part in the building of digital infrastructure in Africa, giving a boost to the fast growth of e-commerce, mobile payment, media and entertainment in Africa.
The bustling scene at the expo once again shows to the world that China is sincere to our African friends, and down-to-earth and highly efficient in our cooperation with Africa. Rhetoric that smears China-Africa cooperation is just feeble and futile in face of the expo. China will continue to create new opportunities for African countries in the process of Chinese modernization and walk together with our African brothers to common prosperity.
The next is the much-anticipated China-U.S. relations.China-U.S. relations are one of the most important bilateral relations in the world and have attracted the attention of the whole world, including friends from Sierra Leone. You may have noticed that recently U.S. officials have visited China very frequently. Secretary of State Blinken, Treasury Secretary Yellen, and the President’s Special Envoy on Climate Issues John Kerry successively visited China. Dr. Henry Kissinger and Bill Gates also paid friendly visits to China. China and U.S. have had a series of high-level communication, which were candid, in-depth and constructive. In particular, the two sides have agreed on implementing the important common understanding reached between President Xi Jinping and President Biden in Bali. This offers a rare opportunity for stabilizing the relationship.
“But we should also realize that this opportunity has not come easy, the foundation remains fragile, and challenges still abound,” Amb Qing said.
On one hand, the two sides should shorten the negative list to clear obstacles and manage differences with concrete actions. It is important to properly handle important and sensitive issues such as the Taiwan question in line with the principles of the three Sino-U.S. joint communiques, stop sanctioning Chinese entities and individuals, and prevent “black swans” or “gray rhinos” from disrupting or rattling China-US relations again.
Therefore, the two sides should expand the positive list to enhance dialogue and cooperation in good faith.We can start with concrete, small steps to inject more positive energy into China-U.S. relations: for instance, to increase passenger flights, adjust the China travel advisory and facilitate visa application and border entry for students, scholars, tourists, business people and others.
President Xi Jinping said people are the foundation of China-U.S. relations, and China counts on the American people, and hopes for lasting friendship between the two peoples. Planet Earth is big enough to accommodate the respective development and common prosperity of China and the United States. China always hopes to see a sound and steady China-U.S. relationship and believes that the two major countries can overcome various difficulties and find the right way to get along based on mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation.
Finally, is the hopeful China-Sierra Leone relationship. Last month, Sierra Leone held presidential and parliamentary elections. Regarding this major event in Sierra Leone’s political life, China upholds the principle of non-interference in internal affairs, respects the development path independently chosen by the Sierra Leonean people, and congratulates Sierra Leone on the stable and smooth general election.
President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory message to President Bio on his reelection. In his message, President Xi said that China and Sierra Leone enjoy a long history of friendship. In recent years, the two countries have continuously enhanced political mutual trust, achieved fruitful results in practical cooperation and coordinated closely in international affairs. President Xi also said he stands ready to work with President Bio to support each other and work in solidarity and coordination to promote the continuous development of the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership between China and Sierra Leone to better benefit their people.
This congratulatory message provides fundamental impetus and scientific guidance for the continuous improvement of bilateral relations in the new era. Under the strategic guidance of the two heads of state and the joint efforts of both sides, our friendly relations have been increasingly consolidated and practical cooperation has yielded fruitful results. Entering the new era, China will continue to strengthen exchanges and cooperation between the two countries in various fields, provide assistance within its capacity for the economic and social development of Sierra Leone, and promote a better future for China-Sierra Leone relations.
He concluded that President Xi Jinping pointed out that the friendship between the two countries lies in the friendship between the people. People should move around more, communicate more, and enhance understanding.
There 3rd Face to Face session welcomes various guest speakers to share their experiences about their trip to China. These were; Moses Kamara who represented the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources, Mr Alhaji Mohamed Jaward from the Ministry of Information and Civic Education, Mr Alpha Mohamed Jalloh represented China-Africa Institution of University of Makeni and a journalist from Star TV George Elliot etc…
