Chindia Alert: You’ll be Living in their World Very Soon
aims to alert you to the threats and opportunities that China and India present. China and India require serious attention; case of ‘hidden dragon and crouching tiger’.
Without this attention, governments, businesses and, indeed, individuals may find themselves at a great disadvantage sooner rather than later.
The POSTs (front webpages) are mainly 'cuttings' from reliable sources, updated continuously.
The PAGEs (see Tabs, above) attempt to make the information more meaningful by putting some structure to the information we have researched and assembled since 2006.
The richest man in China opened his own Twitter account last month, in the middle of the Covid-19 outbreak. So far, every one of his posts has been devoted to his unrivalled campaign to deliver medical supplies to almost every country around the world.
“One world, one fight!” Jack Ma enthused in one of his first messages. “Together, we can do this!” he cheered in another.
The billionaire entrepreneur is the driving force behind a widespread operation to ship medical supplies to more than 150 countries so far, sending face masks and ventilators to many places that have been elbowed out of the global brawl over life-saving equipment.
But Ma’s critics and even some of his supporters aren’t sure what he’s getting himself into. Has this bold venture into global philanthropy unveiled him as the friendly face of China’s Communist Party? Or is he an independent player who is being used by the Party for propaganda purposes? He appears to be following China’s diplomatic rules, particularly when choosing which countries should benefit from his donations, but his growing clout might put him in the crosshairs of the jealous leaders at the top of China’s political pyramid.
Other tech billionaires have pledged more money to fight the effects of the virus – Twitter’s Jack Dorsey is giving $1bn (£0.8bn) to the cause. Candid, a US-based philanthropy watchdog that tracks private charitable donations, puts Alibaba 12th on a list of private Covid-19 donors. But that list doesn’t include shipments of vital supplies, which some countries might consider to be more important than money at this stage in the global outbreak.
The world’s top coronavirus financial donors
How Alibaba compares to the top five. No one else other than the effervescent Ma is capable of dispatching supplies directly to those who need them. Starting in March, the Jack Ma foundation and the related Alibaba foundation began airlifting supplies to Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and even to politically sensitive areas including Iran, Israel, Russia and the US.
Ma has also donated millions to coronavirus vaccine research and a handbook of medical expertise from doctors in his native Zhejiang province has been translated from Chinese into 16 languages. But it’s the medical shipments that have been making headlines, setting Ma apart.
“He has the ability and the money and the lifting power to get a Chinese supply plane out of Hangzhou to land in Addis Ababa, or wherever it needs to go,” explains Ma’s biographer, Duncan Clark. “This is logistics; this is what his company, his people and his province are all about.”
A friendly face
Jack Ma is famous for being the charismatic English teacher who went on to create China’s biggest technology company. Alibaba is now known as the “Amazon of the East”. Ma started the company inside his tiny apartment in the Chinese coastal city of Hangzhou, in the centre of China’s factory belt, back in 1999. Alibaba has since grown to become one of the dominant players in the world’s second largest economy, with key stakes in China’s online, banking and entertainment worlds. Ma himself is worth more than $40bn.
Officially, he stepped down as Alibaba’s chairman in 2018. He said he was going to focus on philanthropy. But Ma retained a permanent seat on Alibaba’s board. Coupled with his wealth and fame, he remains one of the most powerful men in China.
Media caption The BBC’s Secunder Kermani and Anne Soy compare how prepared Asian and African countries are
It appears that Ma’s donations are following Party guidelines: there is no evidence that any of the Jack Ma and Alibaba Foundation donations have gone to countries that have formal ties with Taiwan, China’s neighbour and diplomatic rival. Ma announced on Twitter that he was donating to 22 countries in Latin America. States that side with Taiwan but who have also called for medical supplies – from Honduras to Haiti – are among the few dozen countries that do not appear to be on the list of 150 countries. The foundations repeatedly refused to provide a detailed list of countries that have received donations, explaining that “at this moment in time, we are not sharing this level of detail”.
However, the donations that have been delivered have certainly generated a lot of goodwill. With the exception of problematic deliveries to Cuba and Eritrea, all of the foundations’ shipments dispatched from China appear to have been gratefully received. That success is giving Ma even more positive attention than usual. China’s state media has been mentioning Ma almost as often as the country’s autocratic leader, Xi Jinping.
AFP
So far…
Over 150 countries have received donations from Jack Ma, including about:
120.4mface masks
4,105,000testing kits
3,704ventilators
Source: Alizila
It’s an uncomfortable comparison. As Ma soaks up praise, Xi faces persistent questions about how he handled the early stages of the virus and where, exactly, the outbreak began.
The Chinese government has dispatched medical teams and donations of supplies to a large number of hard-hit countries, particularly in Europe and South-East Asia.
However, those efforts have sometimes fallen flat. China’s been accused of sending faulty supplies to several countries. In some cases, the tests it sent were being misused but in others, low-quality supplies went unused and the donations backfired.
In contrast, Jack Ma’s shipments have only boosted his reputation.
“It’s fair to say that Ma’s donation was universally celebrated across Africa,” says Eric Olander, managing editor of the China Africa Project website and podcast. Ma pledged to visit all countries in Africa and has been a frequent visitor since his retirement.
“What happens to the materials once they land in a country is up to the host government, so any complaints about how Nigeria’s materials were distributed are indeed a domestic Nigerian issue,” Olander adds. “But with respect to the donation itself, the Rwandan leader, Paul Kagame, called it a “shot in the arm” and pretty much everyone saw it for what it was which was: delivering badly-needed materials to a region of the world that nobody else is either willing or capable of helping at that scale.”
Walking the tightrope
But is Ma risking a backlash from Beijing? Xi Jinping isn’t known as someone who likes to share the spotlight and his government has certainly targeted famous faces before. In recent years, the country’s top actress, a celebrated news anchor and several other billionaire entrepreneurs have all “disappeared” for long periods. Some, including the news anchor, end up serving prison sentences. Others re-emerge from detention, chastened and pledging their allegiance to the Party.
“There’s a rumour that [Jack Ma] stepped down in 2018 from being the chairman of the Alibaba Group because he was seen as a homegrown entrepreneur whose popularity would eclipse that of the Communist Party,” explains Ashley Feng, research associate at the Centre for New American Security in Washington DC. Indeed, Ma surprised many when he suddenly announced his retirement in 2018. He has denied persistent rumours that Beijing forced him out of his position.
Image copyright GETTY IMAGESImage caption Ma discussed trade with then-President-elect Donald Trump in January 2017
Duncan Clark, Ma’s biographer, is also aware of reports that Ma was nudged away from Alibaba following a key incident in January 2017. The Chinese billionaire met with then-President-elect Donald Trump in Trump Tower, ostensibly to discuss Sino-US trade. The Chinese president didn’t meet with Trump until months later.
“There was a lot of speculation of time that Jack Ma had moved too fast,” Clark says. “So, I think there’s lessons learned from both sides on the need to try to coordinate.”
“Jack Ma represents a sort of entrepreneurial soft power,” Clark adds. “That also creates challenges though, because the government is quite jealous or nervous of non-Party actors taking that kind of role.”
Technically, Ma isn’t a Communist outsider: China’s wealthiest capitalist has actually been a member of the Communist Party since the 1980s, when he was a university student.
But Ma’s always had a tricky relationship with the Party, famously saying that Alibaba’s attitude towards the Party was to “be in love with it but not to marry it”.
Even if Ma and the foundations connected to him are making decisions without Beijing’s advance blessing, the Chinese government has certainly done what it can to capitalise on Ma’s generosity. Chinese ambassadors are frequently on hand at airport ceremonies to receive the medical supplies shipped over by Ma, from Sierra Leone to Cambodia.
China has also used Ma’s largesse in its critiques of the United States. “The State Department said Taiwan is a true friend as it donated 2 million masks,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry tweeted in early April. “Wonder if @StateDept has any comment on Jack Ma’s donation of 1 million masks and 500k testing kits as well as Chinese companies’ and provinces’ assistance?”
Perhaps Ma can rise above what’s happened to so many others who ran afoul of the Party. China might just need a popular global Chinese figure so much that Ma has done what no one else can: make himself indispensable.
“Here’s the one key takeaway from all that happened with Jack Ma and Africa: he said he would do something and it got done,” explains Eric Olander. “That is an incredibly powerful optic in a place where foreigners often come, make big promises and often fail to deliver. So, the huge Covid-19 donation that he did fit within that pattern. He said he would do it and mere weeks later, those masks were in the hands of healthcare workers.”
Image copyright GETTY IMAGESImage caption Ma at an Electronic World Trade Platform event with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed last year
Duncan Clark argues that Ma already had a seat at China’s high table because of Alibaba’s economic heft. However, his first-name familiarity with world leaders makes him even more valuable to Beijing as China tries to repair its battered image.
“He has demonstrated the ability, with multiple IPOs under his belt, and multiple friendships overseas, to win friends and influence people. He’s the Dale Carnegie of China and that certainly, we’ve seen that that’s irritated some in the Chinese government but now it’s almost an all hands on deck situation,” Clark says.
There’s no doubt that China’s wider reputation is benefiting from the charitable work of Ma and other wealthy Chinese entrepreneurs. Andrew Grabois from Candid, the philanthropic watchdog that’s been measuring global donations in relation to Covid-19, says that the private donations coming from China are impossible to ignore.
“They’re taking a leadership role, the kind of thing that used to be done by the United States,” he says. “The most obvious past example is the response to Ebola, the Ebola outbreak in 2014. The US sent in doctors and everything to West Africa to help contain that virus before it left West Africa.”
Chinese donors are taking on that role with this virus.
“They are projecting soft power beyond their borders, going into areas, providing aid, monetary aid and expertise,” Grabois adds.
So, it’s not the right time for Beijing to stand in Jack Ma’s way.
“You know, this is a major crisis for the world right now,” Duncan Clark concludes. “But obviously, it’s also a crisis for China’s relationship with the rest of the world. So they need anybody who can help dampen down some of these those pressures.”
BEIJING, March 13 (Xinhua) — China on Friday issued a report on human rights violations in the United States.
Titled “The Record of Human Rights Violations in the United States in 2019,” the report said the facts detailed in the document show that “in recent years, especially since 2019, the human rights situation in the United States has been poor and deteriorating.”
The State Council Information Office released the report based on published data, media reports and research findings. It began by citing a quote from U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in a speech on April 15, 2019: “We lied, we cheated, we stole … It reminds you of the glory of the American experiment.”
“The remarks of U.S. politicians have completely exposed their hypocrisy of adopting double standards on human rights issues and using them to maintain hegemony,” read the report.
The United States released annual reports to “distort and belittle” human rights situation in countries and regions that did not conform to U.S. strategic interests, but turned a blind eye to the “persistent, systematic and large-scale” human rights violations in its own country, the report said.
Consisting of foreword and seven chapters, it detailed facts on human rights violations in the United States relevant to civil and political rights, social and economic rights, discrimination suffered by ethnic minorities, discrimination and violence against women, living conditions of vulnerable groups, and abuses suffered by migrants, as well as U.S. violations of human rights in other countries.
The lack of restraint in the right to hold guns has led to rampant gun violence, posing a serious threat to citizens’ life and property safety in the United States, the report said.
“The United States is a country with the worst gun violence in the world,” read the report. In total, 39,052 people died from gun-related violence in the United States in 2019, and a person is killed with a gun in the United States every 15 minutes, figures showed.
Wealth polarization in the United States hit a 50-year high in 2018, the report said. In 2018, the wealthiest 10 percent held 70 percent of total household wealth. The bottom 50 percent saw essentially zero net gains in wealth over the past 30 years, it noted.
Regarding discrimination suffered by ethnic minorities in the United States, the report said the political structure and ideology of white supremacy in the United States have caused ethnic minorities to suffer all-round discrimination in various fields such as politics, economy, culture and social life.
Since 2016, white supremacy in the United States has shown a resurgence trend, leading to racial opposition and hatred, it noted.
Women in the United States face severe discrimination and violence, according to the report. Women in the United States were 21 times more likely to die by firearm homicide than women in peer nations, it noted, adding that sexual assault cases against women kept increasing.
About the living conditions of vulnerable groups, the report said tens of millions of U.S. children, elderly people, and disabled people live without enough food or clothing, and face threats of violence, bullying, abusing and drugs.
“The U.S. government not only has insufficient political will to improve the conditions for vulnerable groups but also keeps cutting relevant funding projects,” read the report.
While levels of extreme poverty worldwide had dropped dramatically, the poverty ratio of U.S. children was about the same rate as 30 years ago, it said.
The report noted the increasingly strict and inhumane measures taken by the U.S. government against immigrants in recent years, in particular, the “zero-tolerance” policy, which caused the separations of many immigrant families.
Many unaccompanied immigrant children were held in overcrowded facilities, without access to adequate healthcare or food, and with poor sanitation conditions, the report said.
It noted grave abuses at detention facilities for immigrants, including injecting them with sedatives, keeping them in handcuffs, and depriving them of clothing and mattresses.
The United States also wantonly trampled on human rights in other countries and was responsible for many humanitarian disasters around the world, according to the report.
The economic embargo against Cuba and the unilateral sanctions against Venezuela imposed by the United States had been a massive and flagrant violation of the human rights of people in these countries, the report said.
The United States withdrew from several multilateral mechanisms, including the UN Human Rights Council and the UN Global Compact on Migration, shirking off its international obligations and making troubles to the international governance system, it noted.
MEXICO CITY, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) — China and Latin America sit on the opposite sides of the globe, but the formidably vast Pacific Ocean that separates them did not stop them from sharing a long history of exchanges.
Today, the major developing country in the East is forging an increasingly close partnership with the dynamic region in the Western Hemisphere, especially since Chinese President Xi Jinping took office in 2013, and set into motion what is now known as Xiplomacy.
In the past six years, Xi has visited 11 Latin American and the Caribbean (LAC) countries. On Tuesday, he is setting foot on the region for the fifth time as president, as he arrives in Brazil for the upcoming 11th BRICS summit.
Thanks in no small part to Xi’s push, the time-honored, distance-defying China-Latin America relationship is flourishing with new vitality. China has become the second largest trading partner of Latin America, while the latter is one of the fastest growing sources of exports to China. Two-way trade rose 18.9 percent year on year to 307.4 billion U.S. dollars in 2018.
GRAND VISION
Every time Xi visited Latin America, he reaffirmed China’s commitment to cementing bilateral friendship and expanding win-win cooperation.
His first trip to the region as head of state, in 2013, took him to Trinidad and Tobago, Costa Rica and Mexico. The following year saw him travel to Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela and Cuba.
It was in Brazil that Xi met with leaders from 11 LAC countries, and for the first time laid out his grand vision for building a China-Latin American community with a shared future.
“Let us seize the opportunities presented to us and work together to blaze new trails in building a community of shared destiny for common progress and usher in a bright future for the relations between China and Latin America and the Caribbean,” Xi said in a keynote speech at the first ever China-Latin American and Carribean Countries Leaders’ Meeting in 2014.
He then proposed a “1+3+6” cooperation framework to “promote faster, broader and deeper cooperation between the two sides for real results.”
The “1” refers to “one plan,” the Chinese-Latin American and Caribbean Cooperation Plan (2015-2019), formulated to promote inclusive growth and sustainable development.
The “3” alludes to “three engines” for driving practical cooperation for comprehensive development, namely trade, investment and financial cooperation.
The “6” means the six priority cooperation fields of energy and resources, infrastructure building, agriculture, manufacturing, scientific and technological innovation, and information technologies.
In 2016, Xi visited Ecuador, Peru and Chile. Two years later, he traveled to Argentina for the Group of 20 summit as well as Panama, a Central American country which established diplomatic ties with China in June 2017.
In a landmark speech at the Peruvian Congress in Lima in 2016, Xi expounded the significance of strengthening China-Latin America cooperation.
“With one fifth of the world’s total area and nearly one third of the world’s population, China and Latin America and the Caribbean are crucial forces for world peace and stability,” he said.
China, he added, “will increase sharing of governance experience and improve planning and coordination of macro policies with Latin American and Caribbean states to better synergize our development plans and strategies.”
Besides top-level engagement, Xi also reaches out to local people from all walks of life, in order to keep cementing the China-Latin America friendship and the public support for bilateral cooperation.
While in Costa Rica, Xi visited a family-run coffee plantation and tried some local brew. “I think some more coffee can well be exported to China,” Xi told his hosts with a smile.
Today, Costa Rica exports coffee to the Asian market, along with pork, dairy, pineapples and other high-quality agricultural goods, especially after the inauguration of the China International Import Expo in 2018.
NEW OPPORTUNITIES
With international cooperation within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) gaining steam worldwide, the Xi-proposed vision is creating new opportunities for China-Latin America cooperation.
The BRI, designed to promote common development along and beyond the ancient Silk Road trade routes, comprises the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, and the latter is closely connected to Latin America.
For two and a half centuries, from the mid-1500s to the early 1800s, galleons laden with Chinese silk, spices, porcelain and other goods sailed across the ocean to today’s port city of Acapulco on the Mexican Pacific coast.
Latin America is the natural extension of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, Xi said in a meeting with visiting Argentine President Mauricio Macri in May 2017.
In a congratulatory message to the second Ministerial Meeting of the China-Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) Forum held in Chile on Jan. 22, 2018, Xi stressed that China and LAC countries “need to draw a new blueprint for our joint effort under the Belt and Road Initiative and open a path of cooperation across the Pacific Ocean that will better connect the richly endowed lands of China and Latin America and usher in a new era of China-LAC relations.”
During Xi’s visits, the Chinese president is always dedicated to better aligning the BRI — an open platform for cooperation — with the development plans of LAC countries.
In his meeting with Macri, Xi called for dovetailing the BRI with Argentina’s development strategy, expanding cooperation in such sectors as infrastructure, energy, agriculture, mining and manufacturing, and implementing existing major cooperation projects in hydro-power, railway and other fields.
Similarly, during the state visit to Panama in December 2018, Xi said the National Logistics Strategy of Panama 2030 and the BRI are highly compatible, calling on the two sides to synergize their respective development strategies, boost cooperation and promote connectivity.
So far, 19 LAC countries have signed BRI cooperation agreements with China. China-Latin America cooperation in various areas has effectively promoted local economic and social development, bringing visible and tangible benefits to the Latin American people.
Just as Xi said in his speech at the Peruvian Congress in 2016, “China will share its development experience and opportunities with the rest of the world and welcome other countries to board the express train of its development, so that we can all develop together.”
BEIJING, July 29 (Xinhua) — The attempt of some Western countries to tarnish the image of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region is doomed to fail, and the fight against terrorism and extremism in Xinjiang should be supported and respected, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said Monday.
Recently, ambassadors from 50 countries to the United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG) have sent a joint letter to the President of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and the High Commissioner for Human Rights to voice their support for China’s position on issues related to Xinjiang.
The 50 ambassadors, who are from countries including Russia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Algeria and Cuba, have collectively stated for the first time that the counter-terrorism and de-radicalization measures, including the establishment of vocational education and training centers, have effectively safeguarded basic human rights in Xinjiang, spokesperson Hua Chunying told a press briefing.
According to media reports, 24 members of the UNHRC have previously signed a letter criticizing China’s position on relevant issues.
“The 24 members, with a total population of no more than 600 million, are all developed Western countries, none of them being an Islamic or developing country. While of the 50 countries that support China are from Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe, with a total population of nearly 2 billion, 28 are members of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation, and their population is more than twice that of the 24 members that criticized China,” Hua said. “So it’s obvious who is right and who is wrong on the matter of Xinjiang,” she added.
Hua said many of the ambassadors who supported China’s Xinjiang policy have visited Xinjiang and witnessed the truth.
As the ambassadors pointed out, those who had visited Xinjiang found what they saw and heard was completely different from what was described in Western media reports, according to Hua.
“The ambassadors also appreciated China’s achievements in human rights, believed that Xinjiang’s establishment of vocational education and training centers, as well as other counter-terrorism and de-radicalization measures, effectively guaranteed basic human rights and urged relevant countries to stop their unfounded accusations against China,” said the spokesperson.
“This fully shows that the international community has its fair judgment on the development of Xinjiang,” said Hua, adding that attempt to smear Xinjiang and put pressure on China in the name of “human rights” will never succeed.
Pointing out that the current problem in Xinjiang is the issue of counter-terrorism and extremism rather than religious and human rights issues, Hua said the counter-terrorism and de-radicalization struggle in Xinjiang deserve support, respect and understanding.
“Faced with severe threats of terrorism and extremism, the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has taken a series of counter-terrorism and de-radicalization measures according to law, including the establishment of vocational education and training centers,” said Hua, adding that those measures have turned the situation around.
“In almost three years, not a single violent or terrorist incident took place in Xinjiang. The region now enjoys social stability and unity among all ethnic groups. People there are living a happy life with a stronger sense of fulfillment and security. They endorse the government’s policies and measures wholeheartedly,” said the spokesperson.
Noting that many of the 24 countries that denounce China’s Xinjiang policy have been victims of terrorism, Hua said relevant people and officials from these 24 countries are welcome to visit Xinjiang to learn about Xinjiang’s counter-terrorism and de-radicalization experience.
Hua said China is working with all parties to ensure that multilateral human rights mechanisms stick to the purposes and principles of the UN Charter. Human rights issues should be dealt with in an objective, fair and non-selective way. “We need to advance international human rights cause in a sound manner through constructive dialogue and cooperation.”
“We resolutely oppose any country’s act of using the Human Rights Council and other mechanisms to interfere in other countries’ internal affairs and wantonly criticize, smear and pressure others. We urge the relevant countries to correct their mistakes at once, not to politicize the relevant issue or practice double standards, and stop meddling in other countries’ domestic affairs,” she added.
Peng Liyuan (R), wife of Chinese President Xi Jinping, meets with Lis Cuesta Peraza, wife of Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel, in Beijing, capital of China, April 9, 2019. (Xinhua/Ding Lin)
BEIJING, April 9 (Xinhua) — Peng Liyuan, wife of Chinese President Xi Jinping, met here Tuesday with Lis Cuesta Peraza, wife of Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel.
Peng asked Lis Cuesta Peraza to convey President Xi’s sincere regards to Miguel Diaz-Canel, saying the visit by Lis Cuesta Peraza fully demonstrated their friendship with China and the Chinese people.
Peng said the two countries share a profound traditional friendship, and the new generation of Cuban leaders actively support the construction of the Belt and Road and are committed to strengthening all-round bilateral cooperation. She expressed the hope that Sino-Cuban cooperation would score fruitful results and bilateral friendship last forever.
Peng spoke highly of Lis Cuesta Peraza’s active efforts to promote bilateral people-to-people and cultural exchanges, and expressed the hope that the two countries would cement exchanges and cooperation in culture, art and tourism.
Peng also introduced her work as UNESCO special envoy for the advancement of girls’ and women’s education and a WHO goodwill ambassador for tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS, shared China’s experience in promoting education and health and expressed the hope that the two countries would enhance exchanges and cooperation in these fields.
Lis Cuesta Peraza asked Peng to convey the greetings and good wishes of Miguel Diaz-Canel to President Xi, saying that the Cuban people love Chinese culture and are full of friendly feelings toward the Chinese people.
Lis Cuesta Peraza said Cuba admires the achievements China has made in the past 70 years and expressed gratitude to China for its long-term support and help.
She said the Cuban side is willing to take the opportunity of the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries next year to promote people-to-people and cultural exchanges, and consolidate the Cuba-China friendship.
BEIJING, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) — Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday warmly congratulated Raul Castro, first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, and Miguel Diaz-Canel, president of the Council of State and the Council of Ministers of Cuba, on the 60th anniversary of Cuba’s revolution victory on behalf of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Chinese government and people.
In his congratulatory message to Raul Castro, Xi, who is also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, said under the strong leadership of the Communist Party of Cuba over the past 60 years, the Cuban government and people have made great achievements with hard work in the cause of socialist construction, which are highly appreciated and congratulated by the CPC and the Chinese government and people.
The relations between the two parties and two countries have stood the test of international vicissitudes and achieved fruitful results, making the two sides good friends, good comrades and good brothers, Xi noted.
Xi said he attaches great importance to the development of the China-Cuba friendship and is willing to work together with Raul Castro to lead bilateral relations to keep marching forward.
In his congratulatory message to Diaz-Canel, Xi said that the Communist Party of Cuba and its people are endeavoring to update and improve the nation’s socialist system, which will guarantee new developments in Cuba’s socialist cause.
Xi mentioned Diaz-Canel’s historic visit to China around a month ago, during which the two leaders proposed a blueprint for bilateral ties in the new era, adding that he is willing to join hands with Diaz-Canel for continuous development of China-Cuba relations.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang also sent a congratulatory message to Diaz-Canel on Tuesday, saying Cuba has enjoyed flourishing national developments and will usher in a brighter future.
The two countries have always understood and supported each other, pushing bilateral relations for an all-round and in-depth development, said the premier.
Li also voiced hope that with the joint efforts from both sides, their traditional friendship will continue to bear fruits.
HAVANA, Dec. 5 (Xinhua) — China and Cuba on Wednesday signed two agreements to promote economic cooperation during the 14th session of the bilateral business committee, where companies from both nations explored new trade and business opportunities.
Cuba’s Chamber of Commerce (CCC) and the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) inked a memorandum on a joint action plan for cooperation in 2019.
The document, signed by Chen Zhou, vice president of the CCPIT, and Orlando Hernandez, president of the CCC, includes strategies and actions which will be developed next year with the goal of consolidating links between the two countries’ business communities.
A memorandum of understanding was also signed by Chen and Roberto Verrier, head of the Cuban export and investment promotion agency ProCuba, to strengthen ties between the two institutions.
“Cuban sugar, rum, premium cigars and seafood are increasingly known to Chinese consumers,” said Chen, who attaches great importance to the CCPIT’s work with the Caribbean nation.
He said the joint 2019 Action Plan is a guide for bilateral cooperation as well as the organization of mutual visits, exchange of economic information, legal advice to companies in the two countries and the promotion of opportunities for Chinese provinces and cities.
The official said there is increasing interest from Chinese companies and businessmen to participate in the Mariel Special Development Zone, the island’s flagship foreign investment project.
“The CCPIT promotes ongoing negotiations to establish joint ventures in the ZEDM and open new opportunities for Chinese companies within the Cuban market,” he added.
Chen said that in the future the institution will focus on building an effective and multisectoral platform for the promotion of bilateral trade.
Orlando Hernandez, president of the CCC, acknowledged the importance of economic and commercial links between Beijing and Havana.
“Chinese products are present in a wide range of areas of Cuban life such as health, education, technology and sports, transport, among others,” he said.
The official called on Chinese investments to expand their presence in the island and said there are plenty of opportunities in sectors such as tourism, renewable energy, construction, agriculture, industry and biotechnology.
He also highlighted the importance of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) for Cuba and Latin America due to its development prospects for each of the participating nations.
“Cuba hopes to get involved in the BRI with true commitment and believes that it will contribute to attracting further Chinese investment in our country as we update our economic model,” he said.
Hernandez also expressed Havana’s willingness to host the 2021 China-Latin America and Caribbean Business Summit in the Cuban capital.
The session of the Cuba-China business committee included presentations on Cuba’s strategies to attract foreign investment, as well as trade potential between China and Cuba.
China is the Caribbean nation’s second largest trading partner with strong economic ties and cooperation in multiple sectors such as renewable energies, agriculture, tourism, mining, transportation and infrastructure.
Image copyright GETTY IMAGES
Image copyright GETTY IMAGES
Image copyright GETTY IMAGES
CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon 