Address by Ambassador Chen Mingjian at the Online Reception Celebrating the 73rd Anniversary of the Founding of the People’s Republic of China

Friends, compatriots,

Ladies and gentlemen,

This October 1st marks the 73rd anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). I am pleased to celebrate China’s National Day online together with Tanzanian friends from all walks of life and the Chinese compatriots in Tanzania. On behalf of the Chinese Embassy in Tanzania, I would like to convey festival greetings to you all, and express our sincere gratitude to the friends who have been pro­moting China-Tanzania friendship for long.

October is the autumn season. It’s also a pleasant time for harvest. In this year, China jauntily embarked on a new journey to fully build a modern and strong socialist coun­try. With the pursuit of high-quali­ty development and high-standard opening-up, China has continued contributing to the world peace, sta­bility and sustainable development.

Faced with changes and a pandem­ic both unseen in a century, China has forged ahead and made remark­able achievements in development. Putting people’s life and safety first as always, China has successfully safeguarded the hard-won achieve­ments in epidemic prevention and control. China’s economy has braved the headwinds and continued to grow. In the first half of this year, China’s GDP reached 8.68 trillion US dollars, and the country’s foreign trade increased by 9.4 percent year on year.

China’s enhanced efforts in building a new development pattern have brought strong impetus to the world economic recovery. We have also successfully held a streamlined, safe and splendid Winter Olympic Games, presenting to the world once again a prosperous, confident and open China. The Shenzhou-13 manned spaceship has successfully completed its missions. China has continued to promote scientific and technological advancements to ben­efit all mankind.

Faced with the world which has entered a period of turbulence and transformation, China has taken on its responsibility in diplomacy, and upheld the banner of peace, development and cooperation. This year has witnessed proposing of the Global Security Initiative (GSI) by President Xi Jinping, and promoting of the implementation of the Glob­al Development Initiative (GDI) by President Xi in person, which aim at adding “two wings” to the building of a community with a shared future for mankind. China continues to be the mainstay of the international anti-pandemic cooperation. By June this year, China has provided more than 2.2 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines to over 120 countries and international organizations.

From Beijing Winter Olympics to BRICS Summit, from High-level Dialogue on Global Development to Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit recently held in Samar­kand, we can feel strongly the firm determination of the international community in defending multilater­alism, and its fervent hope for China to play a larger role on the world stage.

Faced with constant changes in the international situation, Chi­na-Tanzania relations have been progressing steadily and reaching new levels. President Xi Jinping and President Samia Suluhu Hassan care about and guide the development of China-Tanzania relations in person. In February this year, the China-aid­ed Mwalimu Julius Nyerere Leader­ship School has been handed over to Tanzania. In this year, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and Chinese State Coun­cilor and Defence Minister Wei Fenghe, held video talks with their Tanzanian counterparts Foreign Minister Amb. Liberata Mulamula and Defence Minister Dr. Stergome­na Tax respectively. The multi-layer political dialogues between China and Tanzania have gone deeper.

The two sides have been conducting active communications on the fol­low-up actions of FOCAC’s Eighth Ministerial Conference, and imple­mentation of the “nine programs” of China-Africa cooperation has yielded an early harvest in Tanza­nia. In the first half of this year, the trade volume between China and Tanzania reached 3.558 billion US dollars, registering a year-on-year growth of 31.5 percent.

Tanzania has signed the documents with China which grant zero tariff treatment to products under 98 percent of taxa­ble items originating from Tanzania. A large number of China-Tanzania cooperation projects, such as Julius Nyerere Hydropower Station and Kagera Regional Vocational Train­ing and Service Centre, are making steady progress. Moreover, China has actively fulfilled its commitment of assisting Tanzania to fight against COVID-19. Up to now, China has donated 5.61 million doses of COV­ID-19 vaccines to Tanzania.

It is worth mentioning that China and Tanzania continue to under­stand and support each other on issues relating to each other’s core interests and major concerns, and work together to safeguard inter­national fairness and justice. Not long ago, Foreign Minister Liberata Mulamula, on behalf of the Tanza­nian Government, reiterated pub­licly Tanzania’s position on the Tai­wan question, saying that Tanzania remains committed to the one-Chi­na principle and support China’s righteous stance on the Taiwan question. This was a vivid example of the all-weather friendship between China and Tanzania, to which we highly appreciate.

In October this year, the 20th National Congress of the Commu­nist Party of China (CPC) will be held. China will strive for its nation­al rejuvenation from a new starting point in history, and China-Africa, China-Tanzania cooperation will be blessed with new historic oppor­tunities. China is ready to enhance alignment of development strate­gies and policy communication with Tanzania, continue to incorporate China’s development into the com­mon development of the two coun­tries, support Tanzania’s efforts to achieve independent and sustain­able development, and constantly consolidate and develop the Chi­na-Tanzania comprehensive coop­erative partnership.

I wish the great motherland a happy birthday and prosperity!

Long live China-Tanzania friendship!