China, with a territory of 9.6 million square km and a population of 600 million, should make a greater contribution to humanity, said Chinese leader Mao Zedong more than 50 years ago.

While suffering from economic difficulties, China considered it an obligation to earmark a certain amount of money for foreign assistance, said Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping more than 30 years ago. When it developed, China should provide a fairly large amount of foreign assistance.

China should not forget its "poor friends" because it has achieved economic development, or because it still needs funds and technology from developed countries to boost its own economy, said former President Jiang Zemin more than 10 years ago.

China is a medium- and low-income developing country, facing a multitude of difficulties and challenges on the road to development, President Hu Jintao said at the UN summit marking the world body's 60th anniversary in 2005. But it will do its utmost to support and assist other developing countries in speeding up their development. China is ready to work with all other countries to make the 21st century truly "the century of development for all," he said.

Over the past six decades, China has developed a world-renowned approach to providing international aid with distinctive characteristics.

Well received

When the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949, the country faced the pressing task of reconstruction. But the Chinese people, who had experienced poverty and hardship, well understood the needs and concerns of other developing countries. In 1950, China started to provide economic and technological assistance to other countries, primarily socialist countries such as North Korea and Viet Nam.

As China established diplomatic relations with more countries, more than 20 countries in Asia and Africa benefited from its assistance after the 1955 Bandung Conference. During his visit to 10 African countries in the 1960s, then Premier Zhou Enlai put forward eight principles for China's international economic and technological assistance. Other developing countries welcomed the principles, which focused on equality, mutual benefit and assistance with no strings attached. They have since become basic guidelines for China's international assistance.

For instance, China helped Mauritania build roads, coalmines, ports, coal-fired power plants and water supply projects decades ago. The country's then President Moktar Ould Daddah was so impressed by China's generous assistance with no strings attached, he traveled or sent envoys to other African countries to persuade them to establish diplomatic relations with China, said Cheng Fei, former Vice Minister of Ministry of Foreign Economic Liaison Department.

After learning about China's "eight principles" on international aid, nine African countries decided to establish diplomatic relations with China, he said.

"While offering huge economic and technological assistance to Tanzania, China has never attempted to influence the country's policy or undermine its sovereignty and dignity," said Tanzania's first President Julius Nyerere.

Keat Chhon, Cambodia's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance, said, as a Cambodian working with the Chinese, he was keenly aware China offered assistance without imposing conditions or political pressure.

In 1971, the 26th UN General Assembly adopted a motion proposed by 23 countries on restoring the legitimate rights of the People's Republic of China. All the 23 countries behind the motion were Third World countries. Of the 76 countries to vote in favor, 58 were from the Third World.

This was proof China's international aid policy had won the trust and respect of other developing countries. Mao Zedong also attributed the restoration of New China's seat in the UN to the Third World countries.

The Third Plenum of the 11th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in 1978 ushered China into a new era of reform and opening up. While focusing on economic development, China has kept improving its international assistance programs.

In addition to offering free assistance and interest-free loans to other developing countries, China began to grant medium- and long-term low-interest loans through the Export-Import Bank of China as a new form of governmental assistance in 1995. The move helped diversify sources of foreign assistance funds.

Global problems have grown increasingly prominent since the beginning of the 21st century. To cope with them, the UN put forward the Millennium Development Goals in 2000. In this context, China redoubled international assistance efforts to the best of its ability, focusing on poverty reduction, people's livelihoods and the development of capacity in recipient countries.

By the end of 2009, China had offered economic and technological assistance to more than 120 developing countries. It had also donated to more than 30 international and regional organizations in support of these organizations' multilateral aid programs.

Promoting development

Over the past six decades, China has offered assistance to other countries while taking into account its own national conditions. While respecting the opinions of recipient countries, it has adopted various forms of assistance, such as project construction, material aid, technological cooperation and personnel training, to address their needs.

Statistics of the Ministry of Commerce show China has to date helped build more than 220 agricultural projects, nearly 700 industrial projects and more than 1,000 infrastructure and public facility projects for other countries. It has thus helped these nations improve living and working conditions, revitalize economies in both urban and rural areas and pave the way for self-motivated development.

For instance, China decided to build an agricultural machinery plant for Myanmar at a village 40 km from Mandalay in 1999. The factory was completed and handed over to Myanmar four years later.

Myanmar has an annual demand for 15,000 to 20,000 items of farming machinery, and the plant meets 40 percent of that demand, says the Myanmar Agricultural Machinery Industries. Agricultural machinery produced by the plant is also of high quality and up to international standards.

Before the plant went into operation, Myanmar had only some 60,000 agricultural machines. Fields where agricultural machinery was used accounted for 23 percent, while livestock and manual labor were employed to farm the remaining 77 percent. The Chinese-built plant contributed greatly to promoting mechanized agriculture and improving agricultural productivity in Myanmar.

China places great importance on technology transfers when offering assistance.

In the 1960s, many newly independent African countries desperately needed to boost agricultural production. Mali, for one, had long relied on imported food.

China sent seven agricultural experts to Mali in 1961. Within two years, they succeeded in cultivating tea shrubs and sugar cane to produce these commodities in the dry, hot country on the rim of the Sahara Desert. The news soon spread across the African Continent, drawing leaders of many other African countries to Mali for visits.

From then on, an increasing number of African countries requested China send agricultural experts. By the end of the 1970s, China had offered agricultural assistance to most African countries. Apart from setting up agricultural technology stations, it also helped build a number of large farms.

Over the past six decades, China provided aid recipient countries with a wide variety of materials and equipment at their request. For instance, it supported Afghanistan's reconstruction and refugee resettlement by offering the country machinery equipment as well as office and household supplies, medical devices and food. It also assisted with the development of the aviation industry in Zimbabwe, Laos, Zambia and Bolivia by providing them with regional jets and cargo planes.

At the same time, China gives top priority to training professionals for other developing countries. Since the 1950s, it has granted government scholarships to students from these countries, while training technological personnel for them. By the end of 2009, China had granted scholarships to more than 70,000 students from developing countries and trained 120,000 professionals for 173 developing countries and regions. The training covered more than 150 specialties in more than 20 disciplines such as economics, management, healthcare, law, education and environmental protection.

Improving livelihoods

Plagued by epidemic diseases and lacking medical services, newly independent Algeria made pleas for emergency assistance to the international community in 1963. Hubei Province, following the Central Government's instructions, dispatched a 24-member medical team to the country. It was the first time China sent medical workers abroad to help a foreign country.

For more than four decades, Chinese medical workers have treated tens of thousands of patients in foreign countries. They have gained wide recognition where they have worked for their excellent skills and considerate services. More than 600 of them have received presidential awards.

The East remains a mystery in remote areas in Africa. But at the mere mention of Chinese doctors, residents always give them the thumbs up. Some parents even name their children after China to show gratitude for Chinese assistance.

To date, China has sent some 21,000 medical workers to 69 other developing countries. They have treated about 260 million patients and today about 1,300 medical workers are working in 54 medical teams in 48 developing countries.

From sending medical teams to building public facilities such as schools and gymnasiums and helping address food and water shortages, China has taken concrete measures to improve livelihoods in countries that have received aid.

Many countries in West Asia and Africa have long suffered from drought and water shortages. Residents there have had to fetch water from distant places riding donkeys and camels. To meet their needs for water, China has sent geologists to help locate water sources and improve supply conditions in these countries since 1964.

Chinese technicians have helped dig wells and develop water supply systems. For instance, a Chinese-built water supply project solved water shortages in Niger's Zinder Region suffered for three decades. The 24-meter-high water tower is known as the "Chinese water tower" among local residents.

China has also provided timely humanitarian assistance to countries hit by natural disasters and humanitarian crises.

Chinese President Hu Jintao sent his condolences to the presidents of Indonesia, Sri Lanka and other tsunami-affected countries the day of the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. They were among the first messages of condolence sent to these countries by a foreign head of state.

Meanwhile, the Chinese people, from preschoolers to senior citizens, made generous donations for tsunami victims. The Chinese Government provided 687 million yuan ($101 million) worth of assistance through bilateral and multilateral channels to tsunami-affected countries. It also dispatched an international rescue team to the disaster area.

The Red Cross Society of China received 443 million yuan ($65 million) in donations from the general public. It not only offered assistance in cash and kind to tsunami-affected countries but also helped build nine "friendship villages" for Indonesia, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Thailand and Myanmar for the resettlement of victims.

In the past six years, the Chinese Government has launched nearly 200 international emergency rescue operations. At the request of disaster-affected countries or the international community, China has provided material and financial assistance, dispatched rescue and medical teams and assisted with reconstruction. China's efforts have helped mitigate the impact of disasters and won the approval of recipient countries' governments and people as well as the international community.

Strengthening friendship

China has offered assistance to developing countries during the past six decades while improving relations and enhancing solidarity with them.

When they gained independence in the 1960s, Tanzania and Zambia faced the common problem of international blockades. They badly needed a railway so that they could develop the bronze trade. But the World Bank and Western countries rejected their requests.

During his visit to China in 1965, then Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere made a formal proposal China help build the Tanzania-Zambia railway, to which Chinese leaders consented. Two years later, Zambia's then President Kenneth Kaunda expressed the same intent during his visit to China.

Government delegations from the three countries held talks in Beijing in 1967. Following the talks, they signed an agreement in which China pledged to grant an interest-free loan for the railway construction without attaching conditions. In the years that followed, China sent a total of 56,000 engineers, technicians and managers to the project. At its peak, more than 16,000 Chinese workers toiled on African soil, forging close friendships with local residents.

After its completion, Nyerere spoke highly of the railway, calling it a great contribution to the African people. Kaunda also said China helped the two countries at their most difficult time. Many years later, he still recalled those early days with fondness when meeting with Chinese friends.

As an aid provider, China has not only transferred technology to recipient countries but also cemented friendly ties with them through cultural exchanges.

Yemen, a country in the southernmost part of the Arabian Peninsula, expressed a wish to develop friendly relations with the People's Republic of China shortly after its founding. There were no highways in the country back then. After the two countries established diplomatic relations in 1956, Chen Jiakang, China's Ambassador to Egypt and Minister Counsellor to Yemen, traveled to the capital Saana from the western port city Al Hudaydah on a donkey to present his credentials.

Crown Prince Muhammad al-Badr, Vice Prime Minister of the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen, visited China in December 1957. During talks with Chinese leaders, he asked the Chinese Government to help Yemen build a highway from Saana to Al Hudaydah. Chairman Mao Zedong agreed immediately.

Working conditions were extremely harsh at that time, said Luo Xiaoguang, former Chinese Ambassador to Yemen. The road played an important role in the victory of the 1962 revolution that turned Yemen into a republic and in the country's economic and social development. That's why the Yemeni people called it a road of revolution and friendship.

Chinese aid workers got along well with local residents, earning the name of "envoys of friendship." In countries that have received aid, there are numerous buildings and roads with "friendship" as part of names and streets named after Chinese people--evidence Chinese aid has helped strengthen friendly ties with these countries.

Seeking harmony

Since the outbreak of the global financial crisis, China has honored its aid commitments while coping with the impact of the crisis and overcoming its own difficulties. In 2009, the Chinese Government offered economic and technological assistance to 116 countries and regional organizations. It undertook more than 900 projects in the fields of infrastructure construction, agriculture, healthcare and education. It also trained nearly 10,000 managerial and technical personnel for other developing countries.

By offering international assistance, China has fostered an image of a responsible country committed to peace, development, cooperation and harmony.

Since 2000, China has expanded the scope of its foreign aid as its economy revved up. It has canceled debts owed by the world's least developed countries and other heavily indebted poor countries. It has also provided assistance and cooperated with other countries to meet their needs. All its efforts have contributed to the realization of the UN Millennium Development Goals in developing countries.

To date, China has signed debt cancellation agreements with 50 countries, canceling 380 due debts owed by these countries. This initiative, widely welcomed by the international community, prompted other debtors to reduce and cancel poor countries' debts.

The Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), held in November 2006, is regarded as a milestone in South-South cooperation. At the summit, Chinese President Hu Jintao announced eight measures aimed at strengthening practical cooperation between China and Africa and supporting African countries' development. The measures attracted enormous attention in Africa and beyond. In the next three years, all the measures were put into practice as scheduled in keeping with the principles of "friendly consultation, close coordination, high efficiency and pragmatism, mutual benefit and win-win outcomes."

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao unveiled another eight measures to promote China-Africa cooperation at the Fourth Ministerial Meeting of the FOCAC in Egypt in November 2009. The measures cover a wide area including agriculture, grain production, healthcare and the prevention and treatment of major diseases. Today, the new measures are being implemented efficiently, prudently and in a well-organized way. The progress shows China's goodwill to prioritize China-Africa traditional friendship, cooperate with Africa on the basis of equality and mutual benefit, deepen the new type of strategic partnership between China and Africa and promote the building of a harmonious world of lasting peace and common prosperity.

As a responsible major developing country, China will continue to offer assistance to other countries in the years to come. It will undertake international responsibilities within its capacity while pursuing national development, in the spirit of opening a new chapter in South-South cooperation and common development.