— Speech by Wu Bangguo, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, at the National Assembly of South Africa

(May 25, 2011, Cape Town)

It gives me great pleasure to come to the National Assembly and meet you, friends both old and new, on my official goodwill visit to South Africa. I wish to begin by extending to you, and through you to the brotherly South African people and people across Africa, the cordial greetings and best wishes of the Chinese people.

South Africa is a country of important influence in the world. This vast and amazing land where two oceans meet is world renowned not only for its enchanting natural landscape and diversity of its unique and splendid culture, but also and more importantly, for its glorious history of fighting against apartheid and its great victory in winning freedom and equality for its people. Over the past 17 years since the founding of the new South Africa, its government and people have made vigorous efforts in exploring a development path that fits your own national conditions. South Africa has achieved dynamic economic growth, realized racial harmony and improved people's livelihoods. The international status and influence of South Africa has also been growing. In particular, the successful hosting of the World Cup has promoted South Africa's image as an emerging big country. The "rainbow nation" is shining more brilliantly. The Chinese people admire and feel heartened by the great achievements of the South African people and sincerely wish the brotherly South African people new and greater accomplishments.

Though our countries are far apart, the two peoples are close at heart. The Chinese people stood firmly by the people of South Africa in their just fight against apartheid. In 1998, China and South Africa officially launched diplomatic relations, opening a new chapter in our friendship and cooperation. Over the past 13 years, our bilateral relations have moved full steam ahead and become one of the fastest-growing and most important bilateral relationships of both sides. This is rarely seen in state-to-state relations.

Strategic mutual trust has deepened. Only two years after the inauguration of diplomatic relations, the two countries established a partnership, which was upgraded to a strategic partnership based on equality, mutual benefit and common development in 2004 and further elevated to a comprehensive strategic partnership in 2010. The development of China-South Africa political relationship is like the triple jump in athletics' track-and-field events. Leaders of the two countries visit each other as frequently as relatives do. President Nelson Mandela and President Jiang Zemin exchanged visits soon after the establishment of diplomatic relations. Since then, President Thabo Mbeki and President Jacob Zuma have visited China several times. President Hu Jintao and other Chinese leaders have also visited South Africa. Last month, the two presidents held productive talks during the BRICS Leaders Meeting in Hainan, China.

Economic cooperation and trade have grown rapidly. China and South Africa have signed multiple bilateral economic cooperation agreements on investment, trade, technology and taxation. Our practical cooperation covers a wide range of areas, including trade, energy and minerals, agriculture, real estate and new energy. Bilateral trade has surged from $1.6 billion to $25.7 billion, a 15-fold increase. China is now the biggest trading partner of South Africa and South Africa is China's top trading partner in Africa. A number of competent and reputable Chinese companies have started businesses in South Africa. Quite a few world famous South African companies have made investments in China. In 2007, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China invested $5.46 billion in the Standard Bank of South Africa, China's largest financial investment in Africa so far.

Cultural and people-to-people exchanges have become closer and more frequent. Among all African countries, South Africa ranks the first in terms of the numbers of sister provinces and cities with China, the number of Confucius Institutes, Chinese tourists and Chinese students. In 2010, 54,000 Chinese tourists visited South Africa as the first stop of their overseas trips and more than 64,000 South African people traveled to China, up by 34.8 percent and 25.5 percent year on year respectively. The high-profile cultural events in recent years, such as Experiencing China in South Africa and Meet in Beijing South Africa Week, have boosted strongly the cultural exchanges between the two sides.

It is worth in particular mentioning exchanges and cooperation between our legislatures have intensified. South Africa is the only African country of 15 foreign countries to have established regular parliamentary exchange mechanisms with China's National People's Congress. I wish to use this opportunity to express heartfelt thanks and pay a high tribute to the National Assembly of South Africa and all the parliamentarians for your longstanding commitment to China-South Africa friendship and cooperation.

I wish to stress here both China and South Africa are big developing countries with major influence and among the most dynamic emerging markets. We have important historical responsibilities, broad common interests and ample space for cooperation, and our bilateral relationship has therefore taken on greater strategic and global significance. China will continue to work with South Africa to strengthen the foundation of our strategic cooperation in line with the principles of mutual respect, equality and common development, enrich its content and create a better future for the China-South Africa comprehensive strategic partnership.

A strong and prosperous country, and a peaceful and happy life for the people are the common pursuits and strong aspiration of all developing countries, China included. Over the 60 plus years since the founding of New China, especially the three decades and more since reform and opening up, the Communist Party of China has led the Chinese people in a united effort in its modernization drive with great confidence and creativity. The country has become stronger and the people now live a better life. China, an old country, is now brimming with vigor and vitality. Many foreign friends have asked me about the reasons for such tremendous changes. In my view, the most basic reason is that we have found a developmental path suiting China's national conditions, in keeping with the trends of the time and the will of the people. The important conclusions we have drawn from our course of development are:

First, development should always be the top priority in national governance. We in China have felt keenly development holds the key to the prosperity of the country and happiness of the people. Poverty and backwardness have been the most pressing reality facing China for many years. The solution to all problems in China lies in development and in prevailing over many challenges. We also need to rely on development. Since the launch of the reform and opening-up program more than 30 years ago, we have defied difficulties and stayed committed to the central task of economic development guided by the strategic thinking that development is of overarching importance. We have formulated and successfully implemented six five-year plans on national economic and social development, dozens of medium- and long-term development programs in required fields and a number of regional development strategies. These include the development of the western region, revitalization of old industrial bases in northeast China, the rise of the central region, and leading development of the eastern region.

With sustained development over the past three decades, China's comprehensive national strength has increased notably, people's livelihoods have remarkably improved and China's international status has been heightened.

From the early days of reform and opening up in 1978 to 2010, China's GDP surged from $216.5 billion to more than $5.8 trillion. Its share in global GDP rose from 1.8 percent to 9.5 percent. China is now the second largest economy in the world and its per-capita GDP increased 18.4-fold from merely $226 to more than $4,300. China's fiscal revenue grew by 72.4 times from 113.2 billion yuan ($17.5 billion) to 8.3 trillion yuan ($1.3 trillion). China has become the biggest producer of major agricultural and industrial goods. Its grain production has increased from more than 300 million tons to more than 500 million tons. We now provide adequate food for nearly one-fifth of the world's population. The total length of highways constructed has reached 74,000 km, the second longest in the world. The mileage of high speed rails stands at more than 8,400 km and installed power generation capacity has totaled 960 million kilowatts. They both rank top in the world. We accomplished significant projects that attracted worldwide attention, such as a manned space flight, lunar exploration, the Qinghai-Tibet Railway and the Three Gorges Dam. We successfully hosted the Beijing Olympic Games and the Shanghai World Expo. And we prevailed over the massive earthquake in Sichuan Province and other severe natural disasters. Historic changes have taken place in China because we have always put development on top of our governance agenda. Development has brought tangible benefits to the Chinese people and become the common pursuit of the Chinese people of all ethnic groups. China's development is unstoppable.

Second, reform has always been the strong driving force for development and progress. We know from our experience reform is instrumental in making China a prosperous and strong country and delivering happy and prosperous lives to its people. Only reform and opening up can unleash the creativity and energy of the Chinese people and inject new vitality into socialism. In the past more than 30 years of reform and opening up, we have taken bold, experimental steps in keeping with China's realities as long as they can improve social productivity, overall national strength and people's lives. We have pursued with a pioneering spirit comprehensive reform in economic, political and other fields and achieved continuous improvement and development of our socialist system.

We have developed the socialist market economy. We have established a basic economic system with public ownership as its mainstay and diverse forms of ownership developing side by side. We have adopted the household contract responsibility system for collectively owned rural land. We have carried out strategic adjustments to the structure of the state-owned economy. We have undertaken reform, reorganization and transformation of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), and established the modern corporate system. Ninety percent of SOEs have become share-holding companies, and many large SOEs have been listed domestically and overseas. At the same time, we have unswervingly encouraged, supported and guided the development of the non-public sector. As a result, the value added component the non-public sector generates as a percentage of the GDP has risen to around one third. We have actively cultivated markets of production factors, including capital, property rights, land, labor and technology, improved the macro-control system, and brought into full play the fundamental role of the market in allocating resources.

We have adhered to the policy of opening up. From establishing the special economic zones to joining the WTO, from massively "bringing in" to vigorously "going global," China's opening up has widened and deepened, and formed an all-dimensional, wide-ranging and multi-tiered pattern. China's imports and exports exceed $2.9 trillion, making China the largest exporter and second largest importer of goods in the world. China has received a total of over $1 trillion in paid-in foreign direct investment and approved 710,000 foreign-invested companies.

We have advanced political restructuring actively and prudently. This undertaking covers the systems of state leadership, legislation, administration, justice, self-governance by the people at community level and in other areas. It is designed to enhance the vitality of the Party and country and fully bring out the people's initiative. We have followed the basic strategy of running the country in accordance with law. With the Constitution and its four amendments, 239 laws, more than 690 regulations and over 8,600 local rules in effect, we have put in place a socialist system of law with Chinese characteristics based on the Constitution, providing a legal basis for all undertakings of the country. With reform as the strong driving force for development and progress, we have removed institutional barriers to higher productivity and brought out the creativity of the whole of society. Reform and opening up have brought hope to the Chinese people and taken deep root in their hearts. China's reform and opening-up drive is irreversible.

Third, stability and harmony have always been the important basis of reform and development. Our experience tells us stability is the fundamental precondition for the prosperity of a country and the well-being of its people. China has 1.3 billion people and 56 ethnic groups, and faces highly uneven rural-urban and regional development. Without political and social stability, nothing could be accomplished in the modernization drive of such a big country, and the development achievements already made could be lost, or the country may even fall into the abyss of chaos and division. Therefore, we have always kept a cool head and properly handled the relationship between reform, development and stability from a strategic height.

We stick to our own path. We stand firm on our fundamental state system and other major issues of principle, and adhere to the right developmental path chosen by our own people. We have actively drawn upon the achievements of human civilizations, including those in the political field, but never copy indiscriminately. By doing so, we have maintained sustained political stability despite fundamental changes at home and in the world.

We endeavor to deliver prosperous and happy lives for the people. We have worked hard to address issues of major concern to the people, including employment, education, medical care, housing, income distribution and social security, in order to ensure and improve their well-being. We strive to meet, uphold and promote the fundamental interests of the people and make sure that development is for the people and by the people and that development achievements are shared by the people. From 1978 when reform was just initiated to 2010, the annual per-capita disposable income of urban residents grew by 8.7 times from 343 yuan ($53) to 19,000 yuan ($2,933.6), and the annual per-capita net income of rural residents increased by 8.5 times from 134 yuan ($20.7) to 5,919 yuan ($913.9). The rural poor population was cut by 220 million, accounting for 75 percent of the total reduced poor population in developing countries. The urbanization rate rose from 17.9 percent to 49.7 percent, and each year about 10 million rural residents became urban dwellers. The basic urban pension scheme now covers 257 million people, and basic medical insurance schemes cover more than 1.2 billion people. Free, nine-year compulsory education has been made available across the country, and university enrollment jumped from 860,000 to 22.31 million. Life expectancy of urban and rural residents rose from 35 years before New China was founded to 73.5 years in 2010.

We promote social stability and harmony. In face of the problems and challenges brought by profound social changes, we have enhanced and innovated in social management on the basis of priority, improved mechanisms for protecting people's rights and interests, kept the channels open and smooth for people to express their views, and protected people's lawful rights and interests and punished law violations and crimes in accordance with the law. We have promptly addressed problems and difficulties in their initial stage and tried our best to maximize factors that contribute to harmony and minimize those against it. With proper handling of the relationship between reform, development and stability, we have made smooth progress in China's reform and development, and the Chinese people have benefited from stability. The practice of reform and opening up in the past over 30 years has made us fully aware that stability and harmony serve the fundamental interests of people of all ethnic groups. Stability is a blessing, while chaos a disaster. Social stability and harmony are the prerequisite and basis for reform and development.

We are also soberly aware, in spite of the remarkable achievements we have made, China still faces problems and challenges rarely seen in the world. The problem of unbalanced, uncoordinated and unsustainable development remains prominent, and the task of promoting reform, development and stability is as daunting and arduous as ever. As required by the 12th Five-Year Plan for development adopted by the National People's Congress of China, we are applying fully the Scientific Outlook on Development, accelerating the transformation of the economic development pattern, speeding up the strategic adjustment of the economic structure and striving for sound and fast economic and social development. We firmly believe as long as we remain focused on the central task of economic development, deepening reform and opening up, further improving people's well-being and continue to promote stability and harmony, China will become a modern socialist country that is strong, prosperous, democratic, culturally advanced and harmonious, and the Chinese people of all ethnic groups will live happy and prosperous lives.

I have visited Africa six times. I have seen with my own eyes the development and progress of the African continent and felt its great vigor and vitality. The Africa of today enjoys rapid economic and social development, and rising international stature and influence. A new Africa forging ahead in unity and confidence is emerging.

China is the largest developing country in the world and Africa is home to the largest number of developing countries. To enhance solidarity and cooperation with African countries and other developing countries has always been an important basis of China's independent foreign policy of peace. Past progress has shown that deeper friendship and cooperation between China and Africa serves the fundamental interest of people of both sides and contributes to the common development of China and Africa, and world peace and prosperity. It will remain the case in the future. A principal objective of my visit to Africa this time is to further promote the China-Africa traditional friendship and push forward China-Africa relations.

In the first decade of the 21st century, the traditional friendship between us remained strong and our practical cooperation bore much fruit.

In 2000, the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) was launched at the initiative of both sides, providing a new platform and mechanism for collective dialogue and practical cooperation between China and Africa and opening a new chapter in China-Africa cooperation.

At the FOCAC Beijing Summit in 2006, China's President Hu Jintao announced eight policy measures on strengthening China's practical cooperation with Africa, mapping out the new blueprint for China-Africa cooperation. This has become a new milestone in China-Africa friendship and cooperation.

At the Fourth FOCAC Ministerial Meeting in 2009, the Chinese Government introduced another eight measures, providing new opportunities and impetus for advancing cooperation between the two sides across the board.

We are happy to see that, thanks to our joint efforts, bilateral trade surged from $10 billion to $126.9 billion in the last 10 years. More than 1,600 Chinese companies established presence in Africa. In 2010 alone, they directly invested $1.07 billion in Africa, five times the figure of 2000. China is now Africa's top trading partner and contributes to more than 20 percent of Africa's economic growth. The practical cooperation between China and Africa has shown enormous vibrancies and dynamism.

Looking ahead to the second decade of the new century, we are full of confidence in the prospects for China-Africa relations.

The international situation may change, our own economic strength and international standing may change, but they won't change the friendship between our two sides. As long as we adhere to and further promote the fine traditions of friendship, and good experience and practices of our cooperation, keep abreast of the times and make innovative efforts, we will be able to raise the new type of China-Africa strategic partnership to higher levels.

First, we should continue to treat each other as equals. This is our valuable political wealth. China-Africa relations have come a long way over the past half a century in spite of twists and turns. A very important conclusion we have drawn is we have always treated each other as equals and shown full respect for each other's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and choices of social system and developmental paths in line with domestic circumstances. We have never meddled in each other's domestic affairs or imposed our own will upon others. China never attaches any political strings to its assistance to Africa. China never considers such assistance as one-way favors and never causes over-reliance on assistance. Rather, we have been most sincere in helping Africa to improve its own capacity for development.

China stands ready to work with African countries to continue to view and develop China-Africa relations from a strategic and long-term perspective, conduct closer dialogues and consultations within the FOCAC framework, maintain the momentum of high-level visits, strengthen exchanges and cooperation between the governments, legislatures and political parties of the two sides. We will support each other on issues involving our respective core and major interests, and consolidate the political foundation of China-Africa relationship on a sustained basis. China and Africa should always be good friends, good brothers and good partners.

Second, we should adhere to mutually beneficial cooperation. This meets our shared demands. As developing countries, both China and African countries face the task of accelerating economic development and improving people's livelihoods. Moreover, our economies are highly complementary. Africa is rich in natural and human resources and China has applicable technologies and experience. There are many areas where we can work together, and there is plenty of room and enormous potential for our cooperation to grow.

In recent years, China and Africa have properly addressed the impact of the international financial crisis, maintained steady and rapid economic growth and pursued economic restructuring at a faster pace. All these have presented new opportunities and a driving force for us to deepen our mutually beneficial cooperation. We should grasp this valuable opportunity, make the most of our comparative strengths, expand the areas of our cooperation and tap into our cooperative potential.

We should comprehensively implement the outcomes of the Fourth FOCAC Ministerial Meeting, give full play to the role of enterprises as main players in business cooperation and enhance cooperation in agriculture, infrastructure, manufacturing, energy and resources and human resources development on the basis of priority, with a view to constantly raising the quality and level of our mutually beneficial cooperation.

China will continue to expand imports from Africa, and encourage and support a larger number of competitive Chinese enterprises to invest in Africa. China will step up technology transfer to Africa, gradually increase assistance to Africa, optimize the assistance structure and tilt assistance in favor of projects promoting people's well-being, people-to-people exchanges, energy conservation and environmental protection.

Third, we should continue to support each other. This is our unique strategic advantage. In face of the ups and downs in the world over the past half a century, China and Africa have stood by each other through thick and thin with mutual understanding and firm mutual support. We never hesitate to lend a helping hand when friends run into difficulties.

As our world moves towards multi-polarity and the international system undergoes profound shifts, our two sides need to vigorously promote South-South cooperation and North-South dialogue, and step up collaboration at the UN, the WTO and other multilateral forums. We should actively participate in the reform of the global governance structure and international financial system, and work together to make the international political and economic order more just and reasonable. We should advance coordination and cooperation in addressing such global challenges as climate change, environmental protection, food security, energy and resources security and public health and jointly safeguard the legitimate interests of developing countries.

We should urge developed countries to honor their official development assistance commitments, open up their markets, write off debts and increase financial and technical assistance to developing countries, and we need to make joint efforts to promote the implementation of the UN Millennium Development Goals. As a permanent member of the UN Security Council, China will continue to firmly support African countries in safeguarding sovereignty, security and development interests, support African countries and other developing countries in gaining greater representation and their say in the international system, support African countries in pursuing stronger strength through unity and independently solving Africa's issues, and support the African Union in playing a leading role in advancing African solidarity and cooperation.

Today is the 48th Africa Day. On behalf of the Chinese Government and people and in my own name I wish to use this opportunity to pay a high tribute to the African people who have worked tirelessly for independence, freedom and development, and to your great accomplishments. I sincerely wish the South African people and all African people new glory in the great causes of building a beautiful homeland and bringing about the rejuvenation of Africa.