Speech by Li Zhaoxing
0 Comment(s)
Print
E-mail China.org.cn, February 9, 2015
First, coordination across time. The Maritime Silk Road has its historical legacy that can be traced back to more that two millennia ago when the Chinese, Hindus, and Arabs exchanged goods through maritime sailing. During the Song and Yuan Dynasties (960-1368 AD), Quanzhou had become the largest oriental port, on a par with Alexandria of Egypt. Ten days ago, India launched the "Visit India Year 2015" campaign in Beijing. In his congratulatory video message, the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, "for several thousand years, India and China have together built inseparable bonds. When the ancient Chinese monk Xuan Zang paid his pilgrimage to India for Buddhist scriptures, he had been to my home state Gujarat. Upon his return, he had gone back to Xi'An, the hometown of the Chinese President Xi Jinping." Home to ancient civilizations, China and India have contributed enormously to the world in the past. In the 21st century for Asia, China and India will continue to join hands and contribute to the world development. To make the 21st Century Silk Road a success, we must tap into the our historical and cultural legacies, carry forward the spirit of peaceful cooperation, openness, inclusiveness, mutual learning, mutual benefit and win-win, and boost the confidence of the Asian people in pioornering maritime exploration, development, and cooperation.
Second, coordination across space. The development of port cities constitutes an integral part of multiple international economic cooperation corridors, including the new Eurasian Continental Bridge, China-Mongolia-Russia, China-Central Asia-West Asia, and China-Indo China Peninsula corridors. On the other hand, the hinterland development and its transportation networks are also essential in supporting and sustaining major port cities and areas. We hope that "One Belt, One Road" will help realize the free flow of land and maritime economic factors, promote cultural exchange and mix between coastal and inland regions, and facilitate the development of safe and efficient land-and-sea major transportation channels, bringing forth common prosperity for both the coastal and inland population.
Third, coordination across borders. It is high time that we coordinated many of our national development strategies and plans. Coordination across the border does not mean that one country would have the power to decide for others or would let others to decide for oneself. Rather, we should find common ground and areas of cooperation on the basis of mutual respect, and work together to plan and facilitate joint projects of cooperation. For instance, Indonesia's development strategy to become a marine power, particularly its marine highway program put forward by President Joko Widodo, fits perfectly well with the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, making ocean cooperation a new growth engine for the bilateral ties between China and Indonesia.
And then, the most foudamental element for effective coordination is our people. We should always put our people first and find ways to deepen mutual understanding and friendship among our peoples. My colleague, Ambassador Wang Yusheng, has deep feelings for the people of Sri Lanka. Previously, he has worked there for over a decade. His wife passed away there. Not long ago, at an advanced age of 84, he once again returned to Sri Lanka for a symposium. He delivered his remarks on the Maritime Silk Road in the Sinhala language and has been warmly received by the audience. When he paid a visit to his late wife in the cemetery, his tears came down, but there is no bitter regrets. Very often I tell people that the Maritime Silk Road is not something newly coined out of nothing, but a legacy that carries the efforts and aspirations of several generations of diplomats and people from various sectors.
During the Silk Road Youth Touring Program organized by the Chinese Foreign Ministry last year, we have brought some foreign students studying in Nanjing to Silk Road historic sites around Jiangsu and Zhejiang Province. An Indonesian student said afterwards, although Zheng He has the world's largest naval fleet back then, he brought to the people in Southeast Asia peace, goods, and friendship. Having seen the treasure ship with his own eyes, he is more convinced that China will continue to follow the path of peaceful development. Moving ahead, we need more young people to experience, understand, and devote to the undertaking of the Maritime Silk Road.
To end my speech today, I would like leave you three witty remarks. The first one comes from a national hero from Fujian Province, Lin Zexu. He has once written a famous poetic couplet that says, "the vastness of the ocean comes from its accepting of thousands of rivers, the resilience of thousands of cliffs comes from their absence of desire". The second one I recalled from my visit to Kyoto many years ago. In the Manpuku-ji Temple, there is a couplet written by the Fujian born high priest Yinyuan Longqi (Ingen Ryuki in Japanese) that reads, "there isn't a door that separates the believers and non-believers, and one can always move forward uninterrupted as long as one pursues the correct path". And the last but not the least, as the Chair of China Shakespeare Studies Association, I would also like to quote his words, "unite closely around you those time-tested friends". I believe these words would lend much wisdom to our discussions today and to the building of the Maritime Silk Road of the 21st Century in the time ahead.
Thank you!
Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)