On September 26, H.E. Hou Yanqi, Chinese Ambassador to ASEAN, hosted a National Day Reception in Jakarta in celebration of the 74th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. More than 100 guests, including Secretary-General of ASEAN H.E. Dr. Kao Kim Hourn, Deputy Secretaries-General of ASEAN H.E. Robert Matheus Michael Tene, H.E. Ekkaphab Phanthavong, and H.E. Tran Duc Binh, Members of the Committee of Permanent Representatives to ASEAN, Ambassadors from ASEAN Dialogue Partners, officials from Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as representatives from ASEAN-related Think Tanks, Media and Chinese enterprises attended the event.
Ambassador Hou Yanqi said in her speech that in the 74 years since the founding of the People's Republic of China, under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, the Chinese people have realized national independence, development and prosperity through persistent hard work, and have explored the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Especially in the past decade, under the leadership of President Xi Jinping and with the hard work of the Chinese people, socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era. China has secured historic development achievements and undergone historic changes.
Ambassador Hou Yanqi stated that in the past decade, China’s average annual economic growth has reached 6.2%, contributing over 30% on average to world economic growth. In the first half of this year, China's GDP grew by 5.5% year-on-year amid the persistent downturn of the world economy, leading the world's major economies and providing important support for global economic recovery. China has made tremendous achievements in eliminating extreme poverty. Nearly 100 million rural people have been lifted out of poverty, and the poverty reduction goal of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development has been realized 10 years ahead of schedule. China has built the world's largest education, social security and healthcare systems, increased its average life expectancy to 78.2 years. Its scientific and technological innovation capabilities has continued to improve. Green, circular, and low-carbon development has made solid progress, and ecological and environmental protection has seen historic changes. As emphasized at the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Chinese path to modernization is the modernization of harmony between humanity and nature, which is highly consistent with the sustainable development goals pursued by countries around the world. This year also marks the 45th anniversary of China’s reform and opening up and the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative. Facts have proven that China cannot develop in isolation from the world, and the world also needs China for its development. China will continue to pursue high-level opening up, advance Chinese modernization in a comprehensive manner with high-quality development, and provide more new opportunities for open cooperation among countries.
Ambassador Hou Yanqi said that this year marks the 10th anniversary of President Xi Jinping’s proposal to build a closer China-ASEAN community with a shared future. Two years ago, China and ASEAN established a comprehensive strategic partnership during the Special Summit to Commemorate the 30th Anniversary of China-ASEAN Dialogue Relations . President Xi Jinping proposed to jointly build a peaceful, safe & secure, prosperous, beautiful and amicable home, showing the direction for our future relations. China-ASEAN relations have continued to make historic progress and become one of the most successful and dynamic relations in Asia-Pacific cooperation. China has always regarded ASEAN as a priority in its neighborhood diplomacy, firmly supports the building of the ASEAN community, firmly supports ASEAN centrality, and firmly supports ASEAN in playing a greater role in regional and international affairs. In recent years, President Xi Jinping has maintained close interactions with leaders of ASEAN countries on bilateral and multilateral occasions, and almost all ASEAN leaders have paid visits to China. Political mutual trust between the two sides has been enhancing. China and ASEAN are each other's largest trading partners, with trade and investment continuing to improve. The total value of China-ASEAN trade in 2022 reached US$ 975.44 billion, a year-on-year increase of 11.2%. In the first eight months of this year, the total trade value between the two sides reached US$ 591.19 billion. The two sides have achieved remarkable results in Belt and Road cooperation, and the Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Railway which has just opened to traffic is one of the landmark cooperation projects in the field of connectivity.
Ambassador Hou Yanqi said that at the recently concluded leaders’ meetings on East Asia Cooperation, H.E. Li Qiang, Premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China, and leaders of ASEAN countries issued a joint statement on mutually beneficial cooperation between the Belt and Road Initiative and the ASEAN Indo-Pacific Outlook, and adopted a series of outcome documents in areas such as agricultural development, e-commerce, science, technology and innovation. Both sides agreed to designate the year 2024 as the China-ASEAN Year of People-to-People Exchanges. For the first time, the ASEAN Plus China, Japan, ROK Summit issued a statement on electric vehicle cooperation, fostering new growth points for cooperation. The East Asia Summit reached an outcome document focusing on regional economic growth, which reflects the strong support of all parties for ASEAN centrality and building this region into an epicentrum of growth. Facts have proven that in East Asia cooperation, common interests outweigh differences, and cooperation prevails over competition. So long as all parties respect ASEAN centrality and participate in East Asia cooperation in a cooperative and constructive manner, we will be able to safeguard together the regional peace, development and prosperity.
Ambassador Hou Yanqi said that the world now is faced with multiple challenges such as food security, energy security, and climate change. Traditional and non-traditional security threats have become more prominent. President Xi Jinping proposed the Global Development Initiative, Global Security Initiative, and Global Civilization Initiative, providing Chinese wisdom and solutions to accelerate world economic recovery, resolve global security dilemmas, and promote exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations. China will always be a force for world peace, a contributor to global development, a defender of the international order, and a promoter of human civilizations.
Ambassador Hou Yanqi emphasized that this year marks the 10th anniversary of President Xi Jinping’s vision of building a community with a shared future for mankind. Just today, China released a white paper entitled "A Global Community of Shared Future: China's Proposals and Actions", which is believed to give the international community a better understanding of the background of the vision’s proposition, its goals and directions, the path of practice, and China’s actions and contributions. China is willing to work with the international community, including ASEAN and its dialogue partners, to build up consensus, deepen cooperation, and jointly build a community with a shared future for mankind.
On behalf of ASEAN, H.E. Dr. Kao Kim Hourn extended warm congratulations to the 74th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, praised China's development achievements and contributions to the region and the world, and expressed that ASEAN will continue to benefit from China's rapid development, and is willing to seize the opportunities for cooperation, jointly address the challenges, and further advance the ASEAN-China Comprehensive Strategic Partnership to a new level.
The atmosphere on site was solemn, friendly and warm. Ambassador Hou Yanqi and the guests watched together a video showing China's development and the progress of jointly building a peaceful, safe and secure, prosperous, beautiful and amicable home by China and ASEAN, and exchanged views on China-ASEAN relations and East Asia cooperation. Guests also enjoyed tasting the mooncakes to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival, appreciated traditional Chinese music, experiencing the profoundness of Chinese culture.
