Jiang Zemin Makes Speech to Vietnamese Students, Teachers

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, March 01, 2002

Jiang Zemin Makes Speech to Vietnamese Students, Teachers

Chinese top leader Jiang Zemin visited the Hanoi National University of Vietnam and made a speech to students and teachers of the university Thursday morning.

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Chinese top leader Jiang Zemin visited the Hanoi National University of Vietnam and made a speech to students and teachers of the university Thursday morning.

Jiang, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and Chinese president, received warm welcome by the students and teachers at the university. His visit to and speech at the university are broadcast live throughout Vietnam by the country's state-run TV and radio stations.

Jiang Shares Views With Vietnamese Students on Socialism

Facts have shown that only by combining the basic principles of Marxism with the practical conditions of individual countries can the driving vitality and outstanding advantage of socialism be manifested, said visiting General Secretary of the Communist Party of China Jiang Zemin.

It is also beyond proof that socialism will be realized by sticking to one country's chosen path for national development, by holding the principles of liberalizing ideology, exercising practicality and realism, keeping pace with the times, and with the spirit of pioneering and creation, said Jiang.

Thanks to the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the Chinese people are making strenuous efforts to build their own motherland, which has undergone tremendous and profound changes during the past five decades, especially during the recent 20 years of reform and opening-up drive, said Jiang, who is also the Chinese president.

The Chinese people have set an ambitious goal of building China into a prosperous, democratic and civilized socialist country that will enjoy modernization by the middle of this century, and they are striving for the great renaissance of the Chinese nation, said the Chinese leader.

In the new century, as China has entered a new stage of national development, the Chinese government is determined to carry on its reform and opening-up policy by fulfilling the major tasks of development, structural readjustment and improving the Chinese people's living standard based on reform and opening-up and scientific advancement, said Jiang.

However, in spite of those outstanding achievements China has made during its modernization drive, China is still a developing country, which hopes to benefit from peaceful and harmonious circumstances both in neighboring countries and the world as a whole.

Therefore, he reiterated that China will stick to its independent foreign policy of peace and peaceful co-existence with all other countries in the world, especially its neighbors, based on the five principles of peaceful co-existence and mutual benefit and cooperation.

"We will continue to observe the policy even when China becomes a strong country in the future," Jiang said.

The Chinese leader pledged that China will, as always, support Vietnam in its drive for rejuvenation, prosperity and development.

He also expressed his belief that the Vietnamese people, under the leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam, will realize the strategic goals for national development and build Vietnam into a socialist industrialized country.

Common Prosperity Is Correct Choice of China, Vietnam

President Jiang Zemin said that it is a correct choice for China and Vietnam to cement solidarity, promote mutual trust and friendship and expand cooperation to seek common development and prosperity.

Addressing teachers and students at Hanoi National University, Jiang said that recalling the history of the two countries and parties, it has been proven that the choice conforms with the fundamental interests of the two neighbors and their people, who have shared a common cause and interests.

In his speech entitled "Jointly Create a Bright Future for China-Vietnam Relations," Jiang, who arrived here Wednesday for a three-day official visit, spoke highly of the development of bilateral ties.

"A close neighbor can be more helpful than a relative living far away," Jiang said by citing a Chinese saying. "China and Vietnam are adjacent to each other, just as a song known both to the Chinese and Vietnamese people reads, 'Vietnam-China, mountains are connected with mountains, and rivers are linked with rivers ...'"

Having a similar history, both nations suffered from imperialist aggression and oppression and waged protracted bloody struggles for national independence and liberation, he said.

The two peoples have not only enjoyed a long-standing traditional friendship, but also fostered comradeship by standing side by side and giving each other sympathy and support in the course of their socialist revolution and construction, Jiang told his audience.

We are "brotherly states" and "comrades plus brothers," Jiang cited Vietnam's late Chairman Ho Chi Minh as saying.

He said the friendship, nurtured by late Chinese leader Mao Zedong and Ho Chi Minh, has grown in all aspects and is cherished by the parties and peoples of the two countries.

Although bilateral relations experienced some setbacks, the two peoples have always shown friendly sentiments toward each other.

In November 1991, acting in accordance with the development of the international situation and the common wish and basic interests of the two peoples, the leaders of the two countries realized the normalization of bilateral relations.

Reality has evidenced that the choice by the leaders was correct and timely, Jiang said in his speech.

During the past decade and more, bilateral cooperative ties have seen great progress, and cooperation and exchanges in all fields have been increasingly strengthened, Jiang said.

He said the volume of two-way trade has jumped from 30 million U.S. dollars to 3 billion dollars in just a few years, and joint construction projects have brought or will bring huge benefits to the two countries and their people.

Frequent high-level reciprocal visits, candid and profound exchanges of views on internal, international and major issues concerning bilateral ties have prompted the development of relations and just and reasonable settlement of problems left over by history, including border dispute, the Chinese leader said.

Jiang said the two sides formulated the principles guiding the development of their relations in the new century in February 1999.

The principles aim at achieving long-term stability, good-neighborliness and friendship and all-round cooperation and are future oriented.

"Three months ago, (Vietnamese) General Secretary Nong Duc Manh successfully visited China, and I held fruitful talks Wednesday with General Secretary Nong Duc Manh and President Tran Duc Luong," Jiang said.

He said that the two countries agreed to push their traditional friendship to a new high in the new century.

To this end, Jiang said, the two neighbors must stick to the mentioned principles, as they are worked out after summing up historical experiences and represent the direction of the development of bilateral relations.

Jiang Encourages Youths of China, Vietnam to Work for Better Ties

General Secretary of the Communist Party of China and Chinese President Jiang Zemin called on Thursday the young people of China and Vietnam to promote the Sino-Vietnamese friendship and contribute to world peace and development.

"The bright future will be created by you, the young people, and the future belongs to you," Jiang said.

He urged the students to love their motherland, take high aspirations and stick to their belief before any difficulties and hardships to realized the value of life.

Jiang said the growth of young people is closely related to the future and fate of their country and nation. In the case of China and Vietnam, both socialist countries not rich at present, young people should carry on the revolutionary spirit of their predecessors by studying and working hard to consolidate and develop the socialist system for the prosperity of their motherland.

He said young people should shape a world vision to follow world development and raise their capacity of practice and the level of cognition.

"At the present world, new knowledge keeps cropping up and the mankind's ability of understanding the nature, the society and the mankind itself has been greatly enhanced. The productivity created throughout the world during the past 100 years outweighs what had been produced all the way up to 100 years ago. One of the fundamental reasons for the rapid growth in productivity is the fast development in science and technology," the Chinese leader said.

He said that in the 21st century, new revolutionary breakthroughs in science and technology will push forward the development of productivity and profoundly affect the development process of world politics, economy and culture.

Jiang expressed the hope that the Chinese and Vietnamese young people will cherish, maintain and promote the good Sino-Vietnamese relations, conduct more exchanges and learn from each other to promote mutual understanding so as to shoulder the historic responsibility of developing the Sino-Vietnamese ties.

He pledged that the Chinese party and government entirely support the exchanges.

Jiang Calls for Closer International Cooperation

President Jiang Zemin urged Thursday all nations, especially the developing countries, to strengthen international cooperation.

The developing countries are facing more challenges as well as opportunities while the global situation is experiencing the most profound changes since the ending of the Cold War, Jiang said in his speech at Hanoi National University.

The development in the multi-polarization, the economic globalization, and the rapid advance in science and technology have provided an impetus to the progress of the human society, Jiang said.

However, he added, the gap between the rich and the poor is growing wider, the old international political and economic order has not been altered, and the racial and religious conflicts are taking place here and there all the time.

In this sense, the developing countries still have an arduous task in maintaining the national sovereignty, security and interests, he said.

Jiang called on all nations to work together to establish a just, rational and new international political and economic order, to push forward the democratization of international relations, and to discuss and exploit new ways for cooperation, since peace and development are main themes concerning every country.

The developing countries in particular should take full advantage of the natural and human resources to boost their capacity of development, Jiang said.

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