2018: Xi tells China stories to the world (4)

President Xi Jinping delivers a keynote speech titled "Work Together for Common Development and a Shared Future" while attending the opening ceremony of the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Sept. 3, 2018. (Photo/Xinhua)

On China's foreign diplomacy

An integral part of Chinese civilization, Confucianism believes that "a just cause should be pursued for the common good" and champions harmony, unity and a shared community for all nations. Its emphasis on unity and harmony has much in common with the Shanghai Spirit.

——Toast by President Xi Jinping at the welcoming dinner of the SCO Qingdao Summit

To quote a Chinese saying, "The ocean is vast because it rejects no rivers." China, the world's largest developing country, and Africa, the continent with the largest number of developing countries, have long formed a community with a shared future. Indeed, we share a common stake. China will work with Africa to achieve our shared goal of building a closer China-Africa community with a shared future and turn it into a pacesetter for building such a community for mankind.

——Keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC)

Several centuries ago, China's GDP already accounted for 30 percent of the global total, yet it never engaged in aggression or expansion. In the over 100 years after the Opium War in 1840, China suffered immensely from repeated aggression, wars and turmoil. Confucius once said, "Do not do to others what you do not want others to do to you." We Chinese believe that peace and stability is the only way to development and prosperity. This is neither a choice of expediency nor a diplomatic rhetoric. It is our firm conviction and a guidance of what we practice on the ground. China will remain committed to the path of peaceful development and will always stay as an anchor of peace and stability for the Asia-Pacific and the wider world.

——Signed article published in three Philippine newspapers on Nov. 19, 2018

On friendship

A Chinese proverb has it that, "Just as distance tests a horse's strength, time will reveal a person's sincerity." Decades ago, President Senghor was deeply touched when he saw Chinese agricultural experts toiling in the field side by side with local Senegalese, mud on their hands. Today, Chinese experts are still out there, working with their Senegalese brothers and sisters on rice and vegetable farming technologies. That's how friendship has taken deep roots in the hearts of our two peoples.

——Signed article published on mainstream Senegalese newspaper Le Soleil on July 20, 2018

The Ocean All-Russia Children's Care Center in Vladivostok welcomed 900 children from Wenchuan in Sichuan Province. Our children have spent time there. They have been taken very good care of in a very warm atmosphere. In their hearts, now they have a very special attitude toward Russia. Amongst those children there was one boy named Xi Junfei, who made a wish that he wanted to come back to Russia to study. He put a message in a bottle and threw it into the water, and then an employee of the Children's Care Center found the bottle of the message, so the wish came true. The boy is now studying at the Far Eastern Federal University, which is a good example of friendly people-to-people exchanges in the region.

——Speech delivered at the fourth Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok

Friendly interactions between the people of our countries could date back more than 160 years, when the first group of Chinese arrived in Panama to help with canal- and railway-building. On this hospitable land, they eventually stayed, became part of the local communities and joined the Panamanian people in pursuit of a better life. To mark their dedication, a special day has been designated for ethnic Chinese in Panama. Back in the 1960s, in a gesture of solidarity with the Panamanian people in their just cause for sovereignty over the Canal, sixteen million Chinese staged rallies across China, which became a special memory of the Chinese people for a generation. All these attest to the fraternal bonds connecting the people of our two countries.

——Signed article published on Panamanian newspaper La Estrella de Panama on Nov. 30, 2018