International

Chinese Mordernization : Greater Prosperity for China, Brighter Future for the World

At the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, President Xi Jinping provided a systematic explanation of Chinese modernization, highlighting its connotation and distinctive features, and emphasized that Chinese modernization offers humanity a new choice for achieving modernization. The Communist Party of China and the Chinese people have provided humanity with more Chinese insight, better Chinese input, and greater Chinese strength to help solve its common challenges. The successful implementation of Chinese modernization is not only profoundly reshaping China but also leaving a profound impact on the world.

Chinese modernization will be a stronger boost for global economic recovery. Chinese modernization is the modernization of a huge population. Over the past 40-plus years since reform and opening-up, the Chinese government has lifted over 800 million people out of poverty, and enlarged the middle-income group to over 400 million people. As a country with a population of over 1.4 billion transitioning to modernization, China’s scale exceeds the combined population of all current developed nations. Leveraging the advantages of its super large-scale market and enormous domestic potential, China will continue to serve as a vital engine of the global economy, offering market opportunities, funding, and technology cooperation to nations worldwide.

Chinese modernization will open up a broader path to the common development of all countries. Chinese modernization is the modernization of common prosperity for all and serves the common development of countries worldwide. The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the Global Development Initiative (GDI) are public goods that China offers to the international community. They are also open platforms for pursuing common development and prosperity, giving a strong boost to the early attainment of the UN Sustainable Development Goals for 2030. China is actively and fully implementing the G20’s Debt Service Suspension Initiative, and has contributed as much as 63 percent of the total debt payments suspended.

Chinese modernization will open up bright prospects for human progress.Chinese modernization is the modernization of material and cultural-ethical advancement. The Global Civilization Initiative (GCI) put forth by President Xi Jinping advocates the importance of inheritance and innovations of civilizations, promotes the respect for the diversity of civilizations, and advances the principles of equality, mutual learning, dialogue and inclusiveness among civilizations. Chinese modernization will add new vigor and vitality to the profound Chinese civilization, and contribute more Chinese wisdom to global peace and prosperity and to human progress.

Chinese modernization will provide a more viable pathway to a clean and beautiful world. Chinese modernization is the modernization of harmony between humanity and nature. China readily takes on its responsibility of protecting the environment and tackling climate change, and leads the world on many counts. It has become the largest country in the world in terms of afforestation, renewable energy development and utilization, and new-energy vehicle production and sales. China has made the solemn pledge of achieving carbon peak and carbon neutrality to the world, committed itself to moving from carbon peak to neutrality in just 30 years, and contributed to the conclusion of the Paris Agreement.

Chinese modernization wil bring more certainty to world peace and stability. Chinese modernization is the modernization of peaceful development. Until today, China is the only country in the world that has put in its Constitution the commitment to a path of peaceful development. China is the top contributor of peacekeeping personnel among the permanent members of the UN Security Council, and the only country among the five Nuclear-Weapon States that has made the promise of no-first-use of nuclear weapons. The Global Security Initiative (GSI) put forward by President Xi Jinping has pointed out the right direction of pursuing common and universal security. Facilitated by China, Saudi Arabia and Iran resumed diplomatic relations. In the face of the protracted Ukraine crisis, China has taken an impartial stance and pushed for peace talks.

State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang pointed out at the opening ceremony of the Lanting Forum on Chinese Modernization and the World that the Chinese path to modernization is not a one-flower show, still less for self-interest. It is a path toward development of China, through which more positive energy will be added to global peace and new opportunities created for global development. Both China and Barbados are developing countries. To achieve development and prosperity in an all-round way is the common aspiration of our two peoples. Since the establishment of the diplomatic relations between our two countries 46 years ago, the bilateral ties have maintained a sound momentum of growth, and the two countries have carried out fruitful cooperation. Recently, the construction of Sam Lord’s Castle Hotel with preferential loan from China has entered its final stage. China-aided project, the Center for Food Security and Entrepreneurship, has started construction. China and Barbados have also signed a Concessional Loan Agreement for Scotland District Road Rehabilitation Project; China has further provided anti-epidemic and medical assistance as well as disaster prevention and mitigation assistance to Barbados; while major progress has been made regarding the National Stadium Redevelopment project. China and Barbados are cooperating more closely in common development.

The year 2023 marks the beginning of full implementation of the guiding principles laid down at the 20th CPC National Congress. It is also an important year for the friendly relations between China and Barbados to enter a new stage of development. The government of China stands ready to work with the government of Barbados to implement the important consensus reached by President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley, strengthen strategic communication, continues to promote cooperation between our two countries in key areas such as infrastructure, food security, medical care, culture and education, and further tap the cooperation potential in digital economy, blue economy, new energy and modern agriculture, continue to implement the GDI, the GSI and the GCI, promote high-quality cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative, build an even closer China-Barbados community of shared future, join hands for a bright future of modernization.

International

TAIWAN’S LINK TO CHINA REITERATED BY ZHU FENGLIAN

A Chinese mainland spokesperson on Tuesday slammed the Taiwan region’s leader, Lai Ching-te, for his recent “motherland fallacy,” reiterating that Taiwan is part of the sacred territory of China.

Zhu Fenglian, a spokesperson for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, said that the sovereignty and territory of China have never been divided and will never be divided.

The fact that the mainland and Taiwan both belong to one China has never changed and will never be allowed to change, she added.

What has caused the Taiwan question? And why is Taiwan an inalienable part of China’s territory? Here are some facts you should know.

Taiwan has been part of China since ancient times

Taiwan has belonged to China since ancient times. The earliest written account of Taiwan was in the Seaboard Geographic Gazetteer, compiled more than 1,700 years ago by Shen Ying of the State of Wu during the period of the Three Kingdoms.

Starting as early as the mid-12th century, Chinese governments of different periods set up administrative bodies to exercise jurisdiction over Taiwan.

The Song Dynasty set up a garrison in Penghu, putting the territory under the jurisdiction of Jinjiang County of Fujian’s Quanzhou Prefecture. The Yuan Dynasty installed an agency of patrol and inspection in Penghu to administer the territory. During the mid- and late-16th century, the Ming Dynasty reinstated the once abolished agency and sent reinforcements to Penghu to ward off foreign invaders.

In 1662 (under Qing Emperor Kangxi), General Zheng Chenggong established Chengtian Prefecture on Taiwan. Subsequently, the Qing Dynasty government expanded the administrative structure in Taiwan. In 1727 (under Qing Emperor Yongzheng), the administration on the island was reconstituted as the Prefecture Administration of Taiwan and incorporated the new Penghu Canton. The territory then officially became known as Taiwan. In 1885 (under Qing Emperor Guangxu), the government formally made Taiwan a full province.

Taiwan was ceded due to Japan’s aggression

However, through a war of aggression against China in April 1895, Japan forced the defeated the Qing government to cede Taiwan and the Penghu Islands.

In July 1937, Japan launched an all-out war of aggression against China. In December 1941, the Chinese government issued a declaration of war against Japan, announcing to the world that all treaties, conventions, agreements and contracts regarding relations between China and Japan had been abrogated and that China would recover Taiwan and the Penghu Islands.

In December 1943, the Cairo Declaration was issued by the Chinese, U.S. and British governments, stipulating that Japan should return to China all the territories it had stolen from the Chinese, including northeast China, Taiwan and the Penghu Islands.

The Potsdam Proclamation, signed by China, the U.S. and Britain in 1945 (later adhered to by the Soviet Union), stipulated that “The terms of the Cairo Declaration shall be carried out.” In August 1945, Japan surrendered and promised that it would faithfully fulfill the obligations laid out in the Potsdam Proclamation.

On October 25, 1945, the Chinese government recovered Taiwan and the Penghu Islands, resuming the exercise of sovereignty over Taiwan. From that point forward, China had recovered Taiwan de jure and de facto through a host of documents with international legal effect.

Two sides of the Straits belong to one China

On October 1, 1949, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) was founded. The new government replaced the previous Kuomintang (KMT) regime, becoming the successor to the Republic of China (1912-1949) and the only legitimate government of the whole of China.

As a natural result, the government of the PRC should enjoy and exercise China’s full sovereignty, which includes its sovereignty over Taiwan, according to a white paper titled “The Taiwan Question and China’s Reunification in the New Era,” published by the Chinese government in 2022.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has said that both the Cairo Declaration and the Potsdam Proclamation stated in explicit terms that all the territories Japan had stolen from the Chinese, such as Taiwan and the Penghu Islands, shall be restored to China, and this constitutes an important part of the post-war international order.

Speaking at the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly in late September, Wang told world leaders in the audience that Taiwan being “an inalienable part of China’s territory” is both “the history and the reality.”

Noting the 26th session of the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 2758 in 1971 with an overwhelming majority, deciding to restore all the rights of the People’s Republic of China at the UN, to recognize the representatives of the Government of the People’s Republic of China as the only legitimate representatives of China to the UN, and to expel forthwith the representatives of the Taiwan region from the UN and all the organizations related to it, Wang said “once and for all, the resolution resolved the issue of the representation of the whole of China, including Taiwan, in the UN.”

The resolution, Wang continued, made clear that there is no such thing as “two Chinas,” or “one China, one Taiwan.”

“On this matter of principle, there is no gray zone or room for ambiguity,” Wang said.

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, has stressed on many occasions that the one-China principle is the political foundation for cross-Straits relations.

Xi said that compatriots from both sides of the Taiwan Straits belong to the same Chinese nation during a meeting with Ma Ying-jeou, former chairman of the Chinese KMT party, in April.

“The over-5,000-year history of the Chinese nation recorded successive generations of ancestors moving and settling down in Taiwan, and people from across the Straits fighting side by side to recover the island from foreign invaders,” Xi said.

“The distance of the Straits cannot sever the bond of kinship between compatriots from across the Straits, and the difference in systems does not alter the reality that both sides of the Straits belong to one China, and external interference cannot hold back the historical trend of national reunification,” he said.

International

One-China principle is consensus of international community

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Thursday that no matter what they say or do, the Lai Ching-te authorities cannot change the fact that both sides of the Taiwan Straits belong to one and the same China or stop the historical trend that China will and must achieve reunification.

Spokesperson Mao Ning made the remarks in response to the speech by the leader of the Taiwan region, Lai Ching-te, today at a daily press briefing.

Mao said Lai Ching-te’s words attempt to sever the historical connections between the two sides of the Taiwan Straits. He is again peddling various versions of the “Taiwan independence” narrative, such as “China and Taiwan are not subordinate to each other” and “Taiwan has sovereignty.”

It once again exposes that he is hellbent on advancing “Taiwan independence” and has the ill intention of heightening tensions in the Taiwan Straits for his selfish political interest, Mao said.

There is but one China in the world. Taiwan is an inalienable part of Chinese territory. The government of the People’s Republic of China is the sole legal government representing the whole of China, Mao said, adding that the attempt to seek independence and make provocations will lead nowhere.

Noting that the one-China principle is a basic norm in international relations and prevailing international consensus, Mao said Taiwan has never been a country and will never be a country and thus has no so-called sovereignty.

Upholding the one-China principle, opposing “Taiwan independence” and opposing “two Chinas” and “one China, one Taiwan” is our consistent position on the Taiwan region’s external exchanges and participation in international activities, she said.

“Let me stress once again that China opposes all forms of official interactions between Taiwan and countries having diplomatic relations with China and interference in China’s internal affairs in any way and under any excuse,” Mao said.

We urge the few foreign politicians who visit Taiwan to correct their wrong words and deeds, stop meddling in China’s internal affairs, and stop conniving at and supporting “Taiwan independence” and heightening tensions in the Taiwan Straits, she said. (PR/GIS)

International

SENIORS CELEBRATED AT THE SOUBLE NINTH FESTIVAL

China honours its elders

Across China, seniors are joyfully celebrating the Double Ninth Festival, a traditional holiday that falls on the ninth day of the ninth month in the Chinese lunar calendar. This day, officially recognized as Senior’s Day, embodies new meanings of respect, care and support for the elderly. Communities are hosting vibrant events such as long-table banquets, singing competitions and dance performances, all filled with joy and harmony. Let’s honor our elders and cherish their wisdom as we come together in celebration.