The Chairperson of the Board of HRCC,

Mr. Undule Mwakasungula,

The HRCC Executive Director, Mr. Mavuto Bamusi,

Distinguished Members of the HRCC Board,

Executive Directors of NGOs and Civil Society Organizations present,

Officials from the Swedish Organization for Individual Relief,

Representatives of Various HRCC member Institutions,

Dear friends,

All Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good morning! Indeed, it is my great honor to attend this Extraordinary Annual General Meeting of the Human Rights Consultative Committee and share some ideas with such reputable and respected leaders of the civil society in Malawi. First of all, please allow me to extend my sincere and warm congratulations to you all for the successful opening of this meeting and may the meeting enjoy a complete success and achieve fruitful results in the following time.

We are very happy to see that the cause of human rights in Malawi has witnessed rapid development. Human Rights Consultative Committee which was established in 1995 has grown from an organization with only 8 pioneers to a network covering the whole country of Malawi with memberships of over 90 civil society organizations and NGOs, and has been playing more and more important role in promoting and protecting human rights in Malawi. This is why I decided to accept the invitation and rushed here to join you and share you with some information about China’s position and achievement on human rights. I will also share with you some of the development plans that my government has for Malawi and for you the wonderful people of this wonderful country.

It is known to us all that human rights are the basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled. The realization of human rights in the broadest sense has become our common and long-cherished dream of mankind. In 1948, the UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which laid the foundation for the practice of human rights worldwide. Since then on, the issue of human rights has become one of great significance and common concern in the world.

It is also known to us all that the evolution of human rights is circumscribed by the historical, social, economic and cultural conditions of different countries, and involves in the process of historical development. Owing to the differences in the historical background, social systems, cultural traditions and economic development levels, every country has its own understanding and practice of human rights. Therefore, it is hard and impossible to have one single standard or model to judge and evaluate the human rights situations of all countries in the world.

The world is so colorful and diversified. With different historical, political, social and cultural background and different development levels of economy, all countries in the world should learn to respect each other and help each other in promoting our common cause of human rights through friendly dialogues and pragmatic cooperation instead of confrontation. The rich and developed countries should take more concrete actions to help the poor and developing countries achieve self-sustainable national development so as to build up a harmonious world of lasting peace and common prosperity.

Distinguished Friends, Ladies and Gentlemen,

As a nation with over 5000 years’ civilization, the Chinese people always advocate and respect the dignity and value of human being. But unfortunately, from 1840 to 1945, the western imperialist powers launched hundreds of wars against China, forced China to sign more than 1100 unequal treaties with them. After the Opium War of 1840, China, hitherto a big feudal kingdom, was gradually turned into a semi-colonial, semi-feudal country, causing immeasurable losses of lives and property of the Chinese People. At that time, the Chinese people who were in extremely misery, had no human rights to speak of. This is why the Chinese people struggled arduously for more than a century to gain their human rights and cherish their rights so much.

Having suffered from foreign aggression, humiliation and poverty of over a century, China strongly believes that without national independence, there would be no guarantee for the people’s lives. It was until 1949 when the new China was born that the Chinese people became the master of the country. This is why the Chinese people insisted that the new China should be named the People’s Republic of China to replace the Republic of China which was founded in 1911 so as to keep reminding political parties and government officials at all levels all the time that the new Republic belongs to the people, don’t forget the people, or you will be forgotten by the people.

The Constitution of the People’s Republic of China stipulates that all power of the country belongs to the people. The people shall be fully guaranteed to have the rights to know, to supervise, to vote and to stand for election. The people shall also enjoy freedoms of speech, press, assembly, association, demonstration , religious belief and follow the rule of laws.

China also strongly believes that human rights encompass not only the right to subsistence, civic and political rights, but also economic, cultural and social rights. These rights are interrelated and complementary to each other.

Based on the weak economic foundation, imbalanced development and a huge population of 1.32 billion with 56 nationalities, China is the largest developing country in the world. The most important right for the Chinese people is the right to subsistence and development, without which the other rights are out of the question. Fairly speaking, it is not easy to ensure that every people in any country with such a huge population has job, food, clothing, house, medical services and education, and the whole society lives in harmony.

Now, I am proud to tell you that after 60 years’ unremitting efforts of the Chinese people, and with rapid socio-economic development, the great cause of human rights in China has made tremendous achievement. The people’s overall living standard and quality of life has been improved remarkably.

China has become the third largest economy in the world with an average annual growth rate of 9.8% in the past 30 years. During the same period, over 250 million Chinese people got rid of poverty. The per capita GDP of China had increased from less than 50 US$ in 1949 to about 3000 US dollars in 2008. Over 1.32 billion Chinese people, who once lacked adequate food and clothing, are now enjoying a comparatively well-off life. Nowadays, household electric appliances such as color television, washing machine and refrigerator are commonly used in both urban and rural families. In 2008, in every 100 urban households, there were 132 color TV sets, 94.7 washing machines and 93.6 refrigerators.

The physical foundation for Chinese people to enjoy the freedom of speech and religious believes has been considerably improved. By the end of 2008, China had over 340 million fixed telephone users, 641 millions mobile phone users, 300 million internet users, 277 TV stations, 257 radio stations and 1943 newspapers, At present, there are more than 424 thousand civil organizations, over 100 million religious adherents, more than 100 thousand venues for religious activities. In Xinjiang Autonomous Region, there are over 24000 mosques for about 10 million Muslims. In Tibet, among 2.87million population, there are more than 46000 Buddhist monks and nuns with 1700 Buddhist Temples financed by the government.

China believes that the right to work is a basic right of everybody. The right of education is an important prerequisite for overall and free development of human beings. Public health facilities are a necessary guarantee for the human rights of life and health.

Now, the Chinese government has implemented nine-year compulsory education, created about 10million new jobs per year to meet the growing demand of the youth and exempted all taxes from the people in the rural areas. More than 20million students are studying in universities and colleges nationwide, and another over 20million students are studying in the vocational and technical training schools. More than 300 thousand hospitals are operating. The Chinese people’s life expectancy has increased from 35 years old in 1949 to 73 years old in 2008.

Meanwhile, we are also keenly aware that, as the largest developing country in the world with one-fifth of the world total population, and more than 40 million Chinese people living under poverty, China is not a perfect country, is still in the process of transformations from poverty to prosperity and facing a lot of difficulties and challenges in the process of our own development.

As a permanent member of the UN Security Council and a member of the UN Human Rights Council, China has become a major participant and promoter, and joined together with the international community to facilitate the great cause of human rights.

Distinguished Friends, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Both China and Malawi belong to developing countries. Development is the most important task facing us and the foremost way to promote human rights. We are happy to see that under the wise leadership of H.E. Presisdent Bingu wa Mutharika, Malawi has achieved rapid socio-economic development, the food production has gone beyond self-sufficiency and the progress in infrastructure construction has made remarkably. Malawian people are living in a free, peaceful and harmonious society.

With a view to promoting common prosperity, China prefers to empower African countries how to fish by yourselves rather than to give you fish. The Chinese foreign policy to Malawi and Africa as a whole can be summarized into four pillars----agriculture and food security, health and medical care, education and human resources and infrastructure development. All these relate directly to the national development, people’s welfare and human rights as well.

A Friend in Need is a Friend Indeed. Since the establishment of diplomatic ties between our two countries by the end of 2007, China has committed herself to joining the efforts of the Malawian government and people to achieve self-sustainable national development and try our best to be a sincere friend and reliable development partner of Malawi. I am very proud to say that under the current global financial crisis, China has never hesitate to deliver all the commitments to Malawi. With the joint efforts from both sides, the fruitful cooperation between our two countries in various fields is visible and tangible and indeed beneficial to our two peoples.

-- The Parliament Building in Lilongwe has already taken shape and will be handed over to the Malawian side next May. The 13 km. of Karonga-Chitipa Road from Karonga has been tarred except two bridges which will be completed before the end of this November. The construction of the whole road of 101 km. will be completed before the end of June 2011. These two projects will cost China more than 100 million US dollars by grant.

--The ground breaking ceremony of an International Conference Centre and the Five-star Hotel will be held soon. The constructions of the National Stadium in Lilongwe and the University of Science and Technology in the south are already on our agendas. These projects will be built by the concession loan from China, with a total amount of more than 200 million US dollars.

All these are landmark projects, which are very necessary and helpful to the self-sustainable national development of Malawi and will definitely facilitate and promote democracy and human rights as well.

-- China has become one of the important development partners of Malawi. Tobacco, tea and coffee from Malawi have got into China. In the first half of this year, the export volume from Malawi to China amounted to 16.29 million US dollars, comparing to 8 million US dollars last year and less than 1 million US dollars in 2007. China has become the largest foreign investor of Malawi with total investment amount of 28.7 million US dollars in the first half of this year, which accounts for 55% of Foreign Direct Investment in Malawi in the same period. The Balaka Cotton Growing and Processing Project which is expected to invest 25 million US dollars, is the largest agriculture investment project form China to African continent so far. When it is put into full operation, it will create over 1000 jobs for Malawian people and help Malawi save and earn millions of US dollars per year.

-- With a view to strengthening the capacity building and human resources development, China has so far provided 57 governmental scholarships to Malawian students. More than 200 officials, technicians and specialists including the personnel from the press, civil society and NGOs from Malawi have been invited to China for seminars or training programs covering various fields such as management, governance, agriculture, health, education and press. Two Chinese Medical Teams consisting of 17 members have been serving Malawi people in Kamuzu Central Hospital and Mzuzu Central Hospital respectively. 20 Chinese youth volunteers are on the way to Malawi.

As a new friend, indeed China has done so much in Malawi. As a career diplomat, I have never seen my government have such a big commitment to one country in such a short time. The western people always criticize China coming to African countries only for oil and mineral resources, but in Malawi, it is very hard for them to get the answer. We cannot and will never expect the water of Lake Malawi to become oil in the future.

Sometimes, some people from the west and Malawi as well often ask me one question that China has done and will do so much to Malawi, what interest do you have in Malawi? Or what do you expect to have from Malawi? My answer is so simple but very precious that is to be a true friend to each other based on the mutual understanding, mutual friendship and mutual support. In our view, the assistance from China to Malawi is just the help between two poor brothers and sisters. What China has done here represents the new partnership between China and Africa.

Distinguished Friends, Ladies and Gentlemen,

China attaches great importance to the development of a new type of strategic partnership of political equality and mutual trust, economic win-win cooperation and culture exchanges between China and Malawi, and will continue to join your efforts in achieving sustainable national development. While fulfilling all the committed projects mentioned above, we will further strengthen our win-win cooperation in the following areas in the near future.

First, as the largest agricultural country that has successfully achieved food security for 22% of the total world population with only 7% arable land on the earth, we are willing to share our agricultural experiences and technologies with Malawi. We are ready to dispatch a team of agricultural experts and volunteers to Malawi, and will provide some financial assistance to develop the demonstrative farm in Likuni, closing to the Natural Resources College, into a modern Integrated Agriculture Learning Center. We also plan to help Malawi build an Agricultural Technology Demonstration Center so as to transfer our practical technology to Malawi.

Second, we will provide grant of 10 million Chinese Yuan ($1.5million) to build a secondary school for Malawi. We are also planning to assist Malawi to build 1-2 pilot projects of solar energy and one pilot project of biogas. The Chinese army will help Malawian army with new equipment and physical infrastructure.

Third, we will continue to provide governmental scholarships to Malawian students to study in China, and invite at least 100 official and professional personnel from various fields per year to China for the capacity building and human resources development. We will also do something more in the fields of health and medical service, by providing medicines and medical equipments to Malawi such as CT scanner and training more medical personnel.

Fourth, we will continue to positively encourage and support more Chinese large enterprises with good reputation to invest in Malawi especially in the fields of agriculture and food processing industry and manufacture so as to create more jobs and more value added to Malawian people. We also will encourage Malawi enterprises to go to China to look for business opportunities, and provide necessary assistances and facilities upon their needs so as to ensure that more Malawian people will benefit from our relationship.

Last but not least, the Chinese Embassy here will further facilitate cooperation and exchanges with the civil society and NGOs of Malawi, especially the HRCC so as to strengthen the relations between our two peoples. Now, I am very happy to announce that the national coordinator of the HRCC Mr. Mavuto Bamusi will be invited to China for the Seminar before the end of November. I hope more people from you will have opportunities to go to China.

Distinguished Friends, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I strongly believe that the win-win cooperation between China and Malawi has huge potentials and is so complementary to each other. Malawi has abundant natural and human resources, hard working people and peaceful environment, while China is a promising country with successful development experience, investment capitals, practical techniques and technologies and a vast market of over 1.32 billion population, and most importantly, the Governments of Malawi and China are committed to the development of friendly and mutually beneficial cooperation between our two countries and are focusing on our national economic development respectively.

We come here for the friendship between our two countries and two peoples and for our common prosperity. It is my sincere hope that this relationship and friendship will do benefit our two countries and two peoples and will be valued, cherished and nurtured by our two peoples, specially the youth and the civil society leaders.

Let us join hands together to build up a better and more fruitful bilateral relationship between China and Malawi to benefit our two peoples and promote our common prosperity.

The HRCC Chairperson, HRCC National Coordinator, Esteemed Leaders of Civil Society, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Finally, let me thank you again for according me this honor to be part of this important gathering as you meet in your extraordinary general meeting. The world is changing; new challenges are coming every day, the civil society and the HRCC in particular also need to adapt to these dynamics. As I know that the agenda before you today is very important. And I know without doubt that you will make your deliberations constructive, positive and most importantly, people-oriented. I sincerely wish this meeting a complete success.

Thank you all for your attention.