Mr. Aubrey Chikungwa, National Director of MISA Malawi,

Dear Friends,

I feel greatly honored to attend the dinner tonight. First of all, please allow me to express my sincere appreciations to Mr. Aubrey Chikungwa for organizing this dinner. This is a good opportunity for me to familiarize with senior media practitioners based in Lilongwe.

Since I arrived in Malawi three months ago, friends from the media have given me a lot of valuable support to fulfill my duty in Malawi. I wish to take this opportunity to thank you all.

I am delighted to find that the media industry of Malawi is growing at a fast speed. A free, independent and professional media network of newspapers, radios, TV stations and websites has been established, and is playing a vital role in promoting democracy, human rights, good governance and national development in Malawi. The MISA Malawi has done a lot of useful work for the healthy development of the media of Malawi.

As the new Chinese Ambassador to Malawi, one of my missions here is to promote the mutual understanding between our two peoples. Some of the friends present here have been visited China, some will visit China next month. In China, we have an old saying which says that it is better to see once than to hear a hundred times. However, due to the time limitation, what you have seen is just a small part of China. Tonight, I wish to share some ideas with you on the real picture of China.

First, China is the largest developing country in the world. Recently, one of the hot issues on the media is China has overtaken Japan to be the second largest economy in the world. People who have visited big cities of China such as Beijing and Shanghai may not agree that China is still a developing country. It is true that after more than 30 years development, China has achieved remarkable social and economic progress. Its GDP is the second largest in the world. However, the per capita GDP of China is still less than US $ 4000, ranking behind 100 countries in the world. The western regions and the rural areas of China are still rather backward. We still have 150 million people living below the poverty line set by the United Nations. Therefore, China is still the largest developing country in the world.

Second, China has found its own development path. Since 1949 the People’s Republic of China was founded, particularly after the adoption of reform and opening-up strategy in 1978, Chinese people has found its own development path. We have built the people’s congress system and the system of multi-party cooperation and political consultation under the leadership of the Communist Party of China. We have built a robust socialist market economy. And we are reforming the income distribution system and improving the social security system, to make sure that each and every citizen shares the benefits of China’s fast development. I cannot say the development path of China is better than the western one, but I shall say that this is the one that suits the national conditions of China, and is the common choice of the Chinese people.

Third, China is a country that people enjoy sufficient democracy, human rights and freedom of expression. Western media always prefers to see China with colored spectacles, and criticizes China lacking of democracy, human rights and freedom of expression. In fact, Chinese people are enjoying extensive civil and political rights. For example, the freedom of expression is protected by the Constitution of China. At present, we have 257 radio stations, 277 TV stations, 1943 daily newspapers and 9821 magazines. More than 420 million people enjoy access to Internet. All these have provided a solid foundation for people to enjoy the freedom of expression.

Dear friends,

In the past three years, China-Malawi relations have witnessed rapid development. Within a short period, the two countries have become good friends and good partners. The mutual understanding and friendship between the two peoples has been deepened.

China-Malawi relations are based on the principle of equality and mutual benefit. China always considers itself as a development partner of Malawi, and never attaches any political strings to its assistance to Malawi. The only purpose of China’s presence in Malawi is to help Malawi achieve national development.

In the future, we will continue to expand the all-round cooperation with Malawi, especially in the areas of agriculture, infrastructure development, culture, public health, education and human resources development, to push the China-Malawi relations to a new level.

The media of Malawi has made great contributions in promoting the China-Malawi friendly relations and introducing China to Malawian people. A close and cordial relationship has been established between the Chinese Embassy and the Malawian media.

I wish to assure you that I and my Embassy will continue to strengthen this relationship, and will continue to support the media of Malawi on capacity building. Next month, a media delegation of 10 journalists from Malawi will visit China for eight days. And this kind of visit will be continued next year.

I also sincerely hope that the media of Malawian will continue to promote the mutual understanding and friendship between our two peoples.

Thank you for your attention.