--Address by H.E. Ambassador Tian Xuejun

At the Governance of China and Africa Relations Symposium

Honorable Madam Jessie Duarte, (Deputy Secretary-General of ANC,)

Honorable Dr. Essop Pahad, (Former Minister in the Presidency,)

Dr. Thokozani Simelane, (Acting Head of Africa Institute of South Africa,)

Mr. Huang Youyi, (Former Vice President and Editor-in-Chief of China International Publishing Group,)

Colleagues from Diplomatic Corps, Scholars and Experts, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good Morning!

I am very pleased to have the opportunity to attend this important symposium. On behalf of the Chinese Embassy, I would like to extend our warm congratulations on the opening of the symposium and heartfelt welcome to all the guests and scholars present today. Our thanks also go to HSRC and AISA for your hard work in making all the preparations and arrangements.

President Xi Jinping has a strong connection to South Africa. In March 2013, only a week after he took office, President Xi paid a state visit to South Africa and attended the BRICS Summit in Durban. Over the past two years, with the leadership of both President Xi and President Zuma, China-South Africa relations have achieved tremendous progress at all levels and in various fields. Our practical cooperation has yielded fruitful results. It is against this background that we have today's symposium. The Governance of China is a collection of President Xi's philosophies and strategies on governance as the top leader of China and the Chinese Communist Party. The book answered major theoretical and realistic questions regarding China's development in a comprehensive and systematical way, thus opening an important window for the international community to understand today's China. Its circulation has surpassed 5.2 million worldwide up to now.

The popularity of this book reflects the great attention of the international community on what is going on and what is going to happen in China, as well as what will China's development contribute to the world. I would like to take this opportunity to share with you some of my observations, which I hope can contribute somehow to today's discussions.

First, what is going on and what is going to happen in China? I'd like to summarize my answer with four "R"s.

The first "R" is for Reform. Reform is a strong impetus for China's growth. Since the end of 1970s, China has always been committed to reform and opening up. In November 2013, a strategic plan was put in place to comprehensively deepen reform in various areas, including economy, politics, culture, society and ecology, which entails 55 major reform tasks and over 330 reform measures. In less than two years, remarkable achievements have been made in China. The central government has abolished or delegated to lower levels over 800 items previously subjected to its review and approval. The positive influence of reform on China's social and economic development will gradually take shape in the coming years.

The Second "R" is for Rule of law. Rule of law is the cornerstone for China's governance. The two strategies of comprehensively deepening reform and advancing rule of law are just like wings for the bird and wheels for the car. President Xi pointed out that it is critical to formulate rules, respect rules and abide by rules when it comes to governance of a state. Law is the most fundamental and important rule of governance. In order to comprehensively advance rule of law, China focuses on various aspects, including improving national system of laws, accelerating the building of a law-based government, safeguarding judicial justice and improving judicial credibility, enhancing the public awareness as well as strengthening the ruling party's leadership in comprehensively advancing the rule of law.

The third "R" is for Ruling party's self-purification. China has stepped up its anti-corruption efforts by catching "tigers" as well as "flies", namely dealing with cases of senior officials as well as smaller corruption cases that directly affect people's daily life. President Xi stressed that we should make sure that the power is "caged" by the system and enhance checks and supervision over the exercise of power, so as to set up a punishment mechanism to deter corruption, a warning mechanism to prevent corruption and a guarantee mechanism to curb corruption. Over the past years, more than 100 senior officials of vice-minister level or above have been investigated and punished, which greatly deterred corruption and further strengthened the Party's solidarity, cohesiveness and effectiveness.

The fourth "R" is for the Renewal of the Chinese nation. It is the common aspiration of 1.3 billion Chinese people to realize the Chinese dream of the great renewal of the Chinese nation. It is President Xi who officially put forward the concept of the Chinese dream, which is featured by country's prosperity, nation's revitalization and people's happiness. The Chinese dream is closely connected with the dreams of people all over the world. The Chinese dream is not an empty slogan, but closely linked with the "two centenary goals" of China, which is to complete the building of a moderately prosperous society in all aspects by 2021 when the Communist Party of China celebrates its centenary and build China into a modern socialist country that is prosperous, democratic, culturally advanced and harmonious by the middle of the century when the People's Republic of China celebrates its centenary.

Now I would like to answer the second question: what will China's development contribute to the world?

First, China will contribute to world peace and stability. Early this month, in the Commemoration of the 70th Anniversary of the Victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War, President Xi reiterated that China will remain committed to peaceful development. No matter how stronger it may become, China will never seek hegemony or expansion. It will never inflict its past suffering on any other nation. He proposed to promote the concept of a community of shared future for human being, build a new type of international relations based on cooperation, mutual benefit and win-win results, advocate a new concept of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security in Asia and put into practice neighborhood diplomacy of amity, sincerity, mutual benefit and inclusiveness. During his visit to Africa in 2013, President Xi proposed sincerity, real results, affinity and good faith as the guiding principles in China's relations with Africa. All of these testify China's determination in adhering to the peaceful development. On the other hand, China will never give up its legitimate rights. Nor will it sacrifice its core national interests. China takes the path of peaceful development while other countries in the world also need to uphold peace and development. Only in this way can countries peacefully get along with each other.

Second, China will contribute to world development and prosperity. As world's second largest economy, largest trading nation and third largest outbound investor, China has become a powerful engine for world economy. Against the backdrop of slowdown in global economic growth, China's economy remains stable and is moving in a positive direction. In the first half of this year, China's economy increased by 7%. With an economic base of more than 10 trillion US dollars, this growth rate still ranks one of the top in major economies. What's more encouraging is that China is accelerating improving and upgrading the economic structure. The service industry has taken up half of the GDP and domestic consumption has contributed to 60% of economic growth. High-tech industry is growing faster than the second industry and green economy, featuring energy saving and environmental protection is also gaining momentum. New growth areas are taking shape at a faster pace.

China's steady economic growth benefits the world at large. In the past three decades, China has always been a world front-runner in contributing to global economic growth. In the first half of this year, China contributed to about 30% of global economic growth. China's import of commodities has still maintained steady growth and the outbound investment and tourists have soared.

China has put forward the "One belt, One road" initiative, proposed and pushed forward the establishment of Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and BRICS New Development Bank, and now is actively promoting international industrial cooperation, especially with Africa. All of these cooperative initiatives and measures are conducive to stepping up the opening and connectivity between relevant countries, breaking the bottleneck that constrains the industrialization and modernization of developing countries, and bringing world economy back to the track of sound development.

China and Africa meet each other's demands, enjoy respective competitive edges and can offer opportunities to each other. A recent report by the World Bank pointed out that over the past 20 years, sub-Saharan region has maintained robust economic growth, which could not happen without its economic ties with China. At present, China's economy has entered into a "new normal" of medium-to-high-speed growth and medium-to-high level of development, and Africa has also entered into a "new normal" featuring accelerated industrialization and urbanization. The African Union has adopted "the Agenda 2063" and the First Ten-Year Implementation Plan. Great cooperation opportunities and development potential await us with the realignment of our respective strategies. China stands ready to work with Africa in its industrialization and integration process through our cooperation initiatives. President Xi and President Zuma jointly agreed to upgrade the Sixth Ministerial Conference of FOCAC to a summit, which will be held in South Africa in December. This summit will surely elevate China-Africa cooperation to a new height.

Third, China will contribute to other countries' efforts in exploring development paths suited to them. Developing countries share similar historical experience and face similar challenges in pursuit of development paths. After decades of efforts, China has found a path that suited to our own national conditions and developed our own theories and system, namely the path, theories and system of socialism with Chinese characteristics. China has drawn on the successful experience from other countries in the reform and opening up, and we are willing to share our experience with the rest of the world, developing countries in particular. President Xi once said "Only the wearer of the shoes knows if they fit or not." There is no universal development model in the world and China never exports our ideology, let alone imposes our development model on others. We believe that African people have the wisdom and capability to find paths that suited to their national conditions. We are ready to offer help within our capacity in their endeavor.

To conclude, I want to thank all the friends here today who have supported the development of China and are interested in further promoting China-South Africa and China-Africa relations. I hope during the discussion, you could offer your valuable advice and insights to the development of China and South Africa, as well as to our future cooperation.

I wish this symposium a great success! Thank you!

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