Address of Consul General Lu Xu on “Canada-China Friendship” Online Forum

(November 26, 2021)

Good evening everyone,

I am honoured to be invited by the host to speak today. First, I would like to express my congratulations to the newly established China Solidarity Committee in Edmonton as well as to the successful organization of its first forum themed as “ Canada-China friendship”. It is also my great pleasure to get to know Professor Yu Weihai, Mr. Miguel Figueroa, Dr. Helen Li, Mr. Ian Watts, Mr. Ben Edgeworth, Mr. Peter Marcus, and Mr. Christian Bourque. 

Just now, Professor YU delivered an incredible presentation.

In China, many people get to know a country called Canada by one great name: Henry Norman Bethune. 

Dr. Bethune took the cause of the liberation of the Chinese people as his own. It was the spirit of internationalism and communism. Indeed, such a spirit had united people with different colors and genders, from different nations and social backgrounds in the pursuit of the ultimate freedom and liberation of mankind. It also fostered the Chinese Communist Party every step of the way in the past 100 years, from a 50-member group to the world's largest political party with over 90 million members and a remarkable record of continuously successful governance for over 70 years.

Since the founding of New China, the Chinese Communist Party has consistently pursued an independent foreign policy of peace, and engaged with peer countries on the basis of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. Believing that such principle should be equally applied to every nation around the world, China established, maintained, and developed diplomatic relations with the rest of the world, including Canada.

We are now living in the world where the COVID is raging, conflicts are flaring, economic globalization is experiencing headwinds, unilateralism, protectionism, and hegemony are challenging world peace and development, public health crisis, terrorism, climate change, and cyberattacks are persisting.

With an eye to the common interests of the Chinese people and the people of the world, General Secretary Xi Jinping gave in-depth consideration to critical issues affecting the future of humanity, like "what kind of world we are to build and how to build it". He has put forward the important concept of building a community with a shared future for mankind. It envisions an open, inclusive, clean and beautiful world with lasting peace, universal security, and common prosperity. It calls for a new type of international relations featuring mutual respect, fairness, justice, and win-win cooperation, reflecting the international application of Chinese advocated democracy called “ whole-process people’s democracy”. This concept is claimed as a response to shared challenges lying ahead of the whole international community. This is the Chinese solution that we propose. This is the internationalism of the new era that we wish to accomplish.

The Sixth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, held recently, delivered a clear statement on how the Party would lead the Chinese people in the next 30 years to realize the “Chinese dream”. In terms of diplomacy, it further emphasized “staying independent while maintaining a global vision”. Prosperity of China was never built upon bloodthirsty colonial invasions or greedy capitalist expansions, but always upon the steadfast leadership of the Chinese Communist Party and the hard work of the Chinese people. China has only been an opportunity to the rest of the world, rather than a threat, on its path of rejuvenation, and China will only, and always, remain the same way.

China belongs to the world, and both China and international community needs each other for development. In the first half of this year, an outstanding performance of the Chinese economy has once again boosted the China-Canada economic and trade cooperation. The following optimistic trade growth found favour with people from both sides. According to Statistics Canada, in the first half of 2021, China-Canada trade increased by about 20% year-on-year in Canadian dollars and Canada's exports to China soared by 35.4% year-on-year. The two economies have long been acknowledged as highly complementary. A steady trend of growth in the Chinese economy is bound to bring about new economic opportunities for Canada.

Mutual respect, mutual benefit, and win-win collaboration are the foundation of China-Canada relationship. China  is willing to work with other economies, including Canada, for a steady recovery of the global economy from the pandemic, in building a community with a shared future for mankind, and in marching toward the remarkable goal of communism – the very same goal that the great Canadian Dr. Henry Norman Bethune had once firmly pursued and believed.

Thank you.