Remarks by Consul General Long Dingbin
at the Virtual Meeting Celebrating the 21st Anniversary of the Sister City Relationship Between Jiaxing and Bunbury
13/10/ 2021
Hon. Don Punch MLA, Minister for Disability Services; Fisheries; Innovation and ICT; Seniors and Aging,
Mr. Mao Hongfang, Mayor of Jiaxing City,
Mr. Gary Brennan, Mayor of Bunbury,
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,
It’s been a great honor to attend today’s virtual meeting celebrating the 21st anniversary of the Sister City relationship between Jiaxing and Bunbury. On behalf of the Chinese Consulate General in Perth, I would like to extend congratulations and best wishes to the local governments and people of Jiaxing and Bunbury.
Thank you Minister Punch, Mayor Mao, Mayor Brennan and Mr. Castrilli for your very warm and heartening remarks, which have honored the achievements during the past 2 decades and shown the way forward to further expand and enrich the Sister City relations. Thanks to the incessant joint efforts of successive local governments of both Jiaxing and Bunbury, the friendship of the sister cities has grown from strength to strength.
Since the establishment of the Sister City Relationship in 2000, Jiaxing and Bunbury have stepped up interactions in trade, business, education and intensified cultural and people-to-people exchanges. The enhanced synergy between the twin cities has not only born fruits for their own people but also facilitated cooperation within the broader region. Inspired by the close ties between Jiaxing and Bunbury, Jiashan and Manjimup, Haining and Margaret River, Haiyan and Collie, Xiuzhou and Harvey have all established friendly relations, which have helped form a net of sister cities between Jiaxing and the South West Region and boosted the overall Sister State relationship between Zhejiang and WA.
We are pleased to see that Jiaxing and Bunbury, Zhejiang and WA have stood together in the fight against the pandemic of a century. The moral support sent to Chinese people early last year by Mayor Brennan and Bunbury citizens through a video is just invaluable. Premier McGowan and WA State Government have always been strong advocates of developing long term China Australian friendly relations, and they constantly remind their eastern coast colleagues the importance of China and China Australia partnership. Faced with common tasks of defeating virus and recovering social economic development, Jiaxing and Bunbury, Zhejiang and WA, China and Australia have every reason to treat each other as mates and opportunities and join hands fighting for a shared future.
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,
This year marks the centenary of the Communist Party of China. Ever since its founding, the CPC has made happiness for the Chinese people and the revival of the Chinese nation its ultimate goals, and has led the Chinese people through arduous struggles to epic accomplishments, the key milestones of which include the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 and the launching of the great new revolution of reform and opening up.
We have just celebrated the 72nd birthday of the People’s Republic of China on 1 October.During the past 72 years, China has created a miracle of human progress with its own development and has served as an important builder of world peace, the biggest contributor to global development, a firm defender of international order and a significant provider of public goods.
2021 heralds China’ s 14th Five-Year Plan and China has embarked on a new journey toward fully building a modern socialist country. As China enters a new development stage, we will follow a new development philosophy and foster a new development paradigm. We will build a new system of open economy of higher standards and create a more attractive business environment, providing more investment and growth opportunities to our cooperation partners and welcoming all parties to actively integrate into the Chinese market.
Zhejiang-Western Australia 8th Biennial Exchange Committee Meeting was successfully held, during which both sides had expressed strong will and interests in pressing forward our all round bilateral collaboration. Today, enthusiastic people who are committed to advancing China Australia friendly cooperation have gathered together once again. I hope all the participants take this meeting as an important opportunity to promote our exchanges and cooperation to a new level with better quality.
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,
When I visited Bunbury and met with mayor Brennan two months ago, Mr.Brennan and I took a photo in front of the picture of Red Boat, which is at South Lake of Jiaxing and is well recognized as the cradle of the Communist Party of China. It’s on the little Red Boat where the first national congress of the CPC had been successfully concluded.
As the world has witnessed, with the CPC at the helm, the Red Boat has sailed through turbulent rivers and treacherous shoals and has become a great ship that navigates China’s stable and long-term development. China and Australia are going to celebrate our 50th anniversary of diplomatic ties next year. I am firmly convinced that, by joining our endeavor together, the boat of China Australia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership will also brave all tough and tricky waves and sail into warm clear waters.