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    Special Feature: China at 75

    Written by: Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed
    Posted on: October 1, 2024 | | 中文

    Mushahid Hussain Sayed, Chairman Pakistan China Institute (PCI), Islamabad, receiving '5 Principles of Peaceful Coexistence' award from President Xi Jinping in April 2015


    “Don’t forget the original intention. Keep the Mission in mind. A nation that forgets its origins will find itself in a blind alley.” - President Xi Jinping

    As a young teenager in the early 1970s, when I made the first of my nearly 90 journeys to China, China was poor, isolated and vastly under-developed, but with pride in its ‘self-reliance’. Only two international, non-Communist airlines served China then: PIA and Air France. It was a time of turmoil and tumult in Chairman Mao’s China, with the Cultural Revolution in full swing, and the Red Guards reigning supreme. Landing at Shanghai, we were feted with cups of boiling green tea and an interesting medley of revolutionary dances, and loudspeakers, in the backdrop blaring popular songs like ‘The East is Red’ and ‘The Helmsman Sets the Ocean Course’. Boarding the small turbo-prop plane for Beijing, the shabbily-attired ‘Red Guard hostess’ announced in impeccable English: “We begin the flight with a quotation from Chairman Mao”. I still vividly remember the quote: “Be resolute, fear no sacrifice and surmount every difficulty to win victory!”

    I had been reading the ‘Red Book’ of Chairman Mao’s quotations, and I could recall this quote coming from one of his famous essays, ‘The Foolish Old Man Who Removed the Mountains’, an inspirational story about never giving up despite arduous odds.

    Beijing was then a city of vast, empty boulevards, filled with unisex, blue-tunic attired cyclists, with the occasional ‘Hongqi’ Red Flag sedans ferrying Party leaders and foreign guests. And, of course, the Red Book of ‘Quotations from Chairman Mao’ was a compulsory presence. Revolutionary opera was the order of the day, with ‘The Red Detachment of Women’ and ‘The White-Haired Girl’ competing for the top slot in the popularity charts! Apart from the ‘Red Book’, I had read two American writers, who were probably the first to predict that the future of China belonged to the Communist Party and not the corrupt and inefficient Kuomintang led by Chiang Kai-shek, even though he was the American favorite.

    Edgar Snow was the first Western journalist to interview Chairman Mao for his 1937 epoch making study ‘Red Star over China’. He had predicted a victory for the ‘long struggle of the Communist Party to carry through the most thoroughgoing social revolution in Chinese history’.

    John S. Service was a 35-year-old young American diplomat posted in Yenan to liaise with the Communist Party’s People’s Liberation Army, during the period of the united front against Japan at the height of World War II. Soon after his arrival in Yenan, and after his interaction with Chairman Mao and his comrades, he filed his first dispatch in July 1944. He gave his initial impressions of the workings of the Communist Party leadership, a truly great picture. Referring to the Chinese Communist Party, John Service, a fluent Chinese speaker born to missionary parents in China, wrote: “What is seen at Yenan is a well-integrated movement, with a political and economic program, which it is successfully carrying out under competent leaders. The Communist Party has kept its revolutionary character, (and) has grown to a healthy and moderate maturity. This movement has such drive behind it, and is tied so closely to the people that it will not easily be killed. (Amongst Communist leaders), there is an absence of show and formality, both in speech and action. Mao and other leaders are universally spoken of with respect (amounting in the case of Mao to a sort of veneration), but these men are approachable. They mingle freely in groups. Clothing and living are very simple. Mao has warmth and magnetism. Morale is very high. There is no defeatism. People are serious and tend to have a sense of a mission.”

    5 years after that famous prophecy, on October 1, 1949, Chairman Mao, made the historic announcement of the founding of the People’s Republic of China at the Gate of Heavenly Peace in Beijing, “The Chinese nation has stood up.” New China was born.

    The Author, as the Leader of Pakistan-China Youth Friendship Delegation, April 1972

    Two other notable leaders amongst the founders of New China who stand out are, Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping. Both of them spent an early part of their youth in the 1920s studying in France, where they also befriended Ho Chi Minh, the father of Vietnamese Independence.

    The suave and handsome Zhou Enlai, China’s first Foreign Minister and Premier, had somewhat of a bourgeois background with a sophisticated sense of humor. Once, during the peak of the Sino-Soviet conflict in the 1960s, Zhou Enlai was compared to Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, who came from a working class background. The witty Chinese Premier retorted: the only thing common between Khrushchev and I is that we both betrayed our class!

    Writing in his autobiography, the iconic actor, Charlie Chaplin says, that in 1954, when peace talks on Indochina were being held in Geneva, Premier Zhou Enlai was leading the Chinese delegation and he requested a personal meeting with him. When they met, Zhou Enlai told Charlie Chaplin that he was keen to meet him, saying “I am a fan of yours, having watched many of your movies!”

    While due credit belongs to Chairman Mao and Premier Zhou as the founding fathers of New China, Deng Xiaoping deserves full marks for his courageous ‘course correction’ in 1979, that put China on the path of progress and prosperity via a ‘socialist free market economy’. Deng’s Reform and Opening up policy transformed a poor and underdeveloped country into the world’s second most powerful economic and political powerhouse within a generation. In the process, 800 million Chinese were lifted out of poverty in what is a truly unique, unprecedented achievement in human history. Two other factors have been pivotal in China’s progress: ability to learn from the experience of other nations, as Deng Xiaoping did in the case of tiny Singapore, visiting that Chinese-majority country in November 1978. He then established the first special economic zone, Suzhou, in 1992, which became a China-Singapore joint venture. During his meeting with Deng Xiaoping, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew told him, “If Singapore Chinese, who are descendants of poorly-educated coolies, could be so successful, how much better China can be if the right policies are adopted.” Former Vice Premier, Li Lanqing, writes in his book, ‘Breaking Through: The Birth of China’s Opening-up Policy’ that, when the delegation he led visited Pakistan in the early 1980s, they were visibly impressed by Pakistan’s progress and the competence of its bureaucracy, learning from their Pakistani friends on areas ranging from operating the Karachi Port to preparing project proposals for the World Bank.

    The other factor in China’s phenomenal progress is a peaceful foreign policy; no Chinese troops are on war-duty outside China, and the absence of military conflict with any other country since the Reform and Opening up began 40 years ago.

    During most of these 75 years, Pakistan and China have enjoyed a unique bond, a friction-free relationship, reinforced by mutually reinforcing interests and objectives that remain compatible, despite changes in their countries, in the region and the world as well.

    As the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, stated on March 18, 2019, during his meeting with his Pakistani counterpart: “No matter how things change in the world and the region, China will firmly support Pakistan in upholding its sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity and dignity.” As the Pakistan Prime Minister told an American think tank in New York on September 23, regarding the unique quality and content of Pakistan’s camaraderie with China: “China has never interfered in any of Pakistan’s foreign or domestic policy, they don’t tell us what to do and what not. CPEC is a great opportunity that China is offering to Pakistan”.

    China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which is the flagship of President Xi Jinping’s Belt & Road Initiative (BRI), the biggest development and diplomatic initiative of the 21st Century, is already a success story with huge pluses for Pakistan. CPEC has given new hope, confidence and faith in the future to the people of Pakistan, and improved the image of Pakistan as an investment-friendly destination, revived dead projects like Gwadar Port (which is operational now) and Thar Coal (generating electricity for the national grid), resolved Pakistan’s chronic 25-year old energy crisis, strengthened the Federation through infrastructure connectivity, provided Pakistan ‘strategic space’ both in regional and world politics and generated employment for 70,000 Pakistanis, plus 20,000 new scholarships for Pakistani students are in the offing for the next three years, apart from 28,000 Pakistani students already studying in China. And the best of CPEC is yet to come!

    Both countries also stand by each other’s core interests. China’s core interests include it’s territorial integrity and national unity, it’s peaceful rise and development in the global arena, the paramount role of the Communist Party within China, Taiwan, Tibet, Xinjiang, Hong Kong and South China Sea, and the promotion of BRI.

    (L to R) Author and Mustafa H. Sayed, Executive Director Pakistan-China Institute, attending 2nd Belt & Road Forum at Beijing, April 2019

    Pakistan’s core interests include its sovereignty, national unity and territorial integrity, right to national self-defense including pursuit of the nuclear and missile programs, Kashmir, resisting Indian hegemony, rejection of foreign interference and cross-border terrorism, support to Afghan peace process, promotion of Pakistan’s goals at international fora like the UN Security Council, G-20 and Nuclear Suppliers Group, and CPEC.

    The author, addressing the State Council Think Tank, Development Research Centre in Beijing

    China at 75 has made the successful transition from a regional power to a global power, or as President Xi Jinping told the Communist Party of China’s 19th Congress in Beijing on October 18, 2017, that China has now “become a great power in the world, and it is time for us to take centre stage in the world and to make a greater contribution to humankind”. Foreign Minister Wang Yi amplified this statement of President Xi, in his article in the ‘People’s Daily’ on September 23, 2019: ‘China would strive for a lead role in reshaping the post-Cold War International order led by the United States, while vigorously protecting its expanding national interest and warding off foreign interference in its affairs’. 75 years may be a small period in China’s recorded history of over three millennia, but this period has been decisive in transforming China and it’s role in a rapidly-changing world.

    A very happy 75th Anniversary to our Chinese friends, truly a moment of celebration of a success story par excellence!


    As the new year begins, let us also start anew. I’m delighted to extend, on behalf of the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and in my own name, new year’s greeting and sincere wishes to YOULIN magazine’s staff and readers.

    Only in hard times can courage and perseverance be manifested. Only with courage can we live to the fullest. 2020 was an extraordinary year. Confronted by the COVID-19 pandemic, China and Pakistan supported each other and took on the challenge in solidarity. The ironclad China-Pakistan friendship grew stronger as time went by. The China Pakistan Economic Corridor projects advanced steadily in difficult times, become a standard-bearer project of the Belt and Road Initiative in balancing pandemic prevention and project achievement. The handling capacity of the Gwadar Port has continued to rise and Afghanistan transit trade through the port has officially been launched. The Karakoram Highway Phase II upgrade project is fully open to traffic. The Lahore Orange Line project has been put into operation. The construction of Matiari-Lahore HVDC project was fully completed. A batch of green and clean energy projects, such as the Kohala and Azad Pattan hydropower plants have been substantially promoted. Development agreement for the Rashakai SEZ has been signed. The China-Pakistan Community of Shared Future has become closer and closer.

    Reviewing the past and looking to the future, we are confident to write a brilliant new chapter. The year 2021 is the 100th birthday of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Pakistan. The 100-year journey of CPC surges forward with great momentum and China-Pakistan relationship has flourished in the past 70 years. Standing at a new historic point, China is willing to work together with Pakistan to further implement the consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries, connect the CPEC cooperation with the vision of the “Naya Pakistan”, promote the long-term development of the China-Pakistan All-weather Strategic Cooperative Partnership with love, dedication and commitment. Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founding father of Pakistan said, “We are going through fire. The sunshine has yet to come.” Yes, Pakistan’s best days are ahead, China will stand with Pakistan firmly all the way.

    YOULIN magazine is dedicated to promoting cultural exchanges between China and Pakistan and is a window for Pakistani friends to learn about China, especially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. It is hoped that with the joint efforts of China and Pakistan, YOULIN can listen more to the voices of readers in China and Pakistan, better play its role as a bridge to promote more effectively people-to-people bond.

    Last but not least, I would like to wish all the staff and readers of YOULIN a warm and prosper year in 2021.

    Nong Rong Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of
    The People’s Republic of China to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan
    January 2021