--by Ambassador Wang Tongqing

It comes again the golden season of the year. The Chinese people have just celebrated the traditional Mid-Autumn Festival, and will soon embrace the 73rd National Day on 1st October.

Since its founding in 1949, the People’s Republic of China has made remarkable development achievements in various social domains. A moderately prosperous society in all respects has been built. More than 700 million people were lifted out of poverty, meeting the poverty reduction target set in the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development 10 years ahead of schedule. As a long-standing promoter of world peace, contributor to global development and upholder of international order, China adheres to independent foreign policy of peace, implements policy of all-round opening-up, supports multilateralism and free trade, and strives to build a community with a shared future for mankind. 

Finland is among the first countries to establish diplomatic relations with China. It has witnessed and participated in the development process of China over the past over 70 years. China-Finland relationship has stood the test of time and changing international circumstances, and waded hand in hand through the most difficult time of the Cold War. During the past 4 months after I arrived in Finland, with the sense of responsibility to further promoting bilateral relations and all-round cooperation, I have made extensive acquaintance with the heads of various government departments and institutions in Finland and people from all walks of life. I have visited some cities and discussed with all parties on how to push forward the sound and steady development of China-Finland relations and bring the bilateral cooperation to a new height against the current complex and volatile international landscape. During the exchanges, I deeply felt Finnish friends’ high appreciation on China-Finland relations and their enthusiasm to cooperate with China, which inspired me a lot. Although the COVID-19 pandemic has brought some negative impacts to our work, the exchange mechanisms in various fields between China and Finland have not yet been interrupted. The two sides maintained close contacts and communications via various on/offline channels. Economic and trade cooperation has shown strong recovery impetus, with bilateral trade exceeding €10 billion last year for the first time. Direct flights have doubled from two to four flights per week. The demand for people-to-people exchanges will be further unleashed in the coming future.

The prosperity of mankind and progress of civilization require solidarity and cooperation of all countries. Rather than playing zero-sum game and stoking bloc confrontation, we should make joint efforts to address global challenges such as climate change and biodiversity loss. The more complicated international situation we are facing with, the more we need to do to get a good grasp of the overarching trend of the world and bolster confidence through opening-up and cooperation. Next month, the Communist Party of China will convene its 20th National Congress, which will not only draw a new blueprint for China’s development going forward, but also promote closer ties between China and other countries around the world. Under such new circumstances, China and Finland share more common interests and goals. I am convinced that, on the basis of mutual respect, mutual trust, mutual learning and win-win cooperation, the future-oriented new-type cooperative partnership between China and Finland will certainly tap more potential and energy, and achieve more fruitful results to benefit the two countries and two peoples.