Community of China-Pakistan Shared Destiny to be realized soon: Sun Weidong

ISLAMABAD, Nov 25 (APP): Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan, Sun Weidong said on Wednesday that China and Pakistan had upgraded their bilateral relations to all-weather strategic cooperation partnership.
“With the joint efforts, our friendship of iron brothers will be much
stronger, strategic cooperation will be much more solid and the Community
of China-Pakistan Shared Destiny will be realized at an early date,” he
made these remarks while addressing Book launch ceremony of You and Us, Stories of China and Pakistan compiled by a former Chinese Ambassador
to Pakistan, Lu Shulin.
Addressing the participants, he said that Chinese people say, “the
friendship between men of noble characters is as pure as water”. China
and Pakistan respect each other and equally treat each other. Water is beneficial for all things, without striving for fame and gain. “The
highest ethics is like water”.
It is not only the summary of Chinese virtue but also the
interpretation of China-Pakistan friendship. Chinese people also say,
“when you drink the water, think of those who dug the well”, he added.
The Ambassador said the seniors present here today are those who dug
the sweet water spring for us. Ambassador Lu Shulin has made painstaking efforts to collect, sort out and edit the stories of China and Pakistan.
All the authors involved in writing this book have turned their
emotion into the words. All the stories are just like the beautiful
splashes of waves in the long river of China-Pakistan friendship.
He said in 1956, during Premier Zhou Enlai’s first visit to Pakistan,
his delegation made the final revision of Premier Zhou’s speech before
the reception in Shalimar Garden. At that time, my father worked in the Chinese Embassy. He and the secretary of the delegation wrote “long
live the friendship between Chinese and Pakistani Peoples” in phonetic English for Premier.
Later, at the end of Premier Zhou’s speech, he paused a moment and
then clearly spelled out “Chini Awam Aur Pakistani Awam Ki Dosti
Zindabad” and won great applause.
In the same year, to commemorate Premier Zhou’s visit, the former
Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Mr. Geng Biao selected some bamboos
and planted them in the compound of Chinese Embassy in Karachi.
Now, they have grown into a small forest. During the past years,
when I visited the old compound, I went to see the bamboos. I feel that
as the time goes by, the friendship has been deeply rooted in people’s hearts and grown bigger and stronger like the bamboos forest.
He said, “I often recall the stories of Agha Hilaly and Agha Shahi,
known as Pakistan Ambassador brothers”.
The two brothers had dedicated their lives to China-Pakistan
friendship. Ambassador Hilaly made a historic contribution to
ice-breaking of China-U.S. relations. In order to commemorate Premier
Zhou Enlai, Ambassador Shahi and some Pakistani friends sent a
co-authored letter to the President of Pakistan, proposing to rename
the main road leading to the diplomatic enclave as “Zhou Enlai Avenue”.
Now, the Chinese Embassy is still on this Avenue.
There are also some senior friends like Pakistani former foreign
ministers Mr. Gohar Ayub Khan and Mr. Abdul Sattar, former Pakistani Ambassador to China Akram Zaki and former Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission Akram Sheikh.
He said those senior friends have made tremendous contributions to
China-Pakistan friendship.
As a Chinese proverb goes, “elders are treasures”. These seniors are
contributor, pioneer and precious treasure of China-Pakistan friendship.
As another famous Chinese saying goes, the sea can hold the water
stemming from numerous rivers and it’s huge because of its inclusiveness.
If we put the China-Pakistan relationship as the surging Yangtze
River and Indus River, the tens of thousands of streams converged into
the Rivers are actually the good feelings deeply rooted in the hearts
of our two peoples.
In Pakistan, as long as people could recognize you as Chinese, they
will say “ni hao” and “xie xie” to you while their smiles sincerely to
you.
Like the streams may flow through rocks and valleys, mountains and
forests, and even remote areas, the Pakistani people may have different backgrounds of habitants, cultures and languages, but it is the consensus
of all the Pakistani people to support the China-Pakistan friendship.
Because of this consensus, the China-Pakistan friendship could
eventually transform into a big river which crosses over the forests,
plains and enrich all the living creatures.
He said, hundreds of years ago, a famous Chinese poet in the Song
Dynasty said, why is the water so clear in the dyke? That is because
there is always fresh water coming from the springhead.
Standing on the shoulders of the veterans, the young generations from
our two countries are bringing fresh water into the China-Pakistan friendship.
Sun Weidong opined that with the implementation of China-Pakistan
Economic Corridor, people-to-people exchanges and the progress of a number of substantive cooperation projects, more and more young people have
joined the ranks of participating and supporting China-Pakistan friendship. Right now, there has emerged new vocabulary on China-Pakistan friendship such as iron brothers, and there is an upsurge among the Pakistani young people to learn Chinese.
Indeed, fresh vitality has been brought out of the China-Pakistan
friendship.
History is like the tide of water that always rolling forward.
He said the peaceful development, people’s well-being, openness and
inclusiveness, win-win cooperation are the irresistible historical trend.
China-Pakistan friendship is such great tide in line with the
historical trend. We must follow the trend and promote our cooperation
with the trend. President Xi Jinping paid a successful visit to Pakistan this year.
He said the year 2015 is designated as the “Year of China-Pakistan
Friendly Exchanges” by the leaders of both countries.
The Ambassador said the publication of the book will be a gift for
the Year. It will surely enhance the mutual understanding, mutual trust
and friendship between the two peoples, as well as encourage and inspire more people to be engaged in promoting friendship between the two
countries.
“Let’s work together to embrace the promising future of China-Pakistan
relationship,” he concluded.