Spring is the season of hope and joy when everything bursts into life.
And Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim's official visit to China ended with great success as his plane departed from Beijing Capital International Airport in this early spring.
This is a historic visit with a number of firsts. It is the first-time meeting between leaders of China and Malaysia after both having just formed their respective new-term governments.
Anwar is among the first group of foreign dignitaries received by China’s new-term government. This is also Anwar’s first official visit to China since taking office.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (above, right) met with Anwar on the afternoon of March 31, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, where the two leaders reached a consensus on jointly building the China-Malaysia community with a shared future.
It is the most important political achievement of the visit.
Building the China-Malaysia community with a shared future is the continuity of the millennium-old friendship between China and Malaysia.
Xi and Anwar both recalled the history of Admiral Zheng He (Cheng Ho)’s seven voyages to the “Western Ocean” dating back to 600 years ago, five of which include visits to the then-Malacca empire.
Anwar also spoke about Bukit Cina and Chinese mosques in Malacca, and commented on “the significance of Zheng He's voyages has gone far beyond that of economic exchanges. It was the communication of cultures and convergence of civilisations."
The vision of building the China-Malaysia community with a shared future bears the same spirit as the core of the convergence of the two civilisations.
Xi and Anwar exchanged their understandings of philosophical issues, worldviews, social values and world civilisations etc.
Anwar smiled with agreement when hearing Xi quote the famous Confucius saying, “Zheng Zhe Zheng Ye” (to govern means to rectify)” in their talk. The warm talk and spiritual resonance between the two leaders impressed all at present.
Building the China-Malaysia community with a shared future is also a vivid reflection of the win-win cooperation between our two countries.
During this visit, Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Anwar jointly witnessed the signing of a series of cooperation documents between the two countries - covering areas of economy and trade, agriculture customs service and others.
Three hundred members of Anwar’s delegation were Malaysian entrepreneurs who followed the former to Beijing to contribute their bits in boosting the economy.
And a thousand business leaders from both countries gathered to exchange views and share wisdom, working hard to jointly promote the development of China-Malaysia relations.
Nineteen business memoranda of understanding (MoU) have been signed as a fruitful outcome of this visit, the total value of which amounted to RM170 billion, hitting a new record in history.
‘China-Malaysia ties a priority’
Building the China-Malaysia community with a shared future adds new footnotes to China-Malaysia’s “weathering-through-thick-and-thin” brotherhood.
Anwar clearly told Li that “Malaysia and China are friends sharing weal and woe together. Malaysians from all walks of life are committed to strengthening ties with China.
And the unity government takes further developing friendly relations with China as its priority task.”
Li and Anwar also called for strengthening unity and cooperation to jointly cope with risks and challenges at the Boao Forum, which is clearly adding certainty to world peace and development.
“Many of the ideas and proposals pioneered by Xi, especially the vision of building a community with a shared future for mankind, coincide with the idea of 'Malaysia Madani'.
“This is the reason why we have chosen to openly support this vision.”
Anwar’s statement at the end of the visit showed his high expectations for the future development of China-Malaysia relations and his full recognition of the vision of building China-Malaysia community with a shared future.
Leaders of both countries have mapped out the blueprint of China-Malaysia future relations and pointed out the direction we are to follow.
So, how should we implement the blueprint and bring tangible benefits to the people of both countries and the region? I would like to share my perspective as follows.
Building the China-Malaysia community with a shared future is a great vision. We must further enhance development strategy alignment, deepen high-quality cooperation, organically integrate the realisation of Chinese modernisation with the implementation of “Malaysia Madani” and bring more benefits to the people of both countries.
We should also advocate the Asian civilisation, support Asean’s centrality and jointly push forward the implementation of the Global Development Initiative, Security Initiative and Civilization Initiative.
We must jointly make new contributions to the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.
And that requires specific tasks to be done. We must continue to fully implement the “Belt and Road Initiative” flagship projects which will bring development opportunities to local areas and job opportunities to local people.
“Two Countries, Twin Parks” and the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) are two signature ones. We also need to strengthen cooperation in agricultural trade, enhance cultural and educational exchanges and carry out more people-to-people connection programmes.
Also, we should stand closer to each other in dealing with international issues and jointly safeguard our common interests.
A Chinese saying says, “Spring is the best season to start implementing the whole year’s plan.” We are now rightly in this best season.
Let’s start our new journey in spring and sail towards the bright shared future of the China-Malaysia community! - Mkini
OUYANG YUJING is the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of China to Malaysia.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.
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