Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It gives me particular pleasure to speak at the newsmaker lunch of the National Press Club. Let me thank the NPC for the kind invitation, and especially Mr. Spencer Moore for his efforts in making this lunch possible. I appreciate the opportunity and would like to speak on the relationship between China and Canada. I chose this topic, because I believe it is a good timing and occasion to do so. Only one month ago the Chinese President HU Jintao paid a state visit to Canada. It was the first such visit made by a Chinese head of state to this country in 8 years. The visit was a great success. Two weeks ago, we commemorated the 56th national day of the People's Republic of China. And tomorrow will mark the 35th anniversary of the diplomatic ties between China and Canada. So, I appreciate the presence of all of you who have shown great interest and high enthusiasm towards the development of this relationship.

Talking about Canada, I feel a real affinity with this country. Back in the early 1970s, I came to study in the universities in Canada as one of the first group of Chinese exchange students and had the chance to experience some of the wonderful history and culture of this nation. From then on, I have witnessed and had the privilege and pleasure of personally participating in some stages of the development of the bilateral relations. I have seen the two countries opening to each other for fruitful and extensive cooperation and exchanges. Returning to this beautiful country several decades later as the Chinese Ambassador now, what strike me most are the changes in both countries and in our bilateral relations.

35 years ago when the diplomatic ties just started between China and Canada, apart from a small volume of trade there was almost no other exchanges between the two. Today, changes and progress are simply just as real as they are dramatic. Particularly, thanks to the joint efforts, the relationship entered a golden period in recent years, featuring frequent mutual visits among leaders of both countries, dynamic parliamentary exchanges, increased trade, flourishing cultural events and close cooperation on the international affairs.

In the political aspect, the most outstanding characteristics of the relations is that the leaders of the two countries have forged close relationship and exchanged visits frequently. Former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, for instance, met with the Chinese leaders on more than a dozen occasions, which is rare in the history of international relations. Many Canadian leaders and cabinet ministers have visited China, including Speakers of both Senate and the House, Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Defense, International Trade, International Cooperation, Immigration, Industry and environment. In turn, Chinese premiers Zhu Rongji, and Wen Jiabao, Chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Vice-Chairman of the National People's Congress, and many ministers visited Canada with fruitful results. It is particularly worth noting that Prime Minister Paul Martin visited China and President Hu Jintao visited Canada in the same year of 2005 and the visits were highly successful, bringing new momentum to the further development of our relations. During his visit in September, President HU had in-depth exchanges of views with then Governor General Clarkson, Prime Minister Paul Martin and people of various circles on ways to further advance our bilateral ties and reached broad agreement. The two sides have signed 7 cooperative agreements and MOUs, concerning air transportation, railways, food security, quarantine, nuclear energy and health research, which indicated that the mutual political trust between China and Canada has been further consolidated and that the mutually beneficial cooperation enjoys a bright prospect.

To have agreed by both leaders to upgrade the bilateral relations to a strategic partnership is clearly the most important achievement of the visit. The leaders also identified specific targets to advance the comprehensive cooperation between the two countries in various fields. This move is of great significance. China and Canada, as the world's largest developing country and the world's most spacious developed country respectively, are both important Pacific-rim countries. Cultivating an all-round cooperation through a strategic partnership contributes to the steady growth of our relationship, and as well peace, stability and prosperity of Asian Pacific region and the world at large. The two sides will work to put in place a long-term and stable cooperation framework, make full use of existing mechanisms such as the bilateral Strategic Working Group, Trade and Economic Joint Commission and Agricultural Joint Commission to further tap the cooperation potential and establish, if necessary, new cooperation mechanisms.

In addition, our exchange in legislative area has made substantive progress. China-Canada /Canada-China Legislative Association, established respectively by the NPC of China and Canadian Parliament, have so far made 6 successful exchanges. And preparations are well under way for the next round of exchanges.

Trade and economic cooperation has always served as a key component of and an important driving force for the bilateral relations. China is the world's biggest developing country with a huge potential market. While Canada, one of the leading industrialized economies in the world is known for rich natural resources, strong financial strength and cutting-edge technologies. With respective advantages, the two economies are highly complimentary to each other and therefore make an ideal pair of partners for mutually beneficial cooperation.

In the past 35 years, China-Canada economic ties have evolved from small, simple-item commodity trade into an all-dimensional cooperation covering trade in commodity and services, capital flows and personnel exchanges. According to Chinese statistics, two-way trade increased over 100 times from US$150 million in the early days of China-Canada diplomatic relations to US$15.5 billion in 2004. Consumer goods and household electrical appliances made in China, good in quality and affordable in prices, meet the needs of Canadian consumers. Canada's capital, technologies and managerial expertise have added fresh vitality to China's growing economy. Canada-made high-speed locomotives and buses equipped with gas-powered Canadian engines are running in China. The third-phase nuclear power plant at Qinshan has become a good example of China-Canada cooperation in peaceful use of nuclear energy. All in all, the rapid development of China-Canada economic partnership has delivered enormous tangible benefits to the two peoples.

That said, given the size of the two economies and their respective foreign trade volumes, there is still a great potential for the expansion of trade and economic cooperation. At present, China-Canada trade accounts for a mere 2% of the respective foreign trade volumes. Canadian investment in China makes up less than 1% of China's FDI, while Chinese investment in Canada is barely starting. So the leaders of the two countries have set eyes on even more ambitious challenges. For example, they have agreed to bring bilateral trade volume to over US$30 billion by 2010.

Early this year, the Canadian Government introduced the important strategy of building a "Pacific Gateway", mapping out the plan for developing a trade, investment and transportation hub oriented towards the Asia-Pacific region so as to meet the growing needs for economic cooperation and personnel exchanges between Canada and the Asia-Pacific. The Chinese side appreciates this creative idea, which, we believe, will give great impetus to the economic and technological cooperation between Canada and the Asia-Pacific region and create better conditions for expanding the cooperation between China and Canada.

The active bilateral exchanges have also yielded fruitful results in many other areas. The flourishing cultural exchange brought to Canada large-scaled Chinese cultural programs, such as the Beijing Culture Week, Xi'an Culture Season and China Tibetan Culture Week. This year, to mark the 35th anniversary, the artists of both countries have joined efforts to put on a string of brilliant cultural events across Canada, such as Canada China Cultural Festival, and the "Sound of China" outdoor concert at the Niagara Falls, and the joint issuance of the postage stamps, and so on and so forth.

In scientific area, since 1970, the two sides have signed a total of 58 governmental cooperative agreements and MOUs, spanning extensive scientific areas ranging from energy, environment, metrology, geology, to mining and agriculture.

Education has turned out to be a new growth point in our relations. Since 1998, the two sides have signed around 6 cooperative agreements and MOUs, and numerous partnerships have been fostered between the higher education institutions of the two countries. China has become one of the biggest sources of foreign students in Canada, with more than 55, 000 Chinese students now studying here, and more and more young Canadian students, about 900 now, have also been attracted to China for academic pursuit.

At the international arena, the cooperation between China and Canada has been equally productive. The two countries share the same or similar views on many issues. We work together to protect our environment, to fight against epidemics, to push forward the progress of the UN reform. Canada supported Shanghai in its bid for 2010 World Expo, while China supported Whistler in its bid for 2010 Winter Olympics.

Today, when we commemorate the 35th anniversary of our diplomatic relations, there is no reason that we should not feel proud of what we have achieved so far. And this dynamic and multi-faceted relationship is a tribute to the tireless efforts of both the governments and peoples of our two countries.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

Facts have proved that countries like China and Canada, though different in social systems, ideologies and values, levels of economic development, and cultural and historical backgrounds, can still manage to achieve smooth development in their relations. One important reason for this is that between China and Canada, there's no conflict of fundamental interests. On the contrary, they share many common grounds: both wish for peace, development and cooperation; both respect each other's sovereignty and territorial integrity; both agree to disagree and seek common grounds while shelving the differences; both are willing to solve their differences through dialogue and negotiations; both observe the guiding principles of equality and mutual benefit for international relations; and both understand that to develop a mutually beneficial relationship is very much in the interest of our two countries and peoples, and also contribute greatly to peace, stability and development in Asian-Pacific region and the world at large.

On the other hand, China firmly holds high the banner of peace, development and cooperation, continues to pursue an independent foreign policy of peace, follows the road of peaceful development, and adheres to the mutually beneficial and win-win strategy of opening up. These have created opportunities and provided favorable conditions and a huge market for China and Canada to strengthen and expand their cooperation all the way in their relationship.

Since embarking on reform and opening-up towards the end of 1970s, China has undergone unprecedented and profound changes. During the 26 years between 1978 and 2004, China's GDP grew from some US$147.3 billion to US$1.6494 trillion, registering an average annual growth rate of 9.4%. Its annual import and export volume jumped from US$20.6 billion to US$1.1548 trillion, representing an average annual growth rate of over 16%. By the end of 2004, China's accumulative FDI in paid-in value reached US$562.1 billion. During the first six months of this year, China's GDP reached US$814.6 billion, up by 9.5% over the corresponding period of last year. Imports and exports reached US$645 billion, up by 23%.

China's development has been impressive, and such development of China's has been a peaceful one. China's peaceful development is a path of developing itself while maintaining and promoting world peace with its own development. It is a path of coordinating domestic development with opening-up to the outside world, a path that features both the participation in peaceful international competition and extensive cooperation with other countries. By opting for such a path of development, China has committed itself to equality, friendship, mutual benefit and win-win cooperation with all countries in the world in keeping with the tide of history, and to self-reliance, reform, innovation and scientific approach to development while transcending the traditional models, so as to achieve a comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable development and build a harmonious socialist society.

China pursues an independent foreign policy of peace. Loving peace, honoring promises and living in harmony with all others far and near is an important part of China's state policy, as well as its cultural heritage. In its foreign relations, the Chinese nation has advocated cordiality, benevolence, good-neighborliness and universal harmony. Believing in harmony without uniformity, China's diplomacy has drawn from its 5000-year-old culture inexhaustible wisdom. Engraved on the walls of the UN Headquarters in New York is the teaching of Confucius over 2000 years ago, often referred to as the Golden Rule guiding state-to-state relations. It reads, "Do not do unto others what you would not want done unto you." The Chinese people are keenly aware of the value of peace and have learned from their own historical experiences and drawn lessons from the world that any people in the world can only achieve their goals of development by peaceful means. Only such development can last and be reliable, and such development not only benefits the people in that particular country but people all over the world.

Bearing this in mind, China will unswervingly combine its own development with the progress of humanity. China's development, instead of hurting or threatening anyone, can only serve peace, stability and common prosperity of the world. China will surely make new contributions to human progress with its development.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

Again I quote Confucius: "when you reach the age of 30, you reach maturity". I think this remark also aptly describes the evolution of China-Canada relations that have entered its 35th year. It is a time to assess past progress and look ahead for future achievement. China's development cannot materialize without the world. And a stable and prosperous world also needs China's development. China is ready to work with Canada to chart new territories ?new areas of cooperation and mutual benefit; new areas of sharing and exchange; new areas of growth and development and build stronger and more dynamic relations in the years to come.

Thank you for having me today.