STOCKHOLM, Sept. 9 (Greenpost) — Chinese Ambassador to Sweden Gui Congyou has made an opening remark at the 2019 China Economic Association (EU/UK) annual conference.
This annual conference coincides with the upcoming 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Over the past 70 years, especially the past 40 years of reform and opening up of China, we have been pursuing development based on our national conditions, improving people’s living standards and advancing mutual benefits through open cooperation, realizing a great miracle of development of human kind. China built itself from scratch into the world’s second largest economy, with its GDP exceeding 90 trillion RMB last year, which is 175 times of that of 1952, registering an average growth of 8.1% per year, and its share of global economy rose from 1.8% in 1978 to nearly 16% in 2018. Moreover, China has steadily lifted 800 million people out of poverty, established the world’s largest social security network, and is the first country to realize UN millennium development goals.
To study the Chinese economy, it is important to look at how China has contributed to the world. Over the past years, China has been the most important economic driver of the world, contributing 34% to global GDP growth from 2009 to 2018. China has opened itself to the world in an all-round manner, offering other countries a ride on the express train of China’s fast development. As a world factory with a complete industrial mix and a huge market for the rest of the world, China offers endless development opportunities to other countries. The Belt and Road initiative further opens new room for global economic growth.
Today, despite increasing internal and external risks, the Chinese Government has all the confidence, determination and ability to rise up to the challenge. The positive fundamentals of Chinese economy remain unchanged. China has 1.4 billion people, 900 million in the labor force, 170 million highly educated and skilled population and the world’s largest middle income group of 400 million people and over 100 million market entities. Domestic demand is now the main economic driver, and in 2018 final consumption contributed up to 76.2% to our economic growth. After 70 years of development, China is now home to all industrial categories of the UN industry classification system, and the annual output of over 200 industrial products tops the world. In the first half of this year, China’s GDP grew at 6.3%, still one of the highest among major economies. The significant potential, resilience and room for maneuver of Chinese economy will help it maintain a long-term stable growth momentum.
China adheres to the new development vision of innovative, coordinated, green, open and shared development to improve the quality of and upgrade its economy. Our innovation capacity continues to lift and new industries, new business types and models are thriving. China will remain firmly committed to prioritizing environmental protection and green development, and developing green industries and renewable energy. China will continue to open up wider, firmly defend the multilateral trading system, work with other parties to jointly promote the high quality development of the BRI, and contribute to an open and diverse world economy.
Ladies and gentlemen,
This annual conference focuses on China’s development and the global value chain. Indeed, in a deeply globalized world, interests of all countries are closely interconnected, freedom, openness, connectivity and inclusiveness have become universal values, and peace, development, cooperation and win-win are the consensus of the vast majority of countries. We must follow the trend of times and the objective laws, uphold justice and the interests of people, oppose all adverse currents that go against market principles, free competition and economic globalization.
China and the EU are two major economies in the world. We share a broad range of interests, and we both advocate and defend free trade and multilateralism. A world of peace, stability and openness is in the interests of the entire international community, including China and the EU. It is more important now than ever for China and the EU to join hands and counter the uncertainties brought by trade bullying and unilateralism through greater stability from cooperation. I believe that experts and scholars here will look at the bigger picture and think longer term, and bring more confidence and positive energy to China, the EU and the world.
Let me conclude by wishing every success for the annual conference! Thank you.
STOCKHOLM, Sept. 8(Greenpost) — On 5 September, Ambassador Gui Congyou gave an exclusive interview with Mattias Dellert from SVT Culture News and answered questions on media exchanges and the case of Sayragul Sauytbay. Following is the full text of the interview:
Q: Yesterday, SVT Culture News reported on the increased criticism and comments on the Swedish media by the Chinese Embassy. What is your comment on this?
Gui Congyou: I have explained China’s position on this issue to many Swedish media on multiple occasions. The media is a bridge between our two countries and two peoples that helps to increase mutual understanding, enhance traditional friendship, and promote broad cooperation in various fields. For the Swedish media to play its due role in serving the fundamental interests of our two countries and two peoples, it is necessary that it reports China’s objectively and fairly. Recently, I met a Swedish friend who just came back from China. He said that what he saw in China was completely different from what was reported by some Swedish media, and that he felt like being fooled by the Swedish media. We are willing to communicate with friends from the Swedish media and introduce China to them from an objective and truthful perspective. As to comments that are not objective or fair, or even attack and smear China out of biases, we certainly have to criticize and refute such reports.
Q: What do you want to achieve by commenting on and criticizing the Swedish media? For example, regarding the situation in Hong Kong, the case of Gui Minhai, etc.
Gui Congyou: We refute and make clarifications on the Swedish media’s coverage of China so as to introduce to the Swedish people the situation in China objectively. The case of Gui Minhai is a simple matter. He has committed crimes in China, and the Chinese judicial authorities should of course deal with the case according to law. This is just the same with the case when a US rapper broke the law in Sweden and the Swedish judiciary handled it in accordance with Swedish law.
Q: You mean that your comments on and criticisms of the Swedish media are aimed at leading the Swedish media to look at China from a different perspective. Do you think your communication with the Swedish media and the public is successful?
Gui Congyou: In the past 2 years since I took office, I have visited nearly two-thirds of Sweden’s counties and had extensive contacts with Swedish people from all walks of life. Their opinions about China are completely different from those of the Swedish media. I don’t know if you have been to China. If not, I would like to invite you and your colleagues to China for an interview. I noticed that SVT interviewed Sayragul Sauytbay a few days ago. What she said in the interview are all lies. You have to first figure out what kind of person she is.
Q: How do you know that she is lying?
Gui Congyou: The local authorities in Xinjiang informed us of her situation. Sayragul Sauytbay claims to have worked in a vocational education and training center in Xinjiang, but in fact she only worked as a teacher in a kindergarten and a primary school in Xinjiang and has never worked in a vocational education and training center. She is suspected of credit fraud in Xinjiang and still owes about RMB400,000. In order to evade legal punishment, she illegally fled to Kazakhstan and violated the border control laws of both China and Kazakhstan. You interviewing her and broadcasting her false statements actually make you a shelter of her criminal offences.
Q: So you think SVT broadcast a wrong program?
Gui Congyou: Of course. It is the social responsibility of the media to introduce the real situation and not distribute fake news to the public. In order to escape legal punishment, Sayragul Sauytbay disguised herself as a victim of political persecution and dishonestly win some Swedish people’s sympathy. Those people were fooled into getting her to Sweden and providing her with shelter. We hope that the Swedish side will act in accordance with law and repatriate Sayragul Sauytbay to China.
Q: Let us put this case aside and come back to the increased criticism and comments on the Swedish media by the Chinese Embassy. Do you think that the Chinese Embassy has increased its attention to and comments on our China-related reporting?
Gui Congyou: I don’t think it is about “increase”. It’s only that whenever we find Swedish media’s reporting seriously inconsistent with the facts, we will have to make clarifications immediately. We must of course fight back immediately vicious attacks against China. If you follow China and want to know China, let me advise you to visit China yourself and do interviews there, instead of listening to the lies of criminals.
Q: I still want to ask what do you want to achieve by increasing comments and criticism on Swedish media.
Gui Congyou: Like I said in the beginning, the aim is to maintain the friendship and strengthen cooperation between China and Sweden, as we hope the Swedish public will know China in a complete, truthful and objective way. With some reporting on China by Swedish media that is not true and hinders friendly cooperation between the two countries, of course we need to clarify and refute. The Sayragul Sauytbay case and Gui Minhai case are two such examples. Swedish friends believe Sweden is a country of rule of law, and a country of rule of law is not supposed to do things that are against the law. A Swedish friend that lived in China for over 30 years told me that those that criticize China on Swedish media do not really know about China. Once again, I would like to invite you and your colleagues to visit China. If you truly care about Xinjiang, then go to China, and see for your own eyes the development in China and Xinjiang. Seeing is believing.
Q: I want to ask again, have you achieved the aim with the comments and questioning on Swedish media?
Gui Congyou: We are working towards this goal. It is hoped that friends from Swedish media will work with us towards the same goal and communicate with us candidly and openly. It is also hoped that those that comment on China will go to China to see the situation there, and use what they see with their own eyes to answer the questions in their minds. Let me take another example. Since 2012 China has started to implement a new development vision of innovative, coordinated, green, open and shared development. We put environmental protection on top of our agenda and made hard effort to develop wind, hydro, nuclear and solar energy, reducing the share of coal-fired power to less than 60% from 80%, and the air quality in major cities like Beijing has been significantly improved. However, it is hard to believe that some Swedish media recently criticized China for “large increase of share of coal-fired power”. We are shocked to see such fake news.
Q: Do you think more criticisms on Swedish media will make them listen to you more?
Gui Congyou: Some Swedish journalists have never been to China, and we are willing to invite them to visit China. My colleagues and I are also willing to communicate with them, and introduce the objective reality of China to them. It is hoped that they will abandon their outdated view or even bias on China. China has achieved a remarkable transformation. China’s development is so fast that one will not get an objective picture of China if he or she does not follow its development everyday.
Q: Do you think the increased comments and criticisms are working?
Gui Congyou: I was told by a Swedish journalist that covers China objectively that objective coverage on China on Swedish media is increasing. We hope those from Swedish media that put themselves on the opposition of China will visit China more, and answer the questions in their minds with the real situation in China. This way, your question can be answered.
Q: Why was there an increase of comments and criticisms by the Chinese side on Swedish media in the last couple of years? Is it a new strategy? What is the reason?
Gui Congyou: Since taking office, I saw a lot of stories on China that are not factual. As ambassador, I must present China to the Swedish public in an objective, truthful and complete manner, so that Swedish public will not be deceived by the reports that distort and smear China, as it does not help Sweden to correctly understand China. As ambassador, my mission is to advance friendship and cooperation between our two countries and two peoples. I hope friends from Swedish media will join us in promoting mutual knowledge and understanding between the Chinese and Swedish people, and promoting cooperation. Frankly, some Swedish journalists have never been to China and do not know about the real situation in China, and they listen to the lies by liars like Sayragul Sauytbay. My impression of such Swedish media is that their understanding on China is “they are completely cut off from the world that they have not even heard of the Han dynasty, not to speak of Wei and Jin”, as an ancient Chinese prose describes. Last summer, a friend from Swedish media told me after returning from China that his views on China took a U turn. This is the fact.
Q: So you believe Swedish media including SVT are publishing lies?
Gui Congyou: Of course. The reports that triggered our clarification and refutation are all lies. Otherwise we would not have reacted.
Journalist: I have finished my questions. Thank you, Mr. Ambassador.
STOCKHOLM, Aug. 30(Greenpost) — China has made remarkable progress in fighting against water pollution and it is a great achievement to provide clean drinking water for over one billion people in China. Meanwhile, there are still a lot of challenges for China to face, says Josh Weinberg during an interview with Greenpost’s journalist Xuefei Chen Axelsson during the World Water Week held in Stockholm between Aug. 25-30.
Upon the National Day on October 1 in China, Weinberg wishes everyone a Happy National Day and continues to make progress in building a clean and beautiful country in China.
STOCKHOLM, Aug. 30(Greenpost) — Jan Lindqvist, a senior expert working in Stockholm International Water Institute went to China in December 1979 for the first time. He has recalled his experience then and told us that China has made extraordinary and unprecedented progress since then. Greenpost’s chief editor Xuefei Chen Axelsson has interviewed him on the opening plenary session day during the World Water Week in Stockholm. Please watch the video.
Professor Jan Lindqvist said he actually studied Economics but he got a professor job in water department in Linköping University because water issue is not just about water itself, it needs engineers, biologists and economists and many others to solve the complicated water issues.
Professor Lindqvist led a project called from Field to Fork and called on people to stop wasting food and live a healthy lifestyle in modern times.
He said with the increase of population and the expansion of production and consumption, how to balance the individual needs with the limitation of natural resources on us is also an important issue for us to think about and choose the right and healthy way to live.
STOCKHOLM, Aug. 23(Greenpost) — Chinese Embassy Spokesperson issued a response on Friday to answer questions from Swedish Daily SVD.
“We have noticed the article on SVD by its journalist Annie Reuterskiöld on 21 August, which said staff of Chinese Embassy in Sweden asked her questions about KD during a visa interview. The article questioned why the Chinese side is so interested in KD.”
Our response is:
It is a common practice by countries around the world to request relevant visa applicants to take an interview. To learn about the receiving country including its political parties is one of the basic work of a diplomatic mission. The Communist Party of China is willing to develop friendly relations and exchanges with all major political parties in Sweden including KD, on the basis of independence, equality, mutual respect and non-interference in internal affairs. The Communist Party of China maintains friendly exchanges with political parties from all major countries in the world. In 2017 the CPC hosted CPC Dialogue with World Political Parties High-level Meeting, which saw the participation by nearly 300 political parties and organizations from over 120 countries. In recent years, none of the major political parties in Sweden participated in political party exchange activities hosted by the CPC. Nor do they want to sent delegations to visit China. As a result, they lack due knowledge about the CPC’s policies and practices to deliver benefits to its people and to contribute to development of the world. It is hoped that major political parties in Sweden including KD will look at China and the CPC with an open mind and strengthen inter-party exchanges to enhance mutual understanding, rather than build up barriers and suspicion.
STOCKHOLM, Aug. 20(Greenpost)– Chinese Embassy Spokesperson has recently made remarks on some Swedish Media’s Untruthful Reporting on China’s United Front Work.
Q: Recently, some Swedish media reported that the United Front Work Department of the CPC has carried out activities in Sweden in an attempt to expand influence and has contacted with some local Chinese people. What’s your comment?
A: We have noticed that some Swedish media like SR, SVD, Expressen, Aftonbladet have been maliciously hyping up the normal foreign exchanges of the United Front Work Department. Relevant reports are seriously inconsistent with the facts. The United Front Work Department is a functional organization of the CPC, and its functions include giving guidance to the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce and contacting overseas Chinese. In keeping with the principles of openness, transparency, equality, mutual benefit and mutual respect, the United Front Work Department provides support and services for Chinese private enterprises affiliated to the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce to carry out foreign exchanges and cooperation, and for overseas Chinese to participate in relevant countries’ friendly exchanges and cooperation with China. The Chinese Government has always encouraged overseas Chinese to abide by the laws and regulations of the host country, actively integrate into the local society, and contribute to local social and economic development. Meanwhile, we resolutely oppose unwarranted accusations, smear campaigns, attacks or even racial discrimination against overseas Chinese.
For some time, some Swedish media and forces have been fabricating lies out of nothing and provoking troubles. They have moved against the trend of friendly cooperation between China and Sweden, and conducted a witch hunt against people in Sweden who are engaged in friendly exchanges and cooperation with China, which is a political persecution of these people. We strongly condemn that. Though the bodies of those Swedish media and forces have entered the 21st century, their brains remain in the Cold War era. We strongly advise them to keep up with the pace of the times, abandon ideological prejudice and outdated cold war mentality, immediately stop unwarranted accusations and slander, and immediately stop disturbing the normal exchanges and cooperation between China and Sweden and their peoples, to maintain the common interests of the two countries and peoples.
Stockholm, Aug. 20(Greenpost)–The Chinese Embassy Spokesperson has made remarks on the Swedish Side’s Decision to Refuse to Extradite Qiao Jianjun to China.
The Chinese side expresses strong discontent over the decision by the Supreme Court and Government of Sweden to refuse to extradite Qiao Jianjun back to China.
“Qiao Jianjun is a notorious corrupt fugitive in China that is suspected of embezzling over 200 million yuan (USD 28 million) of grain purchase fund for peasants. He is a duty-related criminal suspect that is on the Interpol Red Notice, and his offences are under criminal investigation and prosecution in a number of countries. The refusal of the Supreme Court of Sweden to extradite Qiao Jianjun to China based on pure speculations and so-called “human rights” goes against basic facts, tramples on the rule of law, disregards fairness and justice and grossly violates the basic human rights of the victims in the Qiao Jianjun case, which has fully exposed the hypocrisy of the judicial system of Sweden.”
“We hope the Swedish prosecution and police will continue to investigate the suspected breaches of Swedish law by Qiao Jianjun, and urge the Supreme Court of Sweden to rehear the case based on its crime facts and make a fair decision, to uphold fairness and justice and not to let Sweden descend to a safe haven for corrupt fugitives.”
STOCKHOLM, July 15 (Greenpost) — Chinese government is determined to solve the Xinjiang problem and they wanted to solve it from the basic, economic development.
I went to Xinjiang last year from August 24-September 2 to visit many places in Xinjiang.
I was told that before 2016, Xinjiang was suffering a lot of violence and potential terrorists attacks. Since July 5, 2009 when the largest scale and most severe violence took place in Xinjiang, Xinjiang people had been suffering from the terrorist attacks in many ways. People were afraid to go to street or go to the market places. But since 2016 when a series of measures were taken to uproot the root cause of terrorism, China opened education centres while investing massive amount of money in building infrastructure and creating more jobs.
When I was in Xinjiang many people said now Xinjiang was safe and there was no bombing at all. More tourists visited Xinjiang and Xinjiang also opened its arms to more tourists. Xinjiang becomes very popular and tourism became a pillar industry.
Traditionally people often think of Xinjiang as a poor province and a difficult area. But in fact, Xinjiang is a rich area full of various resources and beautiful environment. Xinjiang is proud of its various environment. For example along the road from Urumqi to Dabancheng and Turpan, there is a lot of wind and large wind farms are established to supply green energy to Xinjiang and all over China.
The problem started from the uneven development in China plus the three forces from outside to disturb. Because China started opening up in eastern region and eastern provinces developed first. Now it is time for western China to develop.
Since Xi Jinping became President, hundreds of billions of yuan have been invested in Xinjiang to create jobs and improve living standards.
So far, Xinjiang people enjoy a much better life and feel much safer. Those who were educated are gradually released and found jobs for a living.
It is understandable that the security is tight and more strict rules are implemented. It is believed that Xinjiang will be better and better.
If you like to read more about Xinjiang, just click the key word Xinjiang, you will find my report about Xinjiang.
STOCKHOLM, July 15(Greenpost) — 37 countries’ Ambassaders in Geneva signed a letter supporting China’s policies in Xinjiang.
Beijing says its policies in Xinjiang are a program to de-radicalize Uighurs and other minority Muslims, as part of a broader campaign against three ism– separatism, terrorism and extremism.
Among 37 countries, about one-third of the signatories of the letter praising China’s Xinjiang policies are members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), a bloc customarily outspoken about actions it views as hostile towards Muslims. They include Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, Syria, Tajikistan, Egypt, Algeria, Nigeria, and Togo.
The other signatories are Russia, Cuba, Venezuela, Angola, Belarus, Burma, North Korea, the Philippines, and Zimbabwe.
At least 11 of the signatories are currently members of the HRC.
The letter, essentially echoing Beijing’s talking points, says, “Faced with the grave challenge of terrorism and extremism, China has undertaken a series of counter-terrorism and deradicalization measures in Xinjiang, including setting up vocational education and training centers.”
It says there has been no terror attack in Xinjiang for three years and that its inhabitants enjoy a happier and more secure existence. (True)
“We commend China’s remarkable achievements in the field of human rights by adhering to the people-centered development philosophy and protecting and promoting human rights through development,” it says.
Chinese Charge D’Affair Li Song, speaking at the HRC on Friday, said the Chinese government warmly welcomed the support of the signatories of the letter, which “highly spoke of China’s progress in the field of human rights in Xinjiang, and the success in the field of fighting terrorism and extremism.”
Speaking through an interpreter, Li listed the principles China expects the HRC to uphold in its work – “objectivity, transparency, non-selectivity, constructiveness, non-confrontation, and non-politicization.”
He complained that some Western delegations “driven by a political agenda,” had written an open letter of their own several days earlier, “in which they distorted reality on the ground in Xinjiang and made unfounded allegations.”
The 22 signatories of that letter included Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and European nations.
Li said those countries should “discard their prejudices” and “stop politicizing human rights issues.”
Li said the existence of those vocational training centers was supported by “all the people of Xinjiang and the rest of China.
“Under the strong leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, all the ethnic groups in Xinjiang are moving proudly to the year 2020 when China will become a well-off society, and further towards a bright future.” said Li.
STOCKHOLM, July 4(Greenpost) — Recently when I heard Kina from a news watched by my husband, I was attracted to it and had a look at the news. Then I replayed it with his computer and got to know that Qiao Jianjun was arrested because America wanted him.
It is really interesting to see this news and think of Swedish Supreme Court and Police behaviour.
Earlier, I saw the picture that Qiao was arrested again and he said he got evidence and he denied all the accusations.
Who is Qiao Jianjun? Greenpost reported in early report that Qiao was suspected to be the No. 3 out of 100 wanted suspects by the Chinese Police. These 100 wanted suspects were accused of corruption crimes and huge amount of embezzlement or appropriation of public money. Most of them used to work in the State owned enterprises.
So far, 55 of them have gone back to China to surrender either willingly or being extradited and have experienced fair trial according to China’s judicial procedures.
Qiao was suspected to be the one who worked in Henan Branch of China’s Food Group, a key state owned corporation. He was accused to have taken 300 million yuan to escape to America in 2011. His ex wife Zhao Xiaolan divorced him in 2001 and later went to America and bought a lot of properties including a villa, a shop and others.
Qiao changed his name and married again and came to Sweden in 2011 according to reports. After long time investigation, Chinese police was almost certain that he was Qiao, the suspect they were looking for and informed Swedish police hoping that they would cooperate to crack down on crimes.
Swedish police arrested Qiao last year and kept him in detention. But on June 19th, the Supreme Court decided to set him free. According to reports from the Swedish and international media that the action had something to do with the Hong Kong situation where the students were against the revision of law to extradite suspects to the place where they had criminal actions.
It was reported that the revision of the law in Hong Kong was caused by a case between Hong Kong and Taiwan which saw the loopholes in the law. According to Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry briefing, the case refers to Mr. Chen from Hong Kong Killed his girlfriend in Taiwan. Taiwan side wanted Mr. Chen to be extradited to Taiwan, but the two sides had no agreement or treaty on this issue. Thus Hong Kong SAR decided to revise the law involving the mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan so that they got an agreement.
Analysts guess that maybe because Hong Kong does have a lot of suspects who are wanted by the mainland, they are so afraid of this law being passed. Thus they especially are against the revision to send the suspect to China’s mainland. Otherwise why does the slogan only focuses on the part to extradite to the mainland?
It is also suspected that behind the students there are some forces who could be just those suspects or the suspects supporters. They provided students with money and one American man even encouraged the students to challenge the police with violence.
This man was dug out with internet information as a so called human rights teacher in the mainland and later was expelled out by the Chinese Authority. He mainly taught the students how to demonstrate and how to deal with the police and instigated violence.
No one knows who is exactly behind the scene, but openly one can read British Foreign Affairs Ministry’s statement indicating support or voicing sympathy with the students. It is also known that one of the leaders of the students is still the one who led the paraply movement a couple of years ago.
Swedish reporter Petersson also reported that the students demonstration in Hong Kong was more violent than before. It was not peaceful demonstration any more. It is more antagonism in the action which violated current law of disturbing the public order.
Ok, with such a background, Swedish Supreme Court decided to set Qiao Jianjun free. This was very strange. The second strange thing was that the Supreme Court hasn’t given a written verdict yet. But the person was just set free.
Then, on June 24th, SVT reported that Qiao was arrested again because America wanted him. Qiao was accused by American police that he was suspected to conduct money laundry for 100 million. Therefore he was wanted to be extradited to America.
Now it is even more strange that Swedish court and police refused to cooperate with Chinese police but obey the American police immediately.
Why? I don’t know why. But I guess that shows Swedish police listens more to America than to China. Similar to that British little brother must obey American big brother otherwise, America will cut off your milk supply(trade link).
After my Chinese version of article was published, one reader said either to China or to America, but just not stay in Sweden at large.
Analysts hold that Sweden shouldn’t behave as if she likes to harbor criminals. It is better to extradite Qiao back to China so that he could get a fair trial. If you admit the crime and sincerely regret your behaviour , compensate all the losses, there should be consideration of reducing the penalty.
As far as I know(I used to have a student who studied English with me and worked in China’s Supreme Procuratorate ), China has tried its best to restrict death penalty.
One example of a case in 2000, Erwei was killed by his neighbour with a knife. Erwei was just 25 years old. The neighbour was 60 years old. Both held a knife from the kitchen, the young was running out of the door and the older chased him. Then the young got stuck by a stick and he fell down on the ground. The older man cut him on the ankle of the foot. When he was sent to the hospital, Erwei died of over bleeding.
Such tragedy should have been avoided if our society was more civilised. But unfortunately it happened due to little chore(poverty). According to the criminal law, if you kill someone, you should be punished to be killed. This was believed by Erwei’s relatives too. But the court didn’t sentence the elder man to death penalty immediately, but to execute after two years. That usually means the man will be life imprisonment but not be killed.
Erwei’s mother was not satisfied with the sentence and shangfang or visited upper level of court for many years. Later, she got what she wanted. That was the school fees and living expenses for Erwei’s daughter till 18 years old. At that time the girl was just 5 years old.
This case reflected the situation in China that many people were still struggling with the food and clothes in 2000. Meanwhile, the court tried according to the facts and even with purposely killing crime, since Erwei held a knife too, the other was not sentenced to death.
My student said the court or procuraterate usually dealt with the case with humanitarian concerns. The dead has died, the most important thing is for those who live to have a better life. Therefore, they often try to get more compensation for the victim instead of just getting the other being sentenced to death(meaning not to die).
China used to have very severe punishment for criminal crimes. But after reform and opening up, more and more economic crimes appeared while the so called hooligan crime cases decreased because people were more open than before.
STOCKHOLM, July 3(Greenpost) — Chinese Ambassador Gui Congyou attended the Swedish Almedalensweek or Politician Week in Visby, Gotland, the largest Island in Sweden.
Ambassador Gui attended the China Day organized by Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Sweden on Wednesday and gave a keynote speech titled Improve Mutual Understanding, Promote Cooperation and Pursue shared development.
“With the develpment of China and deepening exchanges between China and Sweden, the Swedish public is more interested to learn more about China. With a “China Day” event like this, the two sides can conduct dialogues and communication to increase objective mutual understanding. This is particularly important. To observe China, one cannot use binoculars or magnifying glasses, still less should one use colored glasses, rather one needs to see China with his or her own eyes and an open mind, and see a real, multifaceted and complete China. Today’s “China Day” event is to provide friends from all sectors in Sweden a window to know more about China, build greater common grounds and facilitate cooperation,” said Gui.
Gui further illustrated that China’s development is not just about economic growth, but an all-round social development of the country. The all-round development of China helped to lift nearly 800 million people out of poverty. The largest universal health care and social security systems in the world were built, and nine-year free education now covers every student. Per capita income grew at an average annual rate of 7.4%, creating the largest middle-income group in the world. We work to build socialist democracy, develop and improve consultative democracy, and fully protect the extensive and tangible rights and freedoms of the people.
Gui said that China’s development is not just about national strength, but about peaceful development. Expansion is not in China’s DNA. China has never started a war or conflict, and never invaded one inch of territory of other countries. China’s development will not pose any threat to any country.
China’s development is not just the development of itself, but development together with the world. China’s economic growth has been contributing over 30% to global growth for many years in a row, making itself an anchor and engine for global growth and a key contributor to the implementation of 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of the UN. China has been actively pursuing the joint building of the Belt and Road Initiative, with a central goal to strengthens interconnectivity, which mobilizes more resources, opens more market room and unleashed more dynamism for the development of countries along the route. The initiative is widely welcomed and supported by the international community.
The world is amid changes unseen in 100 years. Profound shifts are occurring in strengths of countries and economic development models, and another cycle of technological innovation gathers momentum. At the same time, surging unilateralism and protectionism erode the mutual trust and coordination among countries, and lead to greater risks and uncertainties in world economy. No one will win from a trade war. It severely damages the multilateral trading system, the confidence of global market and directly threatens world economic growth including that of Europe and Sweden. The Chinese side agreed to continue trade talks with the US side with sincerity, but such talks should be based on an equal footing and mutual respect, and with a purpose to address the legitimate concerns of each other. On issues concerning China’s sovereignty and dignity, China will resolutely safeguard its core interests. We are willing to follow the principle agreement reached by the two Presidents, work with the US to restart the trade consultations based on equality and mutual respect, manage differences and expand cooperation. We are ready to join hands with all countries that are committed to multilateral trade system and open development, to oppose protectionism, unilateralism and economic bullying, and stand up for fairness, justice and the fundamental interests of countries in the world, Ambassador Gui said.
What does a richer and stronger China mean for Sweden? The key words are opportunities and cooperation. China’s development will not pose any threat to Sweden, but will only bring bumper opportunities for cooperation. We are willing to develop friendly relations and cooperation with Sweden with good will, sincerity and friendship. The Chinese people often say that kindness needs to be returned tenfold, which means that when other countries treat China well, we will only treat them better.
Ambassador Gui said that China and Sweden enjoy traditional friendship. Without any historical baggage or conflicting interests, we have good conditions to develop our bilateral relations. China and Sweden share similar development philosophies. Our economies are highly complementary and there is great cooperation potential. China is working to implement the new development vision of innovative, coordinated, green, open and shared development. Sweden, as the first country that proposed the concept of sustainable development, leads the world in green, innovative and sustainable development. We are each other’s largest trading partner in the Nordic region and in Asia. Last year, trade between China and Sweden reached USD 17.15 billion, hitting a new record. In the past two years, Sweden has maintained trade surplus with China, which we welcome. We are willing to further expand importation from Sweden, and we will not fight a trade war with Sweden. We need to continue to advance our traditional cooperation in trade. We also need to actively explore more common areas of ideas and interests, and explore new cooperation fields.
We welcome various sectors of Sweden to participate in the Belt and Road Initiative, strengthen dialogue and communication, synergize our respective strengths, explore cooperation that is bilateral, trilateral or even among more parties, and inject new momentum into China-Sweden practical cooperation. In November this year, China will host the second International Import Expo, and we welcome the participation of Swedish friends in the event, concluded Gui.
Almedalen Week is a week that politicians voice their policies and debate about their opinions.
This was the second year that Ambassador Gui attended the week. Last year he was interviewed by several Swedish mainstream media.
Many people said this Chinese Ambassador is different from the previous ones. It is true. Maybe the biggest difference is that this Ambassador works much harder and is willing to go to the Swedish public and talk with people. He likes to communicate with the media, the public and the entrepreneurs, whoever is interested in China.
He said his job here was just to represent a real China and to those who got the wrong facts, he also dared to speak up and correct. He represents a new generation of Chinese diplomats who were born during the 1960s and optimistic about the future and the world.
STOCKHOLM, June 21(Greenpost) Chinese President and General Secretary of the Communist Party of China visited North Korea on Thursday and returned to China on Friday. This was the first time a Chinese President visited North Korea for over 14 years。
Xi’ s visit came upon the 70th anniversary of the Sino-North Korean relations. This was a great step strengthening China’s diplomatic relations with North Korea.
This visit was just second to Xi’s visit to Russia. There Putin celebrated Xi’s 66th year birthday. 66 years old is an important year for Chinese. But Xi visited Russia. This showed his great attention to Russia. Russia or previously Soviet Union was the first country to establish diplomatic relations with China on October 3, 1949.
North Korea was the second country that established diplomatic relations with China on Oct. 6, 1949. Then China had relations with Mongolia, Vietnam and India and so on. This was a deployment of Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai the old generation of leaders who established a new China and wanted to have new relations with the world.
Xi Jinping follows this step and visited North Korea right after Russia. As Xi said, the purpose was to strengthen traditional Sino-North Korean friendship and push the process towards a nuclear free Korean Peninsula.
Xi stressed the nature of the relationship is still based on the fact that China is a socialist country which is under the leadership of the Communist Party. That means both countries are socialist countries. There is good foundation. The two countries are good neighbors. Thus, China will always care about North Korea’s important concerns in security and developement and China will offer help within its capacity.
Kim Jungen fully agreed with Xi’s proposal and echoed his call. Kim agreed with Xi that the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue should be solved through political consulation and negotiation. North Korea will be patient.
Xi said China hopes the US and North Korea can continue dialogue and negotiation.
Xi said he had achieved the goal of improving bilateral relations with North Korea and opening new chance for the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula.
Xi’s visit is also step for the preparation of China’s 70th anniversary celebration. But China’s success in maintaining peace and security will serve as a great balance for Asia and the whole world. With the presence of China, Asia is peaceful and the world is peaceful. China under the leadership of Xi Jinping plays an indispensible role in maintaining peace and development in the Korean Peninsula and Asia as well as the whole world.
With the good neighborly relations with other Asian countries, China has maintained the peaceful and harmonious situation in Asia. This can be attributed to great leader Xi Jinping. With his strategic vision, the world appears more balanced and peaceful. This is due to his great efforts in maintaining the world peace.
Stockholm, June 20, (Greenpost) — On April 28, 1989, I was in the Purple Bamboo Park and practised my English. But it happened to be the next day of the largest scale students demonstrations in Beijing.
That was called April 27th Demonstration. Almost all the universities and colleges in Beijing participated in that demonstration. We walked from early morning to late evening. When we arrived in the campus again, it was 21:00.
Students were blocked by the soldiers, but in the end, students broke through and went ahead. I was in the queue of the Renmin University, a little bit in front, but not in the very front, so I didn’t see the soldiers. Later I heard my classmates friends talked about their experience of breaking the soldiers human wall. I thought it was just small group of soldiers. The next day I went to the park to practice my English the same as other sundays.
Because my English was very fluent and I said it was due to the government’s tolerance that the students felt they won. A journalist from Holland carrying a camera wanted film interview me, but I refused. I said this was just my private opinion, I didn’t like to be interviewed.
But 30 years later, I found it was always the extreme remarks were in the circulations. A lot of wrong information or lies in the air. I feel I got to know a little more about the answers for my questions for 30 years.
The government was very restraint to students. I thought it were just a small group of soldiers to block the students. Now I saw the pictures in the youtube I found that there were many more soldiers blocking the students. But they just used human wall without any weapons. They just did it as an effort, but they were not very determined to stop the students. At that time, as Peking University professor Kong Qingdong recalled, that the students shouted the politically correct slogans that they all support the communist party and they are just against the corruption. So the slogans were supported by the people.
I thought the students should have come back to the campus after May 19th when the hunger strike were stopped. I was disappointed at Zhao Ziyang’s behavior of crying in the Tiananmen Square. But at that time, Renmin University Radio Beijing called on students to come back to campus to resume courses. Then I thought on May 26, 27 or 28 there were not many students in the Tiananmen Square. I just wonder why the government didn’t take action at that time.
However, there had been students in the Tiananmen Square till the very end. They had never gone back to campus. Student leader Wang Dan announced that the demonstration in the Tiananmen Square stopped on May 30th. But immediately more support from the workers and others. On June 2, when I passed by the Tiananmen Square, I saw Liu Xiaobo and Hou Dejian started the 72 hour hunger strike. By then, the tone totally changed. The workers spoke up and said they wanted to take violent action.
3. Now reviewing the video I saw Cai Ling, the then student leader said she would stay in the square until there was blood shed, then people would understand. Why did she do that? Judging from what she said, the reason is that she knew she was in the black list and she couldn’t go back, she took occupying Tiananmen Square as a main task. This was not the intention of the students at the beginning. The intention was to propose the question and then let the government to solve the problem. I later experienced demonstration in New Zealand, students just shouted some slogans and then resume classes. But Chinese students, some of the radical ones insist on staying there with the support of the Beijing citizens.
4. Why did PLA men shoot? Because the nature of the event changed in the end. One good thing impressed me was that in order to serve the students all the toilets in the surrounding areas of the Tiananmen opened. But the bad thing was that I saw a student from my former university whom I thought was not very good also came to Beijing and joined the queue. Then I felt the event went wrong. Yes, in the end, some bad people participated and under the name of supporting the students began to fight with the PLA men who executed the party and government tasks.
5. The curfew was implemented and people were warned repeatedly not to go to the street. But many citizens or workers still went to the Chang’an Avenue. People simply didn’t listen to the order and they thought the government was too tolerant before and now they took the order for granted. But this time, the order was for PLA men to vacate Tiananmen Square. Tiananmen Square is a holy place not for being occupied for almost a month. The whole country worry about Tiananmen and all the Beijing people stopped working. The traffic was collapsed. That was not normal.
6. In the end, the students withdrew from the Tiananmen Square and the PLA men entered the Tiananmen Square. Three soldiers were burned to death and hanged while about 1000 PLA trucks were burned down.
We had no fear. I went out to teach my students even on June 5th and saw the burnt trucks. But when I arrived in her home, her husband warned me not to come out and be careful.
7. Reflecting the past, I think we had a lot of lessons to draw. First, students shouldn’t occupy the Tiananmen Square for such a long time. At that time, there were debate and some students said they would like to burn themselves for the so called democracy. Was that the purpose?
Second, without many adult people’s support or making use of the students as the shield, the event would not develop to such a large scale. Most senior students didn’t participate in the hunger strike or stay in Tiananmen Square all the time. My classmate Deng Ping simply stayed in the dormitory and wrote a book.
Third, the event got a lot of support from Hong Kong’s supporting federation.
Fourth, suppose there were no another round of hunger strike there wouldn’t be so heavy crowd in the square. In the end, the students was just an excuse and the others came to the front.
Fifth, the Chinese government was very tolerant to students and didn’t take action until the workers showed up illegally because they also got strike from work.
The reflection showed that the background was that the intellectuals income were too low and they were not satisfied with the situation.
Many people reflect this event and felt that the bloodshed were due to lack of experience. Students were too innocent and didn’t understand the big picture. It was also revealed that in the end when some of the students leaders received outside donations they changed their purposes and the students movement went astray from criticizing the government to fighting against the government. Then the nature of the constradiction changed.
STOCKHOLM, June 10(Greenpost) — Chinese Ambassador to Sweden Gui Congyou has said that Sino-Swedish relations will be carried forward by the young.
He made the remarks at the first China Alumni reception on May 31st at the Chinese Embassy.
” It gives me great pleasure to meet so many friends representing different sectors of Sweden. Welcome to the Embassy! You all share the experience of studying, working, visiting or starting a business in China, and you all made positive contributions to cooperation and friendship between China and Sweden. On behalf of the Chinese Embassy in Sweden, I would like to extend heartfelt thanks and sincere greetings to you, and through you to everyone that has been committed to promoting friendship between China and Sweden.”
Gui said that Sweden was the first Western country to establish diplomatic ties with the People’s Republic of China, and it was also one of the first Western countries to sign an inter-governmental cooperation agreement on trade and technology, making positive contributions to China’s reform, opening up and modernization. China and Sweden enjoy long-standing cooperation. Over 260 years ago, the Gothenburg merchant vessel sailed all the way to China, opening the maritime Silk Road cooperation between the two countries. There is traditional friendship between Chinese and Swedish people, and we both hope to grow China-Sweden cooperative relations. In the nearly seven decades of diplomatic ties, China-Sweden relations maintained an overall momentum of growth, achieving fruitful outcomes in many areas of exchanges and cooperation.
In 2018, trade between China and Sweden reached USD 17.15 billion, growing by 15% and hitting a new historical record. Exchanges between our two countries in education, technology and culture are expanding. The two Governments have established mechanisms such as Education Policy Dialogue and Joint Committee Meeting of Science and Technology. There are now more than 9,000 Chinese students in Swedish universities, more than doubling that of five years ago. The exchanges and cooperation between our schools, universities and research institutes are flourishing, and cultural exchange programs such as Confucius Institute and Chinese Language Culture Festival, and performances by Chinese art groups are also warmly received by the Swedish public.
Gui said that this year marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, and the next year is the 70th anniversary China-Sweden diplomatic ties. In the past almost 70 years, friendship and cooperation has always been the mainstream of our diplomatic relations, and promoting further growth of our relations has always been a shared hope of our two peoples. There is great potential and bright prospects for deepening cooperation across the board between our two countries. Coming from various sectors and organizations in Sweden, you share a connection with China because of a common experience of studying, working or starting a business in China. You represent an important force for friendship between our two counties.
“Many of you are very young, and are about to go to study or work in China, which will add new momentum into China-Sweden cooperation. The root of China-Sweden relations is in the people, and the future will be carried forward by the young. I sincerely hope that you will play a leading role to promote China-Sweden cooperation in your respective field, and inject new energy and vitality into our bilateral relations. We will work with Swedish agencies to establish a China Alumni Association in Sweden, and regularly hold activities like today’s event, to provide a channel and platform for cooperation and exchanges with China. Let us work together, to continue to open new areas of China-Sweden cooperation, build new platforms, make greater contributions to friendship and cooperation for the benefit of our two peoples.
Juan Carlos Mauritz(欢龙)，Founder and Chairman of Nordic Apiary and Nordic China Startups Forum speaks at the reception. Bonnie talks about her experience in China and her product Bonzun, an APP tool for pregnant women. Ciro Vasquez, Vinnova Program director in International Affairs says Sweden loves to support young startups.
President of Swedish International Students and Alumni Adrian Stymne speaks about students diplomacy and peace building by the young.
Counsular Cao Diefeng made the concluding remarks and welcomed students to study in China.
