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Speakers:

Mr. Guo Yezhou, vice minister of the International Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC)

Mr. Ma Zhaoxu, vice minister of foreign affairs

Chairperson:

Mr. Chen Wenjun, spokesperson of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee

Date:

Sept. 29, 2022

Chen Wenjun:

Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. Welcome to this press conference held by the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee. Today, we are holding the 36th press conference under the theme of "China in the past decade" to brief you on China's diplomacy in the new era. We have invited Mr. Guo Yezhou, vice minister of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee (IDCPC), and Mr. Ma Zhaoxu, vice minister of foreign affairs. They will also take your questions.

Now, let's give the floor to Mr. Guo for his introduction.

Guo Yezhou:

Friends from the media, it is a great pleasure to brief you on the Party's external work in the new era over the past decade.

The CPC's external work is a cause of the whole Party. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, General Secretary Xi Jinping has made a series of important expositions on major theoretical and practical issues regarding the Party's external work, including its definition, purpose, content, methods and actors, providing fundamental principles and guidance for the Party's external work in the new era. Under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, historic achievements have been made in the Party's external work featuring high-quality development. The international prestige of General Secretary Xi Jinping has been continually growing, the global influence of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era has increased steadily, the Party's international circle of friends has kept expanding, and historic changes have taken place in the relationship between the CPC and the world.

Over the past decade, we have been committed to serving the major diplomatic agenda of General Secretary Xi Jinping and taken concrete actions to support the "two establishments" (the establishment of both Comrade Xi Jinping's core position on the Party Central Committee and in the Party as a whole and the guiding role of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era) and to ensure the "two upholds" (upholding General Secretary Xi Jinping's core position on the CPC Central Committee and in the Party as a whole, and upholding the Central Committee's authority and its centralized, unified leadership).

Global events involving political parties have been held, including the CPC in Dialogue with World Political Parties High-Level Meeting, and the CPC and World Political Parties Summit. General Secretary Xi Jinping delivered keynote speeches, charting the course for the trend of the times and human progress. Leaders of foreign political parties said the speeches helped them see the future of both China and the world. We have made every effort to facilitate top-level exchanges between General Secretary Xi Jinping and leaders of other socialist countries including the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), Vietnam, Laos and Cuba. Such exchanges have played a leading role in the development of China's relations with these countries. We have held a series of events, including the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Political Parties Forum, the SCO People's Forum, and the BRICS Political Parties, Think Tanks and Civil Society Organizations Forum. These have proven to be successful practices in serving General Secretary Xi Jinping's major diplomatic agenda, improving relevant cooperation mechanisms, and boosting the momentum of cooperation.

Over the past decade, we have been committed to telling the CPC's stories thoroughly and innovatively. We have organized thematic briefings following the 18th and 19th CPC national congresses and the plenary sessions of the 18th and 19th CPC central committees. Dozens of delegations have been sent to nearly 100 countries and regions at their invitation and communicated face-to-face with more than 10,000 political party leaders and prominent figures during over 500 briefings. In response to the interest of foreign political parties, we have offered in-depth introductions to the four volumes of "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China." Many political party leaders have regarded the books as important sources of references for their work and asked for a set of the books for each senior official in their parties. In collaboration with CPC committees of relevant provinces and equivalent administrative units, we have held 14 briefings under the theme of "Stories of CPC — Achievements in Practicing Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era" to elaborate on the new practices and progress in the CPC's state governance. We have invited more than 600 foreign guests to experience firsthand the standing committee meetings of CPC committees at city- and county-levels and activities of Party organizations at the primary level. We have also livestreamed the standing committee meetings of CPC committees at the county-level and villagers' congresses for viewers around the world. International participants have commented that the meetings are truly results-oriented and represent down-to-earth forms of democracy.

Over the past 10 years, we continued to make courageous and efficient efforts that brought great results and safeguarded national sovereignty, security, and development interests with firm resolve. The Party's external work has been conducted conscientiously and responsibly, especially when involving the core interests and major concerns of China. Plenty of foreign political parties, non-governmental organizations, and people with vision, highly agreeing with China's relative stances, have formed a potent voice being spoken in defense of justice. As the CPC celebrated its centenary, more than 600 political parties and political organizations sent us more than 1,500 congratulatory messages or letters to mark the grand event together. We innovated an approach for boosting exchanges through the involvement of political parties. Leading officials of local Party committees have led nearly 100 batches of Party delegations for overseas trips, facilitating pragmatic external cooperation and the construction of the new development paradigm.

Over the past 10 years, we continued to expand the international circle of friends of the Party through genuine communication and exchanges. We maintained contact with more than 600 political parties and political organizations and proactively participated in multilateral dialogues between political parties within the region and beyond. We made efforts to create a new pattern of international relations by promoting a new model of relationship between political parties, and strived to improve the global partnership network through a cemented global partnership network of political parties. Some political party leaders revisited the IDCPC after assuming the office of a country's president, prime minister, or other important positions, saying it felt like reuniting with siblings or returning home. We carried out political party diplomacy, public diplomacy, and people-to-people diplomacy at the same time. By hosting dialogues for mutual learning among civilizations and international academic exchanges, we enabled China's social organizations and think tanks to communicate with a wider world.

Over the past 10 years, we strived to build a community with a shared future for mankind through collective will, effort, and wisdom. The CPC has always seen the development of China as part of the development of the entire human society and closely linked the destiny of the country with the destiny of the world. We willingly sent out letters to foreign political party leaders to explain China's practice in COVID-19 prevention and control and the lessons learned, and provided solutions to the prevention and control and the diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19. We also provided medical supplies and technical assistance as best as we could to foreign political parties and political dignitaries as well as international organizations of political parties when they needed them. We built a mutual consultation mechanism for political parties from Belt and Road Initiative signatories and established and perfected the Silk Road Think Tank Association and the Silk Road NGO Cooperation Network. We helped deepen policy exchanges and people-to-people bonds and made continued efforts to build consensus on promoting high-quality development through the Belt and Road cooperation. We hosted an exchange activity to share how the international community pursued the Global Development Initiative proposed by General Secretary Xi Jinping and organized events to celebrate the International Day of Peace so as to advance the Global Development Initiative and the Global Security Initiative. Together with political parties from across the world, we uphold the common values of mankind and contribute our wisdom and strength in building a better world.

Facing a new era and new journey, the Party shoulders major responsibilities and has a lofty mission to perform in conducting its external work. This is a glorious mission with huge potential to fulfill and great results to achieve. This is all I want to say. Thank you.

Chen Wenjun:

Thanks to Mr. Guo. Now Mr. Ma will brief us.