The Great Wall of China, a symbol of China’s historical heritage and former glory.
ALTHOUGH China is governed by a powerful central government, controlled by the Communist Party of China (CPC), it has actually adopted the best systems from all over the world — Europe, the US, Australia, New Zealand and even Malaysia for instance — to achieve self-reliance in looking after its huge 1.3 billion population.
According to Chinese Consul General in Kuching Liu Qian, embracing such systems is essential to espouse an ‘independent’
policy that ensures China remains self-contained and in charge of its own destiny.
“After the founding of the new China, the most successful policy that we have is the ‘independent’ policy — which means we must be independent in all aspects of nationhood. We cannot rely on anybody and must do things by ourselves. We have to be self-reliant in all respects,” he said.
“The CPC is very strong and knows what the people want. It is now starting to implement the 13th Five-Year Plan which is well accepted even at Oxford when we held our seminars there.
“The plans we have are known to the people. Everybody knows the direction — our goals and targets. We will do the utmost to reach them. If not, then we have to explain to the people.
“When mapping plans, we engage thousands of experts to discuss policies and decisions before obtaining approval of the higher authorities from the central government. After that, the different agencies will draw up their own plans to meet the goals and targets set.”
Liu said it was most important to ensure continuity in policy.
“In some countries when a new government takes over, it draws up its own plans. When there is a change in government, the plans also change. So there is no continuity.
“Too much politics and nobody cares about the policies implemented earlier. But where our country is concerned, we have been quite good in tackling major issues like corruption and money politics, as well as in enhancing the people’s life,” Liu said during his recent official call on The Borneo Post.
The National Museum of China in Beijing.
Leaders from grassroots
He attributed China’s success over the last three decades to its capable leaders.
“All our leaders are from the grassroots, chosen from the best of the best. In some countries, the leaders are graduates from Oxford and Yale. Then, they join politics and get elected. But they do not actually understand society at large.
“From ancient Chinese writings, if you want to be the prime minister, you must come from being a governor. You must have the ability to run a province before you can run the Central Government. In the military, they say to be a general, you must start as a soldier.
“You take it step by step. First a solider, then a general where you command the whole army. So the understanding of local issues for the Chinese leaders is very important.”
Liu disclosed that China’s current president Xi Xinping started his political career as a long-serving head of a county.
“He dealt with farmers everyday for seven years. So he’s very experienced. When he talks, he is both practical and philosophical because we are guided by Confucian ideas.
“We have 5,000 years of history. We learned from our forefathers as well as the best from countries such as Europe, the US, Australia, New Zealand and Malaysia. We learned the essence of governments and combined it to get the best results. That’s our thinking. We don’t want to copy. We want to be innovative.”
On China’s relationships with its neighbours, Liu assured his country had no intentions to expand and be aggressive.
“We have specific timeframes for our development. We don’t want to have any problems with our neighbours. Not only do we not want problems, we, in fact, have a policy to make our neighbours prosperous and successful. We want to contribute more according to our capabilities.”
A typical courtyard in one of the ‘siheyuans’ at the Hutong area, Beijing.
Strategic level
On China’s special relationship with Malaysia, Liu said it had reached a strategic level with the recent visit of President Xi to Kuala Lumpur.
“China’s total trade with Malaysia is US$100 billion, third in Asia, after Japan and South Korea, and the top in Asean.”
Liu said there were now some 10,000 Chinese students in Malaysia and 6,000 Malaysian students in China.
In fact, he noted, the local business community were happy with the graduates from China, described by the former as highly capable and disciplined apart from having the advantage of bi-lingualism, being fluent in both Mandarin and English.
The Chinese envoy who has been serving in Sarawak for the past two years, said his main focus would be on government-to-government (G to G) relationships.
“My focus is on G to G, local government to local government with the signing of two Letter of Intents (LoIs) between Sarawak and Yunnan and Sarawak and Fujian. This is a first for Sarawak.
“Basically, it focuses on agriculture, trade, science, education and culture. The governments facilitate business co-operation. Business is business but government can be the bridge.”
He said Yunnan and Sarawak had great similarities such as having a diverse cultural heritage with various ethnic groups.
“There are many cultural similarities, especially the Bamboo Dance. So the ‘1 Belt 1 Road’ initiative by China is very important in terms of agriculture, mining and herbal medicine. Yunnan has been called the Kingdom of biodiversity (flora and fauna) — similar to Sarawak. China’s scientists have done research on its biodiversity.
“So there is a need for better collaboration in this field. Cooperation also means to paten the products from the research. Our focus will be on the 21st century because of the people’s expectation for a better quality of life. So the hi-tech cooperation between Yunnan and Sarawak is really crucial.”
On China’s ability to feed its huge population, Liu revealed his country had embarked on cultivating the high-yielding ‘Super Rice’ and successfully introduced it to Java, Indonesia.
“When you are the leader of China, you have to think about food for some 1.3 billion people. You also have to think about transportation, education and health care.”
Promoting world peace
On peacekeeping, the Chinese Consul General said China was committed to a greater role of promoting world peace, adding: “Recently, our president visited the US and the UN and announced China will contribute more towards peace-keeping efforts.”
Liu also emphasised that in terms of heath care, China had been sending doctors to African and Pacific countries since the 1960’s.
“These doctors have contributed immensely to the well-being of the local people. I have worked in Gambia and seen our doctors working in the countryside. Now, which country has sent its doctors to work in the countryside? And the money they receive is very small because the countries where they serve are not well-off.
“So they have to put up with a lot of hardships. But we have continued to do that for the past 60 years, involving more than 20,000 doctors. In Vanuatu, we have 20 doctors working in two teams even for a small country of about 200,000 people.”
Meanwhile, Liu pointed out that foreign media liked to sensationalise things about China.
“In the 60’s, there was nothing good written about China but now because we have adopted a good system, 60 per cent of their writings are saying good things about China.”
He also recommended that The Borneo Post collaborate with China’s Xinhua News Agency for better understanding of China’s position in the current context.
“That’s why I recently arranged for local journalists to make a trip to China. If they could see and understand China better, then it would easier for them to write about China.”
Eight journalists from Sarawak were invited to visit China from September 9 to 20 to explore its rich cultural and historical heritage. The group visited Beijing, Xian and Kunming.
Before his transfer here, Liu has served in countries such as Africa, the US and Indonesia.
Portrait of Mao Zedong, the founder of modern China, being displayed at Tiananmen Square in Beijing.