(20 October 2022)

Ladies and gentlemen,

Good afternoon. I wish to thank the Diplomatic Development Initiative for this opportunity to share with you China’s foreign policy on Africa and especially China’s foreign policy on and friendly cooperation with Liberia. We highly commend the important role this training program plays in enlightening and enhancing emerging academics and professionals in the area of diplomacy and sustainable development, and wish you every success.

I will briefly touch on China’s overall foreign policy before turning to China’s foreign policy on and cooperation with Africa and Liberia.

First, on China’s foreign policy

At the outset, I would like to take this opportunity to briefly share with you some information about the on-going 20^th National Congress of the Communist Party of China(CPC) which will be a milestone for the Chinese nation’s rejuvenation. The Congress opened in Beijing on October 16 and will conclude on October 22. CPC Central Committee General Secretary Xi Jinping who is also President of the People’s Republic of China(PRC) delivered a work report to the Congress. While summing up the work over the past 5 years since the 19^th Congress and the achievements made in the New Era over the past 10 years since the 18^th Congress, General Secretary Xi has set out the main tasks of CPC in the coming 5 years.

Here are some of the keys messages from the Report. China will accelerate creating a new development pattern and pursue high-quality development. We will advance whole-process people's democracy and ensure that the people run the country. We will build cultural confidence and strength and secure new successes in developing socialist culture. We will improve the people's well-being and raise quality of life. We will pursue green development and promote harmony between humanity and nature. We will exercise law-based governance on all fronts and advance the rule of law in China. We will invigorate China through science and education and develop a strong workforce for the modernization drive. We will modernize China's national security system and capacity and safeguard national security and social stability. We will promote world peace and development and build a human community with a shared future. China will achieve the centenary goal of the People's Liberation Army and further modernize national defense and the military. We will uphold and improve the policy of One Country, Two Systems and promote national reunification. We will exercise full and rigorous self-governance and advance the great new project of Party building in the New Era.

China’s foreign policy is characterized by a commitment to equality of all countries regardless of their size. China pursues an independent foreign policy of peace and holds high the banner of peace, development and win-win cooperation. The Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, advocated by China together with India and Myanmar in the early 1950s are the basic norms for China to handle relations with all countries.

The Five Principles are: mutual respect for territorial sovereignty, non-aggression, non-interference in each other's internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence.

China actively participates in multilateral diplomacy, maintains and strengthens the authority and leading role of the United Nations and the Security Council, and strives to play a constructive role in international affairs.

Over the past 10 years after entering the new era, China has adopted a major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics. It takes building a community with a shared future for mankind as its core value orientation, takes the "Belt and Road"