Tanzania and China Are All-Weather Friends
October 1st, 2023 marks a significant milestone in the history of China and its people, as well as in the relations between our two great nations. I bring with me fraternal greetings from Her Excellency Dr. Samia Suluhu Hassan, President of the United Republic of Tanzania, the Government and the people of the United Republic of Tanzania (URT), to the Government and People’s Republic of China (PRC). We bring to you our warmest and heartfelt congratulations and best wishes on this historical occasion.
Apart from joining you and the Chinese people around the world to celebrate this historic day, the occasion of the 74th anniversary of the founding of the PRC provides us with another opportunity to reflect on our partnership, and reaffirm our commitment to further strengthening the close and historical ties of friendship and cooperation that exist between our two countries and peoples. It is in this spirit, H.E. President Samia Suluhu Hassan appreciates the good and cordial relations that exist between our two countries, and commends the commitment of H.E. Xi Jinping, President of the PRC in strengthening the relations and cooperation between our two countries. H.E. President Samia Suluhu Hassan, wishes to assure H.E. President Xi Jinping of her personal commitment to strengthen these relations even further.
China’s journey since its founding has been remarkable. Over the past 74 years, the PRC has undergone an incredible transformation, rising from a poor and fragile country, to one of the world’s leading economies and a global superpower. Over the years. China’s rapid economic growth has made tremendous contribution to global prosperity, economic stability and recovery. China’s contribution to world poverty reduction cannot be ignored. At the international level, we commend China’s commitment to multilateralism, and its active role in international affairs which has been instrumental in addressing global challenges such as climate change, poverty alleviation, and peacekeeping.
China’s remarkable journey is a testament of resilience, determination, vision, leadership, and hard work and an unwavering commitment to development and progress by the Chinese people, and it is a source of inspiration for all of us. It serves as a powerful reminder of what can be accomplished by countries when we work together towards a common goal.
I wish to take this opportunity to commend the Government and the Communist Party of China (CPC) for the tremendous progress achieved in these 74 years. The CPC and the Government have led China’s path to modernization, achieving rapid economic growth as well as long-term social stability.
The URT and the PRC share a long history of friendship and cooperation. We have always summarized our relations into one sentence “Tanzania and China are ‘all-weather friends’”, showing how our nations have stood side by side over the years. Our friendship and partnership is built on the solid foundation and friendship between the founding fathers of our two nations: the late Chairman Mao Tse Tung and Premier Zhou Enlai on the Chinese side and the late President Julius Kambarage Nyerere and the late Abeid Amani Karume on the Tanzanian side. It is out of that strong foundation, generations and generations of our two nations have attached much weight on unity and solidarity. As a result, these fraternal relations have been nurtured, consolidated and advanced by successive generations of leaders in our two nations who followed after them.
We are celebrating the 74th anniversary of PRC’s founding less than a year since H.E. President Samia Suluhu Hassan made historic state visit to China in November 2022, at the invitation of H.E. President Xi Jiping. President Samia is the first African Head of State to visit China after the 20th National Congress of the CPC. This historical visit has solidified our partnership and deepened our understanding of each other’s priorities and challenges. It provided an avenue for President Xi Jinping and President Samia Suluhu Hassan to reiterate their unwavering commitment to strengthen our bilateral relations to Comprehensive Strategic Cooperative Partnership and agreed to advance Tanzania-China cooperation across the board.
As we celebrate the founding of the PRC, we also reflect on the deepening ties between our two countries. Our bilateral relations have grown from strength to strength over the years, encompassing various areas such as agriculture, health, education, defence, trade, investment, culture, and people-to-people exchanges, infrastructure notably Tazara Railway, which is a symbol of solidarity between African nations and China.
This year, we are celebrating the 10th anniversary of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) which was initiated in 2013. The Initiative, which was introduced to enhance infrastructure connectivity and facilitate trade and investment, has provided new opportunities for cooperation between our two nations. Tanzania fully supports this ambitious project, and reiterate its commitment to continue supporting the Initiative and participate in its relevant activities including the Third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation which will be held next month in Beijing. We believe that through enhanced infrastructure connectivity and increased trade, we can unlock the full potential of our economies and improve the lives of our people.
We are also looking forward to strengthen our economic cooperation which has become a cornerstone of the Tanzania-China bilateral relationship. Over the years, this cooperation has made China to emerge as one of Tanzania’s largest trading partners and foreign investors, thus contributing immensely to the socio-economic development of our countries.
As we celebrate the 74th anniversary of the founding of the PRC, it is also worth noting that this year is also an important year in the history of Tanzania and China, as it marks the 10th year since H.E. President Xi Jinping made his maiden visit to Africa, and Tanzania being his first port of call. It is through that visit H.E. President Xi Jinping put forth the principle of sincerity, real results, amity and good faith to guide China-Africa cooperation. A decade later, these defining features of China-Africa relations have successfully guided China-Tanzania cooperation and I believe will continue for decades to come.
Not forgetting, next year Tanzania and China will celebrate another historic milestone, 60th Anniversary of Diplomatic Relations. We certainly look forward to this grand celebration to mark our long cordial relations.
As we look to the future, we are confident that our bilateral relations will continue to flourish and deepen. We will continue forging strategic partnership, deepen and expanding our relations and partnership far and wide on all fronts; enhance the friendship and trust between our two peoples; work together to promote regional and global peace, stability, and prosperity; and we will continue to learn from each other’s experiences and expertise to ensure our bilateral cooperation in all fields at all levels records great headway.
I want to make a small note, as you know my personal experience on people-to-people connection between our two countries. Some of you would know that for the two years between 2019 and 2021, I was out of Government and I took the time to travel. I travelled extensively in China in November 2019 for two weeks. I took planes, I took trains, I drove through the hinterland and rural China, trying to understand what make China move in the direction that is moving in terms of prosperity, and I was alone, there was no protocol and I chose to do that so as to learn the engagement of people to people. I stayed in villages. I must say that I was very warmly welcomed by the Chinese people in the places that I went, and even in rural China when you say you are from Tanzania, they immediately recognize Tanzania and two things come to mind for them: one is Julius Nyerere, another is Tazara, as the symbol for cooperation.
So I gained an appreciation of how the Chinese people across the entire country are aware of the long-term partnership between our two countries and peoples that has lasted for a long time. When I walked into these grounds, I had the privilege to look at the exhibition there about the medical missions over the many years that have been coming to our country from China and you can see the commitment of the Chinese government and people to work with us, to be with us, in our journey to prosperity and development. So this is appreciated, and we also as I mentioned inspired by China’s focus on rural development and human capital development.
We talk about the sustainable development goals, and the success of the millennium development goals (MDGs) in moving people out of poverty to prosperity, but we all know that the largest movement of people from poverty to prosperity happened in China. China’s contribution to the success of MDGs cannot be ignored. And this is the fact that we all must always remember.
So, we celebrate as Tanzanians, friendship that we share with the Chinese people who live amidst our people and earn a living here in Tanzania. Tanzania is a welcoming country and we appreciate their contribution to our day-to-day life.
(This article is an excerpt of the speech delivered by the author at the reception in celebration of the 74th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China held at the Chinese Embassy in Tanzania on Sept. 26, 2023.)
