Chinese vice premier Sun Chunlan in SA to bolster ties

President Cyril Ramaphosa has heaped praise on the special South Africa-China relations and promised to strengthen their bond in global affairs through various platforms including BRICS.

President Ramaphosa’s remarks follow a private one-on-one meeting with the visiting Chinese Vice Premier Sun Chunlan in Cape Town.

Vice Premier Sun is currently on an official state visit to the country for the 3^rd SA-China high-level People-to-People Exchange Mechanism (PPEM).

This week’s PPEM was hosted in collaboration with the Chinese Embassy to SA, and the main objective “is to deepen mutual understanding between Pretoria and Beijing”.

The visit by Vice Premier Sun also seeks “to enhance cooperation in the areas of culture, education, international relations, communication, health, Science and Technology, sport, tourism, women affairs and youth”, the Presidency said.

In a statement released after the meeting that took place yesterday, the Presidency explained that “through mechanisms such as BRICS”, the ties would be strengthened in order to “enable more ordinary people from both countries to engage in bilateral relations”.

The Presidency further said: “President Ramaphosa asked Vice Premier Sun to convey his sincere greetings to President Xi Jinping and thanked China for extending a helping hand to South Africa in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic. This fully demonstrated the profound friendship between the peoples of the two countries,” President Ramaphosa said.

President Ramaphosa also emphasised that “SA-China relationship is of special and strategic significance. Both sides should work to enrich the content of bilateral relations, consolidate political mutual trust and to expand trade and investment,” he added.

Soon afterwards, President Ramaphosa flew out of the country to attend the AU Heads of State meeting in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

But before then Vice Premier Sun wasted no time conveying President Xi’s “warm greetings and good wishes” to his SA counterpart.

“China and SA,” Vice Premier Sun said, “share a special friendship of comradeship plus brotherhood.”

She said with the two presidents keeping close communication – “and pointing the direction for bilateral relations” – China-SA comprehensive strategic partnership “enjoys strong momentum of development, with deepening political mutual trust, fruitful practical cooperation, and productive people-to-people exchanges and sound communication and cooperation at multilateral level”.

China has for over a decade been SA’s upper most trading partner, and the people-to-people diplomatic relations have also been on the rise particularly since China’s strong support for SA to join the BRICS bloc more than a decade ago.

This year, SA is scheduled to take over rotating Chair of BRICS – a group of influential emerging economies comprising Brazil, Russia, India and China.

The significance of SA’s occupation of BRICS powerful seat is made more crucial in the light of the growing number of countries that has applied to join BRICS. It is therefore under SA’s Presidency that BRICS could be expanded in 2023. Among the countries that have indicated a willingness to join BRICS are Pakistan, Iran, Egypt, Algeria and Argentina.

Vice Premier Sun said: “China is ready to take the opportunity of celebrating the 25^th anniversary of diplomatic ties with SA to expand face-to-face exchanges in various fields and at various levels and strengthen cooperation with SA in education and other fields.” She added: “China fully supports SA’s BRICS presidency and stands ready to further enhance cultural exchanges and mutual learning among BRICS countries so as to consolidate popular support for BRICS cooperation.”

On the same day that Vice Premier Sun met with President Ramaphosa, she co-chaired the 3^rd PPEM with SA’s Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture, Nathi Mthethwa.

After the meeting described as “extremely fruitful” by both sides, SA and China signed off on the minutes of the meeting.” The two sides also “jointly witnessed the signing of three cooperation agreements in the fields of education, science and technology, and health”.

Vice Premier Sun is on a week-long visit to SA at the invitation of President Ramaphosa, who shares equal passion for tackling the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Epidemic information should always be released in time,” Vice Premier Sun insists.