Cape Town, 16 November 2010
It gives me great pleasure to pay an official visit to South Africa, the beautiful "rainbow country", at the invitation of Deputy President of the Republic of South Africa Kgalema Motlanthe. On behalf of the Chinese people, I wish to extend cordial greetings and best wishes to the people of South Africa.
Since the birth of new South Africa, it has made remarkable achievements in racial reconciliation and social and economic development and played an important role in promoting peace development and cooperation in the region and beyond. South Africa successfully hosted the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the first ever in Africa, bring honor to this continent.
Despite the geographical distance between China and South Africa, the two peoples have enjoyed time-honored friendship. Since the establishment of diplomatic ties twelve years ago, friendship and cooperation between China and South Africa in all fields have expanded rapidly in an all-round way and bilateral relations have kept scaling new heights. During President Jacob Zuma's state visit to China last August, the two countries signed the Beijing Declaration on the Establishment of a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between the People's Republic of China and the Republic of South Africa, which lifted China-South Africa relations to a new high in history.
I look forward to having in-depth exchange of views with South African leaders on bilateral relations and other issues of shared interest and co-chairing with Deputy President Motlante the Fourth Plenary Session of the Bi-National Commission. I also hope to get insights on South Africa's economic and social progress and learn from its success in development. I believe my visit will deepen the friendship, expand the consensus and cooperation, promote the common development and advance the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and South Africa.