China held a grand gathering to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the country’s reform and opening-up on Dec. 18, 2018. President Xi Jinping attended the event and delivered an important speech. Over these days, Chinese people have been celebrating the anniversary of this national policy. 

In the past four decades, China has made remarkable achievements, changed a lot, improved people’s living standards, and blazed an unprecedented path of economic and social development.

I have worked in China for over a third of the past 40 years, witnessing the country’s amazing development achievements in reform and opening-up. Back to 40 years ago, if I were asked how China would become 20 years, 30 years or 40 years later, I certainly wouldn’t expect such dramatic changes. Maybe only a few people would expect that.

China has now become an engine of global growth and a leader in international trade. I am convinced that the country will continue to maintain a high economic growth rate. Even one percent of growth is remarkable, given the country’s large size of economy.

I also believe that China’s economy will influence the process of global economic development to a great extent, and reform and opening-up is of special significance to the country and the world.

We are very glad to see the positive development momentum of Russia-China relations. 2018 and 2019 mark the years of sub-national cooperation and exchanges between our two countries. International events including the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, the Eastern Economic Forum, the Boao Forum for Asia and the China International Import Expo have provided stable cooperation platforms for our two countries.

Russia-China trade volume in 2018 is expected to exceed the goal of $ 100 billion. The two countries both received 1.5 million tourists from each other. Exchanges in education also witnessed rapid development. By 2020, Russia and China are expected to realize the target set in 2013 of exchanging 100,000 students.

The two countries have maintained close communication and coordination on multilateral platforms including the United Nations, the G20, BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Bilateral relations act as a stabilizer in the world. I firmly believe that Russia-China relations will continue to advance in an all-round way, and benefit the two countries and people of the world.

Andrey Denisov is the Russian ambassador to China. Interviewed and edited by People’s Daily journalists Zhang Guangzheng and Peng Min