President salutes Rewi Alley as 'great soldier of internationalism'

President Xi Jinping has called on the International Committee for the Promotion of Chinese Industrial Cooperatives to continue international exchanges and to make new contributions to world peace and development, as the organization celebrates the 120th birthday of one of its founders.

In a letter to the organization and Beijing Bailie University, which was also founded by Rewi Alley (1897-1987), Xi lauded Alley as a "great soldier of internationalism and an old friend of the Chinese people".

Alley, also a famous social activist who helped build friendly relations between China and New Zealand, lived and worked in China for 60 years.