Contributions of distinction

Editor's Note: Six people were awarded the Friendship Medal, the highest honor China confers to foreigners, for their support of China's socialist modernization, promoting exchanges and cooperation between China and foreign countries and safeguarding world peace. On the eve of New China's 70th birthday celebrations, China Daily highlights the contributions of the award-winners to the friendly relationships between China and their respective countries.

Raul Castro Ruz

Former Cuban president Raul Castro Ruz has strong connections with China and he is well known as an old friend of the Chinese people.

The 88-year-old played a significant role in the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries, and also made great contributions to enhancing the bond of brotherhood between the parties and governments of Cuba and China - both socialist countries who call each other comrades.

According to Xinhua News Agency, when a press delegation visited Cuba in July 1959, Castro met with the members as the nation's defense minister. The meeting kicked off the process of consultations between Cuba and China and the forging of their diplomatic relations.

In September 1960, Cuba became the first country in the western hemisphere to form diplomatic relationship with the People's Republic of China. Ever since then, the sound development of their friendly relations and pragmatic cooperation has gained momentum and delivered fruitful results. China is now Cuba's second largest trade partner and Cuba is China's top trade partner in the Caribbean region.

Castro made his first trip to China in November 1997, when he was the first vice-president of the Council of State and the Council of Ministers.

Political counselor in the Chinese Embassy in Cuba at the time, Liu Yuqin, told Xinhua that, during his visit, he spent 18 days touring various Chinese cities, including Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, learning of the nation's reform and opening-up and about its development experiences.

In 2008, Castro was officially elected president of the State Council. In April 2011, the sixth congress of the Communist Party of Cuba elected Castro as first secretary of the party. He gained reelection in April 2016 at the seventh Cuban party congress, and in April 2018, he completed his two terms as Cuba's president.

Castro also visited China in April 2005 and July 2012, and greatly promoted high-level exchanges, mutual political trust, economic and trade connections as well as the coordination of international affairs between Cuba and China.

Castro can also sing the popular Chinese song, Dong Fang Hong or The East is Red. When then president Hu Jintao visited Cuba in November 2008, Castro accompanied Hu in meeting with Chinese students in Cuba and amazed them by singing the song, which tells of the evolution of new China and glorifies the progress toward the Communist victory.

When President Xi Jinping paid a state visit to Cuba in July 2014, Castro conferred the Jose Marti Medal upon Xi in recognition of his contribution to promoting bilateral ties.

Maha Chakri Sirindhorn

Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn of Thailand has been an envoy of China-Thailand friendship for the nearly four decades since she paid her first visit to China in 1981.

The trip, which brought her to cities including Beijing, Xi'an in Shaanxi province, Chengdu in Sichuan province and Kunming in Yunnan province, was later recorded in her travel journal Treading the Dragon Land, which was published in the same year.

Since then, Sirindhorn has set foot in almost all of the provinces and regions in China over the course of her nearly 50 visits to the country, and has published a dozen travel journals that have documented her trips, providing a vivid portrayal of China to the people of Thailand.

In 1997, the princess attended the handover ceremony for the return of Hong Kong. She later introduced this important moment to the Thai people in her book A Return to Motherland of China published in 1998.

The third child of the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej and Queen Sirikit, Sirindhorn gained an interest in Chinese history and literature at a very young age. She also learned mandarin with Chinese tutors in order to get a better understanding of China.

In 2001, she spent one month in China to take a language course at Peking University.

Now, she is a fluent mandarin speaker and has translated many Chinese contemporary and historical literary works into the Thai language.

Sirindhorn is also a strong supporter of the establishment of Confucius institutes in Thailand - pushing cooperation between her alma maters, Chulalongkorn University and Peking University, to open a Confucius Institute in the former.

Eventually opened in 2007, it is the first Confucius Institute jointly established and managed by both China and Thailand.

Thailand has the highest number of Confucius institutes and classrooms in Southeast Asia.

The princess has always held deep feelings for the Chinese people.

In 2009, one year after the Wenchuan earthquake, the princess went to the stricken area and donated 11 million yuan ($1.54 million) to help rebuild a primary school there.

In the same year, she was voted by Chinese internet users as one of the "Ten Best International Friends of China" for her contribution to cultural exchanges and friendly ties between the two countries.

"The friendship between China and Thailand can last for a long time," is what Sirindhorn has said in her poetry. Over the past four decades, her actions have spoken as loudly as her words.

Salim Ahmed Salim

Salim Ahmed Salim, former prime minister of Tanzania, has become the first African to be awarded the Friendship Medal.

Describing himself as "a very close friend" of the Chinese people, the 77-year-old led a group of African countries in support of China to successfully regain its seat at the United Nations in 1971, which had great significance both on China's development and to the world.

At the 26th UN General Assembly in 1971, China's bid to return to the organization was met with obstacles. Salim, however, who has been the permanent representative of Tanzania's delegation to the UN since 1970, made painstaking efforts on China's behalf and delivered a passionate speech in firm support of China. When the counting of the votes was done, he was so overjoyed at the result that he jumped up from his seat and waved his hands.

"Making a UN without China would be a big mistake for the times," he said. "Some African countries, Asian countries, and myself have done a lot of work to ensure that the means that were used to obstruct China will not succeed again."

Salim was deeply attracted by China when he visited the country for the first time at 21 years old. He was appointed as Tanzania's ambassador to China in 1969, and during his term of office, he did a lot of preparation work for the construction of the Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority, the China-aided project that links the landlocked copper town Kapiri Mposhi in Zambia and the Tanzanian port city of Dar es Salaam.

Salim is a famous Tanzanian politician and diplomat in the international arena and has held many important positions. He served as Secretary-General of the Organization of African Unity from 1989 to 2001 and oversaw the OAU's transformation into the African Union.

He is currently chairman of the Tanzania-China Friendship Promotion Association and has been dedicated to promoting the good relations between China and Africa.

"The friendship between China and Africa should move forward every day, because it is in the best interests of our people," he said, adding that he feels "at home" every time he visits China.

Wang Ke, Chinese ambassador to Tanzania, said that the Friendship Medal is not only a commendation of Salim's outstanding contribution to developing Sino-Tanzania relations, but also a full affirmation of the traditional friendship between the two countries.

Galina Kulikova

Born in 1935, 84-year-old Galina Kulikova is only the second Russian to be awarded the Friendship Medal after Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Kulikova, who is the first deputy chairperson of Russia-China Friendship Association - a position she was elected to in 1989 - started work to convey friendship between Soviet Union and China in 1957.

Although she reached the age of retirement 30 years ago, she still insists on working at the frontline of the Sino-Russian relationship.

"It is a great honor and I'm full of pride to receive the Friendship Medal. However, it is also a heavy responsibility," Kulikova tells China Daily.

"The medal is the highest honor China can bestow, but it's not only an acknowledgement of my work, but also an acknowledgement of the efforts made by the Russia-China Friendship Association, and the work of all my colleagues," she says.

Based on her abundant knowledge and experience of Sino-Russian relations, Kulikova wrote and published the book Russia and China: Public Diplomacy in 2012. The book collects many stories and photos that record precious moments between the Chinese and Russian people over the past 70 years.

"Mrs Kulikova is commonly known as 'the grandmother of the Russian-Chinese friendship'," says Oleg Timofeev, associate professor at the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia.

Timofeev said Kulikova is a brilliant champion in the development of Russian-Chinese relations. Since she was invited to work as a consultant in the Soviet-China Friendship Association in 1960, she has dedicated her life to the glorious service of building people-to-people relations between Russia and China.

"In the inner circle, and being a younger soul than many public intellectuals of other generations, she is now working unremittingly to communicate with high schools and university students, delivering her brilliant academic and personal experience in Sinology," Timofeev says.

Jean-Pierre Raffarin

An old friend of the Chinese people, former French prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin has long been committed to promoting friendship and all-around cooperation between China and France.

Born in August 1948, Raffarin served as French prime minister from 2002 to 2005 during Jacques Chirac's presidency, and has held such prominent positions as Senator of Vienne, Member of the European Parliament and Vice-President of the French Senate.

The elder statesman, now a special representative of the French Government to China and chairman of the annual French-Chinese seminar of the Comite France Chine, has been devoted to promoting bilateral exchanges in politics, economy and culture.

He has visited China many times, most notably in April 2003, when the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) plunged the country into an ocean of fear. Raffarin was the first Western leader to visit the SARS-afflicted China.

An advocate of the Belt and Road Initiative, Raffarin attended the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing twice.

He and his wife also co-authored a book, so that the young people in France can better learn about China and its people.

Acclaimed as a longtime China expert in French political circles, Raffarin has also been devoted to introducing China to Western people through his attendance at forums and in numerous media interviews.

He told Xinhua News Agency that he was "deeply touched and moved" by the honor of receiving the Friendship Medal, and he is "sincerely pleased" that his work to promote the friendship between the French and Chinese people has been recognized.

He wrote in an earlier column published by the People's Daily that he has witnessed China's rapid growth over the past four decades, having made his first visit to China in the 1970s.

He has seen China winning its battle against poverty, during the process of which, people on the streets switched from their drab, gray uniforms into colorful garments, and exchanged bicycles with cars.

He hailed China's growing influence in the world over the past 70 years. "As the world's second largest economy, China has exported its products everywhere across the globe. China's cultural influence is also expanding. In France, Chinese Spring Festival is becoming a nationwide holiday.

"I know China and I have strong emotional attachments to the Chinese people. They are both industrious and intelligent and are the most precious treasure China has. When they work hard and stay enterprising, all kinds of opportunities will arise."

Isabel Crook

Very few people can proclaim to have witnessed as large a portion of the changes China has experienced since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949 than 104-year-old Isabel Crook.

Despite the country being astoundingly vast and undergoing incredible and rapid change, Crook has borne witness to most of it and continues to do so.

She was born in 1915 to a Canadian missionary family in Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan province.

At the age of 23, Crook graduated from the University of Toronto in Canada with a master's degree in anthropology and began carrying out field research in rural parts of Sichuan province.

She became a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain after meeting her future husband, David Crook, in China in the early 1940s.

In 1947, Crook and her husband were warmly welcomed by the Communist Party of China to observe and study the revolutionary land reform taking place in the country.

"After the land reform, we were asked to stay and teach English, because the CPC leaders said they would begin setting up foreign relations, and would need people to speak very good English," Crook recalls.

The couple accepted the invitation and began teaching at a newly established foreign affairs school in 1948, which later became the Beijing Foreign Studies University, now China's top language school.

They were the first foreign teachers at the school and brought Western teaching methods and ideologies to the classroom. Her enthusiasm lasted for decades. The couple had many chances to leave, but chose to stay.

David Crook passed away in 2000 at the age of 90. Isabel Crook, however, still lives in the same third-floor apartment that she and her husband chose in 1955 because of its views across sprawling fields, now entirely engulfed by concrete and all the other trappings of modernization.

The 104-year-old is still leading a simple life in her small apartment, scattered with her pictures of Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai. She still admires the two leaders, and continues to believe in communism and the New China.

Contact the writers at caodesheng@chinadaily.com.cn

Xinhua contributed to this story.

(China Daily Global 09/30/2019 page15)