When Basma Lachkar clinched the bronze medal in the women's taijiquan-taijijian combined event at the 20th Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya in September 2026, she brought home the only medal won by Brunei Darussalam at the Games.
The significance of her achievement lies not just in the medal but in its origin: a girl of Moroccan and Bruneian descent excelling in a discipline deeply rooted in Chinese philosophy. Wushu, in this instance, was doing what cultural exchange does best.
Lachkar's journey began at Chung Hwa Middle School in Brunei's capital, where she was introduced to wushu at the age of nine.
Dating back to 1918, it is the largest Chinese school in the country, offering a trilingual curriculum in Chinese, Malay and English that draws students from diverse ethnic groups — more than a quarter of whom are not ethnically Chinese.
It was here that Li Hui and Zhao Chunjie, the Chinese coaches of Brunei's national wushu team, discovered and nurtured her talent.
Supported by the royal family and government, these coaches developed a robust training program that led the national team to four consecutive Southeast Asian Games golds and Brunei's first World Games gold.
The Asian Games bronze medal is a testament to a long-standing relationship. In 1408, Sultan Abdul Majid Hassan of Boni traveled to Nanjing, where he passed away and was buried with royal honors. His tomb remains a protected heritage site. Six centuries later, the exchange between the two countries has been institutionalized: Bruneians can enter China visa-free for up to 30 days, and Chinese citizens can stay in Brunei for 14 days.
An increasing number of Bruneians are studying in China, while Chinese universities and vocational schools have partnered with Bruneian institutions to cultivate local talent.
Though these flows are modest in global terms, they form the fabric of a relationship that diplomats describe and travelers embody.
Ultimately, economic factors drive these interactions. Visas and scholarships facilitate travel, but they do not fund it. Richly endowed with oil and gas, Brunei has built enormous wealth on petroleum. As a founding member of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, it has actively engaged in regional economic cooperation since 1989.
Hosting the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting in 2000, Brunei leveraged its energy resources to promote regional development and deepen ties with economies such as China.
Since the establishment of diplomatic ties, the two countries have transcended differences in national conditions and social systems, built a strategic cooperative partnership, and steadily deepened political mutual trust.
Brunei's need to diversify its economy added substance to the relationship. The government launched Brunei Vision 2035 in 2007, focusing on five priority sectors: downstream oil and gas, food, tourism, information and communications technology, and services.
China, now Brunei's largest source of foreign investment, plays a pivotal role in the largest-ever FDI project in downstream petrochemicals and is the second-largest source of tourists.
For Brunei, diversification means expanding beyond energy, with China supplying what a small economy cannot generate alone: capital for downstream industries, technology for the digital sector, and an enormous market within a few hours' flight.
Brunei was also among the first to ratify the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, which came into effect on Jan 1, 2022, establishing the world's largest free trade zone by population, economic and trade volume, and development potential.
A new dimension of this partnership is aviation. On Sept 29, Shenzhen Airlines flight ZH171 inaugurated the first direct passenger service from the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to Brunei. Shenzhen Airport now offers direct flights to 16 APEC economies, fostering trust through increased connectivity.
The timing is fortuitous. In 2026, China hosts APEC for the third time, expanding its agenda with each hosting — from trade facilitation in Shanghai in 2001 to connectivity in Beijing in 2014, and now to shared prosperity in Shenzhen.
Under the theme "Building an Asia-Pacific Community to Prosper Together", China and Brunei are advancing cooperation in artificial intelligence, the digital economy, infrastructure, clean energy, downstream oil and gas, agriculture and food security, facilitated by mutual visa-free arrangements. This enables more stories like Lachkar's to unfold.
Beyond wushu, the China-Brunei friendship rests on three pillars.
First, cultural exchange supplies the resonance: a Bruneian girl masters an art rooted in Chinese philosophy, and two societies discover they can absorb each other's traditions — and that the bond is natural, not merely strategic.
Second, the movement of people builds trust: every tourist, student, skilled worker and athlete transforms the interactions into lasting bonds. Trust grows face to face; it cannot be decreed, nor purchased.
Third, economic cooperation provides momentum: investment, trade and joint projects give the relationship its productive weight.
Each pillar needs the other two. Cultural resonance without mobility remains symbolic; mobility without economic support is unsustainable; economic ties without culture lose significance.
A sultan who sailed to Nanjing in 1408 and a schoolgirl who medaled in Aichi-Nagoya six centuries later are, in this sense, carriers of the same message.
As the Asia-Pacific gathers under China's APEC chairmanship, the China-Brunei example offers a modest lesson: prosperity shared is prosperity sustained, and the strongest partnerships are those in which peoples, not just governments, keep moving toward each other.
This lesson extends well beyond these two countries: it applies wherever economies seek collaboration across differences in size and systems.
The author is an assistant professor at the Research School for Southeast Asian Studies, Xiamen University.
The views don't necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
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