Chinese New Year celebrations: Mutually beneficial projects to boost ties: Chinese envoy

ISLAMABAD: Charge d’affaires of Chinese embassy, Shi Yuanqiang on Sunday said that mutually beneficial cooperation in various fields will further strengthen the China-Pakistan strategic relationship.

Addressing the Chinese New Year celebration event, the Charge d’affaires of Chinese embassy said that mutual cooperation in various areas has advanced with high quality, laying a solid foundation for the in-depth development of China-Pakistan relations.

He said that in the year 2024, high-level exchanges between China and Pakistan were frequent, with the successful mutual visits of the two countries’ Prime Ministers. He added the construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor has continued to deepen and solidify, evolving from the layout to a brand new phase of “upgraded version.”

He said that the vast number of Chinese compatriots in Pakistan have been proactive and accomplished, striving for excellence in all walks of life, actively supporting and participating in various construction activities, contributing their wisdom and strength to the inheritance and deepening of the special friendship between China and Pakistan, and promoting mutually beneficial cooperation between the two nations.

He added at the beginning of the spring in 2025, at the invitation of President Xi Jinping, President of Pakistan paid a state visit to China from February 4th to 8th, achieving fruitful results.

This visit coincided with the significant year marking the 10th anniversary of President Xi Jinping’s historic visit to Pakistan in 2015 and also at the joyous occasion of the Chinese people celebrating the Spring Festival, he added. “It holds great significance for outlining the prospects of all-weather strategic cooperation between China and Pakistan and for steering the bilateral relations amidst the profound changes of the century.”

He said, “Looking ahead to the New Year, we will continue to comprehensively advance the construction of a strong nation and the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation through Chinese modernization, persistently promote high-quality development and high-level opening-up, and fully accomplish the goals and tasks set out in the 14th Five-Year Plan.”

He said that the friendship between China and Pakistan will embrace a brighter future from a new starting point.

“We hope that our compatriots will continue to leverage their strengths, strive with determination, and serve as bridges of China-Pakistan friendship and narrators of China’s stories, enabling the Pakistani people to fully understand a real, objective, and multidimensional China.”

He added these compatriots will be builders of China-Pakistan relations, further advancing exchanges and cooperation between the two countries in the fields of economy and trade, science and technology, culture, and more, and to be inheritors of the development of overseas Chinese communities, continuously enhancing the cohesion and centripetal force of Chinese compatriots in Pakistan.

He said that the Chinese New Year, the most ancient, richly connotative, and widely influential traditional festival of the Chinese nation, is also a significant moment for every Chinese people to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new, to reunite with family, and to share joy.

He extended New Year greetings to the overseas Chinese, employees of Chinese enterprises, and Chinese students in Pakistan. “I wish you all good fortune in the Year of the Snake, good health, family happiness, and success in all your endeavours.”