Former Tongan ambassador to China : China helps Pacific island countries enhance self-reliance

"China's development not only benefits its own people, but also has a positive impact on the world," Siamelie Latu, former Tongan ambassador to China and secretary-general of the Tonga-China Friendship Association, said recently in an interview with People's Daily in Nuku'alofa, capital of Tonga. 

China's reform and opening-up have put it on a path of rapid growth, and its successful experience is worth study by other countries, he noted. 

Latu visited China in 2000 for the first time and expanded his footprints in the countrywhen he served as Tongan ambassador to China from 2010 to 2015. He has gained comprehensive and profound insights on China's rise. 

"China has leapt from an underdeveloped agricultural country to the world's second-largest economy over the past 40-plus years, creating a miracle in human history," he said. 

He highlighted China's achievements in its anti-poverty fight. Since the start of China's reform and opening-up in 1978, the Chinese population lifted out of poverty accounted for more than 70 percent of the world's total during that period, according to the international poverty standard set by the World Bank.  

By the end of 2020, China had lifted all of its rural poor people out of poverty through eight years of arduous efforts, becoming the first developing country to achieve the poverty reduction target set in the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and contributing Chinese strength to the global poverty reduction campaign. 

Latu said that the strong leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) is the key to China's achievements. Without it, there would be no Chinese reform and opening-up, nor the Chinese path to modernization. 

In his view, the CPC integrated its five-year plans with a vision for long-term development, which helped maintain the coherence and stability of policies and ensured the implementation of many key projects related to the national economy and people's livelihoods. 

In 2022, Tonga suffered from severe natural disasters caused by volcanic eruptions and subsequent tsunamis. China, thousands of miles away, lent a helping hand in various ways, and provided the fastest and most voluminous assistance. 

"China has truly upheld the principles of equality, mutual assistance, and common development in its relations with the Pacific island countries," he said. 

China has dispatched agricultural experts, built demonstration farms, trained local farmers, promoted crop varieties, and provided technical support to the Pacific island countries over the years. 

China's sincere help to those countries in improving their own development capabilities and enhancing economic growth and people's livelihoods demonstrates its responsibility as a major power that always keeps the world as a whole in mind, he added.