At the invitation of the Bangladesh-China People’s Friendship Association (BCPFA) and Nepal Council of World Affairs (NCWA), a four-member CAFIU delegation led by Deputy Secretary-General Liu Kaiyang visited the two countries from April 19th to 25th. During the visit, the delegation had extensive contacts with politicians, friendly NGO and people, heads of think-tanks of the two countries, expanding mutual understanding and deepening friendship.

 

      Bangladesh: Friendly Communication Going Back to Ancient Times

 

Bangladesh resembles a piece of green jade embedding in Ganges Delta. The friendship between China and Bangladesh could be dated back to centuries ago. The country PANQI, recorded in the Book of the Later Han, means Bangladesh. The Buddhist culture was one of the main contents in the exchange of the two countries in ancient times. In October 1975, the two countries formally established diplomatic relationship, which turned a brand-new page in the history of China-Bangladesh good relations. Last September, Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in New York City.

 

Bangladesh is an old yet young country. In speaking of old, there had been primitive tribes settled which here as early as 3000 years ago and written records 2400 years ago. In speaking of young, Bangladesh is only 45 years as a modern country and the average age of its citizens is less than 30 years, which makes Bangladesh full of passion.

 

When we arrived at Zia International Airport at 3 pm local time 3 pm, the high temperature assaulted us directly. Bengalis told us the Bangladeshi Summer is from March to May. Compared with the upcoming monsoon from June, the weather now is very dry and comfortable.

 

We battled traffic and chewed up roads as we entered Dhaka. There is a mixture of transportation tools, with poor and narrow road space shared by pedestrians, bicycles, motorbikes, human tricycles, gas tricycles and automobiles. The Local drivers seemed accustomed to the aggressive traffic. Most cars were loaded on the bumper and drivers didn’t care about little rub. Maybe this kind of weather and traffic made Bengalis character of enthusiasm and patience.

 

In Bangladesh, the delegation held discussions with the leadership of BCPFA, attended a round-table talk held by Bangladesh Institute of Peace and Security Studies. Bengalis said that the friendly exchanges between both sides enjoyed a long history. Since the establishment of the diplomatic ties 41 years ago, both countries had kept a brotherly relationship and firm friendship. Chinese and Bengalis are not only good friends, but also good brothers and good partners. Both countries that appreciated and learned from each other should enhance exchanges and progress together.

 

Established by Sir Fazle Hasan Abed in 1972 after the independence of Bangladesh, BRAC, an international development organization based in Bangladesh, is the largest NGO in the world. Based on the development experience of BRAC, BRAC University is an education institution for development in Bangladesh established in 2001. Nowadays the total number of students in BRAC University is nearly five thousand. When talking with the delegation, Prof. Andaleeb, Vice-Chancellor of BRAC University gave briefings on teaching experience and the Chinese language course, and expressed their welcome to more people-to-people cultural cooperation with Chinese Universities.

 

The delegation stayed only two days in Bangladesh, but we can feel our friendship between China and Bangladesh like a river running long course from a remote source.

 

         Nepal: A Friendly and Close Neighbor for Generations

 

After leaving Bangladesh, the delegation embarked on the trip to Nepal. Nepal is a landlocked country in South Asia, bordering China to the north. The China-Nepal friendly exchanges date back to 406 A.D. when Master Fa Xian visited Nepal. Since then the exchanges continued to now. Architect Araniko (1245-1306) was one of the key figures in the exchange of Ancient Nepal and China. He influenced stylistic developments in China and Tibet and is known for building the White Stupa at the Miaoying Temple in Beijing. Since the establishment of the diplomatic ties in 1955, the bilateral relations have witnessed smooth development. In March 2016, Nepalese Prime Minister Oli visited China and attended the Boao Forum for Asia.

 

In Nepal, the delegation met with Deputy Prime Minister Bahadur, former Prime Minister Madhav Nepal, and former Foreign Minister Pandey. Nepal remembered with pleasure his first visit to China in 1981 and all dribs and drabs with China in the next 35 years. Bahadur said China and Nepal were good neighbors and partners. He added that the Nepali Government highly appreciated the selfless assistance by the Chinese Government after the earthquake. Pandey said the communications at party-to-party, NGO-to-NGO and think tank-to- think tank levels are all very important and give good hope to the China-Nepal relations.

 

On April 22nd, Liu Kaiyang and NCWA President Shrestha signed the Memorandum of Understanding on the Cooperative Relationship between CAFIU and NCWA. The two organizations will provide support and assistance, expand fields of cooperation and program, exchange publications, and inform each other of news in the next five years. The MOU demonstrated that the bilateral ties between CAFIU and NCWA had entered a new phase.

 

As a non-partisan, non-profit, non-governmental organization, China Study Center-Nepal (CSC-Nepal) was registered on 11 May, 1999 and its total membership currently stands at about 1000. When talking with the delegations, members of CSC-Nepal mentioned that Himalaya couldn’t obstruct the bilateral relations between us. CSC-Nepal was willing to work together with CAFIU to help consolidate and advance friendly neighborly relations between the two countries. After the symposium, CSC-Nepal presented books to the delegation.

 

Lalitpur is the third largest city of Nepal after Kathmandu and Pokhara and it is located in the south-central part of Kathmandu Valley. Lalitpur is best known for its rich cultural heritage and is called the city of art. As the oldest city in Nepal, Lalitpur is the birth place of architect Araniko. When talking with the delegation, officials of Lalitpur said Lalitpur had established sister city relationship for mutual cooperation with Hangzhou, Chengdu, Xining and Wuhan in China. The officials hoped that from now on Lalitpur can establish friendship with more Chinese cities to learn about the development experience from Chinese local governments.

 

Before returning to China, the delegation visited Tribhuvan University (TU). Established in 1959, TU is the first national institution of higher education in Nepal. As a non-profit autonomous institution, TU is the Central University and manages all the colleges and Universities of Nepal. In the current academic session (2014-2015) altogether 405,341 students have been enrolled at various levels of TU academic programs. As the largest University in Nepal, TU provides rich human resources for Nepal Government, and many officials used to be professors. When talking with the delegation, professors from TU particularly mentioned the exchange cooperation with Sichuan University and hoped that there would be more communication with Chinese universities and research institutions in the future.

 

On our last day in Nepal, we came across the first anniversary of the Nepal earthquake. We expressed our deep condolences to the victims of the earthquake. We were so sad that many ancient buildings were destroyed by earthquake and never recovered. When we saw that students of TU still insisted on studying in the damaged and poor library, we could not help showing respect to Nepal and its people.