Cape Town - As China celebrated its 72nd anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China on Tuesday, ambassador Chen Xiaodong highlighted its 23 years of diplomatic ties with South Africa.
During a virtual press briefing, Chen said that over the past year since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, China has become an anchor and a driving force for global economic recovery and that its economy expanded 12.7% year-on-year in the first half of this year.
While highlighting its success in technology and space explorations, Chen added that China will continue to assist South Africa and developing countries in the fight against Covid-19.
“China will strive to provide a total of two billion doses of vaccines to the world by the end of this year,” said Chen.
“In addition to donating US$100 million to Covax, China will donate 100 million doses of vaccines to other developing countries before the close of this year,” he said.
Chen added that China has taken a stance to pursue a greener and more balanced global development and aims to achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. In doing so, the nation has pledged to stop developing new coal-fire-powered projects abroad.
Chen applauded President Cyril Ramaphosa on the way he handled the Covid-19 outbreak by “putting life first” through the use of science and allowing a steady rollout of the vaccination.
“South Africa stood firm for justice and fairness in international affairs and promoting cooperation in Covid-19 response,” said Chen.
“The government contributed in defending the interest of the majority of developing countries which demonstrated South Africa’s sense of responsibility as a major country.”
African News Agency (ANA)