2020 Year of Opportunities and Achievements for China-Malaysia ties

LETTER | With the bangs of firecrackers we bid the past year farewell, and with our hearts full of happiness we greet the new year. As the Year of Mouse is just around the corner, on behalf of the Embassy of China in Malaysia, I wish all Malaysian people a happy and blissful Chinese New Year!

Chinese New Year is definitely the most ceremonious, jubilant traditional festival of the Chinese people. On this day, Chinese people all over the world would return home, reunite with family, pay tribute to ancestors and visit relatives and friends. As we light the firecrackers with joy, Chinese people who have been busy working for a long year could now recollect the past in gratefulness and look forward to the future in high hopes.

We also send each other our best wishes of good health, good fortune and good life. Chinese New Year, in a sense, is a manifestation of Chinese ethical and cultural values that have been passed on from generation to generation for five thousand years.

In Malaysia, the Chinese New Year festivity is jointly celebrated by Malays, Chinese and Indians, an impressive feat showing not only the charm of diversity and harmony in Malaysia but also the special cultural and emotional bond between China and Malaysia. It is on this foundation of traditional friendship that China-Malaysia relations could thrive in a fast and steady manner.

Last year, we have commemorated the 45th anniversary of China-Malaysia relations and our bilateral cooperation has yielded fruitful results on all fronts. The total trade volume between our two countries has reached US$1.24 trillion (RM5.052 trillion) in 2019, with a remarkable 14.2 percent year-to-year growth, creating a new record high. The number of Chinese tourists visiting Malaysia last year has also topped three million.

The year 2020 will be an eventful year with Visit Malaysia 2020 and China-Malaysia "Year of Culture and Tourism" both going on. Five days ago, we had witnessed the grand opening ceremony of the China-Malaysia Year of Culture and Tourism in Kuala Lumpur and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad had sent their congratulatory messages respectively to the opening ceremony. 

Throughout the whole year, both sides will carry out various activities to strengthen culture and tourism exchanges and cooperation and further deepen the understanding and friendship between our two peoples. And in November this year, Malaysia will host the Apec Leaders’ Summit, for which Chinese leaders will surely attend. In this sense, the year 2020 is meant to be a year of opportunities and achievements for China-Malaysia relations.

In the Chinese lunar calendar, next year is the Year of Mouse. The mouse comes first in the Chinese zodiac and is also the “God of Barns” worshipped by grain merchants in the past, symbolising good luck, good fortune and good harvests. Thus, the Year of Mouse will certainly bring all these good implications to all of us. 

I wish, in this coming new year, China and Malaysia could work hand-in-hand and accomplish more. I wish China-Malaysia relations could maintain the good momentum and reach even newer heights. Last but not the least, I wish all Malaysian friends good luck in all your endeavours and all the best for the Year of Mouse.

BAI TIAN is China's Ambassador to Malaysia.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.