PRESS RELEASE
President Xi Jinping Honors Sun Yat-sen in Speech at Great Hall
Nov. 12, 2016 (EIRNS)—Speaking on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the birth of Dr. Sun Yat-sen the founder of the Republic of China, the first republic in Asia, President Xi Jinping held up Dr. Sun as a role-model to be followed today in the task of rejuvenating China. The Politbureau together with leading party officials, friends and military personnel as well as the international diplomatic corps were gathered for this occasion.
Xi praised Sun’s firm character, his total commitment to the Chinese people, and to his life’s work of establishing a democratic republic and to realizing a revival of the Chinese nation. (Sun’s first political organization was called Revive China, which he established when he was living in Hawaii in 1886.)
Xi quoted extensively from Sun’s works, including the "International Development of China," in which Sun laid out his ideas for economic reconstruction, which included, he noted, a plan for an extensive railroad system, canals, and new major deep sea ports. Xi said that Dr. Sun would no doubt be pleased by the fact that China today has gone far beyond his original vision.
"The best way we can commemorate Sun Yat-sen is to learn and carry forward his invaluable spirit, to unite all that can be united and mobilize all that can be mobilized to carry on the pursuit of the rejuvenated China that he had dreamed of,"
Xi said. Xi said he was prepared to work together with all parties on Taiwan, regardless of past experience, on condition that they accepted the 1992 consensus (only one China), but underlined at the same time that the country would never accept Taiwan independence. He also called on Chinese everywhere in the world to work to realize the project of China’s rejuvenation.
Xi reminded his listeners that Sun had staunchly championed the integrity of the country and unity of the nation. "Sun Yat-sen unequivocally opposed any remarks or actions that attempted to split the country or the nation," Xi said. He then quoted Dr. Sun, who had written
"United, the people of the entire country benefit; disunited, people suffer. It is the shared conviction of Chinese that China is a unified country and it is this belief that ensures the continuation of the nation as a whole."
"To achieve the complete reunification of the motherland," Xi said, "is in the fundamental interest of the Chinese nation and it is common aspiration as well as sacred duty of all Chinese."
