By Chinese Ambassador to Myanmar Ma Jia
On 8 June this year, China and Myanmar will celebrate the 76th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations. Over the past 76 years, the two sides have consistently adhered to the principles of mutual respect, equality, mutual benefit and win-win cooperation. Our millennia-old “Pauk-Phaw” friendship has grown deeper while standing the test of time. From jointly initiating and implementing the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence to working hand in hand to build a China-Myanmar community with a shared future, bilateral ties have continuously gained fresh vitality.
China and Myanmar enjoy geographical proximity, close affinity, and cultural integration. People-to-people exchanges between our two nations can be traced back to the 4th century BC. During this period, our ancestors engaged in commodity trade and cultural exchanges along the Southern Silk Road. Myanmar’s jewellery, jade ware, agate, and amber were highly sought-after commodities among Chinese merchants. Moreover, people-to-people and cultural exchanges between the two nations grew increasingly deep and vibrant. Myanmar was among the first countries with a different social system to recognize the People’s Republic of China. Older-generation leaders of the two nations met frequently, just as family members. Late Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai visited Myanmar 9 times, and late Myanmar Leader U Ne Win visited China 12 times, creating great stories of China-Myanmar friendship. In recent years, a growing number of Myanmar’s students, artists, athletes, and media reporters have visited China for exchanges, carrying forward the enduring friendship between the two nations. Although struck by the devastating Cyclone Nargis, Myanmar still donated funds to China’s Wenchuan earthquake region. The two nations also stood side by side in combating the COVID-19 pandemic and responding to the powerful earthquake in Mandalay, embodying the spirit of solidarity and mutual assistance and sharing weal and woe with concrete actions. With active participation and support from all sectors in both China and Myanmar, the Chinese Embassy in Myanmar last year published the “Voices from the Pauk-Phaw Heart”, a collection of stories commemorating the 75th anniversary of China-Myanmar diplomatic relations. The collection records the touching stories of mutual understanding, affinity, and integration between the two peoples over the long course of history. To commemorate the 76th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations, we stand poised to compose more chapters of friendship between China and Myanmar.
Amity between peoples holds the key to sound relations between countries, whereas communication between hearts opens the door to deep friendship between peoples. To eliminate estrangement and misunderstanding, deepen mutual understanding and recognition, and build bridges of people-to-people connectivity, it is essential to gain an accurate perception of each other’s true national image in the first place.
China today is a country of justice and responsibility. Chinese President Xi Jinping has put forward major visions and initiatives, including the building of a community with a shared future for humanity, the Belt and Road Initiative, the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, the Global Civilization Initiative, and the Global Governance Initiative. These efforts have contributed Chinese wisdom and Chinese solutions to addressing humanity’s challenges and building a better world, winning growing recognition and support from the international community. China plays a constructive role in global affairs and earnestly follows its Chinese way to address hotspot issues, encouraging peace talks to help relevant parties resolve differences through dialogue and coordination. Chinese President Xi Jinping recently put forth four propositions on safeguarding and promoting peace and stability in the Middle East, including staying committed to the principles of peaceful co-existence, national sovereignty, and international rule of law, along with a balanced approach to development and security. The international community widely recognizes that the four propositions, rooted in the fundamental interests of the people in the Middle East, are pragmatic and impartial, injecting positive energy into regional and even global peace and stability.
China today is a nation with a colourful and splendid culture. Traditional cultural heritage, including Peking Opera, calligraphy, martial arts, traditional Chinese medicine, and tea art, is thriving with renewed vitality in contemporary times. The three emerging cultural staples represented by online literature, online games, and online films and TV dramas vividly showcase China’s history and realities in forms well received by overseas users. Animated film Ne Zha and blockbuster AAA video game Black Myth: Wukong have sparked a global craze for Chinese mythology. Trendy toy IPs such as Labubu and Twinkle Twinkle, alongside social platforms including TikTok and Xiaohongshu (rednote), are gaining phenomenal popularity overseas at an unprecedented pace. Chinese culture is reaching out to the world in a way that is more stylish, diverse, and poised.
China today is an innovation-driven country. Both production and sales of new energy vehicles have exceeded 16 million units. China’s output of photovoltaic modules has ranked first globally for more than a decade, providing 70 per cent of wind power equipment and 80 per cent of photovoltaic modules worldwide. China leads the world in waste incineration power generation technology, which has delivered a thorough solution to the long-standing landfill problem plaguing major cities. Drone delivery of takeout food has turned from science fiction into daily reality. AI models, including DeepSeek, Qwen, and GLM-5, are hugely popular among developers worldwide. Within just a few years, toddling humanoid robots have become brisk and agile, even turning into martial arts masters. Intelligent manufacturing in China is marching toward the global market with greater wisdom, confidence, and maturity.
China today is an open and inclusive nation. Committed to an opening-up strategy featuring mutual benefit and win-win cooperation, China has proactively expanded voluntary opening-up and two-way investment cooperation. It has retained the world’s largest goods trade volume for nine consecutive years and serves as the world’s only country to host an international import expo at the national level. Starting from May 1st this year, China has extended zero-tariff treatment to 53 African countries having diplomatic relations with China across the board. Previously, zero-tariff measures were already applied to countries including Myanmar in 2024. China has also offered unilateral visa exemptions or comprehensive mutual visa-free arrangements to 75 countries and launched the “Lancang-Mekong visa” policy for the five Mekong countries. In 2025, inbound and outbound trips by foreigners hit 82.035 million, marking a year-on-year increase of 26.4 per cent. With greater openness, warmth and amity, China stands ready to welcome friends from all corners of the globe.
Seeing is believing. We sincerely welcome more friends from Myanmar to visit China to behold its magnificent landscapes, rich cultural heritage and remarkable development achievements, and to present a true, multi-dimensional and panoramic image of China, thereby contributing to the deepening of China-Myanmar friendship. My colleagues at the Chinese Embassy and I stand ready to lay a solid foundation and build greater consensus to enhance mutual understanding and amity between the two peoples through our dedicated efforts. To further advance people-to-people connectivity between China and Myanmar, we are prepared to make greater efforts in the following four areas.
First, view each other with an open and inclusive mindset. Civilizations become richer and more colourful through exchanges and mutual learning. Communication and mutual understanding enable us to pursue harmony in diversity, seek common ground while preserving differences and cement friendship. We will broaden and deepen bilateral people-to-people exchanges, encourage regular mutual visits by social organizations, educational institutions and cultural bodies, and encourage youth from the two countries to engage with each other’s daily lives via language learning, study tours, sports events and artistic exchanges. Guided by the vision of civilizations characterized by equality, mutual learning, dialogue and inclusiveness, we will conduct exchanges to deepen mutual affinity between our peoples and consolidate public support for political mutual trust and economic and trade cooperation. Second, support each other in the spirit of mutual assistance. As the international landscape grows more complex and fluid, we must remain firmly committed to building a China-Myanmar community with a shared future. Upholding the principles of amity, sincerity, mutual benefit and inclusiveness, China will pursue a friendly policy oriented toward all the people of Myanmar and support Myanmar’s efforts to build a peaceful and prosperous homeland. We will sustain the momentum of bilateral engagements, deepen exchanges on governance experience, understand and support each other on issues bearing on core interests and major concerns of either side, and further tighten the emotional bond linking the two peoples.
Third, deliver shared benefits through win-win cooperation. The Belt and Road Initiative and the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor help Myanmar break development bottlenecks in funding, talent and technology, shifting its development paradigm from aid dependency to true self-reliance and boosting its endogenous drivers and self-reliance capacity for socioeconomic advancement. We will scale up cooperation on post-earthquake reconstruction as well as connectivity, power, oil and gas, trade and investment and emerging industries. More livelihood projects will also be launched to ensure mutually beneficial China-Myanmar cooperation delivers tangible benefits to people on both sides.
Fourth, assist each other in accordance with the principle of common security. Security is the prerequisite and foundation for the development of all countries. Cross-border crimes such as online gambling and telecom fraud endanger people’s lives and property, undermine social stability and national image, and cannot be effectively tackled by any single country alone. We will actively advance bilateral and multilateral cooperation, intensify joint law enforcement crackdowns, accelerate implementation of the “Safe Lancang-Mekong Operation”, and jointly safeguard people’s lives and property as well as the sound order of exchanges and cooperation among regions and countries.
Over the past 76 years, China and Myanmar have stood side by side through trials and hardships. The profound friendship between our peoples serves as the wellspring driving the development of China-Myanmar relations. We will carry forward our time-honoured friendship, elevate people-to-people connectivity to a higher level, write a new chapter in the traditional Pauk-Phaw friendship in the new era, and jointly create a bright future for a China-Myanmar community with a shared future.
(Views expressed in the article belong solely to the author)
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