REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MCALEESE AT RENMIN UNIVERSITY BEIJING, ‘IRELAND-CHINA RELATIONS: THE NEXT PHASE
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MCALEESE AT RENMIN UNIVERSITY BEIJING, ‘IRELAND-CHINA RELATIONS: THE NEXT PHASE’ TUESDAY, 15TH JUNE 2010
President Ji, distinguished guests, professors, students, ladies, gentlemen and friends, good morning!
Wo hen gaoxing you jihui fangwen Renmin Daxue!
I am very happy to have the opportunity to visit Renmin University.
It is a great pleasure for me to be here today at this great University, and to address you this morning on the subject of ‘Ireland-China relations: the next phase’. I would like to thank President Ji, Professor Cheng Tianquan and all the university team for their warm welcome here today.
Renmin University – REN DA – is much more than a centre of academic excellence. It is also emblematic of the development and achievements of New China. As the first university to be established after the foundation of the People’s Republic of China, REN DA has seen China grow and change very rapidly. The students that fill REN DA’s lecture halls today are already preparing to become tomorrow’s leaders and it is my hope that they will help China and Ireland develop even closer relations in the future.
REN DA’s accomplishments cover many areas, including economics, the humanities, social sciences and of course law – which is my own academic speciality. These accomplishments have placed REN DA at the forefront of academic and social development of China. As a lawyer I am particularly pleased to hear that REN DA hosts the China rounds of the prestigious international Jessup Law Court Moot which, I am sure, is as fiercely contested in China as it is in Ireland!
I also congratulate President Ji and all of you on the people-centred approach which you have developed, seeking “truth from facts” in accordance with the University’s motto and nurturing and developing the individual talents of each of REN DA’s students.
REN DA is of particular interest to Ireland because of the important role it plays in the development of our very close and warm relationship with China. The most obvious aspect of this cooperation is REN DA’s role as the Chinese partner university involved in the Confucius Institute at UCD in Dublin, which was launched in 2006. I’m delighted to report that the relations between the two universities have blossomed, as have relations between Chinese and Irish third level institutions generally.
Today I want to speak to you about the next phase of relations between Ireland and China. I would like to start by reflecting on what our two countries have already achieved together. I believe that the time is right for such a reflection. Within the last year, in June 2009, Ireland and China celebrated the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations. More recently, in October last year, China celebrated the 60th anniversary of the establishment of New China – the People’s Republic of China. Last year also, Ireland’s Asia Strategy, with China at its heart, saw its tenth anniversary.
The thirty years since diplomatic ties were established between China and Ireland have seen great economic and social developments in both countries, and also the development and maturing of our bilateral relationship. That relationship has widened and deepened to encompass not only intensified political and trade relations, but also a blossoming of exchanges and relationships in areas such as education, food and agriculture, tourism, and increased investment opportunities. Our cultural and human exchanges have developed particularly strongly. There have been high level visits of senior leaders both ways and these have cemented our diplomatic and political friendships.
Ireland has a large and dynamic Chinese community, many of them students and China has a growing Irish community of business people, students and tourists. Many Chinese love a wide range of classic and contemporary Irish literature and no doubt some of you are looking forward to the celebration of Bloomsday tomorrow when we call to mind James Joyce’s great epic Ulysses. And I know how well received Irish music and dance is in China for I was privileged to be in Beijing in 2003 when Riverdance performed for the first time and we in Ireland were very proud that it was chosen as one of the acts which celebrated the coming of the Summer Olympics to Beijing in 2008 and chosen again on the national CCTV gala show which celebrated the Chinese New Year in 2009. My own favourite music video is of the Irish traditional group the Chieftains when they visited China over twenty years ago and made wonderful music with the finest Chinese musicians. That human dimension of friendship, mutual understanding and cultural exchanges is a central element in the growing relationship between the Irish and Chinese peoples for so often it is the sharing of our poetry, song, film, stories and dance that allow us to really get to know each other better.
As countries that want our people to have good jobs and prosperity, trade is important to us and by any standard trade between Ireland and China is a success that continues to grow strongly. The number of Irish companies with a permanent presence in China has tripled in the last five years. Ireland is home to two Confucius Institutes and there is a major upsurge of interest in Ireland in studying Chinese. Irish companies are investing in China and Chinese companies have begun to invest in Ireland, which is the gateway to the European Union. Of particular interest to you is educational cooperation and there the story is one of tremendous progress with many Chinese students attracted to Ireland’s quality higher education sector which is known for its excellence and its internationally recognized qualifications across all disciplines and professions whether in the sciences, technology, the humanities or social sciences. There is obviously great potential here for further mutual cooperation.
Despite our different social and economic systems, the development of the bilateral relationship has shed light on some parallels in our experiences. Both China and Ireland have long histories and a strong sense of their past. China’s rich and textured history goes back some 5000 years. The first Irish recorded history dates from roughly the same period. A great strength of China is that as China develops economically, the strong sense of Chinese tradition endures, as does recognition of the importance of striking a balance between tradition and change. This is also something that Irish people attach importance to, and in recent years, fears that European integration would subsume our national identity have proven utterly unfounded – in fact the opposite is true and our national identity has never been stronger. In Europe we found a place in which to showcase our identity to an even wider audience.
Both our countries have gone through processes of reform and opening to the outside world. Ireland, from the 1950s, promoted economic expansion, access to education for all, full international engagement and promotion of free trade. We attracted foreign investment into Ireland, and secured full and active membership of the European Union in 1973. China’s policy of Reform and Opening up, which was officially launched just one year before Ireland and China established diplomatic relations, has been of historic significance, not only for China and its people but also for the world. Since the late 1970s, more than 200 million Chinese people have been lifted out of poverty, and most recently we have seen the extraordinary efforts by the Chinese Government to ensure effective economic stimulus in the wake of the international financial and economic crisis of 2008.
As we look to the next phase of our bilateral relationship, I am struck by the changes in China even since my last visit here seven years ago, and these changes are intensifying. There is no doubt that the Special Olympics of 2007, the Beijing Summer Olympics and Paralympics of 2008, and the Shanghai Expo, which I will visit later this week, have opened exciting new windows for the world into China.
It is clear that China’s economic and social model continues to develop. The rebalancing of the Chinese economy, the building of scientific and technological innovation, the emergence of global Chinese companies, the promotion of economic growth along with social equity, and the pursuit of sustainable development are all important goals. The world is changing rapidly and China is changing with it. It is very important for us in Ireland to grasp the fullness of this reality and to remember as we embark on the next phase of our relationship, the potential of China as a whole, not just its cities but its rural hinterland too.
China has underlined that it is a developing country, constantly looking at new approaches in the quest to achieve its goal of economic prosperity for its people. As China adjusts its economic model to focus more on technologically sophisticated products, I see great scope for us to enhance our cooperation in areas where Ireland has relevant expertise such as education, culture, software and high technology, biotechnology and the life sciences, environmental matters, food, agriculture and animal husbandry, to name but a few.
Our diplomatic representatives here are raising and sustaining awareness of Ireland in China’s populous inland provinces, and in fast-developing cities such as Chengdu in Sichuan province, Shenzhen, Wuhan, Zhengzhou, Dalian, Changchun, Harbin and Qingdao, each of which has a population as large as, or larger than, the population of all of Ireland. Irish companies and Irish educational institutions are also building relationships in these and other cities and provinces.
As we start the second thirty years of our relationship there is much to learn from and about each other and many areas for exploring cooperation. Both countries for example place importance on international peace and harmony. The Irish Constitution states explicitly that “Ireland affirms its devotion to the ideal of peace and friendly cooperation amongst nations founded on international justice and morality”. Ireland, although a small and militarily neutral country, has a long and active record of participation in, and leadership of, UN Peacekeeping Operations. China, for its part, is a permanent member of the UN Security Council and is currently the largest contributor of personnel to
UN Peacekeeping Operations among all of the five permanent members of the
UN Security Council. I know that Chinese officers have attended our UN Training School near Dublin and building on our shared membership of the UN there is scope for further cooperation in this vitally important area of UN Peacekeeping.
Ireland’s own model of economic and social development, from a situation of underdevelopment and high emigration fifty years ago, to an economy based on education, a skilled workforce, and high technology and software, is a model that I know is of great interest to China. Ireland, like so many countries, has been affected by the international financial and economic crises. However Ireland remains one of the most welcoming places in the world to do business. Eight of the top ten ICT companies in the world have substantial operations in Ireland, as do eight of the top ten pharmaceutical companies, and 15 of the top 25 in medical devices. More than 50% of the world’s leading financial services firms have operations in Ireland.
Ireland exports 80% of what it produces and we are a very open country strongly dedicated to free trade. We have moved from being one of the poorest countries in the EU, measured by income per capita, to being one of the wealthiest. The international economic downturn and too heavy a dependence in the last few years on rising property prices, has affected us negatively, but tough corrective measures have been put in place and our recovery plan is beginning to bear fruit. I can assure you that Ireland has learnt from bitter experience and we are determined to emerge with a stronger and more sustainable economy and we expect to be back in positive growth next year.
There are many lessons for many countries from the international economic and financial crisis and as Premier Wen Jiabao said last year, this once-in-a-century financial crisis requires serious thought and serious reflection on existing economic systems and theories. Premier Wen quoted the Scottish philosopher Adam Smith who held that if the fruits of a society’s economic development cannot be shared by all, it is morally unsound and risky. It is a source of pride to me that a great influence on Adam Smith was the Irish moral philosopher, Francis Hutcheson, who came from near my hometown in Ireland. Francis Hutcheson also said that “wisdom denotes the pursuing of the best ends by the best means”.
The success of the warm bilateral relationship between Ireland and China shows clearly that the best means have been used to pursue the best ends. Even though our two countries are separated by great geographical distance, divergent cultural and historic experiences and perspectives, while China is very big, and Ireland is very small, in reality there are no barriers to a successful and collegial relationship. Such relationships between peoples and countries are the guarantee we have of a world of friendly, peaceful and fair nations. That is not yet the norm for our world but we have a responsibility in our lifetime to do our best to make the improvements we can while we can. I hope each one of you will in your future lives commit to making the world a better, safer and more harmonious place and that you will help take Sino-Irish relations from strength to strength in the next thirty years. May each one of you find personal fulfillment in lives that are always curious about the people with whom you share this planet and in particular the people who inhabit an Emerald Island many thousands of miles and who are legendary for their welcome and gift of friendship.
Zui hou, wo xiang xin aierlan he zhongguo de youhao guanxi you zhe guangming de weilai!
In conclusion, I believe that the relationship between Ireland and China has a very bright future.
Thank you.