Photos by Linny Folau

The 69^th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China was celebrated last night, 27 September at the Chinese Embassy, and attended by HRH Princess Pilolevu, government officials, diplomats, and Chinese nationals.

The celebration was marked with a dinner and entertainment by the Tonga Tourism Masani Cultural Performers.

Chinese Ambassador to Tonga, HE Wang Baodong highlighted the growth of China’s economy in a commemorative speech and spoke of its relationship with Pacific Islands countries including Tonga.

“Over the past decades, in the spirit of mutual respect and treating each other as equals, China has conducted friendly cooperation in various fields with the Pacific Island countries with the aim of achieving common development,” said Mr Baodong.

He added that cooperation had “always been transparent and open”.

“China’s development of relations with the Pacific Island Countries is not against any third party, and will not affect the relations between the Pacific Island countries and other countries.”

He said that China never sought “the sphere of influence” nor does it engage “in vicious competition”.

But it is “always ready to carry out trilateral cooperation according to the needs of the Pacific Island Countries so as to jointly promote the peace, stability and prosperity of the Pacific Island region”.

He said China’s relationship with Tonga had made new progress this year with frequent exchanges at the top [referring to China's President Xi Jinping and King Tupou VI] and other levels bringing new tangible benefits to the two peoples.

Next month, China and Tonga will celebrate its 20th anniversary of diplomatic ties.

“Confronted with complex and changeable international and regional situation, both our sides value more the good momentum of development of the bilateral ties, and are full of expectations of a brighter future of the relations,” said Mr Baodong.

He stressed that "China stands ready to make joint efforts with the Tongan side to continuously carry out the important consensus reached by the two Heads of State, further strengthen friendly exchanges and practical collaboration, so as to push our strategic partnership featuring mutual respect and common development to a new level and bring more benefits to the peoples of our two countries".