FIVE DECADES AND COUNTING

By Wen Qing

Five decades may have gone by， but Ye Zhixiong， now in his 90s， can still clearly recall the warm welcome the Chinese delegation received inside the UN Assembly Hall on November 15， 1971.

Ye， a Xinhua News Agency reporter at the time， was dispatched there to witness the debut of the delegation of the Peoples Republic of China （PRC） at the UN. Some 20 days earlier， the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 2758 to restore the PRCs lawful seat.

Some countries had arranged to give welcome speeches on behalf of various regions of the world， but many international representatives spoke impromptu， Ye recalled. What impressed him most were the moments when the Hungarian representative made his speech in standard Chinese and the representative of Chile quoted several poems by Chairman Mao Zedong.

After the head of the Chinese delegation， then Vice Foreign Minister Qiao Guanhua， had finished his address， the representatives of more than 30 countries lined up， waiting to shake hands and express their congratulations. According to Yes records， the meeting ran far past the allotted time.

China is a founding member of the UN， and the PRC has been the sole legitimate representative of China since 1949. But the PRC was kept out of the international organization mainly due to the hostility of and obstruction by the United States. For 22 years， its seat was illegally taken by representatives of the Kuomintang authorities in Taiwan.

“I was in my 40s back then； today， I am 90-plus，” Ye told Xinhua. In his eyes， the past 50 years have witnessed the nations increasing contributions to the UN in peace and development.

Building bridges

The five decades since the PRC restored its lawful seat in the UN have witnessed Chinas peaceful development and its commitment and dedication to the welfare of all humanity， Chinese President Xi Jinping said at the conference marking the 50th anniversary of the return of the PRC to the UN on October 25.

The PRC has always been a strong supporter of other developing countries and has strived for the common development of all since its founding， Ning Tuanhui， an assistant research fellow with the China Institute of International Studies， told Beijing Review.

The 1，860-km Tazara Railway， linking the port of Dar es Salaam in east Tanzania with New Kapiri Mposhi in Zambia， is a telling example of Chinas assistance to other developing countries. In 1964， Tanzania and Zambia became independent successively and both found themselves in dire need of economic resources to consolidate their political independence. As a main copper producer， Zambia， an inland African country， heavily relied on the export of the precious metal and required a transportation line to connect the country to the Tanzanian port. The World Bank， the Soviet Union and several large corporations at the time all， for different reasons， refused to offer assistance to the Zambian Government. When Zambia then approached China， China said yes.