China wants to share its experiences of managing rivers with Bangladesh, said its envoy to Bangladesh on Saturday.
"China has thousand years of experience managing rivers like Yangtze River, Yellow River and many others….China wants to share these experiences with Bangladesh," Chinese Ambassador to Bangladesh Li Jiming said at a seminar, replying to a question if China is ready to engage with Teesta River Compre-hensive Management Project.
He said China is ready to support Bangladesh in the Teesta River management project, only if Bangladesh is determined to engage China.
"China would take it under very positive consideration if Bangladesh government is really determined to do it," he said, adding that there is also some information which says there might be some hesitation from Bangladesh side because of pressure from outside.
Mr Jiming said China is cautious about the project due to the geo-political sensitivities surrounding it. Li Jiming proposed a pilot project on the Teesta River.
"Teesta River is not big enough and not small enough too; so the best choice we have is to launch a pilot project to see how to deal with the river problem in Bangladesh as a whole," he said.
According to the envoy, determination is the key to this project.
"I think most important factor is not technology, not money, but the determination of the Bangladesh government," he said.
He said China will be there for Bangladesh if it says it is determined to do so.
Responding to another question on Bangladesh's current political situation, the envoy said China's position is that it does not interfere with the internal affairs of any country.
"My opinion is that a country's peace and stability are prerequisites to its development. So, we hope that there will be social and political stability," he added.
Regarding the Rohingya crisis, he said China is playing an active role in pursuing and facilitating early repatriation of the Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh, but creating a conducive environment in Rakhine will remain the key condition before that.
Bangladesh China Silk Road Forum organised the seminar on the 20th congress of the Communist Party of China at a city hotel with Chinese envoy as the chief guest, and Workers Party of Bangladesh president Rashed Khan Menon as a special guest.
The forum's chairman, former Industries Minister Dilip Barua chaired the event.
In his welcome remarks, Dilip Barua, general secretary of the Communist Party of Bangladesh (Marxist-Leninist), said the 20th national congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) ended recently amid multidimensional crisis like the Covid-19 pandemic, Russia-Ukraine war, tension escalation centring Taiwan, etc.
"In the latest congress, the CPC has integrated its political ideology further, setting the goal for a prosperous Chinese economy by increasing productivity to emerge as the country from economic perspective," he said.
Above all, Chinese President and General Secretary of CPC Xi Jinping has reached a unique height through the recent congress being elected as the general secretary of the party for third term which is unprecedented in China's history.
"Though the western analysts predicted that China's economy may fall in difficulties in near future, their apprehension and aspiration will not see any fruit," he said.
Stating that China will become a modern socialist country by 2049, he said: "President Xi has emphasised ensuring better quality development in China where the concept of modernisation differs than that of the western one."
The western world got modernised by dominating other countries through colonialism, semi-colonialism or neo-colonialism to carryout roguish acts and plunder, Mr Barua noted.
Citing the Chinese President, he also said, "Spreading dominance or militarisation in other countries was never in the blood of Chinese people."
Referring that American imperialism has been getting active in the South Asia and Bay of Bengal region, he said, "Beijing considers Bangladesh as its comfort zone in South Asia for political and economic partnership."
"As a consequence, Washington has been increasingly putting political and economic pressure in the region and trying to find a scope to create long-term horrifying situation here," he said expressing concern.
He said it is true that China has been refraining itself from armed conflict but the country has been enriching soft and hard power over the years to place itself in the same place as the superpowers.
Rashed Khan Menon said, "The entire world was eagerly looking at the 20th congress of the society while the western media only tried to propagate the forceful exit of former Chinese president Hu Jintao from the congress session instead of focusing on in the key issues."
Referring to the significance of the recent CPC congress, he said the CPC has set a goal to uphold the message of socialism to the new generation of the world to establish a justice-oriented society.
Observing that Chinese way of thinking is the new definition of socialism, he said, "China has set a target to eradicate poverty in their country as well as other friendly nations by reducing the spread of corruption."
China has already brought down extreme poverty to almost zero in 2020 while the government headed by Mr Xi had taken different punitive measures including death sentences against at least 10 million party members for their connection in corruption, he noted.
"Above all, important things to us are the stability, peace and security of South Asian region," he said hoping that China will continue its friendly and supporting relation with Bangladesh.
Acting secretary general of Silk Road Forum ABM Khorshed Alam moderated the event.
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