"I would like to thank President Xi Jinping for taking the time out of his busy schedule to meet with us, which fully reflects the friendship with the French people and is touching. ”
On April 8, President Xi Jinping met with Mr. and Mrs. Mérieux, Chairman of the Fondation Mérieux of France, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Commenting on the trip, Alain Mérieux was deeply moved: "My relationship and friendship with China began 46 years ago. Over the years, I have always followed and admired China's development and progress. ”
Forty-six years has been the time of China's reform and opening up.
In 1978, Alain Mérieux embarked on his first trip to China on the only direct flight between China and France at the time. "China is a vast country, and at that time, there was a greater risk of epidemics in rural areas where people and animals were in close contact than in other places. At that time, I had a lecture, and I was very moved by the medical workers in front of me. Because I was 40 years old at the time, but the doctors and veterinarians who sat down and listened to me were already between 70 and 80 years old. ”
Mérieux, who was only intended to promote the newly developed vaccine, did not expect that this visit would open up Sino-French cooperation in the fields of tuberculosis prevention and control and infection control. Unexpectedly, he took this opportunity to form an indissoluble bond with China. Since then, Alain Mérieux has visited China several times, participating in and witnessing many key stages of China's reform and opening up, especially in the field of medicine and health.
△On October 23, 2012, then Vice President Xi Jinping met with Alain Mérieux, Chairman of the French Fondation Mérieux, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
In the late autumn of 2012, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Xi Jinping, then vice president of China, met with Alain Mérieux.
During the meeting, Xi Jinping praised the Mérieux Foundation's long-term concern and support for public health, and its active and extensive cooperation with Chinese health authorities in the fields of tuberculosis prevention, hospital infection control, and prevention and control of emerging infectious diseases, and hoped that the Mérieux Foundation will continue to support the development of China's medical and health undertakings in the future.
△On March 26, 2014, President Xi Jinping visited the Mérieux Biological Research Center in Lyon, France, and shook hands with the staff of the research center.
In March 2014, during President Xi Jinping's visit to France, he made a special trip to the Mérieux Center for Biological Research. Alain Mérieux and his family members and the staff of the center lined up to give them a warm welcome.
Recalling the scene, Mérieux was excited: "All the scientists rushed to shake hands with President Xi. President Xi Jinping said cordially: "I am very happy that the Mérieux Group has achieved so many results in cooperation with China. I appreciate your contribution to promoting Sino-French friendship and cooperation. President Xi hopes that the Mérieux Group will continue to actively promote China-France health cooperation and work with friends from all walks of life in the two countries to write a new chapter in China-France friendship.
△Alain Mérieux won the "China Reform Friendship Medal"
Cooperation rooted in friendship will eventually blossom. On December 18, 2018, at the celebration of the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening up, President Xi Jinping awarded the China Reform Friendship Medal to 10 international friends including Alain Mérieux to thank the international community for its support and assistance to China's reform and opening up. Alain Mérieux's certificate number is none other than "001".
On April 8, 2024, President Xi Jinping met with Mr. and Mrs. Mérieux, Chairman of the Fondation Mérieux of France, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
On April 8 this year, President Xi Jinping reminisced about the past when he met again with an old friend of the Chinese people: "Over the past 60 years, generation after generation has inherited and developed Sino-French relations, and the friendship between the two countries has endured for a long time. China cherishes the friendship between China and France and is willing to further strengthen high-level exchanges and close exchanges and cooperation with the French side, so as to push China-France relations to a higher level. ”
The friendship between China and France stems from the mutual appreciation and enlightenment of the two peoples for each other's traditional cultures. China and France share a common language on many issues, which has allowed the relationship between the two countries to remain generally stable since the establishment of diplomatic relations.
△On April 1, 2024, the exhibition "The Forbidden City and the Palace of Versailles: Sino-French Exchanges in the 17th and 18th Centuries" was opened in the Wenhua Hall of the Forbidden City in Beijing.
Famous attractions such as the Louvre Museum and Eiffel Tower in France, and the Forbidden City and the Great Wall in China make visitors from both countries want to linger and deepen their understanding of each other's cultures. In November last year, China announced the implementation of a 15-day visa-free policy for short-term French visitors to China, and the French side announced that Chinese holders of master's diplomas with study experience in France will be granted five-year visas. On January 5 this year, the Sino-French Year of Culture and Tourism kicked off during the Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival, and China and France will also take the 2024 Sino-French Year of Culture and Tourism and the Paris Olympic Games as an opportunity to expand people-to-people exchanges and promote people-to-people bonds.
This year marks the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and France. At the reception for the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and France held earlier this year, President Xi Jinping delivered a video speech, welcoming more French friends to come to China for "free travel", to appreciate China's famous mountains and rivers, small bridges and flowing waters, desert smoke, cultural miracles such as the Great Wall and terracotta warriors, the development and changes of today's China, and the spiritual outlook of the Chinese people.
On April 7, 2023, President Xi Jinping held an informal meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron in Songyuan, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province. This is the two heads of state enjoying the guqin performance in the Baiyun Hall.
The mountains and rivers meet the bosom friend, and a jiazi sets off again.
Ten years ago, in an international speech, President Xi Jinping quoted a French writer who said, "Friends see friends transparently, and they exchange lives with each other."
A year ago, in the pine garden of Guangzhou in Chunhe Jingming, President Macron told President Xi Jinping: "True friendship is mutual understanding and mutual respect. ”
Spring is the season of sowing, and the friendship between China and France is as prosperous as spring.
Producer丨Geng Zhimin
Producer丨 Xinglai
Editor-in-Chief丨Ning Lili
Writer丨Yang Caiyun
Vision丨Jiang Yuhang
Editor in charge: Zhang Jing