Führer Diplomacy: Heart-to-Heart|"Love from the Heart"

  PARIS/SHANGHAI, April 30 (Xinhua) -- "Heart-to-heart Diplomacy"

  Xinhua News Agency reporters Han Liang, Yang Kai, and Xu Yongchun

  "I came to China for the first time 46 years ago. From then to now, after a long time, my friendship with China has become stronger and stronger, and I love the same family. Recently, Alain Mérieux, chairman of the Fondation Mérieux in France, who is nearly 90 years old, recalled his love for China in this way during his recent visit to China.

  On April 8, President Xi Jinping met with this old friend of the Chinese people at the Great Hall of the People and expressed his appreciation for the Mérieux couple and the Mérieux Foundation for their long-term concern and support for the development of Sino-French relations and China's health cause. President Xi Jinping said that for a long time, China and France have carried out a series of cooperation in the field of health and achieved fruitful results. We welcome the Mérieux Foundation to continue to deepen cooperation with China.

  "President Xi Jinping's concern and appreciation for us demonstrates the Mérieux family's close ties with China and our efforts to address public health challenges together. After returning to France, Mérieux said in a written interview with Xinhua News Agency.

  Over the past 60 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and France, generation after generation has inherited and developed Sino-French relations, and the friendship between the two countries has endured for a long time.

  "My support for China remains the same"

  "In retrospect, my first visit to China seems like two centuries ago. The old man said with a smile.

  In 1978, at the age of 40, Mérieux came to China for the first time to introduce the vaccine developed by the Mérieux Institute to the Chinese scientific community. During a lecture training, he noticed that many professors and doctors in the audience were gray-haired. Mérieux was deeply touched by their seriousness towards medical research.

  As a result, China and France began cooperation in the fields of tuberculosis prevention and control and infection control. "The forensic medicine community has established and maintained a special connection that continues to this day. I was impressed by the reliability and strong willingness of the Chinese partners to cooperate. The old man sighed.

  He stressed that the Fondation Mérieux has always adhered to the purpose of "In China, with China, and for China", and has worked with Chinese partners to promote the development of public health. Establish a high-level biosafety laboratory to jointly address public health challenges such as severe acute respiratory syndrome, avian influenza, and the new crown epidemic...... Over the years, the Fondation Mérieux has carried out extensive cooperation with China, and the results have been fruitful.

  In Mérieux's view, China's increasingly improved medical infrastructure, first-class medical and scientific teams to provide medical care for the entire population, timely response to major threats such as emerging pathogens and respiratory diseases, and prevention of foodborne disease outbreaks are "remarkable achievements".

  China's rapid economic development and continuous technological development also provide broad opportunities for global enterprises. In 1997, bioMérieux opened its first office in Beijing, and later the company's Asia-Pacific headquarters was established in Shanghai, and then the production base in Suzhou High-tech Zone was put into operation, and bioMérieux continued to expand into the Chinese market. Today, China is the second largest market and an important R&D center for bioMérieux. Led by Mérieux, a large number of French biopharmaceutical companies have turned to China as the birthplace of innovation.

  "For us, China has become an important industrial and research center, and we have been able to develop a high level of long-term partnerships in the fields of medical diagnostics and food safety. Mérieux said. In his view, China's development achievements have attracted worldwide attention and its international influence is growing day by day, and "my support for China is as always, 100 percent."

  "Every time I come to China, I feel like I'm coming home"

  On April 11, at an exchange event in Shanghai, Mérieux talked about his feelings about meeting with President Xi Jinping on the 8th: "I am deeply moved and honored by President Xi Jinping's words. Every time I come to China, I feel like I have come home, and my heart is full of warmth. ”

  Mérieux treasures a certificate numbered 001, which was awarded to him by President Xi Jinping in December 2018 at the celebration of the 40th anniversary of reform and opening up. Mérieux is particularly proud of this.

  Mérieux once described himself as "the Frenchman with the most Chinese blood in his veins". The Mérieux family has had friendly exchanges with China for several generations. Mérieux's grandfather, Marcel, was a student and assistant of Professor Pasteur, the "father of microbiology", and established the Institut Mérieux at the end of the 19th century to fight against tuberculosis, which was spreading in Europe at that time, and laid a solid foundation for the family's cooperation with China. Mérieux's father, Charles Mérieux, founded the Fondation Mérieux in 1967 to fight infectious diseases in developing countries. Long before the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and France, Mérieux's father-in-law, Paul Pellier, was the first to introduce Western automotive technology to China, and was a pioneer in friendly cooperation between the two countries.

  In 1975, during Deng Xiaoping's visit to France, Mérieux and his father-in-law accompanied Deng Xiaoping on a visit to the Bellière automobile factory in Lyon, where the older generation of Chinese revolutionaries had left red footprints during their work-study period in France. "At that moment, you can feel that the foundation of Sino-French friendship is so deep. Mérieux recalled.

  Mérieux studied pharmacy at the University of Lyon in France and then at Harvard Business School in the United States. In 1963, at the age of 25, Mérieux founded BioMérieux and led the Mérieux family group to the world.

  In the late autumn of 2012, Xi Jinping, then vice president of China, met with Mérieux in Beijing. In March 2014, during his visit to France, President Xi Jinping paid a special visit to the Mérieux Bioresearch Center in Lyon. "All of our staff remember that memorable visit. "President Xi spoke about our friendship and our family's contribution to Franco-Chinese friendship. ”

  "I am probably the only Frenchman who has seen President Xi Jinping more than the President of France. "I have a deep love for China, and this deep affection comes from years of accumulation. ”

  China and France "should work more closely together"

  On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and France, Mérieux deeply felt that "the people of France and China should cooperate more closely".

  He said that the challenges facing the world are endless, and humanity needs to work together to address them. He is proud to work with his Chinese partners to protect public health and safety.　

  Not long ago in Beijing, Mérieux made a special trip to the Institute of Pathogenic Biology of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences to inaugurate the new site of Christoph Mérieux's laboratory and exchange a new round of cooperation agreements. Founded in 2005, the laboratory is committed to the research of emerging infectious diseases, and has vigorously promoted the development of scientific research on respiratory infectious diseases, and related technologies have been promoted and applied to more than 10 developing countries. The laboratory is named after Mérieux's late son, Dr. Christophe Mérieux, in honor of his outstanding contribution to the collaboration.

  "My wife and I saw Christopher's sculpture and name appear in China's top medical research institutes, and at that moment, I was deeply moved. Mérieux said he congratulated the lab on the quality of its research.

  Looking ahead, Mérieux looks forward to deepening medical and health cooperation with China and sharing the results with more developing countries. "Tackling the growing threat of infectious diseases requires long-term cooperation among countries around the globe that transcends political differences. To that end, all countries should share scientific, medical and technological resources. China and France must play a role in this. ”

  Mérieux called for more money to be invested in start-ups, hospitals and research institutes, and hoped to "fight for peace and friendship, for common ideals, for the cause of human health" with more like-minded people. (Participating reporters: He Xinrong, Chen Jie, Qiao Benxiao, Yang Jun, Ma Zheng, Liu Youmin)