On January 18, 2024, Ambassador Chen Daojiang contributed a signature article titled Forging Ahead Into the Future, Jointly Ushering in a New Chapter of China-Jamaica Relations on Gleaner, Observer and Our Today. The full text is as follows:

At the invitation of Senator the Honourable Kamina Johnson Smith, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, H.E. WANG Yi, Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Minister of Foreign Affairs of China, is about to pay an official visit to Jamaica. Both sides will exchange views on China-Jamaica relations, bilateral cooperation on various fields, as well as regional and international issues of mutual concern.

The forthcoming visit, which would be Mr. Wang’s first trip abroad 2024, marks the first offline high-level interaction between China and Jamaica since the pandemic. It is beyond doubt that this visit will enrich the strategicness of our relations, promote bilateral pragmatical cooperation, and drive forward the China-Jamaica strategic partnership in the new era to a new milestone in the history of bilateral relations.

If you have a friend afar who knows your heart, distance can’t keep you two apart. Despite the geographical distance, China and Jamaica are good friends and partners sharing same vision. Jamaica is the first English-speaking Caribbean country that has established strategic partnership and signed the cooperation plan on jointly promoting the Belt and Road Initiative with China. Thanks to the leadership and personal inputs by leaders of both countries, China-Jamaica relations have been marching ahead in a prudent pace, with deepened political mutual trust, constantly improved pragmatical cooperation and increasingly closer people-to-people exchanges in the past 51 years since the establishing diplomatic relations. It sets up a good example of friendly exchanges between developing countries.

From a global perspective, international political disturbances and military conflicts are pervasive, and global development and security situation are becoming more complicated, revealing that the world has entered a new period of turbulence and change. Despite difficulties, we are in high spirit to move forward. Under the new circumstances, Chinese people have embarked on a new path to advance the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation on all fronts through a Chinese path to modernization. At the same time, Jamaica is on its journey to “Re-igniting a Nation for Greatness”. Mr. Wang’s visit would be timely and extraordinary as the two visions and two great paths are spontaneously meeting with each other.

The visit will bring in precious opportunities to consolidate strategic mutual trust. In recent years, leaders of two countries have kept close interactions and drawn a new blueprint for the future of China-Jamaica strategic partnership. Both countries give firm support and understanding to each other on issues of each other’s core interests and major concerns. Mr. Wang’s visit will mark a re-ignition of offline high-level interactions between our two countries and provide important opportunities to further enhance our strategic exchange. Both countries should hold this visit tight and keep the strong growth momentum of China-Jamaica strategic partnership.

The visit will inject new impetus for mutually beneficial and win-win cooperation. Staying unchallenged, China registered the 2nd largest trading partner of Jamaica in 2023, with an year-on-year increase of 24.8% to a total of 1.172 billion USD from January to November. The cooperation under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative has been constantly making breakthroughs. During this visit, two countries will reach more consensus across fields including infrastructure cooperation, and look ahead for future cooperation to promote bilateral pragmatical cooperation, and deliver concrete benefits to the two countries and two peoples.

The visit will carry the positive desire to restart the people-to-people exchanges. The friendship between China and Jamaica is higher than the Blue Mountains, and deeper than the Caribbean Sea. This year marks the 170th anniversary of the first group of Chinese people arriving in Jamaica. In the past century, people with Chinese family ancestry have been deeply integrated into Jamaican society and laid a solid foundation for China-Jamaica people-to-people friendship. In recent years, with strong support from two governments and people with vision, people-to-people exchanges between our two countries have yielded fruitful results. During this visit, both sides will explore ways to further strengthen people-to-people cooperation and to further promote exchanges between our cultures. 

The visit will further illustrate the community with a shared future for mankind. Surprisingly, the concept has similar implications with the “Out of Many, One People” motto in Jamaica. In spite of distinct national conditions, our countries and peoples are tightly combined by the highly connected vision. Facing the ever increasing global challenges, China and Jamaica, both as developing countries, ought to support each other. Mr. Wang will bring the latest explanation and expectation from President Xi Jinping for the community with a shared future for mankind and reiterate China’s firm stance to stay with Jamaica going forward.

Dear Jamaican friends, both of opportunities and challenges lay ahead in the new era. Heavy responsibilities is waiting in front of us on the new journey. My hometown is in Shandong province of China, where Yellow River, known as China’s “mother river”, enormously pours into the sea. I firmly believe that the development of history flows the same way--even more magnificent when it faces ups and downs. Mr. Wang comes to Jamaica with a sincere wish to enhance mutual trust, a vision for common development and the profound understanding of long-lasting China-Jamaica friendship. We are deeply moved when reviewing the way at our back, and more confident looking ahead. This visit will undoubtedly inject new impetus for the development and lead to a new page of China-Jamaica relationship with a brighter future. Let’s march ahead with a firm heart to build a community with a shared future for mankind, and jointly usher in a new chapter of China-Jamaica relations.