Ｆｏｒｍｅｒ Ｍｅｘｉｃａｎ Ｐｒｅｓｉｄｅｎｔ Ｅｒｎｅｓｔｏ Ｚｅｄｉｌｌｏ ａｎｄ Ｈｉｓ Ｐａｒｔｙ Ｖｉｓｉｔ Ｃｈｉｎａ

Former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo and his wife paid a friendly visit to China from April 17 to 27 at the invitation of the CPAFFC. They visited Beijing， Tianjin and Shenzhen， and spoke at the Boao Forum for Asia. President Hu Jintao， Chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC) Jiang Zemin met with them in Boao and Beijing respectively. Cheng Siwei， vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress and president of the China-Latin America Friendship Association， Tianjin Mayor Dai Xianglong and Shenzhen Deputy Mayor Liu Yingli also met with Zedillo and his party and hosted banquets in their honour. Zedillo also visited the People’s Daily.

This was Zedillo’s first visit to China after leaving office of Mexican President. In his capacity as professor in the field of international economics at Yale University and director of the Yale Centre for the Study of Globalization， he had extensive exchanges with personages of various circles in China on questions such as Sino-Mexican relations and globalization. His visit was a great success.

President Hu Jintao met with Zedillo and his party on the morning of April 24 in Boao， Hainan Province. When talking about bilateral relations， President Hu pointed out， his two meetings with President Vicente Fox last year， the successful visit to Mexico by Premier Wen Jiabao last December and the announcement made by both sides that China and Mexico are working to build a strategic cooperative partnership all prove that headway has been made in Sino-Mexican relations in recent years. The two countries have seen strengthened political trust， further developed bilateral trade and good cooperation in international and regional affairs. China will， together with our Mexican friends， continue to enrich the contents of the strategic cooperative partnership and exert great efforts to raise the friendly and cooperative relationship to a new height. President Hu thanked the Mexican Government for the precious support it has given China on the issues of Taiwan and human rights.

At his meeting with Zedillo， CMC Chairman Jiang Zemin spoke highly of the China-Mexico relations. The Chairman said， China and Mexico are separated by a vast ocean， but there exists a traditional friendship between our two peoples. To establish the strategic cooperative partnership between China and Mexico is the natural outcome of the smooth development of bilateral relations in recent years. Chairman Jiang expressed thanks to Zedillo for his efforts to promote bilateral relations when he was the President of Mexico and his concern for China-Mexico friendship after leaving office.

Zedillo said that the Mexican people are also optimistic about the prospects of Mexico-China relations. He held， the trade and other economic exchanges between Mexico and China are of great significance and have great development potential. Mexico should look upon the Chinese market as a great opportunity and make full use of it. Mexico and China are not rivals， but strategic cooperative partners.

Zedillo said， the reform and opening up in China has enabled China to achieve eye-catching rapid economic development. China has grown from a somewhat closed country with hardly any foreign trade into a very open one， doing brisk business with other countries. China leads the world in development and is the driving force of world economic growth. Both to China and the whole world this is a great opportunity， no country should look upon China as its rival. Zedillo held， economic globalization is the general trend of development in the world today. China’s participation in the world’s economic competition has not only propelled the rapid economic development of the country itself， but also played a positive role in promoting global economic development. Therefore， the allegation that “China’s development will pose a threat to the world” is very foolish. The economic development of China is a factor of stability and peace in the world. China’s experience has proved that the world economic globalization is a tremendous opportunity and that globalization can be a very good solution to the problem of poverty.