Foreign guests hail China's 60th birthday and Sino-Swedish relations

A low-key but grand celebration was held Tuesday night by the Chinese embassy to Sweden to mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Without loud speeches, guests from various walk of life and foreign embassies in Sweden enjoyed the cozy and happy atmosphere.

"What I can say is that 60 years is a long time, but it is short time compared to what has happened in China during this 60 years, it has been a fantastic development," said Bo Landin, Chairman of the Sino-Swedish Trade Council,

"I am very glad that almost at the same time, we can also celebrate the Swedish-China relations which will be formally in May next year and I think we have been a very fortunate part of this development during this 60 years, I look forward to continued cooperation and development of the relations between Sweden and China on the business side." Mr. Landin went to China in 1987 for the first time and had been Chairman of Ericsson in China for 8 years.

Stig Valter Karlsson, Chairman of Swedish China Association in Umeå has been to China for 84 times since 1978. He noticed the drastic changes which happened in China over the past 30 years.

"You can imagine, the first time I came was 1978, and then Deng Xiaoping was in power and then China was much more open, even early 80s, I was quite sure when the pace takes up," said Mr. Karlsson. Over the years, he has made a lot of efforts in promoting Swedish Chinese cultural exchanges. Now he wants to introduce Sweden's cutting-edge cleantech Energytower which is a kind of wind power generation equipment for small urban buildings.

"You know we plan to celebrate Chinese cultural festival in Umeå from October 1 to 4th beginning this year," said Karlsson.

Even those who have never been to China now also begin to read about China and understand about China.

"I have noticed that China is actually moving into a much more globally involved role, for me that sounds very good, of course, certain worries, we always worry about other nations, every nation worries about that, but it is very good to see a more open dialogue now which we did not see some 30 years ago," said commander Benedict Falk who is also Defense Attache of the British Royal Navy from the British Embassy, " now it comes to be easier to communicate, so we know exactly how we are going to be able to work with you. I think that is the best way to go forward. Communication is the most important thing because that stops any worries later on".
About 300 people from Swedish government, companies, universities and other organizations as well as friendly personnel attended the celebration.

By Xuefei Chen, People's Daily Online, Stockholm.