FBIS-LAT-93-223 Daily Report 22 November 1993 CARIBBEAN Cuba
Castro Presents Jose Marti Order to Jiang Zemin FL2211024893 Havana
Cuba Vision Network in Spanish 0100 GMT 22 Nov 93 FL2211024893 Havana Cuba
Vision Network Spanish BFN [Speech by President Fidel Castro at the presentation
of the Jose Marti Order to PRC President Jiang Zemin, at Revolution Palace,
Havana on 21 November -- recorded]
[Text] Dear Comrade Jiang Zemin, president of the People's Republic
of China, distinguished members of the Chinese delegation, guests: China
is a country with a very ancient culture. No other civilization in the
world has lasted so long on the same soil. China's contributions to knowledge
and human history have been extraordinary. Just because it is ancient,
however, does not mean that China is declining. On the contrary, China
is being reborn. China is beginning anew, and with greater vigor than ever
in history, as an eternal China. The most remarkable thing in that long
history is the fact that China is no longer the China of the feudal lords,
nor the constant victim of the aggressions of colonial and imperial powers.
Henceforth, no one will be able to scorn and humiliate China. This is the
new China that emerges with the victorious national liberation struggles
and the socialist revolution. Everything was forged through feats of heroism
and long marches, which were exploits unsurpassable in human history. Everything
was carried out under the immortal ideas of Marxism-Leninism and their
wise application [words indistinct] of China. Eternal glory to the Communist
Party, to its founders and leaders, and to the heroic population capable
of such a feat. Glory and honor, too, and most rightfully so, to the great
revolutionary strategist, Mao Zedong. The path China has had to travel
following liberation has been long, difficult, and risky in a world where
imperialism exercised and still exercises power and hegemonic influence.
The Chinese Communists, as they themselves admit, also had to struggle
against their own mistakes. It is up to them, not us, to judge that. What
is an unquestionable and certain fact is that the Chinese people are indissolubly
united around their revolutionary vanguard today. Colossal successes have
been attained. The era of disasters and famines has been left behind. Only
socialism could have been capable of the miracle of feeding; clothing;
providing with footwear, jobs, education, and healthcare; raising life
expectancy to 70; and providing decorous shelter for more than 1 billion
human beings in a minute portion of the planet's arable land. Thanks to
such a feat at this difficult and critical time [words indistinct] for
the world's peoples, in China over one-fifth of humanity remains under
the banner of socialism. China claims, and most rightfully, its right to
build a socialism with Chinese peculiarities, and aspires to seeing the
peaceful return of its territories of Macao, Hong Kong, and Taiwan to the
nation, in compliance with international agreements, norms, and rights,
adopting the intelligent and realistic principle of one nation/two systems.
China is resolutely opposed to any meddling whatsoever in its internal
affairs or those of any other country. China considers itself -- and this
honors us -- a Third World country, and is interested in the development
of that Third World, as being an element essential to the progress, stability,
and peace of the world of the future. These just aspirations have our full
support. China is moving forward and making solid progress. This satisfies
and encourages us all. It is a great honor, Comrade Jiang Zemin, to have
the friendship of the Chinese people. Your visit, which will undoubtedly
go down in history as an incomparable gesture of friendship and brotherhood,
is a great honor. For this reason, and for your services and faithfulness
to the cause of socialism -- a cause to which you devoted your life from
a very early age, when the struggle against foreign occupation was still
underway -- our people have wished, and our Council of State has decided,
to present to you our revolutionary fatherland's highest decoration, the
order that bears the beloved and immortal name of Jose Marti. Please receive
it as one more proof of the feelings of admiration and affection of the
Cuban people toward China, its beautiful history, and its heroic people.
Thank you very much. [applause] .