ABSTRACT

It is a great privilege for me to be able to come back here to Macao where I was first 20 years ago on a very brief visit. Then as I do in almost every Chinese city, when I see the changes that have occurred in the last 20 years, I pay tribute to the dedication, to the imagination, to the patriotism of the Chinese people. I remember what China looked like in 1971 when I first came here, and what

Macao was in 1987 when I first saw it. And I would not have believed it possible that these changes could’ve occurred in such a brief time. Last year for the Olympics I brought my son who had been with me in China in

1974 when he was 12 years old. And of course he’s become very famous in his school because he’s the only student in his school who met Zhou En-lai and Deng Xiaoping, and no other students could brag about that. But when we drove in from the airport, he did not recognize the Beijing that he had seen in 1974. What is so remarkable about this achievement is that while there was foreign

investment, there was no foreign governmental assistance, that it was done on the basis of the industry and dedication of the Chinese people. When I came here the first time, I had prepared a speech which I delivered to

Zhou En-lai, and there’s one sentence in it that said “So here we are in a country of mystery.” And Zhou En-lai held up his hand and said “Do you mind if I interrupt you, but can you tell me what is so mysterious about China?” But I didn’t have a good answer to that. So he said “There is a billion of us and it is not mysterious to us.” Think about that. Well, what I learned from that is to learn about China. Since then I have had the honor of working with Chinese leaders, foreign ministers, on a whole series of international problems over a period of 38 years. And China is no longer totally mysterious and we both have learned many things about the changing international scene. First, the China of today is enormously transformed from the China of that

period. In many parts of the country it has become a modern state technologically. In other parts of the country it is trying to follow the principle of Hu Jintao of social harmony and social development. So one can see that China is growing more important with every passing year.