Amazed by the great changes that have taken place in China since his first trip to the country half a century ago, Timor-Leste's President Jose Ramos-Horta said he personally witnessed achievements of Chinese modernization during his just concluded state visit to the country.
In an interview during the state visit to China from July 28 to 31, Ramos-Horta recalled his first trip to China in the 1970s.
"1976 the first time, winter, like January or February, I looked down to the street, I saw thousands of bicycles. Occasionally, you saw a bus. God! It's so different in only half a century," he said.
Ramos-Horta said China's historic steps of eliminating absolute poverty and developing itself into a country strong on high-tech impressed him the most during China's advance of its own path to modernization.
"It is elimination, total elimination of extreme poverty in a country so big, and then moving from a poor rural agricultural economy to a superpower in technology, in medical equipment and anything," said the president of Timor-Leste.
"And in my own country now today, rarely you see a child is barefoot, and almost you see every child with a backpack made in China, and cheap. The Chinese, they study the world market, they know there is like, I don't know, two billion people who are poor, whose purchasing power is like two dollars, three dollars, five dollars a day. So they produce for this market throughout Asia, Africa and even in Europe. That doesn't mean they produce only the shoes and these cheap (products), no, high-tech (products) as well. So only the Chinese can do that, supply the entire planet with goods that are accessible to the poorest people," he said.
Timor-Leste president says amazed by Chinese modernization achievements
