China embassies in Brazil, Argentina hold Spring Festival receptions

China's embassies in Brazil and Argentina this week hosted receptions to welcome the Chinese New Year, or Spring Festival, drawing hundreds of guests from local political, business and cultural circles as well as overseas Chinese communities.

The Spring Festival, which falls on Feb 17 this year, is one of the most important holidays in China, celebrated with family reunions and wishes for good luck in the coming year. This year's Spring Festival marks the beginning of the Year of the Horse.

Watching the Spring Festival Gala on television is a cherished part of the celebrations in hundreds of millions of Chinese homes. The gala will be broadcast live around the world on the Chinese New Year's Eve on February 16.

In Brasilia, capital of Brazil, more than 300 attendees joined the Chinese embassy's celebration on Wednesday, which featured traditional festivities and cultural displays. A promotional video of China Media Group (CMG) annual Spring Festival Gala was shown on large screens, sparking lively reactions among guests.

Maria Gomes, a former adviser to the World Health Organization and Brazil's Ministry of Health, said the promotional video gave her a vivid impression of the scale and vibrancy of Chinese New Year celebrations.

"Brazilians love to start a new year with a festival that represents good fortune and joy, like the Spring Festival. We're very excited to be living in a period of very great friendship between Brazil and China. I want to wish all the Chinese people, including children, parents, and the elderly, a beautiful year in the Year of the Horse, a year of prosperity, luck, and a lot of family harmony," she said.

On Tuesday, the Chinese embassy in Buenos Aires, capital of Argentina, held a similar event to celebrate the Chinese New Year.

Overseas Chinese, representatives of Chinese companies, media, Confucius Institutes and students gathered to mark the Year of the Horse.

A promotional video of the CMG Spring Festival Gala was shown as part of the cultural event, highlighting China's cultural confidence and helping strengthen ties among overseas Chinese.

League of Arab States (LAS) Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit said the Arab world remains committed to a non-aligned foreign policy amid shifting global power dynamics.

In an interview with China Media Group (CMG) that aired on Friday, Aboul-Gheit, who has visited China six times, said non-alignment has long guided the Arab League's diplomatic stance, tracing back to its early days.

"We adopted that the Arab League is composed of 22 countries. But not all of them were independent in 1945, only seven. The seven agreed on a certain path that was embracing non-alignment. And since the establishment of the movement, the non-aligned movement in 1961, or let's say, since the Bandung Summit in 1955 in Indonesia, the Arab League was following non-alignment between the Western world and the Soviet bloc," said the secretary-general.