Communities worldwide have marked the Chinese New Year, or Spring Festival, with colorful festivities and cultural events in recent days, as the holiday fell on Feb 17.
The Chinese Embassy in the United Kingdom hosted a special Chinese New Year reception on Saturday for the families of survivors of the Lisbon Maru and members of the Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding (SACU).
The event was attended by more than 100 guests, including relatives of British prisoners of war rescued after the sinking of the Lisbon Maru during World War II, as well as representatives committed to promoting China-UK friendship.
"It's a fantastic gathering. We thank the embassy very much for putting it on every year for the families of the men that were on board the Lisbon Maru," said Anthony Jones, chairman of the Lisbon Maru Memorial Association.
On Saturday morning, the Community of Madrid in Spain held a race to mark the start of the Year of the Horse.
"The event is very good, and we are very excited to celebrate the festival here with the community," said Alberto, a participant.
In France, Paris Saint-Germain players took to the field wearing special jerseys featuring Chinese New Year elements during a Ligue 1 match on Saturday.
The Parc des Princes, the club's home stadium, was also festively decorated.
In Indonesia, a "Good Luck on Horseback" flash mob was held at Jakarta's Halim High-Speed Railway Station, drawing large crowds who watched the performances and interacted with the Chinese artists.
On Friday, the premiere of "Harmony of Spring," a Chinese New Year Gala celebrating Chinese intangible cultural heritage, was held in Perth, the capital of Western Australia.
The gala featured 14 performances, including a lion dance, a suona solo and acrobatics, delivering a colorful celebration of Chinese culture to audiences from all walks of life in Perth.
Chinese New Year ignites global celebrations
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Friday that both China and the Netherlands being committed to promoting mutually beneficial cooperation in an open and pragmatic spirit is in line with the shared interests of the two sides.
This is also conducive to the sound development of China-European Union (EU) relations as well as the security and stability of the global industrial and supply chains, he said.
Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks in a phone conversation with Dutch Foreign Minister Tom Berendson at the latter's request.
Wang congratulated Berendson on his assuming office as the Netherlands' new foreign minister and said that China and the Netherlands are important partners of cooperation to each other.
China appreciates the positive signal released by the new Dutch government of valuing its relations with China, he said, noting that China's foreign policy maintains coherence and stability, and that China is willing to work with the Netherlands to strengthen exchanges and communication, promote mutual understanding and trust, and consistently deepen their open and pragmatic partnership for comprehensive cooperation.
Wang briefed his Dutch counterpart on the outcomes of China's just concluded "two sessions," noting that China will remain committed to opening wider to the outside world and expanding institutional opening-up, bringing more opportunities to countries around the world, including the Netherlands.
China-Netherlands economic and trade cooperation enjoys mutual complementarity of advantages, mutual benefit and win-win results, Wang noted.
He expressed hope that the new government of the Netherlands will take on a new look and new challenges, adhere to independence and self-autonomy, and support the normal economic and trade exchanges between enterprises of the two countries.
It is hoped that the Dutch side would push EU institutions to understand China in an objective and rational manner, and adhere to the positioning of partnership and open cooperation between China and the EU, Wang said.
For his part, Berendson said the new government of the Netherlands speaks highly of the achievements China has made in its rapid development, and regards the relations with China as one of its most important bilateral relationships.
Berendson said his country is willing to keep high-level exchanges with China, leverage bilateral mechanisms such as the political consultation between foreign ministries and the mixed economic and trade committee, increase dialogue and exchanges at all levels, deepen the pragmatic cooperation in climate change, water resource management and other areas, and jointly defend multilateralism, consistently advancing the bilateral open and pragmatic partnership for comprehensive cooperation to new levels.
The Dutch side is willing to play a constructive role for the sound and steady development of EU-China relations, he said.
The two sides also exchanged views on issues including the Ukraine crisis.
China-Netherlands mutually beneficial cooperation in line with common interests: Chinese FM
