“Each country has its strengths and weaknesses. And the ‘One Belt, One Road’ initiative has among other things this goal: harmonization, coordination of the strong and weak points of different countries. In the energy field China and Albania have some lessons from the past,” has said Mr. Ai Ping
By Genc Mlloja
Senior Diplomatic Editor
I have always been very curious about China from my early youth. Given my hometown Shkodra, northern Albania, where I grew up to 18 years old, which is a small area with few population, I have been amazed at China a country being home of a population of about 1 billion people growing rapidly every year, with ancient culture, with a vibrant history and dynamic developments to this day. The developments in that Asian country in the mid-1960s, the ideological friendship of the ruling communist parties, the Cultural Revolution, which came down to Albania with its peculiarities and other events, added to my curiosity, but not just only me. On the other hand, the people – the Chinese ‘man’ whom we have seen in Albania with his almost Spartan behavior: work and housing, having no free-time contacts with Albanians except those in the working hours, all of these strengthened my interest in his human, cultural and spiritual integrity and inner world. Thousands of Chinese specialists of different fields worked in Albania at various projects carried out through Beijing’s aid. It was the time of the flourishing of the Albanian-Chinese ties nourished by the then communist leadership of both countries.
I have had a Chinese professor in 1969 when I was in the 4th grade of the Tirana University, who gave lectures to us on extensive English. He had studied in London. I still remember him because I saw in him the very model of the Chinese intellectual dressed not like the ‘Red Guards’ of the Cultural Revolution; everything around him was elegance of western fashion and his English was perfect while his cultural knowledge was broad. We, his Albanian students, could know only what he allowed us to penetrate in his inner self. Some of my friends have had chances to go to Beijing before me and showed their wish to find him but there was no clue on his whereabouts.
My work at the Albanian Telegraphic Agency from 1970 to 1980 coincided with dramatic international events and I had the opportunity to learn on them on a daily basis. It was in process the Chinese great turn which marked for the country the change of the political and economic course because of its opening up to the West bringing, in the meantime, the big rift between Tirana and Beijing.
‘Socialist’ roads of them separated, and as it is analyzed in my book ‘China, an Albanian Insight’, the Chinese path led the country towards economic and social development through the opening up platform framed by Deng Xiaoping, while the Albanian one was narrowing with each passing plunging the self-isolated country into a difficult economic situation. That lasted until the 1990s a time when democratic pluralism was established in Albania, too.
At this juncture there was a restoration of the Albanian-Chinese relationship although the diplomatic relations had never been broken like it happened with US, former Soviet Union, UK etc. when communists took the power. After 1993 with the start of the exchange of visits at high level it seemed as if nothing had happened and the 1978-1990 stalemate had not affected the traditional friendly relations between the two countries. Apparently the cause of such a situation is, in the first place, the deep gratitude of China, all of its political spheres without distinction, towards Albania’s contribution to the admission of their country to the United Nations, which, as a matter of fact, was Beijing’s return to the ‘seat’ belonging to it, but was denied unjustly since the foundation of the People’s Republic of China on October 1, 1949.
Until 2012 my perception on China and its people was a creation of mine by what I read and watched on TVs, mainly Italian ones, and the first visit there in May-June of that year was my opportunity to be confronted with the reality, which I have tried to describe as much as possible in the reports written during the 3- week stay. Such a relatively long visit gave me possibilities to meet the political and academic and cultural elite, but also students, ordinary people in spontaneous occasions. The rich agenda of the study tour framed by the Academy for International Business Officials (AIBA) took me to different parts of the country which was an opportunity to see and assess my bookish perceptions with the reality. I was so much impressed so that I could not escape the temptation to write, and the result was 11 reports and features written from there.
The meetings at AIBA have been very useful and the group from the Southeastern European countries part of which I was could listen to lectures of academicians, researchers, professors of different fields and it was striking from the very beginning their objectivity in what they told us. None of the questions put by the group remained without any answer.
Professor Liu Saili of the University for Foreign Policy told me in a conversation on June 1, 2012 that she had presented the real China in her lecture delivered to the group- a country which moves forward but has problems to resolve in its development path. “China has a long road to go and we have not copied models of other countries. It is being done what the Chinese people needs. If we had copied and had not applied our model but the one of another country, that would not have been good to our country and people,” she said.
But the surprise that Madam Saili made to me during the talk was exceptional as she started to sing an Albanian song. The generation of intellectuals of 1960-1970 period had nostalgia for the Albanian culture and confessed that they still liked very much Albanian culture, particularly movies and literature. I noticed the wish of this generation of intellectuals to keep alive and transmit to the younger generation the past of the relationship between the two countries and the ambition to develop the ties even further.
As I am referring to the younger generation of China as I saw them a colossal human potential of educated youth has been created that is very keen on different fields of science and technique and skilful to cope with the contemporary developments in every field. But, on the other hand, youth does not ignore other jobs including the countryside. In a TV talk at the end of the visit I told the journalist that, according to my opinion, one of the most significant achievements of China is the creation of the new Chinese man. “To build a skyscraper is an easy thing for a country like China, but to create an avangard generation capable to carry forward the contemporary development in line with the standards of the most advanced countries is an achievement of extraordinary vital dimensions for China,” I told the journalist. This achievement is really impressive!
In each case of meetings with senior figures from different fields one thing was in common: the desire for cooperation in all areas between China and Albania. I will mention a concrete case that is also original in itself. In an interview with the Vice President of the Chinese Association for International Understanding (CAIFU) Ai Ping in Beijing on March 22, 2017, I was impressed by his great interest in water resources.
“You have a great potential of water resources that can be used for energy production and irrigation. But this is not the case in China: in the south we have abundant water while in the north we have little water. Each country has its strengths and weaknesses. And the ‘One Belt, One Road’ initiative has among other things this goal: harmonization, coordination of the strong and weak points of different countries. In the energy field China and Albania have some lessons from the past,” said Mr. Ai Ping, who had visited Albania several years ago. And Mr. Ping was not the only one who saw untapped potentials between the two countries that have had a positive past of cooperation in various areas of the economy.
But from my humble experience also reflected in the book, I notice that even Chinese academic circles are following with interest Albania’s progress and opportunities for increased cooperation. Specifically, Chinese researcher Long Jing, deputy director of the Center for European Studies of the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, pointed out in an interview I had with her on February 12, 2018, referring to Albania under the ’16 +1 ‘mechanism that this country is not a ‘forgotten corner’ for China. “I am confident that Albania will be able to find its unique feature and position within this mechanism,” Ms. Long noted.
I will conclude these notes with what is evident in the book ‘China, an Albanian Insight’: the firm effort of all Chinese ambassadors, who have been in Albania from 2010 onwards, to extend the bilateral co-operation, a desire clearly expressed in any case I have had interviews or conversations with them. The current Ambassador, Zhou Ding has also conveyed this message and I will quote a paragraph of a lecture he delivered at the Mediterranean University in Tirana in May this year: “As Ambassador of China I expect to cooperate more closely with Albania to nourish the tree of the traditional Chinese-Albanian friendship for bearing more fruits. I expect that the professors and the students present here become missionaries of China- Albania friendship and also the promoters and contributors for prosperity and economic development of Albania. Earlier I saw on the wall outside this hall which read: “Believe in yourself” and I agree completely with this. In the meantime, let us believe in the future of China and Albania! Believe in the friendship between China and Albania!”
