On February 14, China and Mexico celebrated the 30th anniversary of
the establishment of formal diplomatic relations between the two
countries. Since 1972, the friendly and cooperative relationship
between China and Mexico has gradually extended from politics into
fields of economy and trade, science and technology, culture and
education, with remarkable achievements made.
Echeverria, Founder of Sino-Mexican Friendship
In
1970, Luis Echeverria Alvarez was elected president of Mexico. He
was an outstanding statesman from the Third World. During the
period he was in office (1970-1976), Echeverria made great
adjustments in Mexico's foreign policy. He put forward the
principle of "diversified foreign relations," emphasizing peaceful
co-existence between countries with different political systems and
different ideologies and initiating "Third Worldism." He attached
great importance to developing friendly relations with China and
took action to improve Mexican ties with China soon after he came
to power. In 1971, he pointed out in his speech at the 26th session
of the General Assembly of the United Nations that "China's
sovereignty and territorial integrity cannot be separated by law."
He voted for restoration of China's lawful seat in the UN and
rejected the motion from the Taiwan representative. After the
resolution of the resumption of China's legal status to the UN was
adopted by the session, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mexico
issued a communique immediately on October 25, recognizing the
People's Republic of China as the "sole legal representative" of
the whole of China. On November 16, the Mexican government declared
the severing of diplomatic relations with Taiwan.
On
February 14, 1972, the Chinese Representative to the UN, Huang Hua,
and Mexico's representative signed in New York the joint communique
on the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two
countries, which was published simultaneously by the two sides the
next day. In May 1972, the Mexican embassy to China was established
in Beijing, and in June the same year Chinese embassy to Mexico was
established in Mexico City.
Not long after the establishment of diplomatic ties, Mexican
President Echeverria led a large delegation to China in April 1973.
The Chinese government and people accorded him a grand and warm
reception. Chinese Chairman Mao Zedong met him. Premier Zhou Enlai
held five talks with President Echeverria and accompanied him on
his visits to other Chinese cities.
Mutual High-level Visits
A
high-level exchange of visits between China and Mexico has been
frequent since 1972. Following Echeverria, other Mexican presidents
including Jose Lopez Portillo (1978), Miguel de la Madrid (1986),
Carlos Salinas de Gortari (1993) and Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon
(1996) visited China. In June 2001, President Vincente Fox, half a
year after he assumed his presidency, paid a visit to China, which
shows that the new Mexican government values its relations with
China. In October, President Fox attended the ninth APEC
non-official leaders' summit in east China's Shanghai. In 2001,
China also received visits by presidents of the National Action
Party, Revolutionary Institutional Party and Democratic Party,
three major political parties in Mexico.
At
the invitation of the Mexican government, many Chinese leaders paid
visits to Mexico. In October 1981, Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang paid
an official visit to Mexico after he attended the South-North
government leaders' summit on cooperation and development which was
held in Cancun, Mexico. He was the first Chinese government head to
visit a Latin American country. In May 1990, Chinese President Yang
Shangkun paid a state visit to Mexico, the first visit to Mexico by
a Chinese head of state. On October 6-9, 1995, Chinese Premier Li
Peng paid an official visit to Mexico at the invitation of Mexican
President Zedillo.
From November 30 to December 3, 1997, Chinese President Jiang
Zeming paid a state visit to Mexico. During his visit, the two
countries signed four agreements: Agreement of the People's
Republic of China and the United States of Mexico on Mutual
Exemption of Diplomatic and Official Visas, Sports Cooperation
Agreement Between Chinese State Physical Cultural and Sports
Commission and Mexican National Sports Commission, Scientific and
Technological Exchanges Agreement Between the Chinese Academy of
Social Sciences and Mexican National Council of Science and
Technology, and Agreement of China Xinjiang Xin Tian International
Economic and Technological Cooperation (Group) Corporation and the
Agricultural Trust Foundation of Mexican Bank on Comprehensive
Exploitation of Land in Mexico.
Growing Trade Relations
Mexico is one of the major trade partners of China in Latin
America. The bilateral trade volume stood at only US$12.99 million
when the two countries established formal diplomatic ties in 1972,
but rose to US$235 million in 1991. In 2000, bilateral trade volume
amounted to US$1.8236 billion, of which Chinese export accounted
for US$1.3353 billion while Chinese import accounted for US$488.3
million. Mexico became China's third-largest trade partner in Latin
America. Of course, problems exist in China-Mexican trade. Thanks
to their good quality and cheap prices, Chinese goods have been
well received by Mexican people. The inflow of Chinese commodities
in large quantity affected to a certain degree the national
industries of Mexico and occasioned complaints from local
entrepreneurs who urged government to take measures to protect
national industries. In April 1993, Mexico carried out anti-dumping
investigations on 10 categories of more than 4,000 tariff codes of
Chinese export products and levied high anti-dumping duties -- over
1,000 percent on shoes -- on commodities which accounted for
three-fourths of Chinese exports to Mexico. Due to the
representations of the Chinese government and the investigations
conducted by the Mexican side, the Mexican government eliminated
some tariff codes on Chinese commodities. On September 13, 2001,
with joint efforts of both sides, China and Mexico reached
agreement on China's entry into WTO, smoothing the way for China's
final WTO accession.
Recent years have seen growth in economic cooperation between China
and Mexico. In December 1997, China Xinjiang Xin Tian International
Economic and Technological Cooperation (Group) Corporation and the
Agricultural Trust Foundation of Mexican Bank signed the Agreement
on Comprehensive Exploitation of Land in Mexico. According to the
agreement, a total of US$28.9828 million would be invested in
developing 10,000 hectares (29,899.8 acres) of land for growing
rice, cotton, fruits and aquatic culture. In 1998, the land yielded
over 4,800 tons of rice. The sales income stood at US$500,000, with
a net profit of some US$100,000. The company has registered in
Mexico the Mexico Xin Tian Variable Capital Co., Ltd. and "Maya
Hualong" brand of quality rice. It has also found a niche in the
market of central and northern Mexico. In May 2001, a cotton mill
of the Huayuan Textile Co., Ltd funded by China was completed and
put into operation in northern Mexico's Sonora.
Fruitful Sci-Tech Cooperation
Sino-Mexican scientific and technological cooperation started in
1973, with exchanges of gifts including seeds of wheat, rice, corn,
cotton, Chinese sorghum, rape, tomato, cucumber, green pepper,
watermelon, muskmelon, cowpea and coffee. In the following years,
the two countries signed many agreements involving several hundred
cooperative projects. Such cooperation has been fruitful in 10
fields of agriculture, fishery, mining industry, petrochemical
industry, post and telecommunications, aquatic culture, traditional
Chinese medicine, rural development, social development and natural
sciences.
Over the past 20 years, a number of Chinese scientists and
technicians have visited Mexico on inspection and study trips
covering deep-well oil drilling, comprehensive utilization of oil
and gas fields, remote sensing technology and new special drilling
technology in regions with drifting topsoil, lubricating oil
additives, seismic resistance in architectural engineering,
papermaking, medicine, meteorology, earthquake forecasting, sisal
hemp processing, breeding and culture of fruits, vegetable and
corn, soil study and analysis, ocean fishing, culture and medicinal
herb, stone dam technology, soft soil engineering, prospecting and
exploration of silver mines, underground continuous wall designing
and construction, oil survey and exploration in marine sulfate
regions, and cotton production and research.
China has also received Mexican technicians on inspection and study
trips in the follow fields: veterinary medicine, rice, wheat,
soybean, vegetable, cotton, water conservancy, weather forecasting,
freshwater fish culture, biogas, hydropower, silkworm culture and
silk weaving, ceramics, bamboo and wooden furniture, earthquake
forecasting, afforestation, acupuncture and moxibustion, limb
transplanting technology, disease prevention and treatment through
biological resources, treatment against skin diseases and asthma,
production of meteorological instruments, earth works, water plants
and bio-system.
Rich Cultural Exchanges
The exchanges between China and Mexico in cultural, education,
health and sports have been extensive. In 1978, the two countries
reached an agreement on cultural cooperation and in the meantime,
set up a combined committee to take charge of talks and signing of
annual cultural exchange programs. In 1993, the two countries
signed an agreement on protection and renovation of historical
relics cooperation.
The exchange of visits by delegations from cultural fields of the
two countries has been frequent. China has sent a government
cultural delegation, a film delegation, a writers' delegation, a
Chinese Federation of Literary and Art Circles delegation, a radio
and TV delegation and a delegation of scholars in Tibetan study to
visit Mexico. Meanwhile, she has received many individual Mexican
visitors including writers, artists and editors in addition to
official cultural delegations.
During the past decades, China presented many important exhibitions
in Mexico, including a handicrafts and fine arts exhibition,
traditional Chinese painting exhibition, Chinese stamps exhibition,
Shandong culture and arts exhibition, exhibition of paintings of
the Ming and Qing Dynasty collected in the Palace
Museum, traditional Chinese painting exhibition from Jiangsu
Provincial Arts Gallery, bronze ware exhibition from Shanghai
Museum, and a Jiangxi lacquer paintings exhibition. Mexico has also
given various exhibitions in China. They have included: Mexican
arts exhibition, folk crafts and fine arts exhibition, exhibition
of woodcuts by Posata, exhibition of paintings by Guatalupe,
Mexican stamps exhibition, exhibition of works by 10 photographers,
exhibition of paintings collected by Latin American Embassy in
China, exhibition of paintings by Leyes, architectural photos
exhibition, people and folkway exhibition, exhibition of
photographic works by Plavo, exhibition of woodcuts by Entriques,
and exhibition of folk arts from northwestern Mexico.
From September 2000 to March 2001, the Historical Relic Exhibition
of China in the Imperial Time: Xi'an Dynasty, was held in the
National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City and also in
Monterrey. From September 2000 to January 2002, Maya -- Mexican
Ancient Culture Exhibition was held in the Xi'an Terra-cotta
Warrior Museum, Guangzhou-based King Nanyue of Western Han
Mausoleum Museum, China Centennial Altar and Shanghai Museum. With
these, China and Mexico, two countries with ancient civilizations,
began cultural dialogues in a real sense at the very beginning of
the new century. The two exhibitions raised a "Chinese culture
wave" and a "Maya culture wave" respectively in Mexico and China.
Mexican President Zedillo attended the opening ceremony of the
Chinese exhibition in Mexico City in September 2000, and the new
Mexican President Fox attended the opening ceremony of the Maya
Culture exhibition in Beijing-based China Centennial Altar in June
2001.
China and Mexico began a student exchange program in 1973, with
annual exchanges of some 20 students during the 1970s and 1980s.
Most of Chinese students who were sent to Mexico studied Spanish
there. In the 1990s, the number of students sent by each country to
the other on government funds was reduced to some 10 annually. The
two countries also exchanged scholars to teach or lecture in
universities. A number of Chinese diplomats with embassies to Latin
American countries, Spanish teachers in universities, business
people engaging in trade with Latin American countries and
researchers on Latin American countries studied in Mexico.
(The author is a researcher with the Latin American Institute under
the Chinese Academy of Social Science)
(china.org.cn February 19, 2002)