98th anniversary of the founding of China’s PLA is celebrated in Doha

The Chinese embassy in Doha marked last night the 98th anniversary of the founding of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA).The event was attended by senior Qatari officials, Chinese ambassador Cao Xiaolin, Chinese defence attaché Senior Colonel Yang Yongzhi, a number of diplomats at the embassy, military attaches of different countries, heads of different diplomatic missions, and other officials and dignitaries."China and Qatar are both peace-loving countries,” Cao said in his speech. "Under the strategic guidance of President Xi Jinping and His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, the China-Qatar strategic partnership has gone through an 11-year golden period of development.”"Currently, the China-Qatar relationship is at its highest level in history and has become a model of friendly co-operation between countries,” he continued. "The sound and stable development of the military ties between China and Qatar is of great significance to deepening the strategic partnership between the two countries and has also made contributions to regional and global peace and stability.”The envoy pointed out that "China is ready to work with all countries to firmly uphold the international system with the United Nations at its core, jointly oppose hegemonic and power politics, practice true multilateralism, and join hands to build a peaceful world and a community with a shared future for humanity”.The envoy affirmed that "the Middle East belongs to its own people”."It is not a wrestling ground for major-power rivalry, nor should it become a victim of geopolitical contest of countries outside the region,” Cao stated. "China is a strategic partner of Middle Eastern countries and a sincere friend of Arab brothers.”Yang gave a brief history of the founding and progress of the PLA, commemorating its various achievements in establishing peace and stability for China and its people, and its immense and broad participations in world peace efforts and rescue and humanitarian operations in different hot spots around the world."Since 1990, the PLA has sent almost 50,000 peacekeepers to UN peacekeeping missions in over 20 countries and regions,” he said. "China maintains a standby force of 8,000 peacekeeping troops and currently has nearly 1,800 peacekeepers across seven UN mission areas and the UN Headquarters.”"PLA actively fulfils its responsibilities as a major power’s armed forces, and has dispatched a total of 47 batches of escort fleets to the Gulf of Aden and waters off Somalia to carry out escort missions for more than 1,600 batches of ships of Chinese and foreign registry since 2008,” Yang continued. "We have rescued and escorted near 100 vessels of various types, with foreign vessels accounting for over 50%.”He stressed that "in recent years, the military relations between China and Qatar have continued to develop in a healthy and stable manner”.