By WANG Jingqing, Vice President of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

 20 June, 2016, Sheraton Warsaw Hotel, Warsaw

Respected Director Stawomir Debski

Deputy Chairman Song jingwu,

Distinguished guests,

Ladies and gentlemen,

Good morning!

On behalf of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, as one of the sponsors of the Poland-China Foreign Policy Forum: Progress, Potential and Way Forward, I would like to first express my sincere thanks to all the distinguished representatives from both Polish and Chinese governments, participants from high-level think tanks and other institutions, for your attending this important event.

As we all know, Poland is one of the earliest countries to recognize People’s Republic of China and to establish diplomatic relations with us. Ever since then the two countries have developed relationship and partnership in the fields of politics, economy, culture, education, technology and international relations. In particular, the bilateral relationship between China and Poland has developed rapidly with remarkable achievements in recent years. Today, Chinese President Xi Jinping is taking an official visit to Warsaw, which significantly maps outa new prospect for Poland-China strategic partnership. In order to realize a series of great outcomes achieved as results of the visit, and to provide advices and suggestions for a deeper Poland-China relations, the Polish Institute of International Affairs and Chinese Academy of Social Sciences jointly organize this Poland-China Foreign Policy Forum.

China-CEEC Thinks Tanks Exchange and Cooperation Network is an internationalized, high-level exchange platform for think tanks from China and CEECs. It was initiated by the Chinese Premier Minister Li Keqiang and approved by the Suzhou Summit in 2015, established by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, under the support of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The China-CEEC Think Tanks Network takes advantage of the comprehensiveness of disciplines and strong network of the CASS to promote the multi-disciplinary, multi-dimensional and multi-level cooperation with think tanks from CEECs and China, to enhance academic and policy research collaboration between these institutes in a variety of fields. Meanwhile, the network coordinates domestic resources in political, academic and business circles, give full play to its function of policy consultation to deepen the cooperation between CEECs and China. It is my sincere hope that China-CEEC Think Tanks Network will built as an inclusive and consistent platform for exchange and cooperation between think tanks from China and CEECs, and more importantly, as a “golden card” of the “16+1” cooperation.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Here I would also like to briefly introduce the Chinese Academy of Social Science (shorted as CASS). CASS is currently one of the most comprehensive research center for academic as well as policy studies both inside and outside China. At the moment CASS has 8research institutes that specialize in research on international and regional-global issues. Among them, the Institute of European Studies holds a key position in professional research on contemporary European politics, economics, society, culture, law, and China-Europe relations. In particular, Central and Eastern European studies is one of the main research directions of the Institute.

CASS also has received distinguished guests from other countries, either from universities or governmental institutions. Taking Europe for an example, Mr. Romano Prodi and Mr. José Manuel Barroso, then the presidents of the European Commission, have visited to CASS, apart from Mr. Martin Schulz, Ms. Angela Merkel, Mr. Antonis Samaras and other high-level guests from Europe. Today, it is a great honor for me to meet you, the distinguished guests from Poland and some from CEE countries. I believe our cooperation and exchange will be promoted and deepened in the future. 

I also believe that there will be deep exchanges on China-Poland strategic relationship and China-CEEC cooperation framework in this forum. I believe that this forum will help us to reach comprehensive understanding on both China and Poland, to exert positive effect on the bilateral understanding. I am looking forward great ideas both on the deepening China-Poland relationship and widening 16+1 think tanks network.

Finally, I wish this forum be successful and achieve great outcomes. I wish the minds of Chinese and Polish people be closer, the mutual understanding be deeper, and the fields of cooperation be broader!

Thank you!