Perspectives: Chirac's visit in China

French President Jacques Chirac has recently been on a four-day state visit to China at the invitation of his Chinese counterpart, President Hu Jintao.

Chirac is certainly one of those Western leaders dedicated to the construction of a multi-polar world and to world peace.

Chirac pays attentions to Sino-French relations and handles them from the height of a strategic importance, contributing to the growth of bilateral relations between the two nations. And it was precisely during his presidency that Sino-French ties have entered a new era. Chirac has made four China trips in less than 12 years since he became the French president in 1995

In view of benign Sino-French ties and Sino-European ties as a whole, the role Chirac has played is tremendous. Chinese Ambassador to France Zhao Jinjun cited France as the first Western nation to oppose the signing of an Anti-China bill jointly with others, and to support the lifting of an arms embargo against China, and the initiative taken by both China and France to hold cultural years in their respective capitals played an exemplary role in the world...

He inspired French enterprisers to invest in China and, on each of his trips to the country, he has been accompanied by a big delegation of enterprisers and he was thus dubbed as a French sales promoter.

French investment in China has risen 400 percent in the past decade with 600 French firms having settled down to do business in the country, according to relevant figures from France. Meanwhile, related statistics from the Chinese side noted that the total value of Sino-French bilateral trade in 2005 exceeded the 20 billion US dollar mark, three times the figure for 2000. And bilateral cooperation in nuclear energy, rail transportation, banking service and high-tech fields have all entered the best period in history. Cooperation and development are precisely aimed at the happiness and wellbeing of the people of both nations.

Chirac has referred to his present China visit as a review or summary trip, and a trip of cooperation to look forward and lay a foundation for the future