SOCIETY 383

SOCIETY
INTERVIEW
“Making China’s
voice heard”
SOCIETY met with the newly accredited Ambassador of China, H.E. Mei Qi, to
talk to her about the Chinese-Austrian relations, her country’s involvement in
Africa and the importance of communication for diplomacy.
INTERVIEW BY GERTRUD TAUCHHAMMER
Since March 2023, you are Ambassador of China to
Austria. What are your impressions so far? Which
goals did you set yourself for your term here
and how would you characterize the relations
between Austria and China?
Austria is a beautiful country with a vibrant culture,
social harmony, and a high level of development.
I feel honored to have the opportunity to
work here. Since arriving in Vienna, I have been
warmly welcomed and received by friends from
various sectors. I am deeply moved by the longstanding
friendship between China and Austria,
44
which is one of my most profound impressions
thus far.
I have set goals for my tenure in Austria that
can be summarized by three words: communication,
cooperation, and consolidation. To elaborate
further, my objectives
revolve around
promoting exchange,
expanding collaborations,
and strengthening
friendships.
Despite the considerable
distance between
China and Austria, the
exchanges between the
two countries have a
long-standing history
that continues to thrive.
Over the past half-century
since the establishment
of diplomatic relations,
Chinese-Austrian
Gertrud Tauchhammer met with H.E. Mei Qi at the
Chinese Embassy in Vienna
relations have weathered
the changes in the international
landscape and have consistently maintained
a positive development momentum. The
two countries have achieved fruitful results in
pragmatic cooperation across various fields.
I am happy to see the current robust faceto-face
interactions between individuals from
China and Austria. The Chinese Embassy in
Austria and myself are committed to making
unremitting efforts to promote close personal
exchanges, expand pragmatic cooperation, and
enhance the strategic partnership and friendship
between China and Austria.
Between 2019 and 2022, you served as Chinese
Ambassador to Equatorial Guinea. How are you
looking back at this term? Which experiences and
encounters had a lasting impact on you? What did
you learn about diversity there?
My posting in Equatorial Guinea has enriched my
professional career and life experiences. In the
past, I had primarily overseen European affairs,
with limited knowledge of Africa. However, my
experience in Equatorial Guinea allowed me to
have a close encounter with the colorful history,
culture, and local customs of Africa. It provided
me with a deeper appreciation for the world‘s
diversity, as well as a profound understanding of
the far-reaching impacts of brutal slave trade and
colonial history on African countries. Additionally,
I gained insight into the strong aspirations for
development among the African people today.
In the process of modernization, countries are
different in history, culture, social system and
development path. Blindly copying the model of
others would be ill-fitted for one’s own conditions,
and imposing one’s way of life upon others would
entail endless troubles. There is no one-size-fitsall
development paradigm. It is crucial to find a
development path that aligns with the country‘s
own conditions in order to bring genuine well-being
to the nation and its people.
China invests heavily in Africa – what are the
motivations for these investments? What is
special about the African market? How does the
Chinese approach differ from the one of Europe?
China and African countries share similar historical
experiences and a common mission for
development. Over the past 50 years, China and
Africa have established mutual trust, provided
assistance to each other, and walked hand in
hand, forging a distinctive path of win-win cooperation
and setting an example of South-South
cooperation.
China and Africa enjoy a profound traditional
friendship. China has always followed the princi-
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