On September 13, the Chinese Embassy in South Sudan invited the participants of "My Dream" Painting Competition for African Youth and the "Human Community with a Shared Future" Thematic Writing Contest to attend the ceremony "My Dream in Space - Chinese Astronauts Connect with African Youth". Through a video link, more than 20 young people from South Sudan, together with young people from other African countries, interacted with Chinese astronaut Chen Dong and the Shenzhou-16 crew members.
Ambassador Ma Qiang hosted the ceremony of the Chinese Embassy branch and interacted with the South Sudanese youths. Ambassador Ma said that the vigorous development of China's space causes benefits from China's innovation-driven development strategy, what's more, it depends on the Communist Party of China's persistence in exploring a path suited to our national conditions independently. The CPC and the Chinese Government have carefully studied the theoretical achievements and practical experience of Western modernization, combined them with China's reality and traditional culture, relied on the hard work, innovation and creativity of the Chinese people, and successfully found the Chinese path to modernization. We have achieved a huge accumulation in just a few decades while the Western developed countries did this through their industrialization and modernization over hundreds of years. These development achievements have laid a solid foundation for China's progress in science and technology, which allowed the Chinese people to look out at the larger world and think about the future and destiny of mankind.
Ambassador Ma said that as a good and true friend of South Sudan who shares the same aspirations and walks side by side, China sincerely hopes that South Sudan will find a path suited to its own national conditions and realize its dream of justice, liberty, and prosperity. We hope the South Sudanese youths will raise their heads to appreciate the starry sky, to establish lofty ideals, to actively think about how this nation could achieve development and stand on its own feet, and to shoulder the responsibility to seek for the human progress and the common future of human society. At the same time, we also hope that the South Sudanese youths will set foot firmly on the earth to make unremitting efforts for the ideals in their hearts.
Ambassador Ma then presented certificates and prizes to more than 20 contestants who participated in the "My Dream" Painting Competition for African Youth and the "Human Community with a Shared Future" Thematic Writing Contest, and watched the interactions at the main venue of "My Dream in Space" ceremony with them.
After the ceremony, South Sudanese youths said that China's advanced science and technology are inspiring. They are proud of China's development achievements and will study harder and work harder to contribute to South Sudan's development and South Sudan-China friendship. In an interview with the media, Gatwech Nyoun, the second prize winner of the "Human Community with a Shared Future" Thematic Writing Contest and Secretary-General of the Jonglei State Government, said that the Chinese astronauts' stories are impressive. He expressed the hope that South Sudan could learn from China's experience in development and technologies in aerospace and other fields, and strengthen cooperation with China, so as to provide impetus for the development of the two countries.
