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Ambassador Cui Aimin: China and Sweden Have a Great Potential in Green Tech Development

INTERVIEW PART 1

publicerad 20 maj 2025
- By News@NewsVoice
Interview with Ambassador Cui Aimin - Christian Pavón - Torbjorn Sassersson - Cui Aimin
Interview with Ambassador Cui Aimin by Torbjorn Sassersson and Christian Pavón (left), May 2025

Torbjorn Sassersson, editor-in-chief of NewsVoice, interviewed Cui Aimin, the Chinese ambassador to Sweden, about the future of China-Sweden relations and trade cooperation. Two success factors are more people-to-people contacts and new green technologies.

Christian Pavón from NewsVoice assisted during the interview | Part two: ”Sweden’s Götheborg Ship Was Among the Earliest Vessels to Engage in Maritime Trade with China”

Torbjorn Sassersson: Thank you, Mr. Ambassador, for this interview. We greatly appreciate that you are giving us this time. This year, 2025, marks the 75th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations between our two countries. How can that relationship strengthen in these days of political turmoil?

Ambassador Cui Aimin: Good question, and I would like to share my thoughts on this.

Over the past 75 years, China-Sweden relations have developed steadily, and cooperation in various fields has continued to move forward.

Our two countries—one from the East and one from the West—have different civilisations, different social systems, and different development stages, and they have written a splendid chapter of mutual success and common progress.

As the world is evolving at a faster pace, our two countries need to carry forward traditional friendship, increase communication and mutual understanding, and deepen cooperation so as to move forward our bilateral relations.

I would like to share these proposals for this end.

First, we need to strengthen political mutual trust. Our two countries need to bear in mind the original aspiration of establishing diplomatic relations that feature independence, mutual respect and mutual benefits. We also need to view our bilateral relations from a strategic height and a long-term perspective.

We need to strengthen policy communication and mutual understanding, and also properly view each other’s core interests and major concerns so as to lay a solid political foundation for the comprehensive development of our relations.

Second, our two countries need to deepen practical cooperation. China and Sweden are each other’s largest trading partners in the Nordic region and in Asia, respectively.

The cooperation between our two countries have a solid foundation and potential. So I think while maintaining our traditional economic and trade cooperation, our two countries can further explore the cooperation in areas like green and low-carbon development, new energy, etc, and also create more highlights in our cooperation.

And third, our two countries need to conduct more people-to-people and cultural exchanges because people are the most important factor that decides international relations. So I think China and Sweden can further strengthen the academic, educational and cultural exchanges, and hold more events related to these areas. Think tanks and academic institutions also need to have more dialogue and cooperation. This would help increase the mutual understanding between our peoples and also build up public support for the development of our relations.

And fourthly, our two countries need to strengthen multilateral cooperation because all countries are confronted with the common global challenges like climate change, obstacles to free trade and also public health challenges. So China and Sweden need to strengthen policy coordination and communication through mechanisms like the UN, WHO and WTO, so as to contribute to world peace and stability as well as prosperity and development.

All in all, I think China and Sweden share a traditional bond of friendship, and we have similar development goals and directions. We have highly complementary industries and have built them on the foundation of cooperation, and we enjoy a promising future ahead. So, I think our two countries need to join hands and promote closer cooperation and exchanges so as to deliver greater benefits to our two peoples.

Ambassador Cui Aimin May 7, 2025. Photo: T. Sassersson, NewsVoice
Ambassador Cui Aimin May 7, 2025. Photo: T. Sassersson, NewsVoice

T. Sassersson: Thank you. My next question is about President Xi Jinping’s statement in which he announced that he would like to see more contact between ordinary people, not only politicians, diplomats, and business people. So, what is China doing to create more contacts between ordinary people besides tourism?

Cui Aimin: For a country to develop, it’s necessary to connect and have contact with the outside world, and that’s why China adopts the fundamental national policy of opening up to the outside world.

In order to promote the exchanges and interaction between Chinese and Swedish people, we have not only adopted measures to attract more Swedish visitors to take a tour in China, we have also taken some other measures.

Firstly, in the field of economy and trade, we have been encouraging the exchanges between entrepreneurs and people from the business community by holding trade events, trade forums or matchmaking events for example.We have been encouraging the enterprises to have more contact with each other, to increase the mutual understanding and to encourage them invest and do business in the other country.

I myself have attended many, many events. For example, the commercial or business forums in Sweden. And I also attended a number of events held by the Swedish Chamber of Commerce in China.

We welcome Swedish enterprises to attend major expos in China. Events like the China International Import Expo and the Canton Fair have been held yearly, which attracted Swedish delegations to attend. Last year, Sweden sent the largest delegation in the Swedish history to the CIIE and has achieved many fruitful outcomes.

Secondly, we also think that strengthening the people-to-people, cultural and educational exchanges are also essential for increasing the mutual understanding among peoples. Over the last two years, we have held a number of events for this purpose, including some receptions, concerts, art performances and exhibitions. These events are very successful and have been warmly and extensively welcomed by the Swedish people.

And thirdly, we have also taken some positive steps to promote the exchanges between think tanks, academic institutions and media, and some progress was achieved. Through our efforts, more Chinese experts and scholars are coming to Sweden, and more Swedish experts and scholars are going to China to exchange their ideas, and I think the interactions between media and academic institutions would create a friendly sphere for our relations.

I have a strong impression that more and more Swedish people are now rediscovering their interest in China and would like to know more about China, and more Chinese people are also interested in Sweden and would like to know more about Sweden. Based on the statistics, the number of Chinese tourists coming to Sweden has already recovered and even exceeded the average level before the COVID-19 pandemic, and the number is still increasing.

T. Sassersson: Why do you think Chinese people are so interested in Sweden? It’s such a small country in the corner of Northern Europe, far away from China.

Cui Aimin: The Chinese people think that Sweden is a very beautiful and unique country in the Nordic region. It has many stories and legends, and its inventions are very much related to the normal life of the Chinese people, and that is why more Chinese people want to visit Sweden. This is also the reason why the relevant Chinese department may consider increasing the flights between our two countries.

With these efforts, the understanding, friendship and trust between the Chinese and Swedish peoples would be further consolidated, and our friendly relations would have a very promising future.

T. Sassersson: Mr. Ambassador, you talk a lot about peace, trade, tourism and so on. What about cooperation in the fields of green development and technology, science and innovation? Can you say something about how that is going between China and Sweden? Are we exchanging researchers also?

Cui Aimin: I would very much like to answer this question. I think what you just said represents the highlight of the China-Sweden cooperation in the future because China is now pursuing high-quality development and Chinese modernisation, which has science and technological development as well as green development as the defining features.

In China’s export to other countries, the products of new technologies take up a very large part, like new energy vehicles, lithium-ion batteries and PV products. These are the products with high tech and high added value, and lead the green development.

Sweden is known as the country of innovation. It is also one of the first countries to conduct environmental and ecological protection and introduce the concept of sustainable development. Sweden has also accumulated rich experience in green and low-carbon development.

As China pursues high-quality development, the structure of economic and trade cooperation between China and Sweden has been improving. The cooperation in emerging industries where industries are taking a larger share, and we are seeing more and more highlights in sci-tech.

Since last year, two very important meetings have been held. The first is the 7th meeting of the China-Sweden Joint Committee on Science and Technology Cooperation, and the second is the 21st meeting of the China-Sweden Joint Committee on Economic, Industrial and Technical Cooperation. Both sides decided that China and Sweden would continue the cooperation in green development as well as sci-tech innovation cooperation, and establish the Chinese-Swedish Working Group on Green Transition Investments.

Related: Joint Statement on the Establishment of Chinese-Swedish Working Group on Green Transition Investments, Swedish Government

We will take 75th anniversary as an opportunity not only to deepen our cooperation in traditional fields, but also to explore the cooperation in new fields like green, low-carbon technology and environmental protection, encourage investment and cooperation in new energy, new materials and bio-manufacturing, and tap the potential in artificial intelligence and digital economy, empower high-tech enterprises, especially small- and medium-sized companies, and enhance mutual visits and exchanges between scientific and technological personnel, to make greater and more positive contributions to the prosperity and progress of the two countries as well as global sustainable development.

 

Part two: Chinese Ambassador: ”Sweden’s Götheborg Ship Was Among the Earliest Vessels to Engage in Maritime Trade with China”

 

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