Page 1 - ON BUILDING A HUMAN COMMUNITY WITH A SHARED FUTURE

SPEECH AT THE köRBER FOUNDATION

March 28, 2014

Mr. Richard von Weizsäcker, Former President of Germany,
Mr. Helmut Schmidt, Former Chancellor of Germany,
Dr. Klaus Wehmeier, Vice President of the Körber Foundation,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Friends,

Guten Tag! Good afternoon, everyone. It’s a pleasure to be here
at the invitation of former President Weizsäcker and the Körber
Foundation to meet with you today. First, allow me to thank the Körber
Foundation for its commitment to promoting mutual understanding
between Europe and China.
I visited Germany five years ago. At that time, the international
financial crisis was still unfolding, the European debt issues were just
coming to light, and the global economy was enveloped in uncertainty.
There was something of a feeling, like the line from a poem, of “Clouds
of black weighing on the town threatening rain.” During that visit,
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China and Germany agreed to elevate bilateral cooperation in a number
of fields, using concrete action to overcome those difficulties together.
Five years on, I am glad to see that Europe has made encouraging
progress in addressing the sovereign debt issue and that the economy is
showing clear signs of recovery. Germany, as a stabilizing anchor for the
European economy and a champion of European integration, has played
a key role in this and gained acclaim from the international community.
We are heartened by what has been achieved through the joint efforts of
China, Germany, and Europe in fighting the global financial crisis.
Today, the Sino-German relationship is stronger than ever before,
with the depth, breadth, and warmth of bilateral communication and
cooperation reaching unprecedented levels. This goes to show that by
complementing one another through our respective strengths and by

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