Your Excellency Minister ZHAO Qizheng,

President Teddy KAUFMAN,

Distinguished guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen:

60 years ago, all the peace-loving countries and peoples in the world fought and won the World Anti-Fascist War with their blood and lives. As a major part of this War, the Chinese people, including compatriots in Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and overseas Chinese, united under the flag of National Anti-Japanese Aggression Battlefront raised by the Chinese Communist Party, showed the utmost fortitude, and carried through the eight-year righteous resistance war against the Japanese aggression. The Chinese battlefield in the far-east is an undividable part of the World Anti-Fascist War, the victory of which not only founded the basis for the liberation, the independence and the rise of the Chinese nation, but also made significant contributions to the peace-pursuing cause of the world at large. Today, 60 years later, the reason for us to gather here to commemorate that part of history, is to understand our solemn responsibility to avoid the repeat of that history and to ensure the human-beings enjoy a common peaceful homeland.

History can not be forgotten. Especially, we can not forget the suffering of the Chinese and Jewish peoples. The fascists' aggression war forced more than 2 billion people from 61 countries and regions into the fire of war. The fascists and the Japanese militarists caused more than 35 million casualties and 100 billion dollars of direct damage to the Chinese nation, inflicting unrecoverable wounds to the Chinese people. This is the historical background that must not be overlooked when China and Japan develop friendly relations. After all, a nation will not have a future if it does not have the courage to face the history. Like Chinese people, the Jewish people also endured a painful history full of tribulation and unprecedented tragedy, during which 6 million European Jews lost their lives. I have lost count on how many times I visited Yad Vashem. It has been many, many times. But every time I looked at those innocent faces, every time I felt the infant lives flashed in the "dark with stars", every time I gazed at the everlasting and pulsing fire of faith, I cannot calm myself down. I have a strong believe that, having survived the fire of war, the Chinese and Jewish peoples will surely have a renascence and become resolute guardians of the peace in the world.

History can not be forgotten. Especially we should cherish the profound friendship between our two peoples which was fostered with flesh and blood during our common struggle against Fascist aggression. There is a Chinese old saying: "true friendship comes from difficult times", just like its western counterpart: "a friend in need is a friend indeed". While the Nazis were conducting fierce persecution and slaughtering of Jews in Europe, the Chinese people upheld justice and reached out to Jews. While the so-called "civilized world" closed their doors to the Jewish refugees, China provided them with a safe and vital haven. While the Gestapo proposed a "Final Solution in Shanghai" and the Japanese occupation army ordered all Jews in Shanghai to move into a "Ghetto for Stateless Refugees", countless ordinary Chinese people helped and relieved Jews from danger and hardship. On the other hand, Jews in China also contributed and joined the Chinese resistance against Japanese aggression. Some of them even sacrificed their lives to defend their "second motherland", such as Hans Shippe, Jacob Rosenfeld, Israel Epstein, Hans Miller, and Wilhelm Mainzer. They are so many that I cannot mention all of their names. But the Chinese people will remember every one of them forever. Today, we can say proudly that when confronting the evil and violence, the Chinese and Jewish peoples made the right choice of sharing happiness and woe, and fighting unrelentingly. This is the precious "Spirit of the Resistance War".

History can not be forgotten. Our wisdom and strength obtained from history will promote the relationship between the Chinese and Jewish peoples to a deep and comprehensive level. Although the former Jews in China have spread the world today, they have not forgotten the years they spent in China. Many have returned to china to seek their roots, visit old friends, travel, or invest and do business. In 1992, China and Israel established diplomatic relations. Sino-Israeli cooperation in the fields of politics, economy, culture, science and technology has borne rich fruits in the past 13 years. Just as a 13-year old Jewish boy will have a Bar Mitzvah, the bilateral relations are stepping into a more mature and stable level. In the past two years, our two countries kept exchanging high level visits and stuck to the goal of improving comprehensive cooperation and doubling the bilateral trade to 5 billion dollars by 2008.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the victory of the World Anti-Fascist War and Chinese People's Resistance War against Japanese Aggression, the Chinese Embassy in Israel and the Association of Former Residents of China & Israel China Friendship Society jointly hold this symposium to commemorate the martyrs in the resistance war, to review our traditional friendship in fighting shoulder to shoulder, and to make best wishes for the world peace. I am convinced that the cause to pursue peace, justice and civilization of mankind will succeed. In this common cause of mankind, the Chinese and Jewish peoples will dedicate all of their efforts to write a more glorious chapter of their cooperation. The Sino-Israeli friendship will pass from generation to generation.

    Thank you.