Mario Rendulić, president of the Chinese Southeast European Business Association (CSEBA), has been to China frequently in recent decades and has closely followed China's growth and development.

In an interview for the most influental Chinese daily newspaper People's Daily, Rendulić spoke about his experiences in China and about cooperation with Chinese business people.

- We have had opportunity to visit Shanghai and South Lake in Jiaxing several times where CPC was founded, and always experienced deep impression during our visits. The support of the people towards the CPC, Chinese President and Prime Minister is most admirable. It shows that the CPC’s responsibility towards Chinese people, measures taken in development of China and future plans for the country have been well planned and most pragmatic. Our expectations for CPC are that current course in promotion sustainable development, free trade, and global values continues for many years to come, Rendulić said.

Rendulić is an old friend of the Chinese people. As early as 1977, he first came to China as a boy only seven years old. Over the past few decades, he has traveled frequently to various parts of China and witnessed the great achievements that China has continuously achieved since reform and opening up.

- There is no place in the World currently, where the economic, financial and infrastructure development has been so strong and fast as it has been in China over the past decades, but especially since the launch of the Belt and Road Initiative, CSEBA President said.

Rendulić believes that Western media reports on China's economic development mainly focus on first-class cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, but in his opinion, central Chinese cities have changed the most.

- Most of the Western media don’t have deep enough impression of the progress that China. Most of their reports are from already developed cities of Shanghai and Beijing, but China is much more than that. The levels of change are the most visible in central Chinese cities that experienced the biggest change, with giant infrastructure, connectivity and industry projects around previously less developed areas. Fast railway network, for example, has connected all major central Chinese cities, and has already started to spread towards Western China, all of which was completed in the last 10 or 12 years. This success wouldn’t be possible without the full cooperation of CPC members, on local and high government levels. Even more, it is exceptional that the same vision of progress was executed on such a high scale, all across such a huge country, and in such short period of time, Rendulić emphasized.

Rendulić says that he often read a book by Chinese President Xi Jinping and thus researched the success of the Chinese Communist Party.

- The book “Xi Jinping: The Governance of China” showed, in detail, the vision that Chinese President had for its country, but is not the only example that shows that government promises can be fulfilled. When analysing the successes of socialism with Chinese characteristics, countries around the World should try to understand the biggest value it brought to Chinese people. It’s is not to promote the idea that socialism should be adapted in other countries, but to understand that socialism with Chinese characteristics was able to protect the main vision of national development for all the people living in China: rise them above the poverty line, promote high quality education, develop prosperity for people in perusing richer and more meaningful lives, connect them to international markets for their products… This value was carried out nationally, all across China, and this is something that many Western countries are struggling with when developing their own development strategies, Rendulić said.

COVID-19 epidemic has been spreading around the world for a year and a half. Rendulic believes the Chinese government's effective response to the epidemic reflects the Communist Party of China's strong leadership and management skills.

COVID-19 response in China is another great example that shows how responsible governments should act in protecting its people. First measures taken by the Chinese government during Chinese New Year period in 2020 were mostly criticized by the Western media, and focused on attacking China in terms of human rights policies. They neglected the fact that Chinese people widely approved protective measures proposed by the government and were unified in fighting COVID-19 health crisis. Measures showed to be quick and efficient, and China moved on into the post-COVID period almost one year ago. On the other hand, COVID-19 is still unsolvable in the “developed West”, even after the introduction of vaccines. Without prising Chinese efforts in battle against COVID-19, help that China provided to all the countries in the World by donating and supplying medical equipment, Western media rather choose not to report any news from China now because it would prove that their initial comments were wrong and misleading. After more than a year, European and Western countries still can’t reach effective response measures against COVID-19, nor cooperation modes that can globally take us into a post-COVID period.

Rendulic says that, facing current unilateralism, protectionism and other challenges, China strongly supports and practices multilateralism, promotes global cooperation and shares development experience and development opportunities with other countries. This embodies the responsibility of a great country, which China has proven under the leadership of the Communist Party of China.

CPC promotes global cooperation and multilateralism despite the health crisis, promotes peace and mutual trust which is something that we are currently lacking of. Nationalism, unilateralism and break from free trade are becoming global threats that take us into distrust and plant seeds for possible international conflicts. With every word send nationally and internationally, CPC is showing its commitment in fighting against these trends, which is an important message that should be carried by all governments in the World. Many political parties in the World are focused on fighting for power in their countries, by any means possible, and often use current crisis to promote their own agenda. All political parties should break away from these practices, look for modes of cooperation to resolve issues and focus on benefits for its people in the context of global community. Every country should identify its uniqueness, protect their national and cultural values within the international ones, in a way not to impose or threat others. These should be the core values of political parties despite the differences they might possess, because global values are still the same all across the World: to bring and share prosperity to our nations.

Chinese Southeast European Business Association (CSEBA) was established in 2013 to promote multilateral cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European countries in the joint construction of "Belt and Road" mechanisms and cooperation within "China + 17". In recent years, China has continued to expand and open up, which has created an opportunity for Central and Eastern European countries to enter the Chinese market, and has implemented a large number of mutually beneficial cooperation projects with Southeast Europe in providing development opportunities for countries. She also promoted connecting people.

- I can only appreciate the constant and persistent effort of CPC in coordinating and maintaining this direction in multilateral activities with the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, within the ‘17+1’ Initiative, where CSEBA is the most active, Rendulic said.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China. Rendulić says that this is a special historical moment.

- Thank you for the invitation for this interview, and with CSEBA’s best wishes for the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC, and our best wishes to the People’s Daily and Your readers, concluded Rendulić.