By Josfyn Uba
Ms. Yan Yuqing is the eighth Consul-General of the Chinese Consulate in Nigeria. She resumed a few weeks ago in Lagos. Before her posting to Nigeria, she had served in a similar position in the Chinese Consulate in Recife, Brazil.
In a recent interview in her office in Victoria Island, the envoy told Daily Sun that her mission in Nigeria was to deepen the China-Nigeria relations and strategic partnership while focusing more on the cause of women and children. And she is ready to learn from Nigeria to know the kind of efforts they have made to achieve gender equality.
You are the first female consul-general; what inspired you into diplomacy, and how did you get your first start?
I feel honoured to be the first female Consul General of the Chinese Consulate here in Lagos. And I think the Chinese Foreign Ministry sent me here, maybe they want me to use my soft power more effectively, while I fulfill my diplomatic mission here. But I will serve as a Chinese diplomat under the same diplomatic philosophy proposed by President Xi Jing Ping with the former seventh Consul General here. And I will be more focused on the cause of women and children here. As you the international children’s day is around the corner, and I hope to visit some Nigerian children here to give them some little presents and celebrate the international children’s day together.
What effort is China taking to promote gender equity?
Chinese government attaches significant importance to gender equality. And there is a saying which says that women can support the fastest guy. In China, we have laws to protect the legitimate rights of women.
Especially in terms of employment, we may see there are many inequalities too, but in China, we have specific laws and regulations to guarantee women participate in the labour market. And you may see that there are more and more female leaders in various areas of China. And you can see that there will be more female ambassadors and Consul General, like Mrs Ying here looking at diplomats.
So I am very interested in the women topic. And I am ready to learn from Nigeria to know the kind of efforts they have made to achieve gender equality. So maybe in the future, we can look for opportunities to have some seminars to talk and discuss this topic.
What message would you like to convey to the people of your host country on behalf of your country?
I am confident that China-Nigeria cooperation will have a broad future. After the establishment of diplomatic relations between our two countries, we have achieved a lot of positive results in politics, economy, people-to-people exchanges and other areas. And in this new era, I believe that the developments of the China-Nigeria relationship would reveal new opportunities.
So, while I am fulfilling my diplomatic mission here, I will uphold the diplomatic principle proposed by President Xi Jinping. That’s when we develop our relations with African countries. We will uphold the ideals of truthfulness and goodwill. On the other hand, this year marks the 10th anniversary of the launch of the Belt-On-Road initiative. And I believe that the high-quality development of China on audition process will benefit Nigerian people.
So our new support from friends from the Nigerian media, I hope that through your voice, a real China could be heard and understood by Nigerian people.
What is China putting in place to help Nigeria achieve a better, more diversified economy?
So as I mentioned before, China has made tremendous efforts to help Nigeria develop its economy. China and Nigeria don’t only have friendly relations; they also have a lot of complementarity in various areas. Nigeria has abundant natural resources and labour forces. And we both embark on the paths of modernisation. I have to say that the economic history of our corporation is the main pillar of our bilateral relations. As I said, there are hundreds of Chinese companies and Chinese business people working and operating their businesses here in Nigeria. The areas they are involved in include infrastructure, Energy, Agriculture, Science and Technology and Health and Environmental protection. So Chinese people and companies are using advanced technology, equipment, experience and finance to deepen the bilateral relationship. So the mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries aims to bring tangible benefits to our two peoples. As I said, we have conducted a lot of cooperation projects in infrastructure construction, like the hydropower plant and the post-construction we have mentioned before. In Lagos, we have the Lekki Ports and the toll-free trade zone, so I believe that there’s great potential for economic and security cooperation between our two countries.
As you know, the China-Africa Cooperation Forum is a very popular and important platform for the two countries to conduct cooperation, and there are nine large projects, on this forum and most of our economic and trade cooperation programmes, have found their place in Nigeria, especially in Lagos and other states. And I think in the future, apart from the cooperation in traditional areas, we can also look for all look for more opportunities in the artificial intelligence and data industry.
During the pandemic, the two countries held well further deepened their relations. China and the Chinese governments donated health products like masks and vaccines to Nigeria to help them get through the pandemic. So I think in the future, we can also look for opportunities in public health. And I know that you may have heard of traditional Chinese medicine, which is getting more and more popular nowadays in the world. So I hope traditional Chinese medicine could help Nigerian people to get rid of some difficult diseases.
You noted that Nigeria and China share some similarities; as a diplomat, have you identified challenges to this bilateral relationship between Nigeria and China? And how do you intend to tackle some of these challenges?
As I said before China, and Nigeria has a long tradition of friendship and we also enjoyed a strategic partnership. And I think the challenge here, is that many Nigerian people, especially young people don’t have a clear and true understanding of China, especially because some Western media may have fabricated some rumours to distort the image of China. So I think the most fundamental thing that we need to do is to increase the people-to-people exchanges, especially for young people to build mutual trust and help them better understand a real China. So I think understanding is key here.
There are rumours that China is threatening the security of the world. and that Chinese is exploiting the sources of the African continent. However, the facts prove that in everything we’ve done, the main purpose of all the efforts we have made in the development is to get to bring a better life to local people.
And I think today’s project is a vivid example, that the three Chinese companies are not only making profits doing their business here. the ultimate goal of this project is to improve the living environments of the local people. And I also encourage the Chinese companies, when they develop their when they are making profits for themselves. The most important thing to remember is to give back to the local social and economic developments, to show their social responsibility. So I think today’s projects reveal truly reflect China’s diplomatic philosophy and our desire to build a stronger relationship between our two countries.
So, later, I hope that you could find out time to interview people from these three Chinese companies because the people in charge also will be here today. So you can get to know how they operate their business how, and what kind of effort they have made to give back to the local society.
In the projection of what China is, and the relationship between Nigeria and China that can enable them to understand their relationship better and then be happy while studying there, what is your advice to young Nigerians who are planning to travel to China or to come to China for studies?
I strongly support that Nigerian people, especially youths, visit China and communicate with their Chinese counterparts to understand how they live, how they work, and how they think.
And also Chinese government offered Fellowship programmes to Nigerian students with which Nigerian students could go to China for further study. And through this overseas study, I think Nigerian young people would be more skilled to help build bilateral relations.
Already there are two Confucius Institutes in Nigeria, one in Lagos and the other in Awka in Anambra. And these two these Confucius two Institutes serve as a bridge to promote traditional Chinese culture in local communities. I know that they all celebrate traditional Chinese festivals like the Spring Festival, and the lantern festival, with the local people. I think this a good way to promote some of the cultural exchanges between two countries. So I think the Confucius Institute is a good platform for two countries to further and better their understanding of each other.
The China-Africa Cooperation Forum has some projects for cooperation in education. So under this project, the universities in China and Nigeria could conduct cooperation for example, the Lagos University and the Soto University in China have become sister universities. So as far as I know that Soto University is allocating some students medical students to Lagos Universities, and there will also be cooperation between the universities and Chinese enterprises here. So after this, students graduated from Chinese Universities they are skilled and they also got the Chinese language to find a good job in Nigeria.
Nigeria marked the Children’s Day on May 27th what is your message to Nigerian children day?
In China, we celebrate Children’s Day on the 1st of June and today I learnt that Nigeria celebrates their children on May 27th, so I would like to use this opportunity wish to extend my best wishes to Nigerian children, and I wish you a happy children’s day. Go up happily and I hope that when you grow, you would com“You the children remain the future of Nigeria and the future of the good relationship between our countries and it is my hope that you grow with the awareness we give you about the great relationship that has existed between Nigeria and China.
We hope to do our best to create the right environment for Nigerian children to forge a good bond with Chinese children through so many platforms of interaction. My office would aspire to facilitate those possibilities of enacting a close bond between the Nigerian children and the Chinese children for a better world tomorrow.”
e and visit China and become goodwill ambassadors between Nigeria and China relationship.
Today’s renovation is a good present for children living on Victoria Island because, after the renovation, children could now play happily. We also have kids in the Chinese Consulate, so maybe in the future, they could all play with local keys on the square.