穆沙希德·侯赛因:共享丝路繁荣 同行现代化之路
2024-02-28 来源:中国国家创新与发展战略研究会

“我儿子对中国充满了热情,六岁的孙子也在学习中文。”巴基斯坦参议院国防委员会主席穆沙希德·侯赛因分享了他“三代同堂”学习了解中国的生活景象。穆沙希德与中国的情缘已经长达半个世纪,并在百余次访华过程中见证了中国式现代化探索之路的不同阶段,也正因为他深刻理解了中国的发展逻辑,他对中国的发展前景充满了信心,坚定相信中国经济有一个光明的未来。他还结合自己的切身经历,阐释了为什么民心相通对共建“一带一路”至关重要,以及中巴经济走廊如何促进了双边经济发展,又为巴基斯坦当地妇女和青年带来了哪些改变。本集节目带来了一个真实、生动且独特的视角。


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晚上好,中国朋友们,你们好,非常高兴再次来到中国,来到广州与如此多元又杰出的观众朋友们、与来自中国不同地区以及世界各地的学子们对话。

我同中国的缘分由来已久,中国有句话叫千里之行,始于足下。我的中国之行第一步始于50年前,我当时17岁,是来自巴基斯坦拉合尔地区的一名学生。当时我带领一个友好团体访问中国,那是我第一次来到中国,实际上那是一次发现之旅,一次学习之旅,一次试图读懂中国的理解之旅。自那以后的50年间,我曾经前往美国接受本科和硕士教育,但我研究的对象都是中国。回国后,我成为一名学者,继而做记者,如今从政,但我从未停止过对中国的研究。过去50年间我来中国有百余次,我还建立了一个人文交流平台,中巴关系非常好,尤其是官方关系紧密,但我觉得还需要有一个平台能够让青年、女性、学生、社会团体、学界和媒体聚到一起。为此,我创建了巴中学会,还发行了一份叫做《友邻》的杂志,友邻在中文里的意思是好邻居,杂志很受欢迎,既有印刷版也有网络版,以中文和英语双语发行。

过去50年来,我有幸见证了新中国的不同阶段和她的历史性转型。比如,毛主席时代的中国。记得那是1970年,我搭乘巴基斯坦国际航空班机抵达上海。毛主席的那句话铿锵有力,鼓舞人心。他说,“世上无难事,只要肯登攀”。从那时起,中国就一直在勇攀高峰,不断发展,走向繁荣,迎接现代化,中国依靠自己的力量跻身于世界强国之列。接着,我见证了邓小平时代的中国,他说“要坚持实事求是”。中国今天已进入习近平主席领导下的新时代。2023年10月18日,我在北京出席了第三届“一带一路”国际合作高峰论坛,当时习主席强调了“一带一路”倡议的核心要义之一就是民心相通。他阐释了为何民心相通可以增进国家间的理解,习主席用了一个非常传神的类比,他说,“民心相通,奏响新时代的丝路乐章”。所以面对当今的转型时期,很多人问我“您如何看待中国?您怎样看待中国的进步?”法国总统马克龙在2023年4月份访问中国时,问了习近平主席这个问题,习主席告诉他了解今天的中国,要从了解中国的历史开始,了解中国历史不仅可以鉴过往,还能知今天看未来。

在我看来,中国历史上有两件大事可以很好地说明这点。

首先是丝绸之路。两千年前,中国的第一批外贸商人和旅行家在丝绸贸易的推动下首次走出国门,丝绸之路也因此得名。他们打通了贸易,传播了文化,实现了国家间乃至洲际的联通,他们穿过今天的印度和巴基斯坦一带,一路向西穿过中东、伊朗和阿拉伯国家,最终抵达了欧洲。与他们相向而行的,包括从北非出发的摩洛哥著名旅行家伊本·白图泰,还有意大利的马可·波罗,这就是全球化的发端。我认为中国通过商贸和文化把当时已知的世界连接了起来,让我们快进到十五世纪,当时出现了人类历史上最伟大的海军统帅之一航海家郑和。他先后七次出海航行从亚洲航抵非洲,沿途还经停了今天的印度次大陆,他统领着一支由数百艘船只组成的船队,带领两万七千名水手,没带领军队,没携带武器,没配备枪炮,而是致力于建立往来,促进商贸,广交朋友,这就是中国基因的一部分,即这种和平的沟通、交往和贸易。

所以今天的中国提出的“一带一路”倡议是对古丝绸之路的复兴,也是21世纪最大规模的外交和发展倡议,来自亚非拉欧的150多个国家,30多家国际组织都参与其中。过去十年间,中国在3000个项目中投资了一万亿美元,帮助四千万人脱贫。我们巴基斯坦作为中国的邻国非常幸运,因为该倡议的一大支柱核心或者说旗舰项目就是中巴经济走廊。十年前项目启动时,我曾担任中巴经济走廊议会委员会的主席,过去十年间 ,中国在中巴经济走廊合作项目上总投资达260亿美元,帮助近25万巴基斯坦人解决就业,电力项目发电量共计8000兆瓦,建设了约600公里的公路和高速路,也推动了当地青年人的就业和教育,约有两万八千名巴基斯坦学生来华留学。在巴基斯坦很多地方,中巴经济走廊改善了民生,尤其是女性的生活。在巴基斯坦的塔尔地区,那里邻近印度的拉贾斯坦邦,之前,当地妇女几乎从不离开家门,除了陪同孩子外出时,或者出门打水时。现在,她们开着自卸卡车,在塔尔地区开采煤炭用来发电并给全国的电网供电。这让我想起了毛主席的话,他曾这样评价女性,“妇女能顶半边天”。我觉得,妇女岂止能顶半边天,在我们国家,妇女发挥了更多作用,在这个背景下我们也见证了中国的变化。

我前面提到过,毛主席时代的建国大业,邓小平时代的改革开放,到今天习近平主席带领下的和平崛起。人们经常问我,“中国成功的要素是什么?中国是如何实现这一切的?”我总是说答案在于卓越的领导力、自我革新的能力、政策的延续性以及一个至关重要的基本准则即和平的外交政策。因为中国在崛起过程中从未寻求霸权,从未殖民他国,从未侵犯他国,从未侵略和占领过别的国家,这在人类历史上是绝无仅有的。所以要读懂中国,得着眼于民心相通。我很荣幸,当年我在巴基斯坦创建巴中学会时,或许是出于对和中国开展人文交流的兴趣,或许是对我跟中国的关系感兴趣,人们问我,“你怎么就能与中国建立如此深厚的关系呢?”我回答说,我和中国的感情不能用“一段关系”来定义,对我而言更像是“一段罗曼史”,这段缘分持续了五十多年,还会延续下去。

让我高兴的是我的儿子穆斯塔法曾去美国留学,如今他归国后也对中国充满了热情,他还去了北京大学进修。现在,我有一个六岁的小孙子,他叫谢尔沙,在我们语言中的意思是狮子王。每天早上我们有个小仪式,他会用中文跟我说早上好,问候我早安。各位观众,我想对你们说,你们非常幸运生活在这样一个激动人心的时代,整个世界都在经历转型,我认为有一个词你们应当时刻牢记于心,那就是学习。你们要去了解、研究中国,了解了中国,也就意味着(透过中国)了解了世界。

当今世界正在经历百年未有之大变局,而这些变革将贯穿我们一生。

祝大家一切顺利,读万卷书,享受知识,广交朋友,遍游天下,谢谢大家。



Along the Belt and Road: Journey to Modernization

Good evening and nihao to our Chinese friends! It's a great pleasure to be here again in China, in Guangzhou, and to be addressing this diverse and distinguished audience of students from different parts of China and different parts of the world. 
My connection with China is quite old. There's a Chinese saying that “the journey of 1,000 miles begins with the first step.”And for me, the first step was taken 50 years ago when I was a 17-year-old student from Lahore in Pakistan, heading a friendship group with China. And I came on my first journey, which, in fact, was a voyage of discovery of learning and of trying to understand what China is all about. And since that period, in the last 50 years, I went to America for my higher education and master's (degree),  but I studied also about China. Then I came back,  became an academic, then a journalist and now in politics.I continued my learning of China through my 100-plus visits to China in the last 50 years. And then also I established a platform for people-to-people connectivity, because we have very good relations, Pakistan and China, at the official level. But I thought there is a need for a platform that can bring together youth, women, students, civil society, academia, media, and the Pakistan-China Institute was formed, which has a magazine also called Youlin Magazine. Youlin means in Chinese good neighbors and it's a popular magazine, print and also web-magazine in Chinese and in English.
So in the last 50 years, I've been very fortunate to see different phases of China and its historic transformation. The China of Chairman Mao, whose words resonate with me when I landed in Shanghai on the Pakistan International Airlines plane in 1970. 
And he said, and that quotation is very powerful and inspiring, he said, “Nothing is hard in this world if you dare to scale the heights.” And since then, China has dared to scale the heights of progress, of development, of prosperity, of modernization, and become a world power in its own right. And then I saw the China of Deng Xiaoping who said, “Seek truth from facts.” And then, of course, today is the China of President Xi Jinping, and I was in Beijing on October 18th (2023) for the third Belt and Road Forum (for Int'l Cooperation), where President Xi Jinping focused on one of the core elements of the Belt and Road Initiative, which is people-to-people connectivity, how connecting people, their hearts and minds, connects countries. And he used a very nice term, he said this people-to-people connectivity leads to a symphony of friendship in the present era. So in this transformation, a lot of people ask,how do you understand China? How do you understand China's progress? This question was asked to President Xi Jinping by President Macron of France, when he came to China in April (2023), and President Xi Jinping told him that to understand China, you must first understand China's history. And China's history is quite a pointer to the past, and as a pointer to the future and the present.
I think two elements of China's history are very illustrative, in my view. 
First, the Silk Road. 2,000 years ago, the first traders, the first travelers from China, went across, trading in silk, it's called the Silk Road by the way, and moving together commerce, culture, connectivity, among countries and continents, parts of what is now India and Pakistan, and Middle East and Iran and Arab countries. They went all the way to Europe. Because on the other side,  you had from North Africa Ibn Battuta, the famous traveler coming from Morocco, on this route, (and) Marco Polo from Italy. So this was the beginnings of globalization I would say, with China connecting with what was then the existing world through commerce and culture. Fast forward to the 15th century, we have one of the greatest admirals in history – Admiral Zheng He. He goes on seven different voyages (from) one end of Asia to the other end of Africa in between stopping over, in what is now present day India subcontinent, and with a flotilla of hundreds of ships and 27,000 sailors, no soldier, no weapons, no guns, (but) connectivity, commercial trade, meeting people. So that is part of China's DNA: this peaceful communication, contact and trade.
And so when we talk of China today, we also have the Belt and Road Initiative, which is the revival of the ancient Silk Road, the biggest diplomatic and developmental initiative of the 21st century.Over 150 countries – Asia, Africa, Latin America, Europe, over 30 international organizations. In the last 10 years, China has invested one trillion dollars in 3,000 projects, lifting 40 million people out of poverty. And we in Pakistan, who are neighbors of China, are very fortunate, because one of the pillars, one of the pivots, one of the flagships of the BRI is the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), of which I was Chairman as parliamentary leader in the past when it began ten years ago.26 billion dollars of Chinese investment has taken place on CPEC projects in Pakistan in the last ten years. 250,000 Pakistanis have gotten jobs, 8,000 megawatts of electricity generated, 600 kilometers of roads and highways have been built, and it has led to employment for youth and education. 28,000 Pakistani students have been studying in China. And in large parts of Pakistan, it has helped in transforming people's lives, especially women. There's a part of Pakistan called Tharwhich is next to India's Rajasthan Province, where women never left their homes except to be with their children or just to maybe fetch water. Today, women are driving dumper trucks when they mine the coal in Thar, which is generating electricity, which in turn is feeding the national grid. That reminds me what Chairman Mao used to say about women:“Women hold half the sky.” I think they hold more than half the sky when it comes to our part of the world. And in this context, we see this change in China.
As I mentioned, under Chairman Mao, the revolution; under Deng Xiaoping, the reform; and the peaceful rise under Xi Jinping. People often ask, what are the key ingredients? How has China achieved that? I always say quality of leadership, the ability to do a course correction, continuity of policy, and a very important framework – having a peaceful foreign policy, because China is one country that has risen without conquest, without colonization, without aggression, without invasion, without occupation, which is quite unique in human history! So understanding China, the key is people-to-people connectivity. I've been very fortunate that when I started off this initiative in Pakistan, that even maybe this people-to-people connectivity and my relationship with China, people ask me,how have you forged this relationship with China? I said, it's not a relationship with China, it is a romance with China for the last 50 years, which is continuing.
And I'm very fortunate my son Mustafa who has been educating in the United States, he came back. He also developed this passion for China and he's studied in Peking University. And now I have a six-year-old grandson,  his name is Shershah which means in our language Lion King. It's a great sight in the morning when he says to me zaoshanghao, how are you and good morning,  zaoshanghao. So you know he's learning Chinese also. And for you, I could only say that you are very fortunate living in such exciting times when the whole world is being transformed. The one word which I think you should always carry from your studies here is xuexi - study, learn about China. And learning about China means learning about the world, which is being transformed in our lifetime in a mannerwhich we haven't seen for centuries. 
I wish you all the best, and study hard, enjoy, learn, meet people and travel. Thank you very much!