Chinese diplomats, South Sudanese students exchange views on Chinese modernization
By Denis Elamu
The Chinese embassy in South Sudan on Thursday held an exchange event, to share views on Chinese modernization with the students and scholars at the University in South Sudan.
The exchange event organized under the theme “inspiration of Chinese modernization to South Sudan”, gave opportunity to students to submit their reflections and insights on Chinese modernization and China’s development path from multiple dimensions, such as economy, science and technology, culture and social development.
Robert Mayom Kuoirot Deng, Vice Chancellor of the University of Juba, said that the path of Chinese modernization and development has potential to inspire South Sudanese society to work hard to realize the dream of social-economic transformation.
“As a fourth world country, we can benefit from the most successful country in the world, the only way we can do it is for us to send scholars there, some of our brilliant students are here,” Mayom said in Juba, the capital of South Sudan.
The students and scholars watched videos depicting daily life at Peking University and also the social and economic developments in Beijing, the Chinese capital.
“Looking at the films, I was first of all intrigued by one thing which I saw, ‘how the Chinese leaders think’ and I would like to have a copy of that book, because it is the thinking of the leaders, which makes China what it is now, so I would like to get into their brains and see how they think and maybe I will borrow few ideas from their thoughts,” Mayom said.
Ma Qiang, Chinese Ambassador to South Sudan while commenting on the impact of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in transforming modern China, commended the leadership of the CCP for eradicating poverty in China.
He said that China had nearly one hundred million people living in poverty in 2012, adding that this was reduced to zero by the end of 2020.
“The CCP and the Chinese government accomplished this huge task in eight years, lifting over 30,000 rural residents out of extreme poverty every single day,” Ma said.
He noted that China and South Sudan enjoy close relations and exchanges at various levels are frequent, including cooperation across all fields.
China is currently South Sudan’s largest source of investment and one of its major trading partners.
In 2024, the total import and export volume between China and South Sudan reached 466 million U.S dollars.
Ma also disclosed that the new application round for Chinese government scholarships to South Sudanese will open in November, this year.
Zhang Zheng, attache at the Chinese embassy in South Sudan said the core spirit and essence of Chinese modernization involves working collectively with marginalized nations to fight hunger, poverty and confronting together development challenges.
“The spirit of Chinese modernization is that we love to share our experience with our friends, because we believe by sharing in unity we shall fight against poverty, hunger and global challenges, and by sharing we shall make the world a better place to live,” Zhang said.
Natalie Kon Justine, a student at the college of wildlife and conservation at the University of Juba, said he is a witness to the enduring support of the Chinese government and people to South Sudan.
In January 2025, members of the 12th batch of the Chinese medical team in South Sudan visited Kon’s village of Juba Nabari, where they provided free medical consultation and treatment to his mother and his community.
“I have witnessed the Chinese medical team visiting orphanages and donating food and non-food items, some of them reached to the extent of visiting my community in Juba Nabari, I was surprised to see them and our community leader was happy to witness the impact their visit had on the community,” Kon said.
