In a ceremony at SNU’s Central Library attended by university president Sung Nak-in and 130 students, Chinese Ambassador Qiu Guohong said in a speech that the Chinese Communist Party aims to undertake a comprehensive reform of the state institutions, legal system and society, to spread the benefits to the 1.3 billion people.

The ambassador urged the participation of Asian countries in China’s ambitious New Silk Road project, which he argued would facilitate regional security cooperation and cultural collaboration.

While mentioning the signing of the Korea-China Free Trade Agreement on June 1 and Korea’s membership in the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, Qiu added that the two countries would push forward their economic cooperation beyond their bilateral markets to the Asia-Pacific region.

Qiu also noted that annual two-way tourism had surpassed 10 million, with 6.3 million Chinese tourists visiting Korea last year, a nearly 40 percent on-year increase. He predicted that the recent drop in the number of Chinese visitors due to the Middle East respiratory syndrome would recover by the fall.

By Joel Lee (joel@heraldcorp.com)