100 Chinese and 10 foreigners awarded medals as reform pioneers
January 8, 2019 Category China News Round-up, Weekly
At a grand gathering to celebrate the 40th anniversary of China’s reform and opening-up in Beijing, 100 Chinese were awarded Reform Pioneer medals and 10 foreigners received China Reform Friendship medals, marking China’s acknowledgement of high achievers and the sacrifices they made to help realize the country’s remarkable progress. Chinese President Xi Jinping and other national leaders attended the event, while Premier Li Keqiang presided over the ceremony. The recipients included Yuan Longping, a Chinese agronomist and educator, well-known for developing the first hybrid rice varieties during the 1970s and pharmaceutical chemist Tu Youyou, co-winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Some medals were given posthumously, including to aircraft designer Luo Yang, who headed the production and design of the Shenyang J-15 fighter jet. istinguished private entrepreneurs were also recognized, Jack Ma, Executive Chairman of the Alibaba Group and Pony Ma, Chairman and CEO of Tencent were awarded medals. “These people helped China to develop top IT companies in the world, and they are the source of China’s confidence when it comes to competing with the West in the IT sector. The success of these people and their companies prove that China’s reform and opening-up brought great opportunities and development to the private sector,” said Bai Ming, Research Fellow at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation.
The 10 foreigners presented with China Reform Friendship medals included Singapore’s late founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew; Konosuke Matsushita, Founder of Panasonic; Maurice R. Greenberg, former Chairman of American International Group (AIG); and Juan Antonio Samaranch, former International Olympic Committee President. World Economic Forum (WEF) Executive Chairman Klaus Schwab; author Robert Kuhn; former Japanese Prime Minister Masayoshi Ohira; healthcare advocate Alain Mérieux; factory manager Werner Gerich; and British trade pioneer Stephen Perry also received the medal.
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