Deng
Xiaoping's daughter here
A delegation representing the China Association for International
Friendly Contact (CAIFC) headed by Madam Xiao Rong called on Foreign
Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar yesterday.
Madam
Rong is the daughter of Deng Xiaoping the late leader of Modern
China. This is Madam Rong's first visit to South Asia and she selected
Sri Lanka as the first country to be visited by her as she had from
her childhood a keen desire to visit Sri Lanka, a press release
from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated.
The
purpose of her visit is to promote Sri Lanka-China relations particularly
in the context of people-to-people contact. She recalled having
been in the greeting party, as a young girl, which received the
late Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike on her first visit to
China.
During
her middle school years she learnt traditional Sri Lankan dances
and had read about and seen pictures of Sri Lanka. In her own words
she had "brilliant impressions" of Sri Lanka which nurtured
her wish to visit the country. She said that Sirimavo Bandaranaike
was a "household name" in China. Madam Rong, after Girls’
middle school, worked for three years in a rural village, later
studied medicine and graduated from the Beijing Medical College.
In
the early 80s she worked as a diplomatic officer in the Chinese
Embassy in Washington D.C. She was a deputy to the Eighth National
People's Congress and an Executive Member of the Sixth All China
Women's federation. She is now Vice Chairperson of the Sino-Russia
Committee for Peace, Friendship and Development, Executive President
of the Beijing Music Festival, a member of the Chinese Writers’
Association, author of many newspaper and magazine articles and
in 1993 wrote a biography titled "My Father Deng Xiaoping"
which has been translated into Japanese, Russian, English, French,
Korean, Thai and Dutch. Madam Rong gifted a copy of this book to
Foreign Minister Kadirgamar. |