Xi's visit to Brazil to further strengthen bond of cultural, people-to-people exchanges: spokesperson

BEIJING -- People from all walks of life committed to China-Brazil friendship in Brazil look forward to Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to the country and stand ready to make further contribution to deepening Brazil-China friendship, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said Tuesday.

Spokesperson Lin Jian made the remarks when asked to share more details about Xi's reply to letters from friendly personages in Brazil, which received extensive and positive response.

President Xi recently replied to letters from over 100 friendly personages from Brazil, including Enrique Teixeira, former deputy mayor of Campinas, Sao Paulo State, the Brazil-China Friendship Association, teachers and students from the University of Sao Paulo and Sao Paulo State University, and the Copacabana Fort Orchestra in Rio de Janeiro, encouraging them to continue to contribute to China-Brazil friendship, Lin said.

"People from all walks of life committed to China-Brazil friendship in Brazil said that they are deeply inspired by the letter," he added.

Lin said that China and Brazil enjoy time-honored friendship that is ever-flowing like the Yangtze River and the Amazon River, and that has brought the two countries close together despite being thousands of miles apart geographically.

About 200 years ago, the first group of Chinese tea farmers traveled across the ocean to grow and teach the art of tea in Brazil. The seed of friendship they sowed back then has grown tall and borne fruit. The friendship between the people has always been a source of driving forces for the growth of China-Brazil relations, he added.

We believe that Xi's upcoming state visit to Brazil will further strengthen the bond of cultural and people-to-people exchanges between the two countries and write a new chapter of China-Brazil friendship that surmounts mountains and oceans, Lin said.

"We welcome more Brazilian friends to visit China and experience the vibrancy of Chinese modernization," Lin said.