Castro Presents Jose Marti Order to Jiang Zemin FL2211024893 Havana Cuba Vision Network in Spanish 0100 GMT 22 Nov 93 FL2211024893 Havana Cuba Vision Network Spanish BFN [Speech by President Fidel Castro at the presentation of the Jose Marti Order to PRC President Jiang Zemin, at Revolution Palace, Havana on 21 November -- recorded] [Text] Dear Comrade Jiang Zemin, president of the People's Republic of China, distinguished members of the Chinese delegation, guests: China is a country with a very ancient culture. No other civilization in the world has lasted so long on the same soil. China's contributions to knowledge and human history have been extraordinary. Just because it is ancient, however, does not mean that China is declining. On the contrary, China is being reborn. China is beginning anew, and with greater vigor than ever in history, as an eternal China. The most remarkable thing in that long history is the fact that China is no longer the China of the feudal lords, nor the constant victim of the aggressions of colonial and imperial powers. Henceforth, no one will be able to scorn and humiliate China. This is the new China that emerges with the victorious national liberation struggles and the socialist revolution. Everything was forged through feats of heroism and long marches, which were exploits unsurpassable in human history. Everything was carried out under the immortal ideas of Marxism-Leninism and their wise application [words indistinct] of China. Eternal glory to the Communist Party, to its founders and leaders, and to the heroic population capable of such a feat. Glory and honor, too, and most rightfully so, to the great revolutionary strategist, Mao Zedong. The path China has had to travel following liberation has been long, difficult, and risky in a world where imperialism exercised and still exercises power and hegemonic influence. The Chinese Communists, as they themselves admit, also had to struggle against their own mistakes. It is up to them, not us, to judge that. What is an unquestionable and certain fact is that the Chinese people are indissolubly united around their revolutionary vanguard today. Colossal successes have been attained. The era of disasters and famines has been left behind. Only socialism could have been capable of the miracle of feeding; clothing; providing with footwear, jobs, education, and healthcare; raising life expectancy to 70; and providing decorous shelter for more than 1 billion human beings in a minute portion of the planet's arable land. Thanks to such a feat at this difficult and critical time [words indistinct] for the world's peoples, in China over one-fifth of humanity remains under the banner of socialism. China claims, and most rightfully, its right to build a socialism with Chinese peculiarities, and aspires to seeing the peaceful return of its territories of Macao, Hong Kong, and Taiwan to the nation, in compliance with international agreements, norms, and rights, adopting the intelligent and realistic principle of one nation/two systems. China is resolutely opposed to any meddling whatsoever in its internal affairs or those of any other country. China considers itself -- and this honors us -- a Third World country, and is interested in the development of that Third World, as being an element essential to the progress, stability, and peace of the world of the future. These just aspirations have our full support. China is moving forward and making solid progress. This satisfies and encourages us all. It is a great honor, Comrade Jiang Zemin, to have the friendship of the Chinese people. Your visit, which will undoubtedly go down in history as an incomparable gesture of friendship and brotherhood, is a great honor. For this reason, and for your services and faithfulness to the cause of socialism -- a cause to which you devoted your life from a very early age, when the struggle against foreign occupation was still underway -- our people have wished, and our Council of State has decided, to present to you our revolutionary fatherland's highest decoration, the order that bears the beloved and immortal name of Jose Marti. Please receive it as one more proof of the feelings of admiration and affection of the Cuban people toward China, its beautiful history, and its heroic people. Thank you very much. [applause]