Raúl Castro will receive the Medal of Friendship awarded by China

September 29, 2019

The First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, Raúl Castro, will be one of 42 personalities that next Sunday the President of China, Xi Jinping, will honor on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of that country's birth as a republic.

Among the six international honorees, the Caribbean leader will receive the award as a ratification of the excellent state of 59 years of uninterrupted relations between La Habana and Beijing.

Raúl Castro will receive the Medal of Friendship for his great contribution and support to the modernization of the socialist cause of the Asian country, promoting bilateral exchanges and cooperation, as well as safeguarding world peace.

The award is a golden and blue medal featuring the design of a dove in flight, the Earth, and two clasped hands surrounded by lotuses in all their splendor, which symbolizes harmony and friendship between the people of the Asian giant and others from abroad. It is adorned with a chain with knots in traditional Chinese style, leaves, peonies, jade, and orchids.

The medal is part of the recognition system created in 2017 and is the highest honor that the President confers on foreign dignitaries and friends for the aforementioned merits. Russian leader Vladimir Putin was the first to receive it in June 2018.

The ceremony will take place in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing and, furthermore, the head of state will deliver a speech, indicates the Xinhua agency.

Xi will present the medals of the Republic and Friendship, plus other national honorary titles after signing a decree on the 17th that approves such a decision.

Next October 1st marks 70 years since the founding of the People's Republic of China and the Asian giant will celebrate it with a military review in Tian Anmen Square, where the Army will display new domestically produced weapons, not aimed at any specific country. According to what was announced, it will be the largest march of its kind in the last two decades.

On that date in 1949, the late leader Mao Zedong proclaimed the founding of the People's Republic of China during a ceremony in the iconic square, where he declared victory in the War of Liberation.

Policies adopted since then, the takeoff grounded in the 1979 opening plus subsequent internal reforms and the effort of its people, made this country the largest recipient of direct foreign investment and the second power in the world with rapid socioeconomic transformation.