Chinese President Xi Jinping has encouraged a Bangladeshi girl, who was born with the help of doctors from Chinese naval hospital ship Peace Ark in 2010, to study hard, pursue her dream and carry forward the traditional friendship between the two countries.

In a recent reply letter to Alifa Chin, Xi wished her good health and progress in study, and wished her family happiness, days ahead of International Children's Day that falls on June 1 annually.

The girl's father named her after "Chin," which means "China" in the Bengali language, as a gesture of gratitude, after her mother Jannatul Ferdous, who was then diagnosed with a serious heart problem and in critical condition, delivered the baby safely following a cesarean operation performed by doctors of the Chinese hospital ship.

Xi said that Chin's personal experience, as told in her letter, is a vivid example of the friendship between China and Bangladesh.

Since ancient times, the peoples of China and Bangladesh have been "good neighbors" and "good friends," with a history of millennial friendly exchanges, he said.

More than 600 years ago, the Treasure Ship of Zheng He, a Chinese navigator of the Ming Dynasty, visited what would become Bangladesh twice, sowing the seeds of friendship between the two peoples.

More than 600 years later, during a visit of the Peace Ark of the Chinese navy, Chinese female military doctors helped Chin's mother out of danger with a safe childbirth at the port of Chittagong, and she was named after the word of "China" in the Bengali language, writing a new touching chapter of China-Bangladesh friendship, said Xi.

The Chinese president said he was glad to learn that Chin aspires to become an ambassador of friendship between the two countries and wants to study medicine in China so as to save lives just like Sheng Ruifang, one of the female military doctors. To Chin, Sheng is known as "Chinese mom."  

Chin described the day she received the letter from President Xi as a special day.

She told CGTN that she will study hard just like what President Xi wrote in the letter, and become a doctor like her "Chinese mom."

(Cover: Alifa Chin (R) and her brother walk down an alley in Dhaka, Bangladesh, November 28, 2022. /Xinhua)