Editor's Note: For those who consider China as their second home, even at the highest level, any visit is a sort of homecoming. "True friends stay with you no matter the distance or time that separates you from them," the saying goes. For this edition of Leaders Talk, CMG's Zou Yun sat down with former Ethiopian President Mulatu Teshome on the sidelines of the 2023 Understanding China Conference in Guangzhou held early December. Teshome still vividly remembers his time as an international student in Beijing and later as an Ambassador to China and looks back at China's socioeconomic development since the beginning of its reform and opening-up. "It has been remarkable," he notes, making China's modernization a reality and a reference for Ethiopia. He says that the time-honored China-Ethiopia relations have turned into an "all-weather" comprehensive strategic partnership over time, which has substantially benefitted his country. He praises Chinese President Xi Jinping's "humility and sincerity" and "people-centered" approach, acknowledging that China has always treated Ethiopia on an equal footing and rejecting the so-called "debt-trap" or "strings attached" allegations. Teshome wraps up the interview with a few parting phrases in Chinese, a testament to his enduring feelings for China and the Chinese people.