On November 18, 2018, Chinese President Xi Jinping started a state visit to Brunei, which not only marks a new stage of bilateral relations, but also sets an example again for big countries and small countries to live in harmony and develop together.

Brunei Darussalam is ASEAN's smallest economy by size. According to the World Economy Outlook released by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in October 2018, Brunei's GDP in 2017 totaled 12.1 billion US dollars, ranking it approximately 130th among global economies.

However, Brunei is a high-income developing country, with a GDP per capita of nearly 30,000 US dollars, ranking in the top 30 globally. With a population of over 400,000, Brunei is only about the size of a small Chinese city. According to the World Bank's 2015 report titled East Asia's Changing Urban Landscape, China has more than 600 cities with a population of at least 100,000 people.

China treats all countries equally regardless of their geography, population and culture. As for Brunei, despite its differences with China in relation to economy and size, China is following the same rules. In 2013, the two countries decided to upgrade their bilateral relations to the strategic cooperative relationship. Since the 2008 international financial crisis, Brunei's economic growth rate has declined, and it was once negative during 2013-2016. Since 2017, the economic cooperation between China and Brunei has played a role in boosting Brunei's economic growth.

For example, Chinese enterprises' foreign direct investment in Brunei reached 220 million US dollars in 2017, up nearly 20 million US dollars from 2016 and 150 million US dollars from 2015, according to the 2017 China Foreign Direct Investment Statistical Bulletin. At the same time, Brunei's foreign direct investment in China was 65.7 million US dollars in 2016, surpassing those of Indonesia and Thailand.

People-to-people and cultural exchanges between the two sides are also hot. Most notably, China became Brunei's largest source of international tourists. According to Brunei's Ministry of Primary Resources and Tourism, China was among the top five countries in terms of tourists to Brunei for the first quarter of 2018 due to the increase of air connectivity from chartered flights with 26.2 percent share, followed by Malaysia at 21.5 percent. As a result, Chinese tourists to Brunei might increase to more than 70,000 in 2018.

In order to further promote the development of bilateral relations, President Xi published a signed article titled "Jointly write a new chapter of China-Brunei relations" on November 17, the eve of his state visit to Brunei, saying that the bilateral relationship has entered its best period in history.

President Xi said in the article that China and Brunei are respectively in the critical period of their national development, and the two sides should push for better development of bilateral relations through deepening cooperation.

Looking ahead, China will continue to help Brunei diversify its economy and build key cooperation projects. China encourages companies to invest in Brunei, and welcomes Brunei to increase exports of quality products to China. President Xi promised that China will also continue to deepen people-to-people and cultural exchanges, support airlines of the two countries to open more direct flights and encourage Chinese tourists to travel Brunei.

Brunei is an important partner of China in advancing the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road initiative. The history of cooperation between China and Brunei can be traced back to 2,000 years ago in the Han Dynasty, and Zheng He's fleet visited Boni in the early Ming Dynasty, illustrating that China and Brunei have very close relations of cooperation.

This kind of common historic memory will play a positive role in the future cooperation between the two countries. Also, Brunei is the key to the Indo-Pacific region and is of vital importance to promote regional peace and stability.

China is willing to work with Brunei to uphold multilateralism and actively promote inclusive globalization. We believe that the bilateral relationship will enter into a new stage of development after President Xi's state visit.