Fifty years ago today, China and Malta established diplomatic ties, which was a landmark decision that opened a brand-new chapter in China-Malta relations. Recently, I have been reading a book of the oral recollections of former Maltese Ambassador to China Clifford Borg-Marks. I am deeply impressed by what he said about the visionary decision made 50 years ago by the older generation of Chinese and Maltese leaders. According to Ambassador Borg-Marks, China made an enormous effort to help Malta’s economic transition after the two countries established diplomatic ties in 1972, by helping Malta build a dry dock with a capacity of 300,000 tons, which provided essential and timely support for Malta. What’s more, he later found out when he was in China that back then, China was in fact building this large and technically demanding dry dock for Malta before even building one in China itself. The dry dock has since become widely known in Malta and been fondly referred to as “Red China Dock” by the Maltese. It stands as a testimony to the friendship between China and Malta and to a long-standing tradition of China’s diplomacy – China would always be there when a friend needs help,...