Two Serbian experts recently weighed in on the important messages Chinese President Xi Jinping sent out in his 2025 New Year Address, including China's pursuit of high-quality development across diverse sectors, particularly its leadership in electric vehicles, and its commitment to realizing China's complete reunification.
They also noted in Xi's address the active role China plays in global initiatives like the Belt and Road Initiative and the country's continued focus on international cooperation and technological innovation.
"I saw four key highlights in President Xi's New Year Address. I would say that the first one was the focus on high-quality development that China has been pursuing pretty much without frontiers, be it in space, the maritime, deep sea, be it on the ground, underground, in agriculture, in AI, in quantum computing. We have seen China really having fantastic success in producing [electric] vehicles and becoming a world leader. The third, I would say, message that President Xi has sent is, of course, regarding Taiwan and China's focus, on the reunification, the road to reunification," said Aleksandar Mitic, a research fellow at the Center for Belt And Road Studies and Institute of International Politics and Economics, in Belgrade.
"President Xi also pointed out that China actively participated in all global initiatives from the SCO to the G20. China has its Belt and Road Initiative, which most of the world is participating in. What can be expected is that China will continue to promote international cooperation, and the production of high-tech goods which serve the people," said Nebojsa Terzic, co-owner of Ningbo Xiangmiao Technology.
Serbian experts praise Xi's New Year Address highlighting China's high-quality development, global leadership
A Brazilian national who was deported by the United States in January this year recounted the discriminatory and inhumane treatment he encountered during the repatriation in an interview with China Central Television (CCTV).
Jefferson Faustino was among the 88 deported Brazilians sent by a charter flight from the U.S. to Manaus, a city in northern Brazil, on Jan 24.
During dozens of hours of flight, they were handcuffed, shackled, and denied food and bathroom, and they almost lost their lives to an air conditioning fault, according to Faustino.
"They gave us water in very small bottles on the plane. And I couldn't drink it, because my hands were cuffed to the waist chain. So I had to bend down hard and squash the bottle to spray water into my mouth, because otherwise I wouldn't be able to reach the water at all. Even by doing so, I couldn't get water. When I squeeze the bottle, the water sprayed out and soaked me all over. In the 48 hours of repatriation, they distributed food only one time. It was a spoiled sandwich. The sandwich they gave turned purplish color. I was starving. What could I do? I had to eat," Faustino said.
"In the 48 hours of repatriation, they distributed food only one time. It was a spoiled sandwich. The sandwich they gave me was purple. I was starving. What could I do? I had to eat," he added.
Meanwhile, the American crew enjoyed fresh food and water, Faustino told CCTV.
"No, they had very good food. Every meal, they went over there to heat up box lunches and drink water. The cabin cabinets were full of lunch boxes, full of food, but they didn't give us that food," he said.
The Brazilian deportees protested the unfair treatment and asked for the food and water, but they were not given a response, because of the language barrier, Faustino recalled.
"Yes, we asked. We spoke loudly to them, but the crew didn't speak Portuguese or Spanish, only English. It's a humiliation to us the Brazilians, because we didn't have food and couldn't use the bathroom. The children were crying," he said.
After the plane arrived in Manaus, the air conditioning system broke down and the crew got off the plane, leaving the deportees suffocating in the enclosure.
"People couldn't breathe. The cabin was out of air. I managed to open an emergency exit door and shouted to the police: 'Help! Help! Help!' I yelled for help, asking them to come and save us, because I thought I was dying, I was dying," Faustino said.
The Brazilian government deemed this treatment "degrading" and "unacceptable", with the country's foreign ministry summoning the charge d'affaires of the U.S. Embassy to request an explanation over the issue on Jan 26.
"The U.S. government should be held accountable. Why didn't they train these people responsible for transporting deportees. Since the Trump administration came to power, it has created conflicts in American society and adopted policies that are completely against democracy and public opinion, disrupting relations between the U.S. and its economic and political partners," said Rinaldo Leal, a Brazilian lawyer.
U.S. President Donald Trump signed on his inauguration day an executive order that called for mass deportations of undocumented migrants. Since then, raids and deportations of undocumented migrants, especially those from Latin America, have continued to ramp up.
Brazilian deportee recounts inhumane treatment during flight from US
Brazilian deportee recounts inhumane treatment during flight from US
