Shal­iza?Has­sanali

Pres­i­dent of Chi­na Xi Jin­ping has hailed T&T for host­ing a grand wel­come re­cep­tion at the Pi­ar­co In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port on Fri­day.Xi praised the Gov­ern­ment as he paid a cour­tesy call on the Speak­er and Sen­ate Pres­i­dent at the Par­lia­ment in Port-of-Spain, yes­ter­day.Xi was wel­comed by Sen­ate Pres­i­dent Tim­o­thy Hamel-Smith, Speak­er Wade Mark, gov­ern­ment min­is­ters and Op­po­si­tion Chief Whip Mar­lene Mc­Don­ald, af­ter which he signed the Par­lia­ment book.

Bear­ing gifts, Xi brought two blue-and-white vas­es of dif­fer­ent de­signs, which were giv­en to Hamel-Smith and Mark.Mark and Hamel-Smith rec­i­p­ro­cat­ed by giv­ing a paint­ing and a Coat of Arms plaque.In his brief ad­dress, Xi said, "It is a plea­sure to be here. Yes­ter­day, I was giv­en a grand re­cep­tion at the Pi­ar­co Air­port."Hamel-Smith spoke of his en­light­en­ing vis­it to Chi­na in 2012, say­ing that the peo­ple were hum­ble and warm.

"I am cer­tain that when the his­to­ry of your term is writ­ten it will be re­called as one in which the peo­ple's dreams were achieved dur­ing that era," Hamel-Smith said.Mark gave Xi a tour of the Par­lia­ment, telling him this was where the Gov­ern­ment and Op­po­si­tion mem­bers met reg­u­lar­ly to de­bate and pass leg­is­la­tion for the ben­e­fit of cit­i­zens. See Pages A14, A15.