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Rabat – Dr. Nasser Bouchiba, professor and sinologist, explored the last 60 years of Morocco’s and China’s historic relationship at his latest book’s launch.
Bouchiba presented his most recent work, “History of the Relations between Morocco and China (1958-2018),” at the Chinese Cultural Centre in Rabat on May 6. It tracks the last 60 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
With his work, the professor aims to “enrich the existing literature studies between China and African countries,” he told Morocco World News.
Displaying a mastery of the language, Bouchiba originally wrote the book in Chinese, translating it into Arabic and French afterwards. The professor, successfully, uses clear and simple language to tackle a topic that usually requires a high level of technicality.
Sensing the “unprecedented rise” in political, economic, and cultural exchanges between the two countries following Morocco’s King Mohammed VI’s historic visit to China in 2016, encouraged Bouchiba, as a researcher at Sun Yat-sen University, to write a book dwelling on this particular relationship.
It has been his dream to write the book since 1995 when he “first went to Beijing to finish [his] studies,” he explained to MWN, “Today, with the publication of this book, this dream has been realized.”
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The two countries enjoy a special kind of relationship, considering that “the links between Morocco and China date for a very long time, of more than one thousand years,” he explained.
Even more so when “this relationship has always been permeated by mutual respect and non-interference in the internal affairs of others, but especially by the need for complementarity of economies between Morocco and China,” Bouchiba concluded.
Cultural counselor of the Chinese Embassy in Morocco, Dr. Dongyun Chen, was also present at the launch.
Speaking of the event, Dr. Chen explained that it “is a meeting between Chinese speaking students, some professors, publishing houses responsibles, journalists, and the author of the book, Dr. Nasser Bouchiba,” whom she called “an old friend of the Embassy.”
Bouchiba is notable for his work in furthering cross-cultural awareness between the two countries. The professor is the founder of the association of African-Chinese cooperation for development, which he opened “to close the gap between China, the African world… and Morocco,” Dr. Chen told MWN.
The directress described the book as “information rich,” containing “very important sources [and] references.”
The professor said that his next work, which he hopes to publish next year, will deal with China’s unprecedented-in-scale poverty alleviation campaign.
