On September 10, 2012, Premier Wen Jiabao visited the new campus of China Foreign Affairs University (CFAU) in Changping District, Beijing. There Wen attended the inauguration ceremony of a bronze statue of Zhou Enlai and Chen Yi.

China Foreign Affairs University (CFAU) was founded at the initiative of Zhou Enlai in 1955, who also inscribed the school name in person. Chen Yi, the then Foreign Minister, had been its President for years. Over the past 57 years, CFAU has produced a large number of foreign affairs professionals including nearly 300 ambassadors, which gives the university the fame as the "cradle of China's diplomats".

The statue is 4.5 meters high, designed according to the photo of Zhou Enlai and Chen Yi taken when they were on a visit to South Asia in 1964.

Premier Wen unveiled the statue. All present sang the National Anthem. Some students affectionately recited their own poem "Remember Forever" to music in deep memory of the revolutionaries and diplomats of the older generation and expressed their firm determination to dedicate themselves to the country's diplomatic cause and serve the country.

Later, Wen addressed the students and faculty at the auditorium. Wen recalled the time when Old China was greatly humiliated, carved up and deprived of diplomacy. The Chinese government and its people more than others cherish the hard-earned national sovereignty and pride and stick to them even in severely harsh and difficult times. Diaoyu Islands are the inherent Chinese territory. The Chinese government and its people will never make any concessions on issues of national sovereignty and territory.

Wen said that China takes the course of mutual benefit and win-for-all, which follows the trend of globalization and proves to be the only right choice for coping with international financial crisis and other challenges. Over the years China's has advocated and promoted a series of important cooperative measures with remarkable effects. Those efforts have contributed to China's economic development and to world economic recovery and growth.

Wen pointed out that the hot issues in the present-day world originate from complicated factors, change much faster and have a wider impact. China adheres to the independent foreign policy of peace, makes judgments based on facts, forms no alliances with any country or any group of countries, participates actively in international cooperation in security and conscientiously safeguards its national interest and welfare of the people in the world.

As the biggest developing country in the world, Wen noted, China's endeavor for comprehensive sustainable development is a great undertaking in human's history, the impact of which is sure to be extensive and far-reaching. China will strengthen its exchanges and cooperation with other countries and work consistently for worldwide sustainable development.

Wen stressed that the Chinese people should present their country more enthusiastically, more actively and more objectively, learn from and draw on all the fine legacies in human civilization, respect and maintain cultural diversity, expand friendly exchanges with other countries so that mutual understanding can be enhanced.

Wen sincerely hoped that CFAU will develop itself with first-class faculty, first-class disciplines and first-class philosophy so that more first-class talents will graduate and work for the nation's foreign affairs. All its students and faculty should maintain and follow its fine traditions and strive untiringly for higher goals.

Wen concluded by hailing Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Chen Yi and other veteran revolutionaries who founded the People's Republic of China, ended the more-than-one-hundred-year history of humiliation and laid the foundation for New China's diplomacy. Their great deeds will be remembered and their ideology, characters and spirit will be learnt, inherited and passed forward by all. Thanks to the hard struggle of several generations, China today stands firmly in the east of the world and attracts unprecedented attention from the international community. In future, China will definitely play a bigger role. China's diplomacy has much room for development. The Chinese people should seize the great opportunity and work together to move the nation's diplomacy forward.

Premier Wen also met with the relatives of Zhou Enlai and Chen Yi and other senior officials working in foreign affairs and expressed his high respects and warm greetings to them and all those working on the diplomatic front.

Also at the event were Liu Yunshan, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee and head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, State Councilor Dai Bingguo, Comrade Tang Jiaxuan, Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, Education Minister Yuan Guiren, and Acting Mayor of Beijing Wang Anshun.