On January 11, 2023, Director-General of the Department of Asian Affairs of the Foreign Ministry Liu Jinsong met with Ambassador of Timor-Leste to China Abrao Dos Santos, and briefed him on China's pandemic response policies. They also exchanged views on bilateral relations, among other topics.

Liu Jinsong said, the Chinese government improves and re-calibrates COVID response measures in light of the changing situation. At present, the overall pandemic situation in China is taking a favorable turn. In the future, China's economic and social vitality will be further unleashed, exchanges between Chinese and foreign personnel will be more convenient, and the Belt and Road cooperation and other major economic, trade and investment exchanges will show a more robust momentum. All these will bring greater development opportunities to Timor-Leste and other Asian countries.

Liu Jinsong said, China always upholds the philosophy of putting people and life first, conducts more targeted and science-based prevention and control, and shares the genome data of the virus with the World Health Organization in a timely and earnest manner. In fact, the main variant now spreading in China has previously been found elsewhere, and no new variant is found in China. Previous variants such as Delta and Omicron came in from overseas. It is clearly double standards for some countries to make groundless accusations against China's prevention and control policies while ignoring their own problems. In his speech at the UN General Assembly last year, President Jose Ramos-Horta sharply pointed out that developing countries such as Timor-Leste see the contrasting reactions of the Western countries to the Russia-Ukraine conflict and other regional conflicts as double standards. It seems that it's difficult for them to quit this old habit and they will repeat the old tricks on different issues. Noting that Timor-Leste is a friendly neighbor of China, Liu Jinsong said that China believes that the government and people of Timor-Leste will understand and support China's pandemic prevention policy and open its door to warmly welcome Chinese tourists. The development of China-Timor-Leste relations is a vivid portrayal of mutual respect and treating each other as equals between big and small countries. China is ready to strengthen high-level exchanges with Timor-Leste, carry out livelihood and capacity-building projects in such major fields as agriculture, education, culture, and oil and gas in light of the country's actual development demands, and support Timor-Leste's modernization drive without reservation. He said that China will encourage more enterprises to invest and do business in Timor-Leste and more friends from Timor-Leste are welcome to China to do business, study, visit or travel. "The whole year's work depends on a good start in spring." There is a saying in both China and Timor-Leste, "Where there is a will, there is a way." China is ready to work with Timor-Leste to seize opportunities and lose no time to continuously deepen practical cooperation in various fields, so as to bring more tangible benefits to the two peoples.

Santos said, what he has seen and heard in China over the past three years as Ambassador to China has made him deeply admire China's pandemic prevention policy. China's improvement and re-calibration of pandemic prevention and control are of great significance to regional and global economic development. Timor-Leste looks forward to expanding personnel exchanges with China and will not take any restrictive measures against Chinese tourists. Timor-Leste firmly believes that under the leadership of the Communist Party of China with General Secretary Xi Jinping at the core, the Chinese modernization drive will surely see more brilliant achievements and bring greater development opportunities to neighboring countries, including Timor-Leste. Timor-Leste always adheres to the principle of non-interference in internal affairs and respects the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of all countries. Timor-Leste will continue to firmly abide by the one-China principle and this position will not change. Timor-Leste looks forward to continuing close high-level exchanges with China, thanks China for its assistance in the process of agricultural modernization in the country, and stands ready to expand areas of bilateral cooperation and push for more fruitful results in the China-Timor-Leste comprehensive partnership of good-neighborly friendship, mutual trust and mutual benefit.