Xi's stories: Oil painting promotes China-African friendship
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During a state visit to China in June 2014, Republic of Congo President Denis Sassou Nguesso presented the oil painting "Industrious Family" to President Xi Jinping in Beijing.

Chinese President Xi Jinping (front) delivers a speech at the parliament of the Republic of Congo in Brazzaville during his visit to the country on March 29, 2013. (Photo: Xinhua)

In the painting African women are making cassava dumplings, a traditional African staple food similar to Chinese sticky rice zongzi dumplings.
It is also a food for honoring guests. Sassou Nguesso sent the painting to show Xi was a distinguished guest and China a true friend.
The citizens of the Central African nation long faced a thorny problem: Production of cassava, a staple for 90 percent of the population, was not increasing.
To help address this problem, experts from the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences of Haikou City in Hainan Province arrived in April 2011 at the newly built China-Aid Agricultural Demonstration Center in Brazzaville.
They trained farmers in the science of growing cassava and other crops at the center in the capital of the Republic of the Congo.

The painting given to President Xi Jinping by the Republic of the Congo President Denis Sassou Nguesso. (File photo)

Within two years, Congolese farmers had mastered the new planting, harvesting and storing techniques for cassava. Meanwhile, dozens of fruit and vegetable species were grown in the center greenhouses.
The Chinese experts also planted South China No. 5 cassava, a crop with a yield of 51 tons per hectare, 5.6 times greater than local varieties.
After the April 2010 earthquake in Yushu, Qinghai Province, the government of the Republic of the Congo donated a spacious and comfortable learning environment for children: the China-Congo Friendship Primary School.
Addressing the parliament of the Republic of the Congo during his state visit on March 29, 2013, President Xi said, "Our two peoples have forged a profound brotherhood through thick and thin, as well as through sincere mutual assistance."
(Translated by Xu Ruijia, edited by Sun Tianren; Source: WeChat account of Xuexixiaozu)