China.org: Also, if we analyze the histories of Portugal and China, we can find many common aspects, for example, Portugal is famous for its navigation period, and China also, during the 14th and 15th century was also a powerful country for navigation.

Ambassador: That is true, but I don’t think that in our countries in Europe, in the West in general, those Chinese navigations are well known. I remember that only a very few years ago an important book was written on that subject that raised the attention of our public opinions, because I think that for internal political reasons China promoted those navigations only during a short period of time in the Ming Dynasty and then gave them up. But, as far as I know – I am not very well documented about this – it would be extremely important to have a complete knowledge on how these navigations were carried out, on their scientific bases, on the technology used and on the ships (I think they were extremely advanced for their time). They took place more or less simultaneously with the starting our navigations in the early 15th century along the African west coast, explored step by step, but I don’t think that any exchange of experience took place or whether there was any input from one side to another. I do not think that in those days our navigators knew anything about what was being done by their Chinese counterparts in the other side of Africa, in the Indian Ocean mainly. Maybe they took some advantage of it later in the 15th century, when Portuguese navigators were already in the Indian Ocean traveling to India to reach its coast, in 1498. They used an Arab pilot based in Mombasa to cross that Ocean. Who knows if the latter’s own expertise was not a legacy or a partial legacy of the previous Chinese navigations in the Indian Ocean? But it is something that historians should investigate more. I believe those were chiefly isolated experiences, taking place independently in different parts of the world.

China.org: Mr. Ambassador, you came to China in 2006, so it is almost four years ago now.

Ambassador: Yes, I am starting, my fourth year in China. I have completed three years.

So after this time, what is your general impression about the country and its people?

Ambassador: We are witnessing an extremely rich period of the millenary History of China, characterized by an unprecedented and enormous transformation, change and development, entailing a challenging new role for China in international affairs and world economy. It is quite difficult to catch up with all the interesting developments that are taking place here and to try to understand their implications in as much as possible, under your own country’s perspective and interests. To be a diplomat in a country like China in these days is really a privilege, both professionally and personally.