On September 28, 2004, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) Wu Bangguo and Premier Wen Jiabao of the State Council met respectively with Vice President of South Africa Jacob Zuma.

Wu Bangguo said that since China and South Africa established diplomatic ties 6 years ago, bilateral ties have enjoyed all-round and rapid development. The two sides have established the strategic partnership of equality, mutual benefit and common development and witnessed innumerable great achievements in political, economic, trade, cultural, educational, scientific and technological cooperation. The NPC of China and the National Assembly of South Africa have established sound cooperative relations and played an important role in promoting the development of bilateral friendly cooperation. The NPC of China would like to strengthen exchanges and cooperation with the National Assembly and the National Committee on Provincial Affairs of South Africa, so as to make new contributions to continuous development of bilateral ties.

Zuma said that the development of China has set a good example for developing countries. The purpose of his visit is to have exchanges with Chinese leaders and learn from each other's experience in economic development. The development of relations between South Africa and China is not only in the interest o the two peoples, but also conducive to promoting the development of South-South cooperation.

Wen Jiabao indicated that China attaches great importance to relations with South Africa and hopes to see the strategic partnership between the two countries developing continuously. Wen Jiabao noted that recently, South Africa has acknowledged China's market economy status and declared jointly with China the launch of the negotiation on the free trade zone of the tariff union between China and South Africa, which has created more favorable conditions for bilateral economic and trade cooperation. The two sides should grasp this opportunity to promote the further development of economic and trade cooperation.

Zuma noted that cooperative relations between South Africa and China have been continuously deepening and achieved a lot of substantial progress. He thanked the Chinese government and people for always supporting the struggle of the South African people for freedom and their efforts to realize economic development, noting that the South African government and people cherish the existing friendship between the two countries and will as always commit themselves to continuous consolidation and development of bilateral ties.