Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao attended in Hong Kong Monday a ceremony of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government commending Hong Kong SARS fighting heroes of medical profession and other circles.
"On behalf of the Central Government, I wish to pay high tribute to all those who have made remarkable contribution to the successful campaign against severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)," Premier Wen told a group of Hong Kong health care workers and representatives from other circles.
He extended the Central Government's most heartfelt condolences to the families who have lost their loved ones in the epidemic.
Wen said that during the three-month long SARS storm, Hong Kong health workers fought the disease with extraordinary courage and selfless devotion, its science experts raced against time to tackle problems and seek solutions, its citizens waged a united battle against the epidemic with one heart and one mind, and its government faithfully fulfilled its duties and commitment to the people.
"It is such unprecedented solidarity that has enabled Hong Kong to prevail (the fight against SARS)," said Wen.
He recalled Doctor Tse Yuen-man and other health workers who have sacrificed their lives in the hard battle against SARS, saying that their great names, heroic deeds and glorious virtues will live in people's heads forever.
Wen told HK people that the national cohesion fostered in a calamity would make the nation stronger and drive it forward.
He said that people in the Mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan fought the disease shoulder by shoulder in a spirit of mutual assistance, while Chinese descendants across the world lent a helping hand to their brothers and sisters in China.
"Blood is thicker than water. Such bond of kinship stands a perfect witness to the strong cohesion and vitality of the Chinese nation," Wen said.
Wen said that the outbreak of SARS has cost dearly, but it has also given people many valuable revelations, including the importance of harmony between economic and social progress, that between urban and rural development, a harmonious coexistence between man and nature, the building of public health contingency mechanism and a fortified shield to protect the health and life of the people.
(Xinhua News Agency June 30, 2003)
