bluestar held its annual christmas gala the evening of dec 16 in beijing. there were more than 200 people on hand, including chemchina and bluestar representatives, distinguished guests from the french government’s investment branch, and foreign executives and technicians. this year’s festivity had the theme “bluestar - we are family”, since this way of thinking has played an important role in bringing chinese and foreign staff members together since 2006.
one significant part of the event came when sylvie bermann, france’s ambassador to china, conferred a military honor on ren jianxin, president of chemchina. the medal originated with napoléon bonaparte and only a few chinese have received it.
bermann said the medal was approved by france’s president nicolas sarkozy as a way of thanking ren for his contribution to the economic development of both china and france.
in presenting it, bermann said, “bluestar has developed a french market for nearly six years, building a bridge between the two countries. the company has paved the way for many other chinese enterprises to come to the european market.”
in expressing his thanks, ren said that he saw the honor “as a reward for bluestar, chemchina and the whole group of chinese enterprises, as well as the 2,500 employees in france, and chemchina’s 150,000 employees”.
also present for the affair were journalists from people’s daily, xinhua, cctv, and china daily.