Promoting Belgium

On 13 June 2025 I had the honor to have dinner with Yves Leterme in Beijing. He is the former Prime Minister from Belgium.
The dinner was organized for a group of diverse Chinese business people, to promote Belgium as a potential location to invest and as a trade partner. It is important a country as Belgium maintains contact with the Chinese business world. Event was organized by the Alliance of Enterprises Leadership (AEL).

The dinner was organized in this high-end restaurant: Baijiada Yuan (白家大院), not very far from Beijing University. See here a review of the restaurant.
Their website does not work anymore: www.baijiadayuan.cn.
This was once the home of Prince Li in the Qing Dynasty (清太祖努尔哈赤儿子礼亲王).

250613 Leterme.mov

Short video on Douyin done by a participant

My friend Lydia arranged my participation and helped for the translation of my short speech.
Besides the special Beijing dishes we had a dance and music performance. We also tasted a special Chinese liquor (“baijiu”).
Mr. Leterme has made several trips to China. His tour includes other cities such as Wuhan, Xian, Chengdu, Zhoukou (Henan) and the Jiangsu Week of Grand Canal Culture.
He also has dined in Morel’s Restaurant at the time of the Beijing 2008 Olympics, his picture is on the wall with former ambassador Bernard Pierre and Renaat Morel.
I had a chance to chat with Mr. Leterme and introduce my “China Story”.

About Mr. Leterme

Yves Leterme is a Belgian politician, a leader of the Christian Democratic and Flemish party (CD&V). He was the prime minister of Belgium from March 2008 to December 2008, and later from November 2009 to December 2011.
Leterme has also served as minister of Foreign Affairs, deputy prime minister and minister of Budget, Institutional Reforms, Transport and the North Sea in the Belgian federal government. He is a former minister-president of Flanders and Flemish minister of Agriculture and Fisheries. Despite his French name, Leterme is Flemish. He is fluent in Dutch, French and English.
Yves Leterme was born on 6 October 1960 in the city of Wervik in the province of West Flanders. He is half-Walloon, and grew up fluently bilingual. He studied law at the Catholic University of Leuven where he received a LL.B. degree (Bachelor of Laws) in 1981 and then studied at Ghent University where he obtained a BSc degree in Political Science (1983), a LL.M. degree (Master of Laws) (1984), and a MPA degree (Master of Public Administration) in 1985.
Yves Leterme was born on 6 October 1960 in the city of Wervik in the province of West Flanders. He is half-Walloon, and grew up fluently bilingual. He studied law at the Catholic University of Leuven where he received a LL.B. degree in 1981 and then studied at Ghent University where he obtained a BSc degree in Political Science (1983), a LL.M. degree (1984), and a MPA degree in 1985.
In 2019, Leterme became co-chairman of the board of directors of the Chinese investment fund ToJoy. The appointment was criticized by international relations professor Jonathan Holslag, citing the close relations between ToJoy and the Chinese political establishment. (Note: Jonathan Holslag is well-known to be strongly anti-China…)

Source: Wikipedia