US President Barack Obama was quoted recently as telling a secret meeting in the Oval Office, "We need to make clear to people that the cancer is in Pakistan."

But in the eyes of the Chinese people, Pakistan is a pearl. The Chinese people treasure the great friendship between the two countries.

On National Day, an elementary school in Gongyi city, Henan Province organized a fundraiser for the flood victims in Pakistan. The school principal sent a cheque of 1,506 yuan ($220) to Pakistan's ambassador to China, Masood Khan, in the letter he wrote that he had been moved by Pakistan's support and contributions around the Sichuan earthquake.

As a journalism educator, I was deeply touched by this, which reminded me of my own experiences as a student.

I was 11 years old when my mother took me to see a doctor one day in 1971.

Sitting next to the doctor, I saw a copy of Reference News newspaper lying on his table. The lead story on the front page was about the Pakistani army fighting the Indian forces in what was then East Pakistan.

I was particularly attracted by the stories of how the Pakistani soldiers were using China-made tanks, guns and AK 47s in their fighting. From that moment, I decided to become a journalist when I grew up.

When we left the hospital, my mother went to a post office and subscribed to the Reference News for me.

In 1991, 20 years after the Pakistani army lost the war and Bangladesh, with Indian support, became an independent nation, I was on the road to Mohenjodaro and Kandarara with the late Pakistani archaeologist Husaan Dani reporting the great Pakistan civilization and its impact on China.

Almost another 20 years had passed when I went back to Pakistan early this year, where I felt overwhelmingly that many Pakistani people love China more than Chinese love their own country. Pakistan has proved to be China's closest friend and the only political and military ally to stay consistent in all weathers.

China owes its opening-up to the outside world to Pakistan.

As a leader in the Islamic world, Pakistan helped connect China to the Arab countries and the rest of the Islamic world. For example, after the Urumqi riots in 2009, Pakistani government made great efforts in explaining to the rest of the Islamic world the Chinese viewpoint on the riots.