Best wishes sent by 2 US presidents

October 1 is a special day for Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States, who normalized diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China, which on Tuesday marked the 70th anniversary of its founding.

Carter celebrated his 95th birthday on the same day, becoming the first American president to reach that milestone.

"I share the same birthday with your great nation, though I am 25 years older," Carter said in his congratulations to President Xi Jinping on the eve of China's National Day.

Chinese Ambassador to the US Cui Tiankai on Tuesday joined hundreds from the US and beyond in an outpouring of birthday wishes to Carter.

"Thank you, President Carter, for your kind words for #China. The Chinese people cherish your friendship and contributions to the relations between our countries," Cui said in a Twitter post. "Happy birthday to you too."

Carter, who served in the White House from 1977 to 1981, said he had witnessed how the Chinese people suffered during much of the early 20th century and how China's transformation into the world's second-largest economy lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty in the last four decades, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

"Rosalynn and I wish you great success in leading China," the former president was quoted by Xinhua as saying in the letter.

Carter and his wife Rosalynn also wished China "every achievement in its domestic harmony and prosperity and in its contributions to global peace and development".

Earlier on Tuesday, US President Donald Trump also sent National Day congratulations to China – through his Twitter account.

"Congratulations to President Xi and the Chinese people on the 70th Anniversary of the People's Republic of China!" Trump tweeted in the morning, which in Beijing was the evening, when a grand gala was ready to be staged in Beijing to celebrate National Day.

Cui tweeted back, saying, "Let the great people of our two countries work together for a better shared future."

The evening gala followed a spectacular National Day parade on Tian'anmen Square featuring marching troops, cutting-edge military hardware and a flyover by dozens of jets.

"While the parade showed off the country's armed forces, it should be noted that some observers wrongly ignored the fact that there was a large civilian contingent which celebrated China's many economic, social and cultural achievements," said Jon R. Taylor, professor and the chair of the Department of Political Science and Geography at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

Speaking before the morning parade, Xi said that the founding of New China "completely reversed" China's "miserable fate born from poverty and weakness and being bullied and humiliated over more than 100 years since the advent of modern times".

Xi pledged that China will stay on the path of peaceful development and pursue a mutually beneficial strategy of opening-up.

"I think that his pledge regarding peaceful development and pursuing a mutually beneficial strategy of opening up reinforced a theme that he has frequently emphasized during his time in office: win-win cooperation, global governance and economic globalization," said Taylor.

"It was a pledge by Xi that a strong and prosperous China, irrespective of what the US or the West thinks, will be at the forefront of global affairs by doing its part to encourage both economic growth and multilateral cooperation," he said.

Kenneth Quinn, president of the World Food Prize Foundation, said the transformation of China as outlined in Xi's National Day remarks represents "the single most significant" development in the Asian region, since his arrival there as a young diplomat in 1969.

"Over the last four decades, I have watched with fascination the economic and agricultural policy reforms that (have) brought such dramatic progress, particularly in reducing poverty," the former US ambassador to Cambodia told China Daily in an email.

In an interview with China Daily in Washington, Terrance John Cox, US representative from California, said, "I would say Happy 70th birthday to the PRC, and I look forward to visiting China, to make that trip I've never had an opportunity to yet."

Charlene Cai in Washington contributed to this story.