Speech by Ambassador Qin Gang At the Reception in Celebration of the 72nd Anniversary of the Founding of the People's Republic of China
2021/09/28 23:00

 

28 September 2021

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Friends,

Good evening!

It is my great pleasure to come together with you online on this golden fall night to jointly celebrate the 72nd anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.

Over the past 72 years, tens of millions of Chinese have worked tirelessly and fearlessly to build their nation. They have been tested by hardships and proved by the tremendous achievements made in development. As a result, the Chinese nation has realized the transformation from standing up to growing rich to becoming strong, and is on the way to rejuvenation. The past year, in particular, is a milestone with lasting impact in the course of China's development.

- After a century of trials and glories, we celebrated the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China.

Established 100 years ago, the CPC is right in its prime. Committed to its founding mission of pursuing happiness for the people and rejuvenation for the nation, the CPC has led the Chinese people in scoring remarkable achievements in development, and making important contribution to world peace, stability and prosperity. Our most important experience is to apply Marxism's basic tenets to China's national conditions. As a result, we have opened up a socialist path with Chinese characteristics, which is a choice of history, and a choice of the Chinese people. It is genuinely supported by the 1.4 billion Chinese people.

- Realizing a century-old dream, we have fulfilled the daunting task of eliminating absolute poverty.

Over the past 40 years, more than 800 million people have been lifted out of poverty, resolving the millennia-old problem of absolute poverty in China once and for all. We are on our way to reaching the goal of common prosperity, better dividing the cake while making a bigger one. This is to give the people greater sense of fulfillment, happiness and security, because China's development is to deliver a peaceful and better life to the Chinese people.

- With a blueprint guiding our way, we have embarked on the path of the 14th Five-Year Plan.

China will follow through on the new development philosophy, build a new paradigm with domestic circulation as the mainstay and domestic and international circulations reinforcing each other, and promote high-quality development. This is to kick off a good start to our efforts of building a socialist modern country. China will continue to expand, broaden and deepen opening-up at a higher level, create a market-oriented, law-based and world-class business environment, build a new system of open economy of higher standards, work for a global network of high-standard free trade zones, implement across the country a negative list for cross-border services trade, explore the development of national demonstration zones for innovative development of trade in services, and better take part in international economic cooperation.

- As a champion of multilateralism, we are working hard to build a community with a shared future for mankind.

We work with people of all countries to meet challenges, pursue development, and promote changes, and we have made new contributions to world peace and development. Facing the raging pandemic, the Chinese government has provided over 1.1 billion doses of finished and bulk vaccines to over 100 countries and international organizations, and the number will rise to two billion doses by the end of this year. On top of the US$100 million donation to COVAX, China will donate an additional 100 million doses of vaccines to fellow developing countries within this year. Facing the climate crisis, China stays committed to the new development philosophy. We have included carbon peaking and carbon neutrality in our overall plan for ecological conservation, and will release an action plan for carbon emissions to peak before 2030. We will host the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity next month, and support the positive results of the UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties to be held in Glasgow in November.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Today's world is undergoing major changes unseen in a century. Whether China and the US, two major countries with different history, culture, social system and in different development stages, choose peaceful coexistence or conflict and confrontation, prefer win-win cooperation or zero-sum game, concerns the wellbeing of the two peoples and the future of the world.

In his phone call with President Joe Biden not long ago, President Xi Jinping pointed out that when China and the United States cooperate, the two countries and the world will benefit; when China and the United States are in confrontation, the two countries and the world will suffer. Getting the relationship right is not optional, but something we must do and must do well. China will follow the spirit of the two Presidents' call and work with the US side, on the basis of respecting each other's core concerns and properly managing differences, advance coordination and cooperation bilaterally and on major international and regional issues, such as climate change, COVID-19 and economic recovery, so as to bring China-US relations back to the right track of stable development as soon as possible.

My job here is to work with various sectors of the US to fulfill what President Xi has expected of us.

Friends,

Beijing Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games will open in four months' time. I sincerely invite American athletes to join us in Beijing next year for a rendezvous on ice and snow. I wish Chinese and American athletes the best of luck in the Games!

Today is a festive gathering, and we have prepared some performances by brilliant Chinese and American artists. I hope you will enjoy.

Last but not least, let me express sincere appreciation to all Americans who have cared about and supported the development of China-US relations. I wish you joy, success and happiness!

Thank you!


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