Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, dear friends,

Welcome to today’s National Day Reception and join us in the grand celebration of the 68th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

Since 68 years ago especially the beginning of the reform and opening-up, the Communist Party of China (CPC) has led the country to transform from a weak and poor one to the world’s second largest economy, the Chinese nation from being mistreated to pursuing great rejuvenation, and Chinese people’s lives from poverty and scarcity to moderate prosperity.

The last five years since the CPC convened its 18th National Congress carry special significance in China’s development course, evidenced by the new remarkable achievement in China’s social and economic development, which lays a solid foundation for realizing the two centennial goals and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. In the past five years, the Chinese economy has been running within a reasonable range, the GDP has grown at an annual rate of 7.2% from 2013 to 2016, and China’s average contribution to the world economy has exceeded 30%. Notable progress has been made in building an innovation-driven country and numbers of landmark scientific achievements have emerged. China has further opened up to the world with a series of major projects and international cooperation on industrial capacity put into practice. Green development has been accelerated, causing energy consumption per unit of GDP and water usage to decline by 17.9% and 25.4% respectively compared with that of 2012.

In the past five years, China has made all-round progress in law-based governance of the country, set up an overall goal of building a socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics and building a socialist rule of law country, and made parallel efforts to implement law-based governance of the country, law-based exercise of state power and law-based administration of government. Historical strides have been made in building a rule of law China. We stay committed to strict governance of the party, perfecting the party in terms of self-purification, self-improvement, self-reform and self-enhancement. As the ruling party of China, the CPC has forged an even stronger and closer relationship with the people.

In the past five years, China has unswervingly forged ahead with major country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics and contributed the Chinese wisdom and solution to the world. The Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation held in May in Beijing has strengthened international cooperation, forged synergy among different countries’ development strategies and reached over 270 concrete results. In September, the 9th BRICS Summit and the Dialogue of Emerging Market and Developing Countries were held in Xiamen, setting out a new blueprint for enhancing BRICS partnership and deepening pragmatic cooperation across the board and injecting more positive energy to world economic growth and common development.

Next month, the 19th CPC National Congress will be held in Beijing. This meeting will lead China to completely build a moderately prosperous society, open up new prospects for establishing socialism with Chinese characteristics, and bring China towards a bright future of realizing the great Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation. A China standing at a new historical starting point will surely facilitate world economic development, enhance world security, promote global governance and present more opportunities to the world.

Ladies and gentlemen,

China-US relations have been running on a stable track and realized a smooth transition in the past year. The two successful meetings between President Xi Jinxing and President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago and Hamburg have charted a new course for China-US relationship. The two countries have set up four high-level dialogue mechanisms on diplomacy and security, comprehensive economy, law enforcement and cyber security, and social and people-to-people exchanges. On top of that, President Trump will pay a state visit to China in November.

As the largest developing country and the largest developed country in the world, China and the US are having increasingly intertwined interests, and their common interests far outweigh their differences. China-US relationship not only bears on the two countries but also the world beyond. As President Xi Jinxing once said, we have one thousand reasons to make China-US relationship a success and not one single reason to break it. We are willing to work in unison with the US side to achieve more consensus and results in bilateral cooperation and open up new prospects for China-US relations that are in the best interests of the two peoples and beyond.

Ladies and gentlemen,

The past one year has witnessed booming exchanges between China and the nine Midwest states my Consulate covers. Former Iowa Governor Terry Branstad, an old friend of the Chinese people, was sworn in as the US Ambassador to China in July. Since this summer, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner and Missouri Governor Eric Greitens have paid visits to China, greatly boosting the cooperation and exchanges between the Midwest and China.

The annual trade volume between the nine Midwest states and China has exceeded $90 billion, and over 200 Chinese companies have invested in these states creating 46,000 jobs. At the annual gala of the China General Chamber of Commerce Chicago Chapter held successfully in June, over 800 attendees from Chinese and American business communities had in-depth discussion on deepening China-US economic and trade cooperation and achieved great outcomes. In July, over 20 companies from China and the US signed a contract in Des Moines, agreeing that Chinese companies will import 12.53 million tons of soy beans and 371 tons of pork and beef from the US worth of $5.012 billion. This is one example of how China and the US implement the outcomes from our leaders’ meeting. CRRC Sifang America has started construction on a rail car manufacturing facility in Chicago, a move that will create 170 new jobs in Chicago and bring rail car manufacturing back to Chicago again.

Cultural and people-to-people exchanges between China and the nine Midwest states are also on the rise.At this year’s Spring Festival, seven artistic troupes from China presented 17 performances in the nine states, attracting over 20,000 local Americans, overseas Chinese, students and Chinese companies’ employees, and greatly enhancing mutual understanding between the two peoples. The City of Chicago has organized the Happy Chinese New Year celebrations for four years in a row, spreading Chinese Red all over the city. Zhejiang Province and the state of Indiana, and Shaanxi Province and the state of Minnesota have just celebrated the 30th and 35th anniversaries of their sister state-province relationship respectively. Zhejiang University and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign agreed to form a joint engineering institute. The Chinese Pingpong world champion delegation came to Chicago and Ann Arbor, Michigan to commemorate the 45th anniversary of China-US Pingpong diplomacy. A few days ago, a concert on the theme of China-US friendship was staged at Jay Pritzker Pavilion of Millennium Park, attracting tens of thousands of audience. In a few days, 1,500 Chinese runners will compete in the Chicago Marathon, two times more than that of last year.

Ladies and gentlemen,

The achievements China has made is exciting. The development of China-U.S. relationship is encouraging.

Now I would like to propose a toast,

to the prosperity of the People’s Republic of China, and

to the bright future of China-US relations,

Cheers!