Ladies and gentlemen, dear friends,

Hello everyone!

It is a great pleasure to gather with you online to celebrate the 73rd anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. I would like to take this opportunity to express sincere respect and heartfelt thanks to people from various sectors in our consular district who have long cared about and supported China’s development, construction as well as national rejuvenation, and supported and promoted the exchanges and cooperation between China and the United States.

Over the past 73 years, the Chinese people have forged ahead under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC), built the world’s second largest economy, delivered rapid economic development and long-term social stability, miracles rarely seen in the world. In particular, in the past 10 years, socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era, and China’s development has made historic achievements and undergone historic changes.

China’s development is high-quality development. In the face of the changing international environment as well as the new situation and new characteristics of economic performance, based on the new development stage, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has been fully implementing the new development philosophy of innovative, coordinated, green, open and shared development, fostering a new development paradigm and promoting high-quality development. China’s GDP expanded at an average annual growth rate of 6.6 percent from 2013 to 2021. In 2021, China’s economic aggregate has reached 114 trillion RMB, accounted for 18.5 percent of the world’s total. China has achieved a comprehensive victory in the battle against poverty, accomplished the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects, and achieved a per capita GDP of more than 12,000 US dollars. China has boosted new growth drivers through innovation. The concept of green, low-carbon and sustainable development is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. The rural revitalization strategy has been steadily advanced. The level and quality of new urbanization have been continuously improved, and the potential of regional urban-rural coordinated development has been continuously released. China has achieved high-quality development in economic, social, cultural, ecological and other fields.

China’s development is people-centered development. China has always regarded improving the well-being of the people and promoting well-rounded human development as the starting point and foothold of its development. The purpose of development is to meet the people’s ever-growing needs for a better life. Our goal is to consistently improve and develop the whole-process people’s democracy, protect the rights of the people to participate and to develop as equals, safeguard social fairness and justice, and strive to enhance their sense of happiness and fulfillment. Over the past decade, the life of the Chinese people has improved in all aspects. Per capita disposable income has grown by 6.5% annually in real terms, forming the world’s largest middle-income population of over 400 million. China has built the world’s largest social security system, with basic medical insurance covering 1.36 billion people and basic pension covering more than 1 billion people. Chinese people’s average life expectancy is ranking in the forefront of the high- and middle-income countries. China’s educational undertaking has thrived and expanded. The average length of schooling of the working-age population has reached 10.9 years.  According to a Harvard University poll that has been running for more than 10 years, ordinary Chinese people’s satisfaction with the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese government has exceeded 90% for 10 consecutive years. The CPC and the Chinese government have won the support and love of the people because they put the people’s interests first, ensured that development is for the people, by the people and with the people sharing in its fruits. 

China’s development is open, inclusive, and mutually beneficial with win-win results. It has not only benefited the 1.4 billion Chinese people, but also the people of all countries in the world. China is committed to opening up in a larger scope, to wider areas and at deeper levels, striving to create a first-class business environment, and constantly exploring new prospects for win-win cooperation. From 2013 to 2021, China’s average contribution to world economic growth exceeded 30%, remained as the main engine of world economic growth. China has made overall plans to promote the 21 pilot free trade zones. The management system of pre-entry national treatment plus negative list for foreign investment has been constantly improved. The new foreign investment law has been promulgated and implemented, and the protection of intellectual property rights has been continuously strengthened. China has accelerated the formation of an all-round high-level open economy. The trade and investment liberalization and facilitation has been enhanced, which not only has strengthened its own development resilience, but also provided broad market opportunities for other countries.

Global development has now come to a critical juncture. We are at a time fraught with challenges, and also a time full of hope. Facing a host of global challenges, the people’s call for progress and cooperation around the world is getting louder than ever before. To navigate the ship through storm toward a bright future, all countries should adhere to the common values of humanity, namely peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy and freedom, adhere to the principle of extensive consultation and joint contribution for shared benefits, and promote the building of a new type of international relations featuring mutual respect, equity and justice, and win-win cooperation. We must adhere to peaceful development, engage in dialogue and cooperation, work in solidarity and stick together through thick and thin to promote the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.  

In this October, the Communist Party of China will convene its 20th National Congress. It will be an important meeting to be held at a critical time as China embarks on a new journey toward its second centenary goal of building a modern socialist country in all respects. At this national congress, the Communist Party of China will fully review the major achievements made and valuable experience gained in China’s reform and development endeavors. It will also set well-conceived goals and tasks for China’s development in the next five years and beyond, formulate programs of action and overarching policies, and will draw an overarching plan for China’s future development to meet China’s new development goals on the journey ahead in the new era and the new expectations of the people. We will continue to follow the Chinese path to modernization to achieve the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. As a permanent member of the UN Security Council and the largest developing country, China will always stand by the trend of the times, always be a builder of world peace, a contributor to global development, and a defender of the international order, and we will continue to promote the building of a community with a shared future for mankind. By doing so, we will create new opportunities for the world with new advances in China’s development and contribute our vision and strength to world peace and development and human progress.

Dear friends,

Both China and the US are great countries, and the China-US relationship is the most important bilateral relationship in the world. President Xi Jinping pointed out, whether China and the US can handle their relationship well bears on the future of the world. It is a question of the century to which the two countries must provide a good answer. The three principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation put forward by President Xi Jinping are the correct way for China and the United States to get along. It is hoped that the US will work with China, strengthen dialogue, reduce misunderstandings, manage differences, expand cooperation, and bring China-US relations back to the track of healthy and stable development at an early date. This serves the fundamental interests of the two peoples and also meets the general expectation of the international community.

Sub-national exchanges and cooperation are an important part of Sino-US relations. 50 years ago, the people of Michigan participated in and promoted the "ping-pong diplomacy" between China and the United States, and made positive contributions to the normalization of relations between our two countries. 37 years ago, when President Xi Jinping visited Iowa for the first time, he established a deep friendship with the people of the Mid-west, and opened up and wrote a beautiful story of people-to-people exchanges and practical cooperation between China and the Mid-west America. For decades, exchanges and cooperation between China and the Mid-west region of the United States in a wide range of fields such as trade, investment, culture and education have continued to deepen. Many companies in the Mid-west region have achieved great success in the Chinese market. China has become one of the most important trading partners of the Mid-west states. The sisterhood among provinces, states and cities of our two countries has been increasingly strengthened with fruitful results. The friendship between our two peoples has continued to deepen. The Chinese Consulate General in Chicago will continue to be committed to promoting exchanges and cooperation between China and Mid-west America, to build a broader and stronger bridge for the friendly exchanges between the two peoples, and to make more contributions to the healthy and stable development of China-US relations.

I wish our great country prosperity and the people health and happiness. I wish China-US relations continuous improvement and progress, to the benefit of the people of the two countries and the world. I wish you all a happy holiday and all the best! Thank you all!