Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers New Year speech

Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers a New Year speech Thursday evening in Beijing to ring in 2021. (Xinhua/Ju Peng)

Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers a New Year speech Thursday evening in Beijing to ring in 2021. Here is the full text ( in translation) :

Comrades, friends, ladies and gentlemen, greetings to you all!

The year 2021 is arriving. From China’s capital Beijing, I extend my New Year wishes to you all!

2020 was an extraordinary year. Facing the sudden coronavirus pandemic, we put people and their lives first to interpret the great love among humans. With solidarity and resilience, we wrote the epic of our fight against the pandemic.

During the days when we addressed the hardships together, we saw the heroic spirit of marching straight to the frontlines, holding posts with tenacity, taking responsibility to get through thick and thin, sacrifices with bravery, and touching moments of helping each other.

From medical workers to the people’s army, from scientific researchers to community workers, from volunteers to those who built the projects, from seniors to youths born after the 1990s and 2000s, numerous people fulfilled their missions at the cost of their lives and protected humanity with sincere love.

They pooled their drops of strength into tremendous power and built an iron wall to safeguard lives. Many figures marched ahead without hesitation, many relays were accomplished hand in hand, many scenes showed touching moments, all these vividly illustrate the great spirit of fighting against the pandemic.

Greatness is forged in the ordinary. Heroes come from the people. Every person is remarkable!

Our sympathy goes to all the unfortunate ones infected with the coronavirus! We salute all the ordinary heroes!

I am proud of our great motherland and people, as well as the unyielding national spirit. Only in hard times can courage and perseverance be manifested. Only after polishing can a piece of jade be finer. We overcame the impact of the pandemic, and made great achievements in coordinating prevention and control and in economic and social development.

The 13th Five-Year Plan has been accomplished in full. The 14th Five-Year Plan is being comprehensively formulated. We are accelerating the pace to set up a new pattern for development, and are deeply implementing high-quality development.

China is the first major economy worldwide to achieve positive growth, and its GDP in 2020 is expected to step up to a new level of 100 trillion yuan. China has seen a good harvest in grain production for 17 years in a row. China has seen breakthroughs in scientific explorations like the Tianwen-1 (Mars mission), Chang’e-5 (lunar probe), and Fendouzhe (deep-sea manned submersible). Construction of the Hainan Free Trade Port is proceeding with vigor.

We also defeated severe flooding. With the military and civilians heedless of danger and difficulty, and standing in unity, we managed to minimize the damage of the floods.

I inspected 13 provincial-level regions and was glad to see people carefully implementing coronavirus prevention and control measures, racing against time to resume work and production, and sparing no efforts to advance innovation.

Everywhere were vibrant scenes of confident, resilient people making the most of every minute. In 2020, China made the historic achievement of establishing a moderately prosperous society in all respects and achieved decisive success in eradicating extreme poverty.

We launched the final assault on the fortress of entrenched rural poverty, and cracked this “hardest nut.”

Through 8 years, under the current standard, China has eradicated extreme poverty for the nearly 100 million rural people affected, and all the 832 impoverished counties have shaken off poverty.

These years, I have visited 14 contiguous areas of dire poverty. The unremitting efforts of the folks and the wholehearted contribution of the poverty-eradication cadres often come to my mind.

We still need to stay tenacious like a bamboo deeply rooted in the rocks, keep our feet on the ground, and work hard to paint a magnificent picture of rural vitalization, and steadily march ahead towards the goal of common prosperity.

This year, we celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, among others, and 30 years of the development and opening-up of Pudong in Shanghai.  As I stood on the southern coast as the spring tide surged and on the colorful bank of the Huangpu River, my mind was filled with a myriad of thoughts.

Pilot trials have become models and leading forces, and explorations to innovate have become leading forces of innovation. The opening-up and reform has created miracles of development. In the future, we should further deepen reform and expand opening-up with greater courage, and create more “Stories of Spring.”

We are not alone on the Great Way and the whole world is one family. After a year of hardship, we can understand more than ever the significance of a community with a shared future for mankind.

I had many phone calls with friends from the international community, both old and new, and attended many “cloud conferences.” What we discussed most was staying united to combat the pandemic.

We still have a long way to go in pandemic prevention and control. People from all over the world should join hands and support each other to early dispel the gloom of the pandemic and strive for a better “Earth home.”

2021 will see the 100th birthday of the Communist Party of China. Its 100-year journey surges forward with great momentum. Its original aspiration remains even firmer one hundred years later.

From Shikumen in Shanghai to the South Lake in Jiaxing City, the small red boat (where the first CPC congress concluded) bore the great trust of the people and the hope of the nation. The boat has sailed through turbulent rivers and treacherous shoals, and has voyaged across violent tidal waves, becoming a great ship that navigates China’s stable and long-term development.

The CPC bears its eternal great cause in mind, and the centenary only ushers in the prime of life. We adhere to putting people at the center, stay true to our original aspiration, keep our mission well in mind, break the waves and sail out for our journey ahead, and we will certainly realize the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

At the historic crossroad of the “Two Centenary Goals,” the new journey of comprehensively building a modern socialist country is about to start. The road ahead is long; striving is the only way forward. We have strived, broken through brambles and thorns, and crossed ten thousand rivers and thousands of mountains.

We will continue to strive, march ahead with courage, and create brighter glory! At just this moment, the festive lanterns have been lit, and family members gather for reunion. The New Year is coming. I wish our land to be splendid, our country to be prosperous, and our people to live in peace. I wish you all a harmonious, smooth and auspicious year, full of happiness!

Thank you!