Comrades and Friends,

The Spring Festival of the Year of the loong is coming. Today, we are gathered here to bid farewell to the old year and welcome the new.

First of all, on behalf of the Party Central Committee and The State Council, I would like to extend holiday wishes to all of you. I wish Chinese people of all ethnic groups and our compatriots in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the Macao Special Administrative Region, Taiwan and overseas Chinese a happy New Year!

The coming year of Kui-Ma-tu is the first year of fully implementing the Party's 20 Great spirits. Faced with an extremely complex international environment and arduous tasks of reform, development and stability, we concentrated on the Chinese style of modernization, took into account both domestic and international situations, worked hard and bravely ahead, overcame multiple difficulties and challenges, and made solid steps on the new journey of building a modern socialist country in an all-round way.

Over the past year, we have comprehensively implemented the new development vision, adhered to the general principle of seeking progress while maintaining stability, resolutely implemented the COVID-19 prevention and control phase, and promoted economic recovery. China's economic aggregate has exceeded 126 trillion yuan, total grain output has reached a new high, and employment and prices have remained stable on the whole. New breakthroughs were made in scientific and technological innovation, and new quality productivity was accelerated. Reform and opening up continued to deepen, and a new round of reform of Party and state institutions was basically completed. The ecological environment continued to improve. New steps were taken in the modernization of national defense and the armed forces. The Chengdu Universiade and the Hangzhou Asian Games were successfully held, and Chinese athletes achieved good results. We will deepen our efforts to comprehensively exercise strict Party governance and fight corruption, and continue to consolidate a sound political environment.

We put the people first, worked hard to ensure and improve people's well-being, continued to consolidate and expand the achievements made in poverty alleviation, worked hard to address people's urgent problems and aspirations, made all-out efforts to respond to natural disasters and promote post-disaster recovery, and maintained overall social stability.

We actively support Hong Kong and Macao in better integrating into China's overall development, firmly oppose separatist moves for "Taiwan independence" and interference by external forces, and vigorously safeguard China's sovereignty, security, and development interests. We have made solid progress in major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics, adding certainty and positive energy to a volatile and intertwined world, and demonstrating our sense of responsibility for building a community with a shared future for mankind.

Looking back on our hard work over the past year, we are all the more keenly aware that comprehensively advancing China's development and national rejuvenation with Chinese-style modernization is not only a bright path for the Chinese people to pursue a better and happier life, but also a just path for world peace and development. As long as we adhere to the same path, do not change our resolve, consistently, and work together, we will be able to overcome all difficulties and obstacles ahead and continue to march to the other side of success.

Comrades and Friends,

The year 2024 marks the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China and is a key year for achieving the goals and tasks of the 14th Five-Year Plan. We must adhere to the general principle of seeking progress while maintaining stability, implement the requirements of seeking progress while maintaining stability, promoting stability through progress, and achieving success before achieving success. We must fully, accurately and comprehensively implement the new vision of development, balance high-quality development with a high standard of security, focus on key areas and grasp key issues, forge ahead and take concrete steps to enhance economic vitality, prevent and defuse risks, and improve public expectations. We will consolidate and strengthen the momentum of economic recovery, continue to improve people's well-being, and maintain overall social harmony and stability. We need to deepen reform across the board, address deep-seated institutional obstacles and structural problems, fully stimulate entrepreneurship, innovation and creativity in the whole society, inject strong impetus into the Chinese-style modernization drive, and enable it to overcome obstacles and forge ahead.

Comrades and Friends,

The loong is the totem of the Chinese nation. It is a symbol of the spirit of the Chinese nation over the past five thousand years, which has been striving for self-improvement and forging ahead, and it also carries the firm will and good wishes of hundreds of millions of Chinese people on new journeys in the new era to promote the building of a strong country and the great cause of national rejuvenation. In the year of the loong, I hope that the people of the whole country will invigorate the spirit of the loong and horse, and work hard and dedicate themselves to writing a new chapter in the Chinese-style modernization drive with the energy of the loong and the tiger.

Finally, I wish you good health, success in your work, happiness for your family and a happy Year of the loong!

Thank you all!

Source: Chinese government website