Source: People's Daily Online Publication Time: March 21, 2018


Dear representatives

This congress has elected me to continue serving as the President of the People's Republic of China. I express my sincere gratitude to all the delegates and the people of all ethnic groups in the country for their trust in me!

Serving as the President of the People's Republic of China is a noble mission with great responsibility. I will, as always, faithfully fulfill the responsibilities entrusted by the Constitution, be loyal to the motherland and the people, fulfill my duties, do my utmost, work diligently, dedicate myself sincerely, be a servant of the people, accept people's supervision, and never let down the trust and trust of all representatives and people of all ethnic groups in the country!

All state officials, regardless of their position, must always remember that our republic is the People's Republic of China, and always put the people in the highest position in their hearts, wholeheartedly serve the people, and work hard for the interests and happiness of the people.

Ladies and gentlemen!

The people are the creators of history and the true heroes. The magnificent history of the development of the Chinese nation is written by the Chinese people! The broad and profound Chinese civilization is created by the Chinese people! The enduring spirit of the Chinese nation is cultivated by the Chinese people! The Chinese nation has ushered in a great leap from standing up, getting rich to becoming strong, which is the struggle of the Chinese people!

The characteristics and endowments of the Chinese people have not only shaped the Chinese civilization that has developed for thousands of years, but also profoundly affected the development and progress of contemporary China and the spiritual world of contemporary Chinese people. The great national spirit cultivated, inherited and developed by the Chinese people in their long-term struggle has provided a strong spiritual impetus for China's development and the progress of human civilization.

——The Chinese people are people with great creative spirit. In the long history of thousands of years, the Chinese people have always worked hard, invented and created. Our country has produced such world-famous great thinkers as Laozi, Confucius, Zhuangzi, Mencius, Mozi, Sun Tzu, Han Feizi, invented such great scientific and technological achievements as papermaking, gunpowder, printing, compass, which profoundly affect the process of human civilization, created great literary and artistic works as the Book of Songs, Songs, Han Fu, Tang Poetry, Song Ci, Yuan Opera, Ming and Qing Novels, inherited the great epic of King Gesar, Manas, Jianger, and built the Great Wall, Dujiangyan Irrigation Project, the Grand Canal, the Forbidden City, Potala Palace, and so on. A magnificent project. Today, the creative spirit of the Chinese people is bursting out unprecedentedly, promoting China's rapid development and taking the lead in the world. I believe that as long as more than 1.3 billion Chinese people continue to carry forward this great creative spirit, we will be able to create miracles among people one after another!

——The Chinese people are people with a great spirit of struggle. In the long history of thousands of years, the Chinese people have always been innovating and striving for self-improvement. They have developed and built the vast and beautiful rivers and mountains of the motherland, opened up vast sea frontiers, cultivated vast grain fields with rich products, managed hundreds of wild rivers, overcome countless natural disasters, built scattered towns and villages, developed a full range of industries, and formed a colorful life. The Chinese people have known since ancient times that there is no good thing in the world that can be achieved by sitting on one's laurels. To be happy, one must strive. Today, everything owned by the Chinese people embodies the wisdom of the Chinese people, is imbued with the hard work of the Chinese people, and contains the great sacrifice of the Chinese people. I believe that as long as more than 1.3 billion Chinese people continue to carry forward this great spirit of struggle, we will be able to achieve the grand goal of creating a better life for the people!

——The Chinese people are people with a great spirit of solidarity. In the long history of thousands of years, the Chinese people have always been united and helped each other in the same boat, established a unified multi-ethnic country, developed harmonious ethnic relations of 56 ethnic groups that are diversified, integrated and intertwined, and formed a Chinese nation family that keeps watch and helps each other. Especially after modern times, under the severe situation of foreign aggression and disasters, the people of all ethnic groups in China held hands and fought shoulder to shoulder, bravely and bloodily, defeating all vicious aggressors, defending national independence and freedom, and jointly writing a magnificent epic of the Chinese nation's defense of the motherland and resistance to foreign aggression. Today, China's remarkable development achievements are the result of the concerted efforts of all ethnic groups in the country. The Chinese people have learned from their own experience that unity is strength, and unity can advance. A divided country cannot develop and progress. I believe that as long as more than 1.3 billion Chinese people continue to carry forward this great spirit of solidarity, we will be able to form a strong force that will march forward courageously and be invincible!

——The Chinese people are people with great dream spirit. In the long history of thousands of years, the Chinese people have always cherished dreams and pursued unremittingly. We have not only formed the concept of a well-off life, but also uphold the feelings of the world as the public. The Chinese ancient myths, such as Pangu Kaitian, Nuwa Mending the Sky, Fuxi Drawing Divination, Shennong Tasting Grass, Kuafu Chasing the Sun, Jingwei Reclaiming the Sea, Yugong Moving Mountains, deeply reflect the Chinese people's perseverance in pursuing and realizing their dreams. The Chinese people believe that no matter how high the mountain is, it can always reach the top; No matter how long the road is, if you keep walking, you will definitely reach it. Since modern times, the realization of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation has become the greatest dream of the Chinese nation. The Chinese people have persevered and persevered for more than 170 years to realize this great dream with the spirit of fighting the enemy to the end, the determination to recover the old things on the basis of self-reliance, and the ability to stand on their own in the forest of nations in the world. Today, the Chinese people are closer, more confident and able to realize the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation than at any time in history. I believe that as long as more than 1.3 billion Chinese people continue to carry forward the spirit of this great dream, we will be able to achieve the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation!

Comrades! Having such a great people, such a great nation, and such a great national spirit is our pride, the confidence we have in the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics, our theoretical confidence, our institutional confidence, and our cultural confidence. It is also the fundamental force for us to march forward with high spirits, regardless of wind or rain!

China is a socialist country under the people's democratic dictatorship led by the working class and based on the alliance of workers and peasants. All state power belongs to the people. We must always adhere to the people's position, adhere to the people's dominant position, learn from the people with an open mind, listen to the people's voice, learn from the people's wisdom, take the people's support or disapproval, happiness or disapproval, and promise or disapproval as the fundamental criteria to measure the gains and losses of all work, and strive to solve the most direct and realistic interests of the people, so that all Chinese people and their sons and daughters can share happiness and glory in the historical process of achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation!

Ladies and gentlemen!

The people have confidence, the country has a future, and the country has strength. Socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era, and the industrious and brave Chinese people are more confident, self respecting and self strengthening. China, an ancient yet modern great Eastern country, is full of vitality and diversity. The path, theory, system, and culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics are emitting strong vitality, and miracles are constantly emerging on the land of China. We are full of confidence in the future.

History has proven and will continue to prove that only socialism can save China, and only by adhering to and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics can we achieve the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. The domestic and international situation is undergoing profound and complex changes, and China's development is still in an important strategic opportunity period. We have favorable development conditions that were unimaginable in the past, but we also face many unprecedented difficulties and challenges. The 19th National Congress of the CPC has drawn a grand blueprint for building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, starting a new journey of building a modern socialist country in all respects, and realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Turning blueprints into reality is a new Long March. Although the road is still long, time waits for no one and there cannot be any slack. We must never be content with the status quo, seek comfort, and forget our worries. We must never forget our original intention, keep our mission in mind, strive to create brilliant achievements that belong to the new era!

 

Our goal is to build China into a prosperous, democratic, civilized, harmonious, and beautiful socialist modernized country by the middle of this century.

We must comprehensively deepen reform and expand opening-up with greater efforts and more practical measures, implement the new development concept, promote high-quality economic development, build a modern economic system, continuously enhance China's economic strength, technological strength, and comprehensive national strength, and fully demonstrate the vitality of the socialist market economy.

We must develop socialist democracy with greater efforts and more practical measures, adhere to the organic unity of the Party's leadership, the people being the masters of the country, and the rule of law, build a socialist rule of law country, promote the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity, consolidate and develop the widest patriotic united front, ensure that the people enjoy broader, more comprehensive, and more genuine democratic rights, and fully demonstrate the superiority of socialist democracy.

We need to accelerate the construction of a socialist cultural power with greater efforts and more practical measures, cultivate and practice socialist core values, promote the creative transformation and innovative development of excellent traditional Chinese culture, and fully demonstrate the influence, cohesion, and appeal of Chinese civilization.

We must use greater efforts and more practical measures to ensure and improve people's livelihoods, strengthen and innovate social governance, resolutely win the battle against poverty, promote social equity and justice, and continuously make new progress in providing education for young children, education, employment, medical care for the sick, elderly care, housing, and support for the weak, so that the realization of common prosperity for all people can be more fully demonstrated in the real lives of the people.

We need to promote the construction of ecological civilization with greater efforts and more practical measures, accelerate the formation of green production and lifestyle, focus on solving prominent environmental problems, make our country's sky bluer, mountains greener, water clearer, and environment more beautiful, and fully demonstrate the concept that green mountains and clear waters are golden mountains and silver mountains on the land of our motherland.

We must adhere to the absolute leadership of the Party over the People's Liberation Army, fully implement the Party's strong military ideology in the new era, continuously promote political construction, reform, technological development, and rule of law in the military, accelerate the formation of a world-class armed forces system with Chinese characteristics, build a modern combat system with Chinese characteristics, and promote the People's Liberation Army to effectively shoulder the mission and tasks entrusted by the Party and the people in the new era.

We must comprehensively and accurately implement the principles of "One Country, Two Systems", "Hong Kong people governing Hong Kong", "Macao people governing Macao", and a high degree of autonomy, strictly abide by the Constitution and the Basic Law, support the Special Administrative Region government and the Chief Executive to govern in accordance with the law and take active actions, support the integration of Hong Kong and Macao into the overall development of the country, enhance the national consciousness and patriotic spirit of Hong Kong and Macao compatriots, and maintain the long-term prosperity and stability of Hong Kong and Macao. We must adhere to the One China principle, uphold the 1992 Consensus, promote peaceful development of cross-strait relations, expand economic and cultural exchanges and cooperation between the two sides, share opportunities for mainland development with our Taiwanese compatriots, enhance the well-being of our Taiwanese compatriots, and advance the process of peaceful reunification of our motherland.

Safeguarding national sovereignty and territorial integrity, and achieving complete reunification of the motherland, is the common aspiration of all Chinese people and the fundamental interest of the Chinese nation. In the face of national righteousness and historical trends, all acts and tricks of splitting the motherland are destined to fail and will be condemned by the people and punished by history! The Chinese people have firm will, full confidence and sufficient ability to defeat all activities that split the country! The Chinese people and the Chinese nation share a common belief that every inch of our great motherland can never and never be separated from China!

Ladies and gentlemen!

The world we live in is full of hope and challenges. The Chinese people have always had a sense of justice and compassion. They have always closely linked their own future and destiny with the future and destiny of the people of other countries. They have always paid close attention to and selflessly helped the people of the countries concerned who are still living in war, turbulence, hunger and poverty. They are always willing to do their utmost to contribute to human peace and development. This desire of the Chinese people is sincere. China will never develop itself at the expense of other countries' interests. China's development does not pose a threat to any country. China will never seek hegemony or engage in expansion. Only those who are accustomed to threatening others will see everyone as a threat. No one should misinterpret, let alone misinterpret, the sincere wishes and practical actions of the Chinese people to contribute to human peace and development. There is justice in the world!

China will continue to hold high the banner of peace, development, cooperation, and win-win, unwaveringly follow the path of peaceful development, and pursue an open strategy of mutual benefit and win-win. China will continue to actively safeguard international fairness and justice, and advocates that world affairs should be handled by the people of all countries through consultation, and will not impose its will on others. China will continue to actively promote the construction of the "the Belt and Road", strengthen exchanges and cooperation with countries around the world, and make China's reform and development benefit mankind. China will continue to actively participate in the reform and construction of the global governance system, contribute more Chinese wisdom, solutions, and strength to the world, promote the construction of a world of lasting peace, universal security, common prosperity, openness, inclusiveness, cleanliness, and beauty, and let the sunshine of building a community with a shared future for mankind shine on the world!

Ladies and gentlemen!

The leadership of the CPC is the most essential feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics. The CPC is the highest political leadership of the country and the fundamental guarantee for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. In the East, West, North, South, and Central regions, the Party leads everything in terms of party, government, military, civilian, and academic affairs. All parties, organizations, ethnic groups, social classes, and people from all walks of life across the country should closely unite around the Party Central Committee, enhance the "four consciousnesses", strengthen the "four confidences", and move forward with one heart and one mind.

To shoulder the historical responsibility of leading the people to carry out a great social revolution, the CPC must have the courage to carry out self revolution, adhere to the principle of building the party for the public and exercising power for the people, deeply promote the comprehensive and strict governance of the party, resolutely eliminate all negative and corrupt phenomena, always keep in touch with the people, share weal and woe with the people, and work together with the people, always maintain the nature of the Marxist ruling party, always walk in the forefront of the times, and always be the backbone of the Chinese people and the Chinese nation!

Ladies and gentlemen!

"You can see the east wind easily, and all colors are always spring." Under the leadership of the CPC, after nearly 70 years of struggle, our People's Republic is thriving and standing in the east of the world with a new attitude!

The new era belongs to everyone, and everyone is a witness, pioneer, and builder of the new era. As long as we unite in good faith and work together, no force can stop the Chinese people from realizing their dreams!

We should take advantage of the mighty east wind of the new era, fill up the oil, stabilize the rudder, and work hard to let the Chinese giant ship carrying the great dream of more than 1.3 billion Chinese people continue to cleave the waves, set sail, and sail to a promising tomorrow!

Thank you all.

(Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, March 20th)

People's Daily (March 21, 2018, Issue 02)