With the upcoming 72nd anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, on behalf of the entire Chinese Embassy in Australia, I wish our great motherland a happy birthday and ever-lasting prosperity. I’d like to express my heartfelt gratitude to our friends from all walks of life who have long been caring for and supporting China’s development and China-Australia relationship. I’d also like to extend my sincere greetings and best wishes to the Chinese community and students in Australia.

This year marks a milestone in the history of the Chinese nation. We celebrated the centenary of the Communist Party of China (CPC). Under the CPC leadership, the Chinese nation has achieved the tremendous transformation from standing up and growing prosperous to becoming strong. We have realized the first centenary goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects. This means that we have brought about a historic resolution to the problem of absolute poverty in China, and embarked on a new journey to build China into a modern socialist country in all respects. As President Xi Jinping pointed out, China’s national rejuvenation has become a historical inevitability.

This year is the start of the 14th Five-Year Plan. China has witnessed a steady and upward trend of its economy and made more efforts to promote the opening-up to a higher level. In the first six months, it registered a year-on-year growth of 12.7%. In the first seven months, the country’s total imports and exports expanded by 24.5% and actual attracted foreign capital increased by 30.9%. Together with the 2021 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) successfully held, fresh dynamism and strong impetus has been injected to the world economic recovery.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of China’s resumption of its UN membership. Over the past 5 decades, China has always honored the purposes and principles of the UN Charter by concrete actions. China has made all-out efforts to safeguard world peace, contribute to global development, preserve international order and provide public goods.

China firmly upholds the concept of a shared community of health for all and has honored its commitment to turn COVID-19 vaccines into a global public good. To date, China has provided more than 1.2 billion doses of finished and bulk vaccines to over 100 countries and international organizations, ranking the first among world countries. China will also strive to provide a total of two billion doses by the end of this year. On top of the 100 million U.S. dollars donation to COVAX, China will donate an additional 100 million doses of vaccines to fellow developing countries within this year. All this has made an active contribution to promoting equitable access of vaccines for all and strengthening international cooperation against COVID-19.

We are now marching in confident strides toward the second centenary goal of building China into a great modern socialist country in all respects. On the journey ahead, we will ground our work in this new stage of development, fully and faithfully apply the new development philosophy, and foster a new pattern of development so as to promote high-quality development. We will endeavor to meet the people’s new expectations for a better life, resolve the imbalances and inadequacies in development, and take more effective measures to advance common prosperity for all.

We will actively respond to climate change, continue to prioritize ecological conservation and pursue a green and low-carbon path to development. China will strive to peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. We will step up support for other developing countries in developing green and low-carbon energy, and will not build new coal-fired power projects abroad. China will host COP15 to the Convention on Biological Diversity this October and looks forward to working with all parties to enhance global governance on biodiversity and to find a path forward for man and Nature to live in harmony.

Under the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Diplomacy, we will remain committed to promoting peace, development, cooperation, and mutual benefit, to an independent foreign policy of peace, and to the path of peaceful development. We will work to build a new type of international relations and a human community with a shared future, promote high-quality development of the Belt and Road Initiative through joint efforts, and use China’s new achievements in development to provide the world with new opportunities.

This year also marks the 50th anniversary of former Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam’s visit to China. The historic visit laid the foundation for the normalization and development of China-Australia relations. It is our firm belief that a sound and stable bilateral relationship serves the common interests of both countries and peoples. We also hold that in order to improve bilateral ties, it is essential to rise above ideological differences, discard the Cold-War mentality, and view each other’s development as an opportunity rather than a threat. It’s also important to respect each other’s core interests and major concerns and properly handle differences. Now, the international landscape is undergoing profound changes unseen in a century. We hope that the Australian side show vision and wisdom, and take sincere and concrete measures to meet China halfway, so as to overcome current difficulties and obstacles and put China-Australia relationship back to the right track.