Your Excellency The Most Honourable Sir Cornelius Smith, Governor General of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas,
Your Excellency Sir Arthur Foulkes, former Governor General of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas,
The Honorable Frederick Mitchell, Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Public Service,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
My warm welcome to all of you! Thank you very much for joining this online reception marking the 72nd anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.
We are delighted and honored to have Minister Fredrick Mitchell here at the Embassy to celebrate with us.
2021 is an extraordinary year in the history of the People’s Republic. This year is made truly special by the centennial anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China.
Looking back to the century of humiliation that saw China being invaded, subjugated and semi-colonized, and seeing today’s China, a vibrant country rising in Asia, we cannot but marvel at how far China has come in the past 100 years under the leadership of the Communist Party.
The crowning achievement that filled us all with pride, as General Secretary Xi Jinping announced, is the realization of the first centenary goal of building a moderately prosperous society. And we have since embarked on a new journey towards socialist modernization.
This year, we started a new project of far-reaching importance, that of building a demonstration zone of common prosperity. This is to gain experience in fostering a fairer and more equal society in the process of high-quality development.
This year, we continued our relentless fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, and brought multiple local outbreaks under control. We persisted with our zero-Covid strategy, as we believe human life matters more than anything else.
On the international stage, China continues to fulfill its role as a responsible global citizen.
In his recent speech at the UN General Assembly, President Xi Jinping put forward a Global Development Initiative. He called for supporting the special needs of vulnerable developing countries with initiatives such as debt suspension and development aid.
President Xi pledged greater support to other developing countries in green and low-carbon energy and announced that China will not build new coal-fired power stations abroad.
On the vaccine front, this year, China aims to provide a total of 2 billion vaccine doses to countries in need. And we will offer 100 million vaccine doses to developing countries for free, on top of our donations of 100 million US dollars to the COVAX facility.
China is serious about fulfilling its climate change commitment of peaking CO2 emission by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2060, even though this will be an uphill battle.
We echo the call to action on climate change by Prime Minister Philip Davis at the UN General Assembly. Developed countries should honor their commitments of providing greater funding, technology and skills to developing countries.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The year 2021 has also been extraordinary for The Bahamas. The two gold medals at the Tokyo Olympics by Steven Gardiner and Shaunae Miller-Uibo filled this nation with pride and lifted your spirits.
Across this country, front line medical workers are working selflessly day and night to protect Covid patients. All of them and many more in different lines of duty are among the heroes that made your nation strong and resilient.
We congratulate the new Bahamas government on its assumption of office. We are confident that under the leadership of Prime Minister Philip Davis, this beautiful nation will overcome all difficulties and succeed in controlling the pandemic, reviving the economy and improving livelihoods.
As a sincere friend to The Bahamas, China will always stand with you and help in whatever way possible as you tackle the challenges ahead.
As a new day dawns on The Bahamas, we are ready to foster new progress of China-Bahamas relations. The potential for cooperation and for people-to-people exchanges is considerable across many sectors. We look forward to early discussions with the new government to understand your priorities and see what we can do to advance our shared interests.
Next year, Beijing will host the Winter Olympics, and our two countries will celebrate 25 years of diplomatic relations. It is time for us to renew our sense of purpose, and roll up our sleeves to create an even brighter future for both our peoples.
To conclude, let us together express our best wishes:
For the continued prosperity of the People’s Republic of China,
For ever-lasting friendship between the Chinese and Bahamian peoples,
For the good health and happiness of all friends present.
Thank you.