On 1 Oct 2021, H.E. Mr. Hong Xiaoyong, Chinese Ambassador to Singapore, delivers a National Day message in Lianhe Zaobao, which takes stock of the remarkable achievements the People’s Republic of China has made since its founding seventy-two yearts ago. The full text is as follows:

National Day Message

H. E. Hong Xiaoyong

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the People’s Republic of China to the Republic of Singapore

Today, the People’s Republic of China is celebrating its 72nd birthday. The staff of the Chinese Embassy in Singapore share the joy of the festival with Chinese compatriots working, studying and living in Singapore. We wish our great motherland prosperity. We would also like to express our heartfelt gratitude and appreciation to friends from all walks of life in Singapore who have long been supporting the development of China-Singapore relations.

Seventy-two years ago, the founding of the People’s Republic of China brought an end to China’s semi-feudal and semi-colonial status and the disunity that plagued the country. All the unequal treaties imposed on China by imperialist powers and all the privileges they had accorded themselves were abolished. The Chinese people declared to the world that the time of weakness and humiliation was over and the Chinese nation entered a new epoch in its development and progress.

For seventy-two years, the Chinese people of all ethnic groups, under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC), have been making dedicated and painstaking efforts in blazing a new trail of socialism with Chinese characteristics and achieving great success in reform and opening up and socialist modernization. Such endeavors have enabled China to transform itself from a highly centralized planned economy into a socialist market economy full of vitality, and from a largely closed country to one that is open to the world on all fronts. They have also enabled China to achieve a historic leap – from a country constrained by backward productive forces to the world’s second largest economy – and to make a historic transformation by raising the living standards of its people from bare subsistence to general prosperity. In doing so, the Chinese population, almost a fifth of the world’s total, have now been able to lead peaceful, stable, prosperous and tranquil lives. In 2021, China’s GDP accounted for 17% of the world economy, and its per capita GDP exceeded USD 10,000. It is now home to the largest middle income group. On July 1st this year, Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, declared that China has brought about a historic resolution to the problem of absolute poverty. Looking ahead, the Chinese people, with more confidence, perseverance and an enterprising spirit, are marching toward realizing the second centenary goal of building China into a strong and modern socialist country in all respects and continuing efforts to write a splendid chapter in the new era.

This year also marks the centenary of the Communist Party of China. The history of the CPC is a history of sharing weal and woe with the people and a history of seeking happiness for the people and rejuvenation for the nation.

China’s achievements are impossible without the strong leadership of the CPC. China is a huge country with a large population and complex national conditions. In order to achieve rejuvenation and development, it must have robust and decisive leadership. One hundred years ago, countless Chinese people with lofty ideals explored and exhausted almost all political models available at the time to save the nation, including constitutional monarchy, parliamentarism and presidential system, and yet all ended in failure and the country was still mired in division. Over the past century, the CPC, in the process of revolution and nation-building, has won the trust and support of the people with outstanding performance, established the strong leadership in China, and led the Chinese people onto the path toward national rejuvenation and modernization. History has chosen the CPC; the people have chosen the CPC.

China’s achievements are inseparable from the close bond between the CPC and the Chinese people. Serving the people whole-heartedly is the fundamental principle of the CPC. This country is its people; the people are the country. As the CPC has fought to establish and consolidate its leadership over the country, it has in fact been fighting to earn and keep the people’s support. Whenever faced with daunting tasks, be it combating the sudden outbreak of the COVID-19 or accomplishing the task of poverty eradication, millions of cadres at all levels, from central ministries, to local governments in villages, towns and at provincial level, always fight on the front line, and many even laid down their lives for the cause. All this has been seen and remembered by the Chinese people. The faith and support the CPC enjoys among its people is beyond the reach of political parties in western countries.

China’s achievements cannot be imagined without the guidance of a scientific theory. The CPC has taken Marxism, a scientific theory, as its guide to action. At the same time, it has enriched and developed Marxism in light of China’s reality without being rigid, dogmatic or closed, and has led the Chinese people onto a development path that fits China’s national conditions. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the Chinese Communists, mainly represented by Comrade Xi Jinping, responding to the developments of the times, have systematically answered the major contemporary issues of what kind of socialism with Chinese characteristics should be upheld and developed in the new era and how the CPC should go about it, both theoretically and practically, and created the Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, which has become the ideological banner of the CPC in the new era and the fundamental guideline for the political and social life of the country.

China’s achievements would not be realized without the basic national policy of reform and opening up. The reform and opening up policy is a game-changing move in making China what it is today. It has enabled China to succeed in its historical transformation from a closed and semi-closed economy to an all-round open economy. History of reform and opening up over the past four decades tells us that openness brings progress while seclusion leads to backwardness. Opening up to the world remains China’s basic national policy. China is now in the process of promoting all-round opening up. As General Secretary Xi Jinping has said, China will not shut its door but will instead open itself wider to the outside world.

The world is facing the combined impacts of changes unseen in a century and the COVID-19 pandemic. Humanity has once again come to a crossroads in history. In all countries, people long for peace and development more than ever before, their call for equity and justice is growing stronger, and they are more determined in pursuing win-win cooperation. As a responsible major country, China has been unswervingly pursuing the path of peaceful development and upholding the concept of mutual respect and win-win cooperation in international relations. While developing itself, China also helps the world and benefits the international community by joining hands with other countries to address global threats and challenges as well as to promote the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.

In the global fight against COVID-19, China had cumulatively provided more than 320 billion masks, 3.9 billion protective gowns and 5.6 billion testing reagents to more than 200 countries and regions, and more than 1.1 billion doses of finished and bulk vaccines to the COVAX and more than 100 countries as of early September, 2021. President Xi Jinping announced at the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly that China will strive to provide a total of two billion doses of vaccines to the world by the end of this year. In addition to donating 100 million US dollars to COVAX, China will donate 100 million doses of vaccines to other developing countries in the course of this year.

President Xi Jinping has stressed that development is a right of all countries in the world, instead of being a privilege of a small group of countries. China is actively engaged in international development cooperation, promoting the Belt and Road Initiative, deepening South-South cooperation and contributing wisdom and strength to global poverty reduction. China will also implement a more proactive opening-up strategy, take concrete action to safeguard the free trade system and economic globalization, and promote the building of an innovative, dynamic, inter-connected and inclusive global economy. China has ratified the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and formally applied for accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), demonstrating its firm stance in defending multilateralism and building an open world economy.

History and reality have proven that building such a community is the right path to addressing common challenges and building a more prosperous and better world. By putting forward this idea, China has opened up a new path of win-win cooperation and shared development. At the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly, President Xi Jinping proposed the Global Development Initiative, which calls for staying committed to development as a priority and a people-centered approach. Ideas and proposals for cooperation in eight key areas have been put forward, including cooperation on poverty alleviation, food security, COVID-19 response and vaccines, development financing, climate change and green development, industrialization, digital economy and connectivity. This Initiative is an important public good as well as a cooperation platform China has offered to the international community. It is also a vivid illustration of China’s endeavor to promote the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.

This year marks the launch of China's 14th Five-Year Plan. China has embarked on a new journey toward fully building a modern socialist country and realizing its second centenary goal. In the past 72 years since its founding in 1949, the People’s Republic of China has always been sticking to its agenda and carrying out hard work over generations. We are proud of the past achievements and confident about China's future. At present, China is implementing a new development concept, building a new development paradigm, promoting high-quality development and opening up to the outside world on a wider scale, in broader areas and at deeper levels. This has provided new and greater opportunities for China-Singapore cooperation.

Facing the COVID-19 pandemic, China and Singapore have been working hand in hand to fight the virus, seek development, and advance high-level cooperation between the two countries, which once again highlighted the forward-looking, strategic nature and demonstrative effect of the relationship. Our bilateral relationship has demonstrated strong resilience and vitality, and the depth and breadth of cooperation has continued to expand. The New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor has performed well amidst the pandemic and has become an important guarantee for the smooth flow in regional supply chains. The China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park, Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city, China-Singapore (Chongqing) Demonstration Initiative on Strategic Connectivity, Guangzhou Knowledge City and cooperation mechanisms between Singapore and eight provinces and municipalities in China have provided a strong platform for Singapore to participate in China's new development paradigm and enabled the two sides to upgrade bilateral cooperation.

Thirty-one years on, China-Singapore relations are at a new historical starting point. Besides working together to fight against COVID-19, China is willing to work with Singapore to continue expanding development cooperation, build the Belt and Road Initiative with high quality, and promote greater advancement of the all-round cooperative partnership progressing with the times so as to bring benefits to our peoples and contribute to peace, prosperity and stability in the region and beyond.