Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, delivered a speech at the Spring Festival gathering at the Great Hall of the People on Friday.

The following is the full text of the speech:

Speech at the 2023 Spring Festival gathering

Jan. 20, 2023

by Xi Jinping

Comrades and Friends,

The Year of the Rabbit is coming. Today, we are gathered here to bid farewell to the old year and usher in a new year.

First, on behalf of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the State Council, I wish to extend the best holiday wishes to all of you. I wish Chinese people of all ethnic groups, compatriots in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the Macao Special Administrative Region and Taiwan, and overseas Chinese a happy New Year! Happy New Year to you all!

The Year of the Tiger, which is about to pass, is a very important year in the development history of the Party and the country. Confronted with the complex and unpredictable international situation and arduous domestic tasks of continuing reform and development and maintaining stability, the entire Party, the military, and the Chinese people of all ethnic groups rose to the challenge and worked together. With their energy, courage and perseverance, they wrote a new chapter in the development of socialist modernization.

We held the 20th CPC National Congress successfully and drew up a grand blueprint for comprehensively building a modern socialist country. The entire Party, the military, and the Chinese people of all ethnic groups have embarked on a new journey in high spirits and are heading towards a new goal.

Over the year, we have fully implemented the new development philosophy, adhered to the general principle of pursuing progress while ensuring stability, fully implemented the requirements for keeping the epidemic at bay, stabilizing the economy and ensuring safe development, and accelerated the efforts to foster a new development pattern and pursue high-quality development. We have maintained economic growth, achieved a bumper harvest of grain, kept employment and prices stable, and firmly ensured people's well-being. We have also consolidated our gains in poverty elimination, made one achievement after another in the fields of sci-tech innovation, kept improving the ecological environment, taken solid steps to modernize the national defense and the armed forces, made further efforts to exercise full and rigorous governance over the Party, and maintained overall social stability.

We have put people and their lives first and kept optimizing the epidemic prevention and control measures according to the mutation of the virus and the anti-epidemic situation, so as to protect people's lives and health to the greatest extent and minimize the impact of the epidemic on economic and social development. Now, epidemic prevention and control still requires much efforts, but we can see the light at the end of the tunnel, as long as we work together and persevere, we will surely win the final victory.

We successfully hosted the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics, respectively, presented a streamlined, safe and splendid Games to the world, and achieved great achievement in organizing the Games and our athletes also achieved a success in competition, making Beijing the first city holding both Summer Olympic Games and Winter Olympic Games in the world.

We held a grand celebration marking the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the motherland. Hong Kong and Macao have remained prosperous and stable. We have been fighting resolutely in major struggles against separatism and foreign interference, maintaining the initiative to steer cross-Strait relations. We have vigorously advanced major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics and made many friends, providing the volatile global environment with stability.

The achievements of this year did not come easily, and were made by the Party and the people together. What has been achieved has shown that as long as the Party and the people stand together, think together and work together, no storm can shake our iron will, and no difficulty can stop our sonorous steps.

Comrades and Friends,

2023 is the first year to fully implement the guiding principles of the 20th CPC National Congress, with both hopes and challenges. We will take keeping stability the top priority, and seek progress while maintaining stability. We will better balance both domestic and international situations, coordinate epidemic prevention and control with economic and social development, and development with security. We will comprehensively deepen reform and opening up, strive to achieve an overall upturn in economic performance, and continue to improve people's lives. As long as we work hard with firm confidence, we will get off to a good start on our new journey.

The greatest truths are the simplest, and hard work is the key. The new journey is a long one full of glories and dreams where there is no shortcut, but hard work. We should come down to earth, work hard, and not fall into fantasies or distractions. We should be honest and studious, respect the reality, do not act against rules or work recklessly. We should seek truth and be pragmatic, focus on the actual effect, and do not make superficial work or show. Those who work will succeed, and those who walk will arrive at their destination. A person of action will leave a good name in history. We created a glorious past with hard work, and we will create a better future in the same way.

Comrades and Friends,

In traditional Chinese culture, rabbit (tu) is called Ruitu (auspicious rabbit) or Yutu (jade rabbit), representing quickness and wit, purity and kindness, peace and beauty. The auspicious rabbit bodes well for China, which is increasingly peaceful, and full of vigor and vitality. In the lunar year of the Rabbit, I hope that the people of the whole country, especially the young people, sprint up and run at full speed like a moving rabbit to exhibit their ability and elegance in whatever work they do.

At this time of family reunion, there are many people who are still at work, leaving their shining footprints in the great journey of building the Chinese dream together. We pay tribute to these selfless contributors!

Finally, I wish you all a happy family reunion, good health, good luck in the year of Rabbit and all the best!

Thank you all!