Your Excellency President Csaba Kőrösi,

Under-Secretary-General Movses Abelian,

Under-Secretary-General Melissa Fleming,

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen, Friends,

As we welcome back the spring season, it is a great pleasure for me to join you in celebrating the 14th United Nations Chinese Language Day. My special thanks go to President Kőrösi, USG Abelian and USG Fleming for taking time out of your tight schedule for this event.

This year’s events are co-hosted by the Permanent Mission of China to the UN, DGACM Chinese Translation Service, and UNSRC Chinese Book Club, under the theme of “Chinese Wisdom for a Green World”. By choosing development as the theme this year, we hope to evoke people’s thoughts and responsibilities regarding sustainable development through the unique perspective of culture and science, so that we can together build and cherish our planet Earth. 

We live in the same world with a shared future. The world today faces many challenges, and the urgency of sustainable development is self-evident. 2023 is a crucial year for the UN’s sustainable development work. This year the UN will hold the mid-term review of the SDGs. President Kőrösi has been committed to leading the 77th session of the UN General Assembly in seeking “solutions through solidarity, sustainability, and science”. However, global progress on the SDGs has been worrisome. As Secretary-General Guterres noted, it is high time we translated our words into actions.

Because of this background, we decided to center this year’s Chinese Language Day upon the theme of green and sustainable development. This morning, we invited world-renowned sci-fi writer Liu Cixin to discuss crisis awareness in sci-fi literature and share thoughts on a sustainable future with friends from all walks of life. In doing so, we hope everyone can look into the future and, from our boundless imagination, seek feasible solutions to save the Earth. We also invited calligrapher Cui Xuelu to elaborate on the concept of harmony between humanity and nature in Chinese calligraphy, and held a painting and calligraphy exhibition on the theme of water. In doing so, we hope everyone can look back to history and draw the wisdom of green development from ancient Chinese philosophy and culture.

China has always been a firm supporter, practitioner, and contributor of sustainable development, and has made unremitting efforts to implement the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. China has built a moderately prosperous society, achieved the goal of poverty reduction 10 years ahead of schedule, vigorously promoted high-quality development, enhanced Belt and Road cooperation, advanced the Global Development Initiative, and provided high-quality public goods to the international community, setting a good example as a major country.

Dear Friends,

The Chinese language is the most important symbol and carrier of Chinese culture. For a long time, the international community has known and understood China through this window of the Chinese language. Today’s China is standing on a new starting point in history. The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China has ushered in a new journey of Chinese modernization. This Chinese modernization will not only benefit the 1.4 billion Chinese people, but also has great global significance. It represents the best practice, the right direction, and a feasible model, and embodies the shared values of humanity. We hope and believe that Chinese modernization will continue to instill confidence, add strength, and create opportunities for the common and sustainable development of the world, and provide a practical path towards the building of a community with a shared future for humankind.

At last, I wish to thank DGACM and UNSRC Chinese Book Club for their contribution to this year’s Chinese Language Day, and thank friends from all walks of life for your attention and support. I hope this cultural feat will offer a great opportunity for us to exchange ideas,, build consensus and contribute new wisdom to the cause of global sustainable development.

In conclusion, I wish this year’s events great success!