On Jan 25 2020, the famous Icelandic newspaper Fréttablaðið published the Spring Festival Greeting Message by Ambassador Jin Zhijian on its Spring Festival Special Edition.
The full text is as follows:
Today is the first day of the Chinese Lunar New Year. We bid farewell to the Year of the Pig representing prosperity and well-being, and usher in the Year of the Rat, a symbol of wisdom and spirituality. First of all, I wish you a happy Chinese New Year and auspicious year of the Rat!
The Spring Festival is the biggest traditional festival of the Chinese nation. It celebrates the cultural spirits of family reunion and best wishes for good fortune in the coming spring. Dragon and lion dance, hanging lanterns, setting off firecrackers, spring couplets and eating dumplings are considered as important cultural elements of the Spring Festival and Chinese culture at large, which represent joy, happiness, diligence and harmony.
Today, the Spring Festival has become increasingly recognized and favored overseas, more and more countries and cities worldwide have begun to celebrate the Chinese New Year with all kinds of activities. In 2019, Happy Chinese New Year activities were introduced to Iceland for the first time and attracted the local people to share the festival joy. As the most beautiful wave in the upsurge of bilateral cultural exchanges between China and Iceland, Happy Chinese New Year activities provided the audience with a great channel to learn about the Chinese culture. Next week we will stage the most anticipated Happy Chinese New Year activities for the second time.
Looking back on 2019, we solemnly celebrated the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Over the past 70 years, the Communist Party of China has led the Chinese people to forge ahead through hard work and has turned China from a weak and impoverished country with backward productivity into the world’s second largest economy, the largest industrial manufacturer, the largest trader of goods, and the biggest holder of foreign exchange reserves. China's GDP accounts for nearly 16 percent of the world's total, and its contribution to world economic growth exceeds 30%. The percentage of people living under the poverty line has been reduced to less than 0.7% of overall population in China, and China contributed more than 70 percent to global poverty alleviation. The life expectancy of the Chinese people has increased to 76 years. China has achieved a development miracle unseen before in world history. While achieving its own development, China has also provided cooperation opportunities and benefits of development for the rest of the world including Iceland.
Many may wonder how China can make such miracles in achieving rapid economic development and maintaining long-term social stability. The answer is that China has found a development path that suits its national conditions in today's complex world, which is the Socialism with Chinese characteristics. China will unswervingly adhere to this path. China will continue to deepen reform and opening up and promote high-quality development, and China’s door of opening-up will only open even wider. An open and prosperous China is good for the world. China is willing to develop friendly and cooperative relations on the basis of equality and mutual benefit with all countries, realize common development and share prosperity, and jointly build a global community of shared future for mankind.
I am glad to see that with joint efforts, the bilateral relations between China and Iceland have enjoyed sound and steady development with frequent high-level exchanges and deepening practical cooperation. The two countries have made great progress in utilization of renewable energy such as geothermal, biosilimar-pharmaceutical, and e-commerce. Icelandic fishery and livestock products and cosmetics have entered the Chinese market. More and more Chinese tourists are visiting Iceland than ever before. Science, education and culture exchanges are becoming more active. The two sides remain close cooperation in maintaining world stability, promoting sustainable development, working together on the Arctic and tackling climate change. It is with the full devotion of the two peoples that China and Iceland could increase, deepen and expand bilateral relations and cooperation, and I would like to express my sincere appreciation to everyone who has contributed in this course.
At this beautiful moment to bid farewell to the old and usher in the new, we are fully loaded with hope. By 2020, China is going to completely eliminate absolute poverty, build a moderately prosperous society in all respects and realize our first centenary goal. Here, I sincerely wish for a better world, happiness and prosperity for our two countries and two peoples, new outcomes of our friendship and cooperation in the new year.