Remarks by H.E. Ambassador Liu Xiaoming at the Reception in Celebration of the Chinese New Year: Build a Big Global Family Together

Second, higher living standard gave Chinese families a greater sense of happiness.

China has persistently pursued greater development in order to safeguard and improve the life of its people.

Babies are given the best care.

Children have good education.

Hard work gets paid.

Sickness gets treated.

The elderly are looked after.

Everyone has a roof over his head.

And the vulnerable get the help they need.

In 2019,

China lifted more than 10 million people out of poverty. This is a critical step towards achieving the goal of eliminating poverty in 2020.

We have made positive progress in preserving the blue sky, clear water, clean land and better quality of the air.

We have established the world's largest social security system, providing old-age pension, health care, basic allowances and welfare housing, and covering more than 93% of the population.

We also made remarkable progress in education. Here in the UK alone, there are close to 200,000 Chinese students.

In a word, in improving people's life, the measures are effective, the progress is remarkable, and the reform has been deepening. The Chinese people now have a higher sense of happiness.

Third, strengthened social governance provided Chinese families with a greater sense of security.

Improving social governance is a common challenge to all countries in the world.

In recent years, China has explored new ways of social governance. We have worked to ensure that social governance is under the rule of law, supported by smart technologies and managed by professionals. The general public can contribute to and share in social governance, and in this process, their sense of security increase.

Take Xinjiang for example. Three years ago, Xinjiang suffered severely from terrorism and extremism. Violent terrorist forces launched numerous terror attacks, victimizing thousands of innocent people.

To safeguard security in Xinjiang, the Government of the Autonomous Region drew lessons from international counter-terrorism efforts and took a series of counter-terrorism and de-radicalisation measures in accordance with law. These measures have effectively deterred violent terrorist activities. In the past more than three years, there has not been a single terrorist attack in Xinjiang. With security and stability safeguarded, the counter-terrorism measures have won extensive and heartfelt support from the 25 million people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang.