January 16, 2025, New York

Vice Minister Shen Haixiong,
Ambassador Fu Cong,
Consul General Chen Li,
President Stephen Orlins,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Dear friends,

Good evening!

As the Lunar Year of the Snake is just around the corner, it gives me great pleasure to join you in sounding the Prelude to the Spring Festival Gala and celebrating the upcoming Chinese New Year!

The Spring Festival originated in China, but its joy and happiness are shared by the whole world. In 2022, the festival happily coincided with the Beijing Winter Olympics. In 2023, it was listed as a UN floating holiday. And in 2024, the tradition was inscribed as UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. So today, the Chinese New Year has really become a global celebration. I would like to thank China Media Group for hosting today’s event, which will open a window for American friends to better understand China, build a bridge for affinity between our two peoples, and bring us together in a symphony of harmony and cultural diversity.

Dear friends,

In this turbulent world, people around the globe are more eager than ever to pursue peace and development, and the call for solidarity and cooperation is growing ever stronger. The Spring Festival is exactly about peace, amity and harmony. While China and the United States are different in many ways, both our people wish for a happy family, a good life and a peaceful world. For that to happen, a stable, healthy and sustainable China-U.S. relationship is crucial.

In the past Year of the Dragon, we implemented the San Francisco vision against all odds with the vigor and strength of soaring dragons. With our joint efforts, China-U.S. relations gained a hard-won stabilizing momentum and remained overall stable. We are most happy to see more American friends are touring China to experience our dynamic country under the 240-hour visa-free transit policy. Around 16,000 young Americans have visited China for study or exchanges under President Xi Jinping’s initiative of inviting 50,000 American youth in five years. Students from both our countries competed in the VBA (Village Basketball Association) tournament in Guizhou Province, and American children sang As You Wish in Chinese at the Temple of Heaven in Beijing. By reaching out to each other, our people have injected constant warmth into bilateral ties.

Going forward, although we will still face grave challenges in the Year of the Snake, more and more people have come to realize that a stabilizing and improving China-U.S. relationship serves the common interests of both our countries, and also meets the shared expectation of the international community. In the Chinese culture, snake symbolizes agility, wisdom, wealth and vitality. We hope the U.S. side will work with us in the same direction, follow the guidance of our heads of state, and uphold the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation. Let’s expand mutually beneficial cooperation with the drive of dancing golden snakes, properly manage differences with the snake’s wisdom, and enhance dialogue and communication with the snake’s flexibility, so as to find a right way to get along with each other in the new era. 

I wish all of you a smooth, prosperous and promising Year of the Snake ahead!

Thank you very much.