Xi Jinping’s first public address

Editor’s Note: Xi Jinping gave his first public speech November 15 as head of China’s Communist Party. Below is a translated transcript.

Ladies, gentlemen and friends, hello. (We) have kept you all waiting. It’s a great pleasure to meet with friends from the press.

Yesterday, the Chinese Communist Party’s 18th National Congress concluded successfully. In the past days, friends from the press have produced large volume of reports, spreading lots of Chinese voices to various countries in the world. You are all very dedicated, very professional and hardworking. On behalf of the Secretariat of the 18th Party Congress I would like to express heartfelt appreciation to you all.

Just now, we held the first plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Committee. A new central leadership was elected during the meeting. The plenary meeting elected seven members of the Standing Committee of the political bureau, and elected me as the General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee. Next, I will introduce to you the other six colleagues and members of the Standing Committee.

They are: Comrade Li Keqiang, Comrade Zhang Dejiang, Comrade Yu Zhengsheng, Comrade Liu Yunshan, Comrade Wang Qishan and Comrade Zhang Gaoli.

Comrade Li Keqiang was the member of the political bureau standing committee in the 17th CPC Central Committee, the others were all members of the 17th CPC Central Committee. Everyone are relatively familiar with them.

On behalf of the members of the new leadership of the CPC Central Committee, I express heartfelt appreciation to all comrades of the Party for your trust in us. We will definitely live up to expectations and fulfill our responsibilities.

The expectations from all comrades of the Party and the hopes from all ethnic groups of the country are source of immense encouragement for us to do our jobs well, and it is also a heavy responsibility on our shoulders.

This great responsibility is our responsibility towards our nation. Our nation is a great nation. In over 5,000 years of civilization, the Chinese people have made indispensable contributions to human development. In recent history, our nation has suffered. The Chinese confronted its gravest moments. Since then, numerous Chinese patriots have waged hard struggle for the sake of a great revival of the Chinese nation, but time and again, they have failed.

After the founding of the CPC, it has rallied and led the people, it made great efforts and turned the poor and backwards China into a new China, ever closer to the goal of national prosperity and strength. The great revival of the Chinese nation has thus embraced a bright prospect never seen before.

Our responsibility is to rally and lead the whole party and the Chinese people from all ethnic groups, take up the historic baton, and continue working hard for the great revival of the Chinese nation, so that we will stand rock firm amongst nations of the world, and make fresh and greater contribution to mankind.

This great responsibility is our responsibility towards the people. Our people are a great people. In the long course of history, the Chinese people, with our toil, courage and wisdom, have developed a beautiful homeland where all ethnic groups live together in harmony, and nurtured a splendid culture that is time-honored and forever new.

Our people have great enthusiasm for life. They hope for better education, more stable jobs, more satisfactory income, more reliable social security, medical services with higher standards, more comfortable living conditions and a more beautiful environment. They wish that children will grow better, work better and live better. The people’s desire for a better life is simply the target of our endeavor.

All happiness in this world can only be created with hard work. Our responsibility is to rally and lead the whole Party and the Chinese people of all ethnic groups, in continuing to liberate our way of thinking, carry on reform and openness, further unleash and develop social productive forces, work hard to resolve the difficulties people face in both work and life. And stand firm on the road for prosperity for all.

This enormous responsibility is our responsibility towards the Party. Our Party is the Party that whole heartedly serve the people. The Party has led the people in achieving accomplishments that has captured the attention of the world, we have every reason to be proud. Proud but not complacent, and we will not rest on our achievements.

In this new environment, our Party is confronted with many severe challenges. There are many pressing problems within the Party that needs to be resolved urgently, especially the graft and corruption cases that occurred to some of the Party members and cadres, being out of touch from the general public, bureaucracy and undue emphasis on formalities – they must be resolved with great efforts. The whole Party must be vigilant against them.

To forge iron, one must be strong. Our responsibility is to work with all comrades in the party, to make sure the party supervises it’s own conduct and enforces strict discipline, effectively deals with the prominent issues facing the party, earnestly improves the working style of the party and maintains close ties with the people. By so doing we will ensure that our party will always be the firm leadership core of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics.

History is created by the people, and people are the true heroes. The people are sources of our strength. We deeply know that the capability of any individual is limited, but as long as we unite as one, there is no difficulty we can not overcome. An individual only has limited time in office, but there’s never a limit to serve the people heart and soul.

Our responsibility is as heavy as Mount Tai, and our journey is long. We must always be heart-to-heart with the people, share the joy and challenges with the people, be united with the people and strive together with the people, work hard day and night, aim to deliver a satisfactory answer to history and the people.

Friends from the press. China needs to know more about the world, the world also needs to know more about China. I hope that, in the future, you will continue to make efforts and contribution to deepen the mutual knowledge between China and countries of the world.

Thanks to everyone.