BEIJING, December 31, Reuters - Chinese President Xi Jinping stressed the importance of keeping a strategic focus in his 2022 New Year address and being mindful of the potential risks in the Communist Party's long-term vision to turn China into a global power.
In 2021 Xi declared that China had achieved its goal of creating a more moderately prosperous society, a milestone on its path to becoming a global leader in 2049, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.
In a speech by Xi, he said, "We must always keep a long-term perspective, be mindful of potential risks, keep strategic focus and determination, and attain the broad and great while addressing the delicate and minute."
China, where the coronavirus was first identified in late 2019, has focused on its achievements past and present, including quickly bringing COVID 19 under control as the economy lost steam after rebounding from a pandemic and as relations with the United States plummeted new lows.
Xi said the complete unification of the motherland was an aspiration shared by people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, referring to the self-ruled island of Taiwan, which it considers sacred territory.
He said that he sincerely hopes that all the sons and daughters of the Chinese nation will join forces to create a brighter future for our nation.
A Beijing official warned that China would take drastic measures if Taiwan's democratic government makes moves towards formal independence earlier this week.
Xi stressed the importance of stability in the former British colony of Hong Kong and the former Portuguese-owned enclave of Macau, which returned to China in 1997 and 1999.
Under the handover deal, Hong Kong was promised that its wide-ranging individual freedoms, including freedom of speech, would be protected.
Since China passed a new national security law in 2020, activists complain that the freedoms have been eroded in the wake of a violent pro-democracy, anti-China street protests a year ago.
Chinese and Hong Kong officials defended the law as necessary to restore order.
Unlike previous years, Xi did not talk about China's gross domestic product in his address.