Remarks by Amb. Zhao Weiping at the 2024 Chinese Spring Festival Gala
January 20, 2024
Honorable Minister Utoni Nujoma,
Honorable Minister Yvonne Dausab,
Honorable Deputy Minister Veikko Nekundi,
Your Worship Mayor Queen Kamati,
Honorable Vice Chairperson Victoria Kauma,
Honorable Chairperson John Moonde,
Chairperson Jiang Bo, Executive Chairperson Zhang Ying,
Leaders of the Chinese community, my fellow Chinese,
All the distinguished guests, Dear friends,
Good evening.
It’s my great pleasure to be invited to attend the 2024 Chinese Spring Festival Gala hosted by the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Namibia (CGCCIN). First of all, on behalf of the Chinese Embassy in Namibia and in my own name, I would like to extend my New Year greetings to all of you. I wish my fellow Chinese and Namibian friends present here an auspicious Year of Dragon, happy Spring Festival, good health and smoothness in every undertaking.
The Spring Festival is the most important traditional festival of the Chinese nation. It is the most joyful day for family reunion and universal celebration. For our fellow Chinese, Namibia is your new home and the Chinese community is a big family. I am very thankful to Chairperson Jiang Bo and the CGCCIN for hosting this grand event today, which has enabled the reunion of the big family of the Chinese community and let every Chinese compatriot who is far away from our homeland feel the warmth of home and enjoy happiness of the festival.
I am also grateful to Minister Utoni Nujoma, Minister Yvonne Dausab, Mayor Queen Kamati and all the distinguished Namibian guests for participating in this event amid your busy schedule, which has fully reflected the deep friendship of the Namibian people towards the Chinese people. We are deeply honored by your kind presence.
Fellow Chinese, General Secretary Xi Jinping and CPC Central Committee care deeply about overseas Chinese. When met with Chinese diplomatic envoys attending the annual work conference for overseas envoys to foreign countries in 2023, General Secretary Xi delivered an important speech and pointed out that over 1.4 billion Chinese people are strong supporters of our diplomatic work, and urged the envoys to take "diplomacy for the people" as their commitment, and pass on the CPC Central Committee’s care and concern to every overseas Chinese. General Secretary Xi’s touching care reflected his deep feelings towards the people as the people’s leader. All diplomats of the Chinese Embassy in Namibia will resolutely implement General Secretary Xi’s important instructions, fully practice "diplomacy for the people", actively promote the legitimate interests of our fellow Chinese, and wholeheartedly serve them as their close friends.
Chinese nationals here are an important bridge of friendship between China and Namibia as well as a walking "name card" of China in Namibia. We hope that the various Chinese community organizations will continue to play a role of uniting all the Chinese nationals in Namibia and help them integrate into the local society. We also hope that every Chinese national here will “do as the Namibian do while in Namibia”, abide by the local laws and regulations, respect the local culture, and make new contributions to social and economic development of their new home Namibia, and to the promotion of the traditional friendship between China and Namibia.
In conclusion, I wish to thank again Minister Utoni Nujoma, Minister Yvonne Dausab, Mayor Queen Kamati and all our Namibian friends for joining us in celebrating the Spring Festival of Year of Dragon with us. I wish tonight’s event a great success. Thank you.