British friends of all communities,

Fellow Chinese in the United Kingdom,

Greetings to you all.

I feel privileged to have been appointed by President Xi Jinping as the 12th Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the People's Republic of China to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It is such a pleasure to come to London, a city both ancient and modern, to take up my new post. Here, I wish to salute and thank all those who have been caring about and supporting the improvement and growth of China-UK relations. I look forward to working with the British government and friends in all sectors to increase engagement and communication, enhance mutual understanding and promote mutually beneficial cooperation between our two peoples.

Both China and the UK boast long histories and splendid cultures that stand out among the Eastern and Western civilizations. The interactions between our peoples date back a long time. Ever since the establishment of diplomatic ties at the ambassadorial level nearly 50 years ago, China-UK relations have gone through an extraordinary journey and yielded fruitful results. China and the UK are important trading partners to each other. Despite the impact of COVID-19, two-way trade and investment bucked the trend to register record growth last year. This speaks volumes for the great resilience and enormous potential of our business ties. Our close exchanges in culture, education, youth and other fields have deepened the friendship between our peoples and fostered public support for the bilateral relations.

History fully demonstrates that closer exchanges and cooperation between China and the UK, both being permanent members of the UN Security Council and countries of global influence, conform to the trend of the times, serve the interests of both sides, and contribute to world peace, stability and prosperity. As long as the principles of mutual respect, equality, inclusiveness and mutual learning are observed, China-UK relations will keep moving forward and make further progress.

China and the UK are both experiencing profound transformation - China has embarked on a new journey of building a modern socialist country in all respects, while the UK is faced with a new task of delivering Global Britain. Our two countries also face the global challenges of COVID-19 and climate change. Last year, President Xi Jinping had two telephone conversations with Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and charted the course for further advancing our bilateral relations. It is essential that our two sides follow through on the important common understandings between our leaders, and respect each other's core interests and major concerns. Our two sides may deepen cooperation in trade, finance, innovation, people-to-people exchanges and other fields, and step up coordination on global issues such as fighting COVID-19, spurring global recovery and tackling climate change. We also need to address our differences properly. These are the kind of efforts needed to ensure that China-UK relations will deliver more benefits to our peoples and contribute still more to world peace and common development.

Dear friends,

Fellow compatriots,

Thirty-five years ago, I was a student in the UK on a government programme. Back then, there were only several hundred Chinese students here. Today, this figure has exceeded 200,000. This is yet another proof of the keen interest of our two peoples for closer exchanges and cooperation. Let's make greater efforts to pave the way for more interactions, build stronger bridges of cooperation and lay a more solid foundation of friendship between our peoples. I see my ambassadorship at this significant juncture as a noble mission and, more importantly, a great responsibility. I will bear in mind my duties and work diligently for the steady and sustained growth of China-UK relations.

Thank you.

Video link of the remarks