2025 Spring Festival Message by Foreign Ministry Commissioner Liu Xianfa
The dragon, holding a jewel, bids farewell to the old year; the snake, spitting auspiciousness, welcomes the new spring. On this joyous occasion of the Lunar New Year of the Snake, I, on behalf of the Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China in Macao, extend my Spring Festival greetings to all Macao compatriots, wishing you all a Happy Lunar New Year, a year of good fortune, and a bright future!
Currently, all sectors of the Special Administrative Region are diligently studying and implementing the spirit of President Xi Jinping’s series of important speeches during his inspection tour of Macao. The streets are filled with a festive atmosphere of excitement and anticipation for a bright future. The Spring Festival is the most important traditional festival for the Chinese people, a time for family reunion, bidding farewell to the old and welcoming the new, a joyous moment to review achievements, share happiness, and look forward to the future. This Year of the Snake’s Spring Festival in this lotus-shaped treasure land of our motherland is doubly joyous – a double blessing.
In 2024, President Xi, with the global vision, broad-mindedness, and concern for the world of a leader of a major political party and a major country, personally and actively participated in three major home-based diplomatic events and undertook four important visits, leading the tide of peace, development, cooperation, and win-win outcomes. Under President Xi’s strategic guidance, China’s distinctive major-country diplomacy has held high the glorious banner of a community with a shared future for mankind, resolutely safeguarding the national interest, upholding international fairness and justice, and actively promoting global development. This has injected stability and positive energy into a turbulent world. Chinese diplomacy has adhered to the fundamental principle of “diplomacy for the people,” handling over 50,000 consular protection and assistance cases throughout the year, and completing the “journey home across thousands of miles” for our compatriots in Lebanon in just 48 hours, safely evacuating more than 10,000 compatriots from high-risk regions abroad. We have demonstrated with practical actions to all our compatriots that no matter where they go, the motherland will always be behind them.
2024 marked the 75th Anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China and the 25th Anniversary of Macao’s return to the motherland. Many joyous and grand events took place in Haojiang*. In particular, President Xi’s visit to Macao to attend the celebrations and conduct a raft of inspections and research measures, and his important speeches, highly affirmed the tremendous development achievements Macao has made in the 25 years since its return to the motherland. He put forward “three expectations” and “four hopes,” encouraging Macao to leverage its unique advantages, strengthen internal and external connectivity, adopt a more open and inclusive approach, extensively expand international connections, enhance its global influence and attractiveness, and make greater contributions on the international stage. President Xi’s deep care and earnest expectations have brought tremendous encouragement and strength to all sectors of Macao society, greatly enhancing the international community’s confidence in the advantages, tenets, and prospects of the “One Country, Two Systems” principle.
President Xi emphasised that Macao has played an important role and made unique contributions at different historical periods. Since its return, with the strong support of the central government, Macao has established stable economic and trade relations with more than 120 countries and regions and become a member of more than 190 international organizations and institutions. Entering a new era, Macao shoulders the mission of building “one centre, one platform, and one base,” playing an important platform role in promoting economic and trade cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking countries and expanding cultural exchanges and mutual learning between Chinese and foreign civilizations. Macao’s total trade with countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative has reached nearly 30 billion yuan; in the first three quarters of 2024, more than 1,000 exhibitions and conventions were held in Macao, a year-on-year increase of nearly 30 percent, attracting more than 4,600 exhibitors from around the world; the number of international tourists exceeded 2.42 million throughout the year, a significant increase of 66 percent, demonstrating Macao’s international influence and reputation.
On the new journey of the new era, as an important bridgehead for China’s high-level opening-up to the outside world, the only region in the world where Chinese and Portuguese are official languages, and a model of harmonious coexistence and integration of different civilizations, Macao will surely be able to further leverage its unique advantages, strengthen internal and external connectivity, and with more convenient exchanges and interactions, higher-quality hardware and software services, and an optimized business environment, gather the synergy of diversified industries such as high-tech, tourism, traditional Chinese medicine, modern finance, conventions and exhibitions, and culture; it will surely be able to further improve its external cooperation mechanisms, enhance its capacity for external relations governance, expand external exchanges and cooperation, and bring together the strength of all sectors of Macao society, including foreign communities and expatriates, the strength of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the Chinese mainland, the strength of Portuguese-speaking countries and Southeast Asian countries, and the strength of world peace and development, to jointly engage in this investment and business-friendly Special Administrative Region, share the opportunities for Macao’s accelerated and appropriate economic diversification development, and polish the “golden business card” of “Macao, China” as an international metropolis even brighter.
2025 is the final year of the country’s 14th Five-Year Plan and the opening year for the new term of the Macao Special Administrative Region Government. The Foreign Ministry Commissioner’s Office will adhere to Xi Jinping’s Thought on Diplomacy as its guide, thoroughly implement the spirit of President Xi’s series of important speeches during his inspection tour of Macao, further consolidate the barrier to safeguard national security, fully support the Chief Executive and the Special Administrative Region Government in governing according to the law, fully assist the Special Administrative Region in expanding external exchanges and cooperation, promote the introduction of more measures to facilitate the flow of personnel between China and foreign countries, increase efforts to help the Guangdong-Macao In-depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin attract international investment, and better protect the overseas rights and interests of Macao compatriots.
We firmly believe that with the warm care of President Xi and the central government, with the strong backing of the great motherland, and with the joint efforts of the Special Administrative Region Government and all sectors of society, Macao will surely be able to seize the new opportunities of the country’s high-quality development and high-level opening-up, open up new horizons, achieve new leaps forward, and create new glories! We wish Macao to fly higher, go further, and achieve better development, riding on the strong wind of national construction and national rejuvenation! We wish all Macao compatriots a Happy Lunar New Year, all the best, and good health!
*Haojiang is one of Macao’s ancient names.
N.B. Commissioner Liu’s message was released by his office on January 28, 2025, with its unabridged translation arranged and edited by The Macau Post Daily.
Undated file photo of Ministry of Foreign Affairs Commissioner Liu Xianfa. – Photo courtesy of the Commissioner’s Office in the MSAR
