In his address, broadcast by China Radio International, Chinese Central Radio Station and Chinese Central Television, the Chinese president hailed the great achievements made in all fields by the Chinese people in 2001.

In the past year, Jiang said, China has continued to broaden its reforms, and to expand its opening-up, keeping to the policy of increasing domestic demands, pushing forward economic restructuring and developing the western region. China has continued to maintain a relatively rapid economic growth, despite of the big slowdown in the global economy.

Meanwhile, China has made further advancements in boosting its ethical and cultural progress, legal system, and various social undertakings, he noted.

He went on to recall a series of major events which have occurred in the past year, including the celebration of the 80th founding anniversary of the Communist Party of China, the entry into the World Trade Organization, the successful bid for the 2008 Olympic Games, and the hosting of the Informal Meeting of Leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation.

The president expressed his belief that in the new year, boosting peace and continuing development will remain the common aspiration of all nations. "Peace is a prerequisite for the development and prosperity of the world," he stressed.

Jiang pledged that China will continue to pursue an independent foreign policy of peace and make unceasing efforts toward building a new, fair and reasonable international political and economic order by working with all nations, to jointly build up a world of peace, development and progress.

"Poverty, confrontation and war are spreading in some parts of the world," he said, noting that terrorism is posing a severe threat to world peace and security.

He repeated China's willingness to cooperate with other countries and use the United Nations to the full, to join in cracking down terrorism and ensure people of all nations create their own fulfilled life in a peaceful and tranquil environment.

Jiang spoke highly of multipolarism and globalization as well as of the fast development of science and technology, saying they have brought about rare opportunities for the development of all nations.

However, he warned that developing countries have not fully enjoyed the benefits of globalization nor the progress of science and technology and are encountering serious difficulties in development.

China, as a developing country, is willing to make an effort to boost the development of other developing countries and to eliminate poverty and hunger worldwide, while working on its own development, he said.

In the new year, China will work toward the complete reunification of the motherland by adhering to the basic policy of "Peaceful Reunification and One Country, Two Systems" and the Eight Proposals of the cross-Straits relations which he put forward himself in 1995, the president said.

In the new year, he said, the Communist Party of China will convene its 16th Congress to further clarify the targets and tasks for China's development in the new century.

(People?s Daily December 31, 2001)