On August 22, 2017, Wang Yi met with the new personnel of the Foreign Ministry, extended warm greetings to everyone, and made impromptu and heart-warming remarks. The full text is as follows:
New colleagues, comrades! Greetings to you all! First of all, on behalf of the CPC Committee of the Foreign Ministry and all comrades of our Ministry, I would like to extend my warmest welcome to you! Welcome to this big family of the Foreign Ministry! Every year, I meet with new personnel here, who are younger and more vigorous year by year. According to the introduction by the Department of Personnel, most of you are born in the 1990s, even some after the year of 1995. You has injected new vitality into the diplomatic team. I once again see the hope and the future of China’s diplomacy in you!
From this day onward, your life will be closely intertwined with the diplomatic career. As your comrade as well as a veteran on the diplomatic front, I sincerely hope that starting from here, you will devote yourself to China’s diplomatic cause and realize your ideals and values. At the same time, I am also eagerly looking forward that you will open up brighter prospects for the future of diplomatic cause and create new glory with your wisdom and painstaking efforts!
Dear young colleagues, you may not realize what a lucky generation you belong to. You have been fortunate to grow up in the fastest-growing period of China in history, and fortunate to join China’s diplomatic cause in a vital and exciting era. At present, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core is leading our country to realize the dream of national rejuvenation closer than ever before, and move to the center of the world stage as never before. This is a great era that belongs to China and the Chinese nation. I hope you will make unremitting efforts to make this era even greater!
The great era will certainly inspire great diplomacy. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, under the leadership of the CPC Central Committee as well as the correct guidance of the thought on diplomacy of General Secretary Xi Jinping, we have forged ahead and successfully embarked on a path of major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics. It is not only an uncharted course, but also a right course with a bright future. Of course, this course is inevitably full of difficulties and challenges. How to uphold this path is a question that every diplomat must face and answer. What I want to emphasize here is that I hope we will jointly fulfill the core value of “loyalty, mission and devotion” of the Chinese diplomatic staff.
Loyalty means being loyal to our Party, our country, and our people. These three aspects are interrelated and unified. Being loyal to our Party is the core because without the Communist Party of China, there would be no development and prosperity of our country, and no happiness and peace of our people. I hope that those of you who are already the Party members will closely follow the Central Committee in terms of thinking and actions, enhance Party consciousness in this new environment, and earnestly play your exemplary and vanguard roles. I also hope that the others who are not the Party members yet can have your political ideals soon, act according to the standards of a Party member consciously, and move closer to our Party.
Mission means that you should be positive and enterprising, and brave to take responsibility to fulfill your mission. There are different missions at different times. In the early days of new China, the mission of China’s diplomacy was to break the western blockade and safeguard the dignity of our country. During the period of reform and opening-up, our mission was to fully develop exchanges and cooperation with countries all over the world in order to create an external favorable environment for the growth of domestic economy. At present, in addition to continuing to serve China’s domestic development, we need to be more active in expanding China’s legitimate rights and interests in the world, more active in enhancing China’s status, influence and voice in the world, and more active in shouldering the international responsibility to maintain peace and development of the world.
Devotion means taking diplomatic work as your lifelong career and cultivating the sense of being on duty day and night and making selfless contributions to our country. “Sacrificing one’s little family for the greater cause” is not an empty slogan in the Foreign Ministry, but a choice we all need to face and make. Of course, in recent years, as the CPC Central Committee and the State Council show more concern for us, our conditions and benefits have been improved considerably in all respects. The CPC Committee of the Foreign Ministry is also making efforts to address all kinds of worries of our comrades. I believe that you will enjoy working and living here in this warm and big family of the Foreign Ministry.
Finally, let me extend my welcome once again! I am looking forward to forging ahead shoulder to shoulder with you in the great journey of China’s major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics!
