October 1 this year marks the 71st anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. It coincides with the Chinese traditional festival, the Mid-autumn Festival. The rare coincidence gives more meaning to the festivities and calls forth our deep sentiments towards our families and motherland. On this auspicious occasion, we gather together via video connection to celebrate these two festivities and to give our best wishes to our families and motherland. I wish to extend, on behalf of the Chinese Consulate General in Los Angeles, warm festive greetings and best wishes to all our friends, including Chinese community members, students and Chinese company staff.

The founding of the People's Republic of China 71 years ago ushered in a new era of Chinese history. The Chinese people have since then stood up and embarked on a grand journey to realize the prosperity of the country, rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and happiness of the Chinese people. Over the past 71years, under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, the Chinese people, with no fear of hardship, have been working tirelessly in building the country and made remarkable achievements in China's development. Tremendous changes have taken place in China. China is now embracing the brilliant prospect of national rejuvenation. This year, with the completion of the country's poverty alleviation tasks, China is about to wipe out absolute poverty. The realization of building a moderately prosperous society in all aspects is in sight.

This year, the outbreak of COVID-19 epidemic came all of sudden. Putting people's life and health first, the Communist Party of China and the Chinese Government have led the Chinese people in fighting a fierce battle against the epidemic, and have made a major strategic achievement in fighting the virus. China emerged as the first major country to contain the outbreak and resume work and production. Chinese economy has seen positive growth in the second quarter. Its economic and social activities are gradually returning to normalcy. Acting with openness, transparency and a sense of responsibility, we have made a great effort in fulfilling our international obligation, advocating the building of a global community of health, and taking an active part in the global anti-pandemic cooperation. China has contributed its wisdom and strength to the global pandemic fight. In this life-and-death battle against the virus, the heroic 1.4 billion Chinese people, undaunted and united as one, have forged a great spirit of combating the COVID-19 and epitomized with concrete actions China's responsibility as a major country in promoting the building of a community with shared future for mankind.

We will never forget the invaluable support from friends of all walks of life in our consular district when the Chinese people were fighting hard against the epidemic. Many local elected officials, members of the Congress expressed their sympathy to the Chinese people through letters and phone calls. Some institutions and schools made video clips to cheer up those fighting at the front line. Young musicians dedicated a string quintet, Love of Angels, composed and played by themselves, to the people of China and Wuhan in particular. Chinese community members, Chinese students, local friends and businesses made generous donations of money and goods. Among them, there are not only young students who only signed their names as "Sons and Daughters of China", but also retired seniors making donations out of their pensions. Working closely, local logistics firms and Chinese airline companies opened a fast track to ship donated goods to China. With volunteer help from many community members, a large amount of PPEs were transported to China within a relative short period of time, which reinforced anti-epidemic efforts in China. There are many touching stories of this kind which warm our hearts till now.

When the pandemic hit the U.S, the Chinese people, adhering to the philosophy of One world, One family, and with kindness and empathy, provided timely support to the US efforts in pandemic prevention and control. We facilitated the U.S purchase of PPEs from China. Among many supplies shipped to the US, face masks alone are as many as 34 billion. Chinese provinces, cities together with the Chinese Consulate General in Los Angeles donated about 1.7 million masks and other supplies to local governments, medical institutions and schools in our consular district. The Consulate General also helped to organize on-line meetings for local governments, health authorities and medical experts of both countries to share knowledge and experience on combating the virus and reopening of the economy.

In active implementation the mission of "Diplomacy for the People", the Consulate wasted no time to send out "health kits" to the Chinese students in the consular district, and provided assistance to those students in dire situation to take the temporary flights to return home. We put up video conferences with the Chinese community, and invited Chinese medical experts to talk about COVID prevention and control to help our community members protect their health safety. Meanwhile, the Chinese community has also made its contribution by actively participating in the local anti-pandemic efforts.

At present, China-US relations are facing grave challenges. Some people from the U.S attempt to negate what has been built up so painstakingly by generations of Chinese and American people over the past decades, and to deliberately push our two countries into conflict and confrontation. The bilateral relations have come across intense complexity and difficulties since the establishment of our diplomatic ties.

China-U.S relations are among the most important bilateral relations in the world, which have important bearings on the present and future of China, the U.S and the world at large. A sound and stable China-US relationship serves the common aspiration of the people of both countries. We sincerely hope that the COVID-19 will be contained in the US as soon as possible to minimize its impact on the American people. We are committed to working toward a bilateral relationship featuring non-conflict, non-confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation. We wish to work with the US side to enhance dialogue and communication, properly manage the differences, engage in cooperation, and maintain the steady growth of China-US relations. We also hope that the US side will recognize the trend of the times, abandon the Cold War mentality and avoid strategic miscalculation.

The Chinese people will stay committed to peaceful development and steadfastly pursue the strategy of opening-up for mutual benefits, build a community with a shared future for mankind, and stand firm in safeguarding the country's sovereignty, security and development interests. China's development cannot be stopped. The Chinese people, under the leadership of CPC, will overcome all the difficulties and obstacles and strive to achieve national rejuvenation.

On festive occasions more than ever we think of our dear ones far away. The bright full moon projects our thoughts and love to our motherland and families. We sincerely wish our great motherland will enjoy prosperity and our people live a peaceful life. We wish our families well, and all our friends and their families happiness, good health and success. We will maintain close communication with our friends, and look forward to working together to further expand China-U.S sub-national cooperation and bring our bilateral relations back to the right track of sound and steady development.

Thank you all.