H.E. Prof. Guido de Marco, President emeritus of Malta,

Judge Lino Farrugia Sacco, President of MOC,

Ladies and Gentlemen:

It gives me great pleasure to join this memorable gathering to mark the 100-day countdown to 2008 Beijing Olympics. I wish to begin by thanking the Maltese Olympic Committee for jointly hosting this seminar, and I am also grateful to H.E. Prof. de Marco and all of our friends for taking out time today to join us at this joyful moment.

Needless to say, this seminar offers us a good opportunity to exchange views on all aspects towards Beijing Olympics and China.

As Chinese Ambassador, here I would like to share with you the extraordinary significance of Olympics for China and Chinese.

Firstly, Beijing Olympics brings conceptual changes for Chinese to be more confident and open-minded. As President Hu Jintao acclaimed, to hold Olympics is the common wish by Chinese of all nationalities and the long-lasting desire for the whole nation. The successful application for the Olympics reflects the standing up of the nation from the once agonizing and shameful memories of "Eastern Asian Patients", reflects the acknowledgement of the successful economic and social progress by the world, and reflects the great belief bestowed on China by the people of the world. With "one world, one dream" as the slogan for Beijing Olympics, the Chinese are now annotating from its unique yet inclusive perspective of the Chinese Culture and enriching the dimensions of concept for Olympics as peace, understanding, respect and harmony. China is embracing the world like no other times before.

Secondly, Beijing Olympics acts as a platform for people outside China to know more about 1.3 billion Chinese. With Beijing Olympics, our distance with the outside world shortened. People across the world could witness and experience to an extent never reached before the fast development of China and its opportunities and challenges. This year also marks the 30th anniversary of China's reform and opening up, during which China has made great strides. Effectively, around 230 million Chinese has been lifted out of poverty. China has now become an important engine for world economic growth, and has been a major driving force for global trade. Its market has provided valuable opportunities for global investors. Deeply rooted in our philosophy and culture, China are now unswervingly follow the path of peaceful development, adhere to the opening up strategy of win-win progress, and promote the building of a harmonious world of durable peace and common prosperity.

Thirdly, Beijing Olympics has acted as a driving force for China's social progress. 30 years after our opening up, the Chinese society has already undergone profound transformation. Diversified thinking and discussion of such concepts as competition, efficiency, democracy and rule of law has all open to the public. In the succeeding year after bestow of Olympics, we have revised our constitution to include respect and protection for human rights, carried forward the judicial and legal system reform to build an equitable, just and harmonious society. We have introduced new measures fighting against child labor and passed the new Law on Employment Contract. We are now striving for early ratification of International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. And naturally, the upcoming Olympics acts just as a venue for people from all cultures to exchange, understand and learn further from each other.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I'm sure every one here would agree with me that an open China on the right track is truly an active force for the world. However, with recent incidents happened in Lahsa and in the process of torch relay, no one would disagree that the way of our development shall never be too easy. It is rugged or bumpy and we shall be confronted with mischief and misunderstanding. Take the incidents in Lahsa for example, right contrary to the scene depicted by some western media, it was not at all "peaceful demonstrations" or "non-violent" actions, but sheer violent crimes of beating, smashing, looting and burning. And the restraint response by law enforcement departments has won support and understanding of the majority Chinese including the Tibetan ethnic group and most countries throughout the world. What lies behind the masterminding such incidents by Dalai clique is to take advantage of this special Olympic year to fan internationalization of the Tibet issue and seek real independence.

All this misfortunes, however, put in a different light, prove powerfully how much important we have to be open-minded and keep to be open to the outside world. So now its 6th time since 2002 we are to hold talks with Dalai. And the whole China is just as ever soldiering on to the last moment to make the upcoming Olympics successful.

So far, with "Green Olympics, Scientific Olympics and People's Olympics" set as target, Olympics has acted as a theme for China especially for Beijing, which has brought about both physical and mental changes. Over 200 projects have been carried out involving 10 billion euros. Nearly 90% of the public transports have been shifted or in the process of changing to eco-friendly fuels. Measures implemented involving more greenery planting; less emissions and lower heating radiation have turned out to be effective. In fact, the past year has seen index of blue sky in Beijing reached 246 days. By August, sportsmen and sportswomen shall be able to compete in sports venues, of which, 20% are power supplied by wind energy and with 80-90% of the surrounding lighting and 6000㎡of Olympic village's hot water supplied by solar energy. With regard to the traffic problem, now a new subway has been put on service and the road traffic routes have been built to an overall mileage about 200 km, with special traffic regulation put into force, it is envisaged that there will be guaranteed speed of no less than 60km for special Olympic runways. Also fascinating to remember, joined by hundreds of thousands of volunteers, 5 millions of Beijing residents are now practicing English, thus 1 in every 3 of Beijing people shall be able to communicate in English, which, no wonder the English learning zest by Beijing residents has been listed as a legacy of Olympics. So to sum up, China Beijing is smiling towards the world, and we are expecting the world to return in smile.

Now, ladies and gentlemen,

Finally, on this special evening, let's wish the Olympics derived from west shall be enriched and enshrined with the name of eastern Beijing. And let's wish an excellent and successful demonstration by the team of Malta.

Thank you.