Assess and foresee: President Xi welcomes 2025

President Xi Jinping's traditional upbeat New Year's Eve address to the nation marks that special moment when one year transitions to the next, providing the proper platform for assessing the past and foreseeing the future. While the tone, structure and topic categories of Xi's milestone addresses reflect custom and consistency, which China holds in high value, by sensing subtle variations on big themes, one may intuit how Xi is thinking and what China is planning.

For his 2025 address, President Xi sets the tone with the metaphor of "four seasons" expressing the range of events - experiencing "winds and rains" and seeing "rainbows," which combine to portray "how extraordinary a year we have had." He recognizes multiple impacts of "the changing environment at home and abroad," putting upfront the challenges China has faced and framing these challenges by stating with confidence how China has "proactively responded."

The first "solid gain," President Xi states, is "pursuing high-quality development." This is pre-eminent positioning, signaling and stressing that high-quality development is top priority. The GDP of 130 trillion yuan, or a little over 18 trillion U.S. dollars, and grain output of 700 million tonnes confirm that not only are standards of living improving but, meaningfully, "China's bowls are now filled with more Chinese grain," which means less dependency on foreign supplies. Coordinated development between "new urbanization and rural revitalization" and enhancing "green development" resonate with Xi's overarching New Concepts of Development.

Likewise, Xi detailing technological achievements exemplify the importance of innovation, the first of the New Concepts of Development. More than 10 million new energy vehicles. Breakthroughs in integrated circuits, artificial intelligence, quantum communications. The Chang'e-6 lunar probe collecting samples from the far side of the moon.

President Xi describes his visits to "many places across the country" in rich detail, perhaps more than in prior addresses, highlighting his focus on improving the lives of ordinary citizens. He states explicitly, "The concerns of the people about jobs and incomes, elderly and child care, education and medical services are always on my mind." It is perhaps his most personal and revealing comment.

Turning to international affairs, Xi recognizes "a world of both transformation and turbulence" and in stressing that China is "a responsible major country," he emphasizes that China is "promoting global governance reform and deepening solidarity and cooperation among the Global South" - which, deliberately, resonates more with the developing world, less with the developed world.

Framing China's "sea change" in modernization in terms of China's rich civilization history and giving his "clarion call for further deepening all-round reform," Xi states again, for the second time, unambiguously, that pursuing high-quality development is "a top priority," as is "greater self-reliance and strength in science and technology." It is neither accidental nor coincidental that in his year-defining address Xi stresses "quality": "high-quality development" twice with respect to China's domestic agenda, "high-quality Belt and Road Initiative cooperation," and "new quality productive forces." "Quality" is featured four times in a short speech.

Xi calls for hard work and growing stronger through hard times. What is abundantly clear is that President Xi will continue to prioritize high-quality development for long-term benefits and will not change course notwithstanding various pressures.

President Xi recruits everyone as "a key actor" and encourages "every effort" for "the new journey of Chinese modernization.""We must be confident," he asserts.

President Xi concludes with a soaring, poetic vision of harmony, prosperity, happiness and peace. "May all your dreams come true," he says.

I'm Robert Lawrence Kuhn.

Script and Presenter: Robert Lawrence Kuhn‬

‪Producer: Yang Yutong

‪Video Editor: Hao Xinxin‬

‪Graphic Designer: Qi Haiming‬

‪Executive Producers: Adam Zhu‬, Sun Lan‬

‪Chief Editor: Li Shouen

‪Supervisors: Wang Jian,  Xiao Jian

‪(If you want to contribute and have specific expertise, please contact us at opinions@cgtn.com.)‬