Xi highlights national goal of rejuvenation (2)

（Xinhua）  09:22, November 30, 2012

Making a keynote speech during his visit, the general secretary described "The Road Toward Renewal" as a retrospective on the Chinese nation, a celebration of its present and a declaration on its future.

Citing a sentence from one of Mao Zedong's poems, "Idle boast the strong pass is a wall of iron," Xi said the Chinese nation had suffered unusual hardship and sacrifice in the world's modern history.

"But the Chinese people have never given in, have struggled ceaselessly, and have finally taken hold of own destiny and started the great process of building our nation," he emphasized. "It has displayed, in full, the great national spirit with patriotism as the core."

Talking about China's today, Xi borrowed another sentence from Mao's poems, "But man's world is mutable, seas become mulberry fields," referring to the country's hard-earned finding of a correct road toward its rejuvenation and remarkable achievements since the launch of the reform and opening up. "It is the road of socialism with Chinese characteristics," he stressed.

Afterwards, Xi cited a poetic sentence from Li Bai, one of the best-known ancient Chinese poets, "I will mount a long wind some day and break the heavy waves." It indicates that, after more than 170 years of hard struggle since the Opium War, the Chinese nation has bright prospects, is closer than ever to reaching its goal of great renewal, and is more confident and capable of reaching the goal than ever.