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Cherishing Sincere Wish, Doing Solid Work
Beijing's application for hosting the 2008 Olympic Games on behalf of China is the common wish of the people of all nationalities of the country. In his recent meeting with foreign guests, Premier Zhu Rongji stressed: "The Chinese government pays great attention and give all-out support to the current application, and will create good conditions in various aspects for Beijing City's application work." This constitutes another encouragement and spur given by the Party Central Committee and the State Council to Beijing's renewal of its application for hosting the Olympic Games, a major international sport activity, the 11 million Beijing citizens, the broad masses of physical culture workers and the people of the whole country are greatly inspired by this.
Over the past 20-odd years of reform and opening up, China has witnessed remarkable economic development and social progress. Beijing, a world-renowned historical and cultural city, is taking great strides forward toward an international metropolis, an illustration of this is that in 1999, its per-capita gross domestic product (GDP) exceeded 19,803 yuan, it scored significant progress in municipal construction, environmental protection, the construction of such facilities as stadiums and gymnasiums, it has adequate ability and experience to organize large-scale international activities and sports competitions, conditions for holding the Olympic Games have become more mature.
It is gratifying to note that over the past five decades since the founding of New China in 1949, the country's sports undertaking has developed from weak to strong, it has won 1,317 world champions, it surpassed and broken 1,026 world records, and successfully held a series of important international sports contests including the 11th Asian Games, the outstanding contributions made by the Chinese people and the many good athletes to the modern Olympic Games have won them respect from the world's people. Let the world understand China and its city Beijing, the process of applying for hosting the Olympic Games provides a good opportunity to display the achievements gained in China's reform and opening efforts and demonstrate Beijing's graceful bearing. If Beijing can win the right to hold the 2008 Olympic Games as it wishes, it will be of positive significance to promoting exchange and cooperation between China and the rest of the world, speeding up the pace of opening to the outside world, promoting economic development, scientific and technological progress and improving people's cultural and material living standards.
Over the past century and more since the birth of the modern Olympic Games, the games has enjoyed a very high international reputation with the spirit of peace, friendship, progress and fair competition it initiated. Participating in Olympic affairs and holding Olympic Games are the sincere wish and long-term pursuit of the Chinese people. Holding the Olympic Games in China, a country with one-fifth of the world total population, will make the Olympic Games more popular and deep-going and will provide a vast stage for cultural exchange between the East and the West, it will mean the new contribution made by the Chinese people in the new century to the progress and development of the human society.
Beijing is not the only one city that applies for holding the Olympic Games, so competition will be very intense. But in the end there will only be one fortune's favorite that wins the right to hold the games. We should say that the significance of holding the Olympic Games has far surpassed the games itself. In applying for holding the games, we do not aim merely to win the right to host the Olympic Games, but rather we should, through the process of application, aim to develop ourselves. For this end, we must establish a correct concept of application. We should participate in and support the application with a great breadth of vision, a more mature psychology and a more favorable method. Through publicizing the significance of application for hosting the Olympic Games, we should inspire the hundreds of millions of people to work hard for building our country into a strong and prosperous country; through publicizing Chinese athletes' "tenacious, combatant spirit of winning honor for the country", we should inspire the broad masses of youngsters to establish a lofty ideal of cherishing ardent love for the motherland and rejuvenating China, striving to create a public opinion atmosphere favorable for success in application.
To achieve success in its application, Beijing must have the vigorous support of the people of the whole country. Under the guidance of the principle formulated by the central government for application, we should actively carry out activities for application. For Beijing residents, they should, in the posture as masters of the country, continue to participate in the endeavor for material and cultural progress of the city, plunge themselves into the work of economic development and cultural and educational undertaking, protect and beautify the environment, take part in the nationwide fitness program, thereby creating good conditions for application for hosting the Olympic Games. As far as people of the whole country are concerned, they should show warm-hearted concern and support for Beijing's application for holding said games. Everyone of them should treasure the excellent situation in reform and opening up, consciously safeguard the political stability and unity, they should work with one heart and one mind and in a down-to-earth manner and make our country become more united and stabilized and more prosperous, so as to make things more conducive to Beijing's application for hosting the Olympic Games.
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