Excellencies,

新春快乐，虎年大吉！（Translation: Happy Chinese New Year and I wish you good fortune in the Year of the Tiger!).

I am delighted to join you today to celebrate the Chinese Spring Festival in the Year of the Tiger – a symbol of adventure, courage, and power.

What better year to host the 24th Olympic Winter Games! 

I am truly excited to join the Olympic torch relay and to observe the Opening Ceremony in Beijing.

I congratulate the Government of China on the preparations for the Winter Olympics. I anticipate, as ever, an incredible and awe-inspiring Opening Ceremony that captures the beauty of the human spirit and the art and history of the Olympics.

And I am pleased to hear that China is maintaining its commitment to a “green, inclusive, open and clean” Olympic Winter Games.

Excellencies,

Sports can be a platform for dialogue and diplomacy, for reconciliation and renewal, for cooperation and collaboration. I would thus like to thank our talented athletes who are, during the coming weeks, serving as “diplomats in track suits.”

Sporting events such as the Olympics are bigger than any of us; they are legendary; capable of effecting change, of inspiring generations, of building bridges across continents.

For the women and men who will participating in these games, my appeal would be to set aside our differences and collectively strive towards a common goal. To show humility in winning and graciousness in defeat. To embody the values of Olympism and to demonstrate to the world that sport is a powerful tool for harmony.

Indeed, sports bring people together regardless of age, gender or ethnicity;  geography, religion or politics. On that track, on those slopes, on the ice rink, we are all only human. One humanity.

These principles were reflected in China’s General Assembly resolution on “Building a peaceful and better world through sport and the Olympic ideal,” adopted by consensus last December, as well as in my own “Solemn appeal in connection with the observance of the Olympic Truce.”

Excellencies,

I wish the Government of the People’s Republic of China, and the International Olympics Committee, nothing but success in hosting the  Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games. These are extraordinary circumstances and I applaud their commitment and perseverance in ensuring the Olympics go ahead as planned.

I wish all of the athletes an enjoyable and successful experience. And as I have been told they would say in China:“如虎添翼”（translation: like tiger with wings）!

Xie-xie (Thank you)!