Keynote Speech by H.E. Ambassador Liu Xiaoming at the Oxford and Cambridge Club: China is Firmly Committed to Peaceful Development and Win-Win Cooperation

尊敬的布莱克维主席，

女士们，先生们：

　　大家晚上好！

　　很高兴到访牛津剑桥俱乐部。我出任中国驻英大使以来，牛津和剑桥是我访问次数最多的两个大学。但做客牛剑俱乐部，还是第一次。俱乐部的会员告诉我，我是第一位到此演讲的中国大使。因此，今天的访问很有意义。正因为如此，我把2019年的第一场演讲选在你们的俱乐部，这个牛津剑桥两大名校精英荟萃的地方。

Chairman Joanna Tudor-Blakeway,

Ladies and Gentlemen:

Good evening!

It is a real delight to join you at the Oxford and Cambridge Club.

Oxford and Cambridge are the two universities that I have visited most frequently since becoming the Chinese Ambassador to the UK. But this is my first visit to the Oxford and Cambridge Club. It is very special and significant. So I have decided to make my very first speech of 2019 at your club, the home of outstanding alumni from both these two world-renowned universities.

　　对中国而言，2019年是一个大年，我们将迎来新中国成立70周年。70年来，中国发生了翻天覆地的变化，从一个积贫积弱的“东亚病夫”发展成为世界第二大经济体，堪称人类发展史上的奇迹。

　　对英国民众而言，中国从“远在天边”变得“近在眼前”，英国媒体每天都有关于中国的报道，中国的发展与英国越来越息息相关。那么，中国的发展对英国到底意味着什么？是机遇、挑战还是威胁？要回答这个问题，就要认识中国是个什么样的国家？搞清楚中国从何处来，又向何处去？

2019 is an important year for China. It marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. The past 70 years have seen China going through profound changes and growing from "the sick man of East Asia" ridden with poverty and weakness to the second largest economy in the world. This has been a miracle in the history of human development.

For people here in Britain, China is no longer a "far away land". China is right here before your eyes. It is in your newspapers every day. And more and more people feel closely connected with what is going on in China.

So what does China's development mean to the UK? Is it an opportunity, a challenge or a threat? To answer this question, one must first try to understand China, and to know where it has come from and where it is going in the future.

　　回顾70年来的发展历程，中国的成功之处就是找到了一条适合本国国情的道路，即中国特色社会主义道路。这是认识中国的关键。这条中国特色社会主义道路有四个鲜明特点，可以用四个“P”来概括：

The key to understanding China is to understand that China's success of the past 70 years is attributed to its development path that suits China's national conditions. This path is known as socialism with Chinese characteristics. It has four salient features, which can be summarised as four P's.