Liu said, the 20th CPC National Congress has elected a central collective leadership with General Secretary Xi Jinping at the core and outlined a grand blueprint for comprehensively advancing rejuvenation of the Chinese nation on all fronts through a Chinese path to modernization in the next five years or an even longer period to come. The CPC will continue to take economic development as the central pillar, fully and faithfully implement the new development philosophy, and strive for high-quality development. It will also continue to deepen comprehensive reforms, promote high-level opening-up, follow the Chinese socialist path of political development, advance the comprehensive development of whole-process people’s democracy, promote the rule of law, and protect human rights and intellectual property rights in accordance with the law. The CPC will continue strict governance over the Party, and build a clean government so officials don’t dare to, unable to, and have no desire to commit acts of corruption.

Liu introduced the essential characteristics of Chinese modernization and its significance to the world, and addressed relevant concerns from the outside world. Firstly, China emphasizes self-reliance more. Will it become more inward-looking? Currently, China is stepping up efforts to foster a new development paradigm with domestic circulation as the mainstay and domestic and international circulations reinforcing each other. For domestic circulation to function well, it must rely on international division of labor and cooperation, as well as more foreign trade and investment. Both China and the UK support free trade and multilateralism. We are willing to work with the UK side to jointly oppose unilateralism, protectionism, "decoupling and breaking the chains", and "small yard, high fence". We should uphold openness, inclusiveness, cooperation, and mutual benefit to safeguard world economic stability and development.

Secondly, China places more emphasis on security. Will it neglect development? Like other countries, China attaches importance to security. China proposes to balance development and security imperatives, aiming to ensure high-quality development through high-level security and balance the relationship between development and security. Development remains the absolute principle and is both the basis for and the key to solving every problem that China faces. The term "development" appeared 239 times in the report to the 20th CPC National Congress. The CPC takes economic development as the central pillar and will continue to concentrate on construction and development, focusing wholeheartedly on developing the economy. Both China and the UK are committed to promoting economic stability and sustainable development, and the two countries have complementary industrial structures. We are willing to work together with the UK to prevent over-interpreting the concept of security, oppose politicizing, instrumentalizing and weaponizing sci-tech and business issues, and further deepen pragmatic cooperation in economy and trade, so as to add momentum to the common development and benefit of both countries and peoples.

Thirdly, China emphasizes safeguarding its own interests more. Will it be unwilling to shoulder more international responsibilities? China firmly defends its national core interests and national dignity and resolutely takes countermeasures to respond to the wrong moves to infringe on China’s sovereignty and interfere in China's internal affairs. The CPC keeps the well-being of the world in mind and always acts as a builder of world peace, contributor of global development and defender of the international order. Both China and the UK are countries with global influence and permanent members of the UN Security Council, and both bear important responsibilities for the international system and global affairs. We are willing to work together with the UK side to oppose a new Cold War, reject group politics and bloc confrontation, strengthen communication and coordination in international affairs, and make positive contributions to addressing climate change, protecting biodiversity, so as to achieve lasting peace, universal security, and common prosperity.

Lord Jim O'Neill, a member of the House of Lords and former Chairman of Chatham House, presided over the event. After the speech, Liu Jianchao and Lord Jim O'Neill engaged in a discussion on topics such as Chinese modernization, China's relations with the world, China-UK relations, and cooperation among BRICS countries. They also addressed questions from the audience and shared their views on China-US relations, the Ukraine crisis, the Middle East issue, US-India relations, China's global initiatives, and artificial intelligence.

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