New Year Message

Gong Zheng

Mayor of Shanghai

January 1, 2026

Dear fellow citizens, comrades, and friends,

The new year is upon us, bringing with it new chapters and fresh possibilities. As we bid farewell to the old and embrace the new, on behalf of the Shanghai Municipal People's Government, I wish to extend New Year greetings and sincere best wishes to everyone who calls this city home, and to our friends across the globe who care about and support our city's development!

2025 marks the final sprint to complete the 14th Five-Year Plan and the pivotal year for mapping out the 15th Five-Year Plan. During his latest inspection tour in Shanghai, General Secretary Xi Jinping set forth a new strategic vision for the city, entrusting Shanghai with the vital mission of shouldering national responsibilities and striving to be a vanguard. These instructions have profoundly heartened and energized the people across the city.

Over the past year, we have spared no effort in promoting steady and healthy economic growth, with its stable upward trajectory gaining further ground. A comprehensive package of policies aimed at stabilizing growth and facilitating transformation has yielded tangible results. Measures to expand consumption, such as trade-in programs for consumer goods and "Joy Shanghai" service consumption vouchers, have gained synergy, while the integration of culture, tourism, commerce, sports, and exhibitions has accelerated, highlighted by a series of major museum exhibitions, sporting events, and shopping festivals. With technological innovation driving new quality productive forces, our three leading industries, namely integrated circuits, biomedicine and AI, have gained strong momentum and rapid growth. Despite headwinds, Shanghai's economy continues to trend toward innovation-led and high-quality development.

Over the past year, we have prioritized major national strategic tasks, and unlocked the dividends of reform and opening-up at an accelerated pace. Shanghai's "Five Centers" initiative has scaled new heights with strengthened synergistic impact, platform empowerment, multiplying power and spillover effect. The development of Pudong as a leading area for socialist modernization has made fresh strides, and a series of institutional opening-up achievements from the Pilot Free Trade Zone and the Lingang Special Area have been replicated and scaled up. The Hongqiao International Opening-up Hub has seen a continuous expansion of its capacity, and the Eastern Hub International Business Cooperation Zone has passed national acceptance inspection. As the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta has gained deeper and substantive progress, and the 8th China International Import Expo (CIIE) concluded successfully, the synergy of major national strategies has been translated into robust drivers fueling Shanghai's high-quality development.

Over the past year, we have been fully committed to people-centered initiatives and wellbeing projects, resulting in a sustained increase in resident happiness and satisfaction. The city has reached a historic milestone with the completion of urban renewal of scattered old areas in central districts and the elimination of housing units without private sanitation facilities. With the "City of a Thousand Parks" goal attained ahead of schedule, the urban environment has become more livable, secure, and convenient for all residents. Social security benefits have seen steady increases, the network of community-based eldercare stations has expanded its reach, and all primary and secondary school classrooms are equipped with air conditioners. We have extended more high-quality medical resources to the community level, and optimized public benefit services including birth support and companion-free care in hospitals.

As a modern city built for and by its people, Shanghai continues to unveil a new vision of a better life for all. Our path is clear and our resolve is unshakable. Following the strategic guidance of the 4th Plenum of the 20th CPC Central Committee, Shanghai has sketched a grand blueprint for the next five years. In the coming year, we must remain closely united around the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core. Under the firm leadership of the CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee, we will strive to ensure a strong start for the 15th Five-Year Plan period, accelerating our efforts to build Shanghai into a modern, socialist and international metropolis with global influence.

We will advance Shanghai's modernization through high-quality development. Committed to the principle of seeking progress while maintaining stability, and focusing on improving quality and efficiency, we will fully unlock the potential of domestic demand and further advance the "Five Centers" initiative. We will accelerate the building of a modern industrial system with advanced manufacturing as its backbone. We will continue to leverage key areas as testing grounds for reform and opening-up, foster a world-class business environment, and vigorously advance the city's quality-oriented development. Shanghai is committed to staying ahead of the curve and striving to be a role model in promoting high-quality development, playing a pioneering and exemplar role in advancing Chinese modernization.

We will share the achievements of modernization more widely and equitably among all our citizens. Always putting people's wellbeing at the top of our agenda, we will give greater emphasis on investing in people by providing stronger support for their skill development, stable employment, and income growth. We will steadily push forward the redevelopment of urban villages and the retrofitting of old residential housing into self-contained units, thus quickening our pace toward a Beautiful Shanghai. We will further promote high-quality and equitable access to public services including education, healthcare, elderly care and childcare, and bolster the city's cultural soft power, better fulfilling people's aspirations for a better life.

May the New Year bring you robust health, professional success and every happiness for you and your families!

May our great motherland thrive in enduring prosperity and strength, and its people live in lasting peace and harmony!