People perform a Yangge dance at the 2026 Chinese New Year Gala at Two Rivers Mall in Nairobi on February 8. The celebrations brought together dignitaries, including senior government officials, diplomats, industry leaders and hundreds of local and foreign visitors/XINHUA
The Spring Festival is the most important traditional festival of the Chinese people. It originated in the agrarian culture and marks the beginning of the Chinese Lunar New Year, which usually falls between late January and mid-February of the Gregorian calendar.
While forms of celebration vary, family reunion, greeting the new year and wishing for good fortune remain the enduring core themes. Together with family and friends, people affix Spring Festival couplets to the doors to express hopes for the new year, set off fireworks to keep evil and misfortune away, and give out red envelopes to convey best wishes.
With inheritance and development over several thousand years, the Spring Festival has become the enduring cultural bond and spiritual symbol of the Chinese nation.
As a result of increasing globalisation, the Spring Festival is no longer exclusive to the sphere of Chinese culture and has increasingly become a global cultural carnival. In 2024, it was inscribed on the Unesco Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, highlighting its value as a shared cultural and ethical treasure of humanity.
Today marks the Spring Festival of the Bingwu Year—the Year of the Horse. Recently, the Chinese Embassy in Kenya and the local Chinese communities have hosted a series of Spring Festival events, inviting people from all walks of life in Kenya and friends from various countries to celebrate the New Year together and share best wishes for a brighter future.
In 2025, China's GDP exceeded 140 trillion yuan RMB (approximately $20 trillion), scoring a five per cent year-on-year growth, and the major targets for economic and social development have been successfully achieved.
Kenya has registered remarkable gains in advancing bottom-up economic transformation, with its total economic output ranking sixth in Africa and its foreign exchange reserves hitting a record high. Building on the successful state visit of President William Ruto to China, China and Kenya have upgraded the relationship, entering a new stage of building a community with a shared future for the new era.
As the new year begins, everything starts anew. The year 2026 marks the beginning of China's 15th Five-Year Plan, the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Africa, and the China-Africa Year of People-to-People Exchanges jointly designated by President Xi Jinping and African leaders.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi recently paid successful visits to the African Union, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Lesotho, marking the 36th consecutive year for Africa to be the destination of the Chinese Foreign Minister's first overseas trip of the year. Consistently doing this for 36 years demonstrates China's profound friendship with Africa and the great importance China attaches to deepening China-Africa relations.
The world today is far from peaceful, chaos and confusion are incessant, and the international order suffers serious disruption. Facing the turbulent international landscape with composure and confidence, China will make active efforts to fulfil the vision of building a community with a shared future for humanity, implement the Four Global Initiatives, advance Chinese modernisation to create new opportunities for the development of the world, promote the building of more just and equitable global governance, and contribute positive energy to international peace.
New spring brings new dynamism. With the advancement and implementation of China's 15th Five-Year Plan, China-Kenya and China-Africa cooperation will embrace new and greater opportunities.
China stands ready to work with African countries, including Kenya, to seize the opportunities of the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Africa and the China-Africa Year of People-to-People Exchanges to carry forward the traditional friendship, deepen mutually beneficial cooperation, combine the strengths of the Global South, firmly uphold the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, champion the common values of humanity, advance together towards a community with a shared future for humanity, and jointly charter a new chapter of cooperation.
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the People's Republic of China to the Republic of Kenya
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