Chinese Vice Premier Liu meets Olympic sporting delegation

PYEONGCHANG, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping's special envoy Liu Yandong met the Chinese delegation to the 23rd Winter Olympics in PyeongChang on Sunday.

Liu, Chinese Vice Premier, said the Chinese athletes and coaches have demonstrated the Olympic spirit and the spirit of Chinese sports with their top performances at the PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games and that they have brought glory to the country and helped raise the nation's confidence.

On behalf of Xi, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, Liu extended Spring Festival greetings to the delegation.

"Your hard work and achievements at the Winter Olympics were a special gift to the country during Spring Festival," Liu told the Chinese delegation.

Liu noted an extraordinary Beijing Winter Olympics will be a best chance to promote national development, boost the Chinese people's morale and stage a great national image.

"All the athletes and coaches must enhance training and competing standards, draw lessons from other delegations, and try to achieve outstanding results at the 2022 Beijing Games," Liu said.

Liu called for more efforts to be made to promote the preparations for the Games and honor China's commitment to host "a fantastic, extraordinary and excellent" Beijing Games.

Liu also stressed the importance of the development and popularization of winter sports in China and said that the Beijing Olympics will assist the implementation of the Chinese national "Fitness-For-All" project and help build the country into a strong sports power. Enditem