18 January 2008
Gordon Brown today received a personal invitation to the 2008 Beijing Olympics from Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.
The invitation to the games, which take place in August, came as Mr Brown and his wife Sarah visited the People’s University on the outskirts of Beijing on the first day of his official visit to China.
Read the transcript
Prime Minister:
Premier Wen, Ladies and Gentlemen. Let me say what a privilege it is for me to be in this great university today and to congratulate China on being the host of the Olympics for 2008. And let me thank Premier Wen for his welcome to me, to my wife and to the whole party from Britain, and thank you Premier Wen for your hospitality at all times to the British people.
And I can already see Olympic winners here today. Let me congratulate the Chinese table tennis players for the excellence of their performance. I know that we, the British, claim to have invented table tennis, but we did so 100 years ago and it was a game played after dinner. But I know the Chinese are the world champions in table tennis and will be so after the Olympics.
Let me say how much our British athletes enjoy being here in China and in Beijing and how we look forward to a new programme of sports cooperation where young Chinese athletes and young British athletes will work together to improve the excellence of their performance, and that will build greater relationships and stronger bonds between our two great countries. And let me also say we have brought with us today from Britain someone who will enhance that cooperation between our two countries and bring young athletes together, someone who is herself an Olympic medal winner. She won a Gold Medal, and indeed won two Gold Medals, in Athens in 2004. She is with us today - Kelly Holmes, our Olympic champion.
So let me thank all of you at this great university for making us so welcome. Let me say that cooperation between our two countries is going to grow and be stronger in the years to come. Let me thank Premier Wen for his hospitality and for his vision of a harmonious society in every part of the world, and let us continue to work together for a peaceful, more prosperous and fairer world in the future. My congratulations to the people of Beijing on the Olympics.
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