C919's debut flight

China's first domestically-made large passenger aircraft, C919, successfully completed its debut flight at the Shanghai Pudong International Airport this afternoon. I would like to express my warmest congratulations on this great achievement on behalf of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

The ability to develop and build large passenger aircraft is an important indication of a country's level of aerospace technology. Building passenger aircraft has long been part of China's aerospace dream. It has finally come true today.

Over the past half month, China has made a series of technological breakthroughs in a couple of areas. In late April, Tianzhou-1 successfully took off and docked with the Tiangong-2 space lab - the first ever space delivery and in-space refuelling in our country's history. This is a breakthrough in China's key aerospace technology and marks the full completion of the space laboratory mission, heralding the construction of Chinese space stations in the future.

A few days ago, the 24-kilometre-long cross-river Shenzhen-Zhongshan Bridge (SZB) had its first steel cylinder fixed in the Pearl River, marking the start of the actual construction phase of the SZB. The first steel cylinder is 38.5 metres tall, as high as a 13-storey building. It has a diameter of 28 metres, equivalent to the length of a basketball court, and weighs 637.43 tonnes, the same weight as 20 empty Boeing 737 passenger planes.

A day after the fixture of the SZB's cylinder, the subsea tunnel of the Main Bridge of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge (HZMB) was joined together. This means that in around 30 days, the Main Bridge's viaduct, subsea tunnel and the artificial islands will be fully connected. These two infrastructure projects are extremely challenging works carried out at and under the sea. They are evidence of our country's advancement in construction technology.

It is particularly heartening and gives us immense pride to see the take-off of Tianzhou-1, the laying of foundation of the SZB, the joining of the HZMB and the debut flight of C919, one after another.

May 5, 2017