Editor’s note: As China Daily Hong Kong Edition celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, we have invited leaders from various sectors who have deep bonds with us to join us in our celebrations. Let’s read what they say, as well as their messages of congratulations and best wishes for CDHK’s future.

Joephy Chan Wing-yan, a Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions politician — then a district council election candidate in Lai Kok constituency — talks with residents at Cheung Sha Wan in November 2015. She later won the election and kicked off her political career. (PARKER ZHENG / CHINA DAILY)

Joephy Chan Wing-yan, member of the HKSAR’s seventh Legislative Council; committee member of All-China Youth Federation

This year marks the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to the motherland. Similarly, China Daily Hong Kong Edition has become profoundly rooted in Hong Kong during the past quarter-century and plays an important role in bridging Hong Kong with the mainland and the rest of the world under the “one country, two systems” principle. 

To tell the stories of China and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region well, as CDHK does, one must grasp the overall situation, feel the pulse of society and sense the needs of stakeholders, in order to give full play to our own advantages, spread positive opinions, and display the comprehensive truth precisely.

Earlier, I was honored to be invited to participate in a special interview program on Hong Kong’s 25th anniversary of its return to the motherland, which was filmed by the CDHK. By means of interviewing different characters from different eras, who shared the handover stories of Hong Kong people, readers were led on a walk down memory lane, back to 1997. I was amazed by the professionalism, seriousness and creativity displayed by the production crew during the process.

In the interview, I also mentioned a statement that had had a profound impact on me: “As long as we think what is right, we must persist.”

Thank you CDHK for bringing us so many wonderful reports over the years, staying with Hong Kong people shoulder to shoulder, reporting positions objectively and impartially, and contributing a lot to the important milestone of building a prosperous Hong Kong. I would like to extend my warmest congratulations to CDHK on its 25th anniversary! 

And I hope your incisive and enlightening reports will be read and spread afar. Wish it every success for the future.