从19世纪40年代之后的鸦片战争、甲午战争，到庚子之乱乃至20世纪30年代的日本侵华战争，中国惨遭东西方列强的屠戮和极其野蛮的经济掠夺；再加上封建腐败和连年内乱，中国主权沦丧、生灵涂炭、国力衰弱、民不聊生。深重的灾难、惨痛的事实使中华民族深知和平之珍贵、发展之重要。这样的历史实践形成了中国人民渴望和平、企求安定的心理，坚定了中国人民走和平发展道路的信念。1949年新中国成立后，我们在发展道路上艰辛探索，既经历过成功的喜悦，也经受过失败的挫折。从1978年开始，中国开启了新的征程，从计划转向市场，从封闭转向开放，从自成一体转向融入经济全球化，走独立自主地建设中国特色社会主义的道路，取得了举世瞩目的辉煌成就。实践充分证明，坚持走和平发展的道路是正确的，既符合中国国情，又顺应时代潮流。中国将沿着这条和平发展的道路，坚定不移地走下去。
参考译文：
From the Opium War and the First Sino-Japanese War after the 1840s, China's War on Foreign Invaders 1900 to the Japanese War of Aggression against China in 1930s, China was subject to the butchering of the then strong powers in the West and East and their extremely barbarian economic depredation. This, coupled with feudal corruption and years of successive civil strife and chaos, led to the loss of China's sovereignty and the horrendous suffering of her people, her national strength failing and people barely surviving. The grave disasters and the harsh facts have ingrained deeply into the Chinese nation the value of peace and the importance of development. Such a historic experience has shaped the psychology of the Chinese people in our quest for peace and hope for stability, consolidating our belief in following a path to peaceful development. After the founding of New China in 1949, we have made arduous explorations in the course of our development, going through both the joys of success and the frustrations of failure. Starting from 1978, China has embarked on a new journey of transforming from a planned to a market economy, from cloistered up to opening up, from exclusive self-sustaining to integration into globalization. By following a path of building socialism with Chinese characteristics in an independent and self-reliant manner, we have scored glorious achievements that attracted worldwide attention. Practice has amply demonstrated that it is right to adhere to a path of peaceful development, as it conforms to both China's reality and the trend of the times. China will unswervingly march onward alongside this path to peaceful development.
