In his televised New Year's speech, Chinese President Xi Jinping focused, among other things, on the country's aspirations to become a global world power.
Xi declared that by 2021, China had achieved the goal of building a "moderately prosperous" society, a milestone on the road to becoming a global world leader by 2049, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.
The Chinese leader also highlighted Taiwan in his New Year's speech, saying that the "complete unification of the motherland" was a desire shared by people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
Earlier this week, Beijing issued warnings that it was ready to take drastic action if Taiwan took further steps toward formal independence from China.
Scholz: It will be a pioneering country
Germany's newly appointed Chancellor Olaf Scholz attached great importance to the fight against covid-19 in his New Year's speech.
He called on the Germans to work together to defeat the corona virus in 2022 and promised to react "quickly and decisively" to the progress of the omicron variant.
He also stated that he wanted to use the German Presidency of the G7 Group to try to make the G7 countries a pioneer in climate-neutral economic activities.
Putin praised solidarity
Russian President Vladimir Putin called for "positive change" in the run-up to the new year, praising the solidarity and strength of its citizens in the face of the difficult challenges they faced and highlighting in particular the corona pandemic.
The New Year's speech was televised just hours after Putin spoke by telephone with US President Joe Biden ahead of the two world leaders' summit, which is scheduled to take place in a month.
"We have firmly and consistently defended our national interests, the security of our country and our citizens," Putin said of the conversation.
Johnson: Better position this year
Britain is in an "incomparably better" position in the fight against covid-19 compared to the end of 2020, said Boris Johnson in his New Year's speech which, like many others, focused on the pandemic.
He admitted that there is still concern about the omicron variant but was at the same time very pleased with the British willingness to vaccinate.
He explained that there was a crucial reason why tougher restrictions were not needed when the daily number of cases reached record levels earlier this winter - people who "heroically, voluntarily and in almost unbelievably many cases heeded the call to get vaccinated".