"President Xi Jinping himself offered a New Year's speech on Tuesday, wishing a happy New Year to Chinese citizens of every ethnicity, with special greetings for compatriots in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and overseas...The previous year was a year of hard work and great successes, Xi said - the opening year of China's 'comprehensively deepening reform.' Within the country, the tasks of reform, development, and maintaining stability were heavy and difficult; the external environment was mercurial. Yet despite these challenges, Xi said, with China's people united as one heart, the country was able to make progress in a number of priority areas: deepening reform, pushing forward development, improving the people's welfare, strengthening China's national defense and armed forces, proactively carrying out diplomatic work, and governing the Chinese Communist Party," highlighted an opinion article from The Diplomat.  

An opinion piece from The New York Times writes, "During the past century, mainland Chinese people have gotten used to leaving their homeland. Many left in desperation - some in search of better job opportunities, while many others emigrated to escape the political tumult that has plagued our history...But recent political turmoil in Hong Kong has prompted many people here to... consider moving away. Hong Kongers no longer see their home as a safe haven from mainland politics. A survey conducted last summer by the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups...found that 62 percent of people ages 15-39 want to leave - by far the highest number since its first poll in 1997...in the closing months of last year, during the heat of the pro-democracy protests, [an immigration consultant] received triple the normal amount of inquiries about moving abroad - the majority of them being middle-aged parents anxious about their children's future." 

According to Fox News, "Setting off fireworks to celebrate Chinese New Year may be a centuries-old tradition, but the country's authorities are urging people to light fewer of them this week as cities fight a losing battle against relentless, toxic air pollution. Dozens of cites in China have outright banned lighting fireworks on Wednesday and Thursday, while others have reduced the number of fireworks vendors allowed to operate. In Beijing, people received text messages from their phone companies advising against setting off fireworks while local government-run media repeated the warnings in newspapers and on websites. Still, the state-run China Daily warned Wednesday that Beijing's clear skies would likely become heavily polluted by the night due to fireworks, reaching the highest level possible on a scale measuring air pollution. It said the polluted air would probably last through Friday due to windless conditions."