BEING IN FRONT RANKS REQUIRES SOLID WORK
"Making empty talk is harmful to the nation, while doing practical work can help it thrive," Xi said during a visit to "The Road Toward Renewal" exhibition in Beijing on the 15th day after his election as the CPC's new helmsman.
To put "practical work" in place, Xi presided over a meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee that adopted eight measures to improve Party work style and tighten the bond with the people. The measures include more meetings with the people, traveling light with a small entourage and using fewer traffic controls, shortening meetings and speeches. The new measures have earned acclaim both at home and abroad.
"Only solid work ensures that one will take the lead," Xi has said. He has demanded concrete effort to tackle issues the people care about most. He believes that without implementation, the best blueprint will be nothing more than a castle in the air.
When he served in Zhengding County, Xi said that developing human resources was the key to shaking off poverty and backwardness in the county. He attended to the job himself by inviting professionals to the county and drawing up recruitment advertisements for talented personnel from across the country.
In the winter of 1983, he traveled to the provincial capital of Shijiazhuang to invite a cosmetics expert to work in Zhengding. Without a detailed address for the expert, he went door to door asking where the expert lived and finally found him at night after yelling his name near his home. Xi and the expert talked until midnight and Xi finally persuaded the man to work in Zhengding. The expert later created more than 300,000 yuan in revenue for the county within the first year.
In the same year, Xi decided to publish nine ways for recruiting talented personnel, something that was rare at the time and became a front-page story in the Hebei Daily. He wrote more than 100 letters to experts and scholars, as well as colleges and research institutions, and paid visits to dozens of experts. Within two years, Zhengding attracted 683 talented personnel and hired 53 well-known experts as economic counselors.
Xi, together with his colleague Lu Yulan, then deputy Party chief of Zhengding, despite heavy pressure, told superior authorities about the excessive burden faced by the county due to compulsory grain purchases. The issue was eventually resolved.
In Ningde, Xi was also practical and realistic. He pooled resources to implement aquaculture of the large yellow croaker, a local specialty, and greatly increased the income of local farmers.
He also ordered Party and government offices to make things convenient for the people. When serving in Fuzhou, he advocated the principle of "special procedures for special issues, and do things now" to make the government more efficient. This principle was attractive to numerous Taiwan enterprises and helped boost the local economy. He also proposed the compilation of two handbooks on government procedures for residents and overseas businesspeople.
In 2000, Xi initiated a move across Fujian to make the government more efficient. He proposed changes in government functions and procedures to reduce the number of matters that require government approval. By the end of 2001, the number was reduced by 40.4 percent, or 606 items.
In 2001, Fujian became the first province in China to enact a policy making government affairs public.
In August 2002, Xi published an article on a major newspaper on "The Experience of Jinjiang," which emphasized the importance of the private economy in the development of the county. Also in 2002, he published an article on Nanping City's effort to send officials to work in villages. The practice of Nanping was later introduced all over the province, thus enhancing ties between officials and farmers and making officials more oriented towards grassroots achievement.
In Zhejiang, Xi stressed provincial development in the fields of public security, the environment, culture, the rule of law and the marine economy.
To achieve these goals, he made an individual case study in addition to making overall arrangements. In order to know how the localities were affected by provincial policies, he went five times to a less-developed mountain village called Xiajiang within less than two years.
He paid special attention to the marine economy. In December 2002, he put forward the goal of building Zhejiang into a province with a strong marine economy, followed by guidelines and plans to realize this goal. The marine economy in Zhejiang has since developed quickly, with annual growth of 19.3 percent. It accounted for nearly 8 percent of the Zhejiang economy in 2005.
He pushed for the integration of Ningbo and Zhoushan harbors. In 2006, Ningbo-Zhoushan harbor had 420 million tonnes of cargo throughput, ranking the second in China and among the world's top three.
He also pushed for the construction of the Hangzhou Bay Bridge, an icon of cross-sea bridges in China and once the world's longest cross-sea bridge.
In 2003, Xi proposed that rural communities should be more like urban communities, and efforts should be made to reduce the urban-rural gap in quality of life.
Zhejiang had realized the development targets one by one during Xi's tenure. The province had the highest rating in ecology and the environment among all provincial-level regions in 2005. In 2006, 94.77 percent of the people were satisfied with the province's public security, making Zhejiang one of the safest provinces in the country.
When Xi was in Zhejiang, the province's GDP exceeded 1 trillion yuan in 2004, GDP per capita exceeded 3,000 U.S. dollars in 2005 and stood at nearly 4,000 U.S. dollars in 2006. The province ranked the fourth in sustainable development in 2006, next to Shanghai, Beijing and Tianjin.
Furthermore, all the province's poverty-stricken counties and townships shook off poverty during the period.
In 2007, Xi was appointed secretary of the CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee.
Within a month of his appointment, Xi conducted research on the people's livelihood, development, the Shanghai World Expo, and the fight against corruption. The ninth Shanghai municipal congress of the CPC was successfully held, which invigorated local officials, rebuilt Shanghai's image and set forth a blueprint for Shanghai for the next five years.
Xi has said that a county Party chief should visit all the villages within the county, a city Party chief all the townships and a provincial Party chief all the counties and cities.
He visited all the villages in Zhengding. In Ningde, he visited nine counties within the first three months, and traveled to most townships later on. After he was transferred to Zhejiang in 2002, he visited all 90 counties in just over a year. During his tenure in Shanghai, he visited all 19 districts and counties in seven months. After he came to work in the central authority, he visited all the 31 provinces, regions and municipalities on the mainland.
File photo taken in February 2012 shows Xi Jinping (2nd R, front) and his old American friends who got to know each other 27 years ago have a tea chat at a friend's home during his visit to the State of Iowa in the United States. (Xinhua/Liu Jiansheng)
STATESMAN AIMING FOR BETTER EARTH
During a recent meeting with foreign experts working in China, Xi said that China, as a responsible country, will not only manage its own affairs, but also properly handle its relations with the rest of the world, so as to foster a more favorable external environment and make a greater contribution to world peace and development.
"China needs to know more about the world, and the world also needs to know more about China," Xi said. Whether working at the local level or in the central leadership, Xi attaches great importance to international exchange and making foreign friends. He has taken every opportunity to meet foreign guests visiting China.
Within the past five years, he traveled to more than 40 countries and regions across five continents and has had extensive contact with people from all walks of life. He frankly and honestly introduces to foreign friends how the Chinese people view their own country and the world, and is always willing to listen to them as well. In the eyes of many foreign dignitaries, Xi is a confident, sagacious and amicable leader.
He often tells foreign friends that the international community has increasingly become an integrated one with a common destiny. China's continuous rapid development depends on world peace and development. It also provides opportunity and room for other countries, so together they may achieve win-win results and common development through mutual respect and pragmatic cooperation.
At a World Peace Forum organized by Tsinghua University in July 2012, Xi noted that a country must let others develop as it seeks its own development; must let others feel secure as it seeks its own security; must let others live better when it wants to live better itself. In a meeting with Lee Kuan Yew in Singapore, Xi said not all strong countries will seek hegemony. China will stick to the path of peaceful development, a win-win strategy of opening up and the pledge of never seeking hegemony, now or in any future generation.
Xi's foreign visits have sent out signals that countries should work together to establish a more equal and balanced global partnership, so as to safeguard the common interests of all human beings and make Earth better.
During his five-day visit to the United States, Xi participated in 27 events and engaged in exchange with U.S. politicians and the public alike. "As long as the Chinese and U.S. sides grasp the thread of common interests, they can explore a path of new partnership for major powers to live in harmony, engage in positive interaction and achieve win-win cooperation." His remarks elicited positive feedback from many in the U.S.
In a recent meeting with former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, Xi called for more "positive energy" for the China-U.S. partnership.
During his visit to Russia, Xi showed the strong importance China attaches to developing bilateral relations. The Sino-Russian strategic partnership of coordination has become the closest, most dynamic and most profound between major powers, and developing relations with Russia is always a priority of China's foreign relations. Xi attended the second meeting of the dialogue mechanism between the Chinese and Russian ruling parties, and had extensive and in-depth discussions with leaders of various parties in Russia, further enriching Sino-Russia relations.
Xi highly values relations with developing countries. He has said consolidating and developing relations with developing countries is the starting point and object of China's foreign policy.
In South Africa, Xi attended the fourth plenary session of the China-South Africa Binational Commission, looking forward, together with the South African side, to a bright future of bilateral cooperation.
In a speech delivered at a seminar marking the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), Xi underscored China's friendship with Africa, emphasizing that "a friend in need is a friend indeed."
In Saudi Arabia, he said a more prosperous and open China will bring great development opportunities to the Middle East and countries in the Gulf.
In Chile, he proposed that China and Latin America should be good partners in the fields of politics, economics, culture and international affairs, when speaking of the relationship over the next decade.
Xi has been pragmatic and efficient on the international stage. In the course of only one day, while attending the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy, Xi exchanged ideas with leaders from more than 20 countries and international organizations. During his visit to Germany and four other European countries, Xi attended five signing ceremonies for economic and trade agreements, six economic and trade forums, and pushed for the signing of 93 cooperation agreements involving a total of 7.4 billion U.S. dollars.
Xi has also emphasized the role of cultural exchange in the building of a harmonious world. When addressing the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2009, he said that through exchanges between different cultures, people from different countries have come to know Confucius from China, Goethe from Germany and Shakespeare from Britain. Pushing forward world cultural exchange creates important momentum for human progress and the world's peaceful development.
During his visit to Russia, he launched the "Year of Chinese Language" in Russia, side by side with Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin. He said in his address, "Culture is enriched, hearts are linked up, and friendship is deepened through exchange."
Xi is good at drawing wisdom from Chinese culture and presenting ideas clearly in a straightforward and humorous way. During his U.S. visit, he borrowed a line from the theme song of the popular Chinese TV drama "Monkey King" to ease the gravity of the bilateral issue. "The road is right under our feet," he said when describing the "unprecedented" relations between China and the U.S., displaying the confidence and courage of Chinese leaders.
When facing questions about China's human rights situation, he said there is "no best, only better." Xi said every country's condition is different and path is different. "Whether the shoe fits or not, only the wearer of the shoe knows."
Amity between people is the key to sound relations between states. Xi has said the level of state-to-state friendship depends on amity between people. He has humorously said to foreign ministry officials on diplomatic trips that life lies in motion and diplomacy lies in activity. In other words, diplomats should travel widely and make friends broadly and deeply.
During his visit to Laos, he specially arranged a meeting with children of the late Lao leader Quinim Pholsena. Xi joined several children of Pholsena, who had lived and studied in Beijing, in recalling their days at Beijing's Bayi School. He even remembered the nickname "Chubby Boy" for Pholsena's second son.
During his U.S. visit, Xi traveled to Iowa to join a dozen of his old acquaintances for tea and conversation at a house in an Iowa farm community. Most of the people at the gathering were friends Xi had made during a 1985 visit to Iowa as a member of an agricultural research delegation.
In Russia, he visited a children's center that had cared for Chinese students who were affected by the devastating Wenchuan earthquake of 2008, and expressed his gratitude to the staff.
He kicked a Gaelic football in Dublin's Croke Park when visiting Ireland and watched an NBA game in the U.S. The media described both activities as evidence of his amicable image.
"He succeeded in not only demonstrating his personal manner and bearing, but also the charm of China's economic development and social progress," an overseas media outlet remarked.
File photo shows Xi Jinping (R, rear) with his father Xi Zhongxun (R, front), his wife (L, front) and his daughter (C, front). (Xinhua)
SON OF REVOLUTIONARY FAMILY, CARING HUSBAND
Xi Jinping's father Xi Zhongxun was a Party and state leader. The senior Xi served as chairman of the Shaan-Gan Border Region, a CPC revolutionary base of the 1930s, and was called by Mao Zedong a "leader of the people."
Xi Zhongxun had suffered political persecution for 16 years beginning in 1962. However, he never gave in to adversity and ultimately helped clear the names of other people who were persecuted. After the end of the Cultural Revolution, he served as Party chief in Guangdong, the forefront of China's reform and opening-up drive, making important contributions to the establishment of special economic zones in the province and their rapid development.
Xi's mother Qi Xin, nearly 90 years of age, is also a veteran cadre and Party member. As a filial son, Xi takes walks and chats with his mother, holding her hand during the process, after he finds time to dine with her.
The Xi family has a tradition of being strict with children and living a simple life. Xi Zhongxun believed if a senior Party official wanted to discipline others, he should begin first with himself and his family. Xi Jinping and his younger brother used to wear clothes and shoes handed down from their elder sisters. After Xi Jinping became a leading official, his mother called a family meeting to ban the siblings from engaging in business where Xi Jinping worked.
Xi Jinping has carried on his family's tradition and has been strict with family members. Wherever he worked, he told the family members not to do business there or do anything in his name, or else he "would be ruthless." Whether in Fujian, Zhejiang or Shanghai, he pledged at official meetings that no one was allowed to seek personal benefit using his name and welcomed supervision in this regard.
Xi married Peng Liyuan, a renowned and well-liked soprano and opera singer. In 1980, Peng, on the behalf of the Shandong provincial delegation, caused quite a stir while attending a national art performance in Beijing.
She was the first in China to obtain a master's degree in national vocal music. She is a representative figure of national vocal music and one of the founders of the school of national vocal music.
Her most famous works include On the Plains of Hope, People from Our Village, and We Are Yellow River and Taishan Mountain.
She was the winner of many top awards at national vocal music contests. She played the leading roles in the Chinese national operas The White-haired Girl and Mulan, among others. She also won the highest theatrical award in China, or the Plum Blossom Prize, and the highest performance art award, the Wenhua Prize.
Peng has attributed her accomplishments to the people and said she should contribute all her talent to the people. Over the past 30-plus years, she has given hundreds of free performances for people from all different walks of life across the country as an expression of gratitude or appreciation. These included performances in impoverished mountain areas, coastal areas, oil fields, mines and barracks, as well as in deserts and the snowy plateau. She also performed in Wenchuan after the devastating earthquake of 2008, in Beijing's Xiaotangshan after the SARS outbreak and in flood-hit Jiujiang in Jiangxi Province.
To better introduce Chinese national vocal music and national opera to the world, Peng took the lead to play a solo concert in Singapore in 1993. She has also performed in more than 50 countries and regions representing China, becoming a world-famous Cultural Ambassador for China.
She produced and played the leading role in the opera Mulan, which was performed at New York City's Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and at the Vienna State Opera House in Austria.
Peng is currently shifting her focus from performance to education, aiming to nurture more talented people and produce more masterpieces.
Peng is very much committed to charity work. She is a WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS, a national AIDS prevention advocate, and an ambassador for the prevention of juvenile delinquency and for tobacco control. At a recent World AIDS Day activity raising awareness about AIDS, she was called "Mama Peng" by AIDS orphans.
Xi and Peng fell in love at first sight in 1986 and got married the same year. Although they were often separated due to work, they have understood and supported each other and continuously shown concern for each other.
As a member of the People's Liberation Army, Peng was often tasked with staging performances in remote areas. These tours sometimes kept her on the road for two to three months at a time. Being concerned about his wife, Xi would phone her before bedtime almost every night, no matter how late it was.
On Chinese Lunar New Year's Eve, Peng would often perform in the Spring Festival Gala presented by the China Central Television. Xi would make dumplings while watching the show and would wait for her return to begin cooking the family feast.
In the eyes of Peng, Xi is a good husband and a good father. She always shows care and consideration for him. Peng takes every opportunity to get together with her husband, cooking for him dishes of different styles.
In Peng's eyes, Xi is both different from anybody else and also an average person. He favors home-made cooking in the Shaanxi and Shandong cuisines, and also drinks a bit during parties with friends. He likes swimming, mountaineering, and watching basketball, football and boxing matches. Sometimes he stays up late to watch televised sports games.
The couple have a daughter, Xi Mingze. Mingze in Chinese implies "living an honest life and being a useful person to society," which is their expectation for her and also a symbol of their family's simple style.
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