Xi’s new year inspections underpin people-oriented approach

CHINA- After visiting poverty-stricken areas across the country ahead of previous lunar new year’s, President Xi Jinping’s latest pre-Spring Festival tour took him to the hutong neighborhoods of central Beijing.

Though slightly different, there has been consistent theme throughout the years: a people-oriented approach. During the Friday visit, Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, enquired about the living conditions of local residents after renovation projects in the traditional alleys.

Xi’s talks with the residents went in to details: heating solutions in winter, electric bills and the preparation for the lunar new year. He also went to check to see if a public toilet was clean.

Wang Chunlian, a resident in the neighborhood, said: “Xi is very kind and approachable. It was like having a relative come to visit. What the CPC pursues is to make the people’s life better,” Xi told residents, adding that the Party aimed to create a more comfortable and better living environment for the people and solve problems they care about so they can enjoy modern life even in old hutong areas.

Xi also greeted deliverymen on duty, stressing that priority should be given to solving employment problems and creating more jobs. Deliverymen were also mentioned in his new year speech on Dec. 31, during which he extended gratitude to millions of hardworking people, such as deliverymen, sanitation workers and taxi drivers. In the same speech, Xi said: “My heart goes out to the people living in hardship,” and recollected his visits to impoverished villages in Sichuan, Shandong, Liaoning and Guangdong provinces, mentioning a series of names of ordinary person he met in 2018.

Chinese leaders have made it a tradition to visit ordinary people across the country ahead of Spring Festival, the most important holiday in the Chinese calendar. Interactions between the Chinese leader and the public is common during the inspection trips. During the 2015 tour to Shaanxi, Xi bought festival gifts before visiting old acquaintances in the village where he worked as an “educated youth.”

(Xinhua)