Xi hosts festive celebration

Top leaders on hand to extend greetings for CNY

BEIJING: President Xi Jinping and other top leaders extended Spring Festival greetings to all Chinese people as they met more than 2,000 members of the public at a reception in Beijing.

Li Keqiang, Zhang Dejiang, Yu Zhengsheng, Liu Yunshan, Wang Qishan and Zhang Gaoli were also present.

Premier Li Keqiang delivered a speech at the gathering, greeting all Chinese in the mainland, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and abroad.

Li also sent condolences to Taiwan compatriots for the strong 6.7-magnitude earthquake that hit Kaohsiung earlier in the day and has left 11 people dead.

Some major natural disasters and public security contingencies in the past year have brought the people’s hearts closer together and authorities have put the people’s security as a top priority all the time, Li said.

“Over the past year, under the strong leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the General Secretary, China’s reform and development has braved the storms and maintained medium-to-high growth despite the sluggish world economy,” he said.

The country has kept advancing structural reforms and created more than 13 million jobs.

People’s incomes have increased in sync with the current GDP, according to the premier.

In the new year, development remains the primary task, he said.

While appropriately expanding aggregate demands, China will strengthen structural reforms, especially supply-side reforms, which are expected to remove hindrances to development, motivate the creativity of hundreds of millions of people and foster new growth drivers, said Li.