CGTN | 21-Jun-2020
“There are many noble characters I wish to inherit from my father,” Xi Jinping, then governor of southeast China’s Fujian Province, said in a letter of felicitation to his father Xi Zhongxun on his birthday in 2001.
Xi Zhongxun (1913-2002) was a leader of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the state. Despite his heavy responsibilities, he enjoyed the opportunities of being with his kids at home.
Inheriting his father’s down-to-earth approach, Xi Jinping visited all the villages in Zhengding, Hebei Province during his tenure of county Party chief in the 1980s. Then in Ningde, Fujian, he visited nine counties within the first three months as secretary of the CPC Ningde Prefectural Committee, and traveled to most townships later on.
After he was transferred to east China’s Zhejiang Province in 2002, he visited all 90 counties in over a year. During his brief tenure in Shanghai in 2007, he visited all its 19 districts and counties in seven months.
Serve the people
Xi’s father turned 88 in 2001. The number “88” is auspicious in Chinese culture, which made it an especially important birthday. At the time, Xi was governor of Fujian Province. He missed his father’s birthday celebration due to busy schedule.
The apologetic son wrote a letter of gratitude to his father. Having read the letter, his father said to his other children and his friends at the birthday party: Work comes first and the state business takes priority. “Serving the people well is the best way of repaying me.”
The father once told his son: “No matter what your job title is, serve the people diligently, consider the interests of the people with all your heart, maintain close ties with the people, and always stay approachable to the people.”
Adhering to the path of “serving the people,” Xi Jinping visited China’s 14 contiguous areas of extreme poverty after becoming general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee in November 2012. He went to villages and households, and told communities that he is just “a servant of the people.”
Cherish family values
“It was an old of Bolshevik and Communist family tradition. This good family tradition should be passed down from generation to generation,” Xi wrote in the letter to his father.
Since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, Xi Jinping has repeatedly recalled this family tradition.
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