Xi Jinping follows his father's footstep to serve people
Chinese President Xi Jinping has consistently placed the people at the center of his work throughout his political career. His commitment to serving the people was influenced by his father, Xi Zhongxun, a revolutionary leader.
Xi Zhongxun, a highly respected leader of the Communist Party of China (CPC), devoted his life wholeheartedly to serving the people.
In Shenzhen City of south China's Guangdong Province, two banyan trees - planted respectively by Xi Zhongxun in 2000 and by Xi Jinping in 2012 - serve as symbolic reminders of revolutionary inheritance shared by two generations of the CPC members.
"My family has a strict revolutionary tradition. My parents always said children should not be raised in the greenhouse, but should [experience] strong winds and heavy waves," Xi Jinping said.
While serving as the Party chief of south China's Guangdong Province in 1978, Xi Zhongxun spent a summer visiting 23 counties across the province to learn firsthand about the local conditions and the lives of ordinary people. Accompanying him during part of the trip was his son, Xi Jinping, then a student at Tsinghua University, who witnessed his father's close engagement with people at the grassroots level.
Xi Jinping has inherited his father's people-centered philosophy and down-to-earth approach to governance.
"My father joined the revolution as a farmer, and I myself worked as a farmer for seven years. The concerns of the people are what I always keep in mind and I strive to fulfill their aspirations. He insisted that I should engage with the people and never become detached from them," Xi Jinping said.
Over the years, the Chinese president inspected production lines and inquired about technological innovation in factories and workshops, observed agricultural activities and gained firsthand insight into the lives of people in rural areas, and visited neighborhoods and households during festive occasions to extend his greetings.
"No matter how busy I was, I spent time visiting people in the countryside. People shared many of their innermost thoughts with me, and I always keep them in mind," Xi said in a New Year address in 2020.
When Xi Zhongxun worked at the prefectural Party committee of Suide, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, he once said, "We must wholeheartedly and honestly stand firmly on the side of the people."
In October 2022, Xi Jinping reiterated the fundamental political stance for the “wholehearted service to the people” principle during his visit to the Yan'an Revolutionary Memorial Hall in Shaanxi.
"During the Yan'an Period (1935-1948), the Party put forward the fundamental principle of serving the people wholeheartedly and wrote it into the Party Constitution, emphasizing that the CPC was established for the liberation of the people and always stood ready to work for their interests. The Party officials were required to stand firmly at the side of ordinary people, thus bringing about a vivid picture in which officials were all public servants in people's eyes," Xi Jinping said.
"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." These were the heartfelt words that Xi Zhongxun shared with his son.
"When you feel happy, we are happy, too. The CPC serves the people and works for the people," Xi Jinping told villagers during his inspection trip to Gulang County, northwest China's Gansu Province, in August 2019.
In a birthday letter to his father many years earlier, Xi wrote that his father had served the Chinese people quietly "like a willing ox", which also inspires him to devote his whole life to the cause of serving the people and the great country that raised him.
"This country is its people; the people are the country. As we have fought to establish and consolidate our leadership over the country, we have in fact been fighting to earn and keep the people's support," Xi Jinping said at a ceremony celebrating the CPC centenary at Tian'anmen Square in Beijing on July 1, 2021.
This people-centered philosophy has gradually been translated into tangible improvements in everyday life.
China, over a period of eight years, lifted nearly 100 million people out of destitution, officially eradicating absolute poverty in 2020. The country has also completed the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects, and established the world's largest systems for education, social security, healthcare and urban housing support.
Access to education at all levels has reached or surpassed the average for middle- and high-income countries. Basic medical insurance coverage has remained above 95 percent, life expectancy has risen above 79 years, and the middle-income group now exceeds 400 million people.
The people-centered approach is also reflected in China's 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030), a blueprint for the country's economic and social development. More than one-third of the plan is related to people's livelihoods, covering employment, income, education, healthcare, elderly care and childcare – issues that are of the greatest and most immediate concern to the public.
As 2026 marks the 105th anniversary of the founding of the CPC, Xi has repeatedly stressed that Party members must bear in mind that working for the people's well-being is their greatest political achievement.
