Xi encourages youths to play greater role

On a summer day back in 1984, Xi Jinping, then Party secretary of Zhengding county in Hebei province, hopped on his bicycle to make a special visit — to greet a group of students visiting from Renmin University of China in Beijing for a field study.

Inside a dormitory room of the county's guesthouse, Xi sat down with the young students shoulder to shoulder on beds, sharing his insights and experiences from working at the grassroots level. The discussion was very engaging and lasted for two hours.

Youths have always been a central concern for Xi. Engaging deeply with young people, he emphasizes the importance of "integrating with the youth" and "becoming one with them".

From his early years at the local level to the present day as China's top leader, Xi has maintained a consistent and close bond with young people through various means, including exchanges of letters and face-to-face interactions.

In particular, he makes it a regular practice to engage with young people around Youth Day, celebrated on May 4. Around this time each year, he visits college campuses, attends youth gatherings or writes back to young students to extend his greetings.

He has consistently highlighted the crucial role of young people, showing unwavering care and support for the younger generation. He continually offers them encouragement and inspiration, while maintaining high expectations for their growth and contributions.

Ahead of this year's Youth Day, which fell on Monday, Xi wrote a reply letter to a group of young role models, commending their dedication in grassroots positions in areas such as sci-tech innovation, rural vitalization, social services and border defense. He also encouraged young Chinese to integrate their personal aspirations into the bigger picture of national development, strive for new achievements in their posts and inject their youthful dynamism into advancing the nation's new journey of development.

This call has been answered by a vast number of young people across the country over the years. Among them is Wang Xuemeng, a young forestry technician at the Saihanba forest farm in Hebei.

After graduating from university in 2018, Wang chose to follow in the footsteps of her grandfather and father to become a forester at Saihanba. Like them, she has woven her youth and ideals into the nation's ecological endeavors.

More than six decades ago, 369 young pioneers, including Wang's grandfather, with an average age below 24, arrived on the barren, windswept plateau with a critical mission: to build an artificial forest farm to halt the southward advance of the Hunshandake sandy land, which posed a persistent threat to Beijing and other northern cities.

Thanks to sustained efforts by generations of foresters, Saihanba has been transformed from a wasteland to a sea of forests — an achievement hailed by Xi as a "miracle". Today, a third generation is carrying this legacy forward.

Wang said that while earlier generations focused on helping the trees survive and thrive, the task of her generation is to protect the forest farm while enhancing its value as an ecological resource.

"Our strength in the three-generation relay stems from the same original aspiration: to safeguard the ecological shield for our nation," Wang said. "For over six decades, generations of foresters have all integrated their personal ideals into the broader mission of China's ecological progress."

Such commitment is widespread among China's young people today. Beyond the story of Saihanba, it is reflected in various forms — from young scientists at the forefront of national research and athletes competing on the world stage, to volunteers teaching in less-developed western regions and university graduates driving rural vitalization in their hometowns.

Zhang Jun, secretary of the Shanxi Provincial Committee of the Communist Youth League of China, noted that more than 15,000 university graduates from the province have joined the national Go West volunteer service program. Zhang encouraged more young volunteers to step up and play a part in serving the western regions and working at the grassroots level.

Pledging further guidance and support, Zhang said Shanxi will create more opportunities, improve the recruitment and training process, and enhance job matching, so that more aspiring young people can gain experience, realize their potential, and contribute their youthful energy to advancing Chinese modernization.

According to an article in China Population News, people age 14 to 35 accounted for about 26 percent of China's total population in 2025, and their number is projected to remain at approximately 350 million by 2030 and stay above 210 million even by 2050.

The article noted that China is poised to maintain a sizable youth population for the foreseeable future, and this dynamic demographic profile will, in turn, provide favorable conditions for sustained and healthy socioeconomic development.

For President Xi, this dynamic generation is not only a vital force driving national progress, but also a bridge for international friendship and an envoy for people-to-people exchanges.

This vision is being translated into action through a series of concrete initiatives. In 2023, Xi announced a plan to invite 50,000 young people from the United States to China for exchange and study programs over the following five years, and more than 40,000 young people from the US have participated so far, opening a window for them to understand the real China and building a bridge to carry forward the friendship between the two peoples.

In 2025, China and Vietnam co-launched the Red Study Tour program, through which Vietnamese youths will visit China to trace the historical footsteps of the two countries' revolutionary forebears and strengthen the bonds of friendship. Furthermore, China has established Luban Workshops in numerous countries, including many in Africa, providing vocational skills training and creating sustained platforms for practical exchanges and cooperation among young people.

In January 2024, Xi replied to a letter from representatives of Kenyan students and alumni at Beijing Jiaotong University. Jamlick Mwangi Kariuki was one of the writers.

Xi places great importance on Africa's youths, creating many opportunities for them to grow and contribute more to their nation's development and China-Africa friendship, Kariuki told Xinhua News Agency.

After completing his undergraduate studies in China, Kariuki returned to work on the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway, a flagship project under the Belt and Road Initiative in Kenya. He later returned to China for postgraduate studies.

Kariuki also encouraged more Kenyan youths to study in China, emphasizing the critical importance of cultivating professionals with an international perspective for Kenya's development.

Yang Dian, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of Sociology, was quoted by China Youth Daily as saying that it is crucial to expand platforms for international youth exchanges and cooperation.

He said that global public goods, such as the Belt and Road Initiative and the Global Development Initiative, have provided young Chinese people with opportunities to engage on the world stage. Through these platforms, he said, young people can enhance mutual understanding, build friendships and grow together via mutual learning.

Yang also called for leveraging such cooperation frameworks to increase exchange programs, which he said will help foster a global perspective and strengthen the younger generation's cross-cultural communication skills.

Zhu Xingxin in Taiyuan contributed to this story.

jihaisheng@chinadaily.com.cn