Profile: Xi Jinping: Man of the people, statesman of vision (15)

（Xinhua） 09:24, December 24, 2012

File photo shows Xi Jinping (R, rear) with his father Xi Zhongxun (R, front), his wife (L, front) and his daughter (C, front). (Xinhua)

BEING IN FRONT RANKS REQUIRES SOLID WORK

"Making empty talk is harmful to the nation, while doing practical work can help it thrive," Xi said during a visit to "The Road Toward Renewal" exhibition in Beijing on the 15th day after his election as the CPC's new helmsman.

To put "practical work" in place, Xi presided over a meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee that adopted eight measures to improve Party work style and tighten the bond with the people. The measures include more meetings with the people, traveling light with a small entourage and using fewer traffic controls, shortening meetings and speeches. The new measures have earned acclaim both at home and abroad.

"Only solid work ensures that one will take the lead," Xi has said. He has demanded concrete effort to tackle issues the people care about most. He believes that without implementation, the best blueprint will be nothing more than a castle in the air.

When he served in Zhengding County, Xi said that developing human resources was the key to shaking off poverty and backwardness in the county. He attended to the job himself by inviting professionals to the county and drawing up recruitment advertisements for talented personnel from across the country.

In the winter of 1983, he traveled to the provincial capital of Shijiazhuang to invite a cosmetics expert to work in Zhengding. Without a detailed address for the expert, he went door to door asking where the expert lived and finally found him at night after yelling his name near his home. Xi and the expert talked until midnight and Xi finally persuaded the man to work in Zhengding. The expert later created more than 300,000 yuan in revenue for the county within the first year.

In the same year, Xi decided to publish nine ways for recruiting talented personnel, something that was rare at the time and became a front-page story in the Hebei Daily. He wrote more than 100 letters to experts and scholars, as well as colleges and research institutions, and paid visits to dozens of experts. Within two years, Zhengding attracted 683 talented personnel and hired 53 well-known experts as economic counselors.