BEIJING, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) -- At the opening ceremony of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, a five-star red flag was passed around by more than 100 ordinary Chinese people from various ethnic groups and different sectors of society.
Among them was Liu Kuo, a deliveryman clad in working uniform, as a representative of the country's more than 4 million couriers to participate in the grand event.
In February 2019, Liu received a special encouragement at his post in central Beijing just days before the Chinese New Year.
"I had just finished loading parcels onto the vehicle when President Xi Jinping came to visit us," Liu recalled the day when Xi went to a delivery station in central Beijing during an inspection tour. "He held my dusty hand and gave me a warm and firm handshake."
Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, expressed appreciation for the hard work of the deliverymen, whom he likened to the diligent honey bees. Their devotion has brought convenience to people's lives, Xi noted.
Over the years, Xi had talked with frontline workers in various sectors, including migrant workers at a construction site of Beijing's subway lines, sanitation workers, and taxi drivers.
On multiple occasions, Xi has made important instructions concerning the status of workers.
"Regardless of how the times change, we must always treat work and working people with reverence and respect, and we must always attach significance to the leading role of the working class and working people," said Xi at a meeting commending national model workers in 2015.
On April 30, 2020, when the country was battling against the coronavirus epidemic, Xi praised the work of ordinary employees at various posts in reply to a letter from the staff of a large private company in central China's Zhengzhou.
"Greatness comes from the ordinary," Xi said in his response letter. The president gave credit to frontline medical workers, sanitation workers, deliverymen, and workers producing anti-epidemic supplies, saying they have all made contributions to combating the epidemic.
Having spent part of his formative years living and working alongside locals in a small village called Liangjiahe in northwest China, doing all kinds of farm work, Xi himself has set an example of hard work.
Since the 18th CPC National Congress, Xi has attached great importance to promoting the ethos of work, the spirit of model workers and workmanship.
At an award ceremony of the July 1 Medal, the highest honor in the Party, in 2021, Xi called recipient Ai Aiguo a master craftsman for his superb welding skills and technical innovation. "The country needs people like you," Xi said to the veteran welder.
Xi concerns himself with the well-being of workers. More than once, he asks for efforts to continuously enhance workers' sense of fulfillment, happiness, and security.
He held a talk with the new leadership of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions and gave a keynote speech on Monday, stressing that more tangible progress in promoting common prosperity for all must first be reflected in the hundreds of millions of workers.
Xi said, as representatives and defenders of workers' interests, trade unions should focus on solving practical problems concerning the immediate interests of workers, and attach importance to safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of workers in new employment forms. ■
