1st Ld-Writethru: Xi stresses poverty relief for old revolutionary base areas

Chinese President Xi Jinping wants to end poverty in old revolutionary base areas and improve local people's standard of living.

Xi made the remarks on Feb. 13 on a tour of Shaanxi Province.

"A well-off society is be incomplete if people in old revolutionary base areas cannot shake off poverty," said Xi during a meeting with party chiefs of 24 counties and cities from Shaanxi and Gansu provinces and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

Xi expects financial support and preferential policies to bring prosperity to local people.

The president encouraged the regions to make the best of what they had and develop new industries, allowing local enterprises and brands to flourish, but with an absolute ban on pollution and excessive exploitation of resources.

Xi also met villagers from Liangjiahe, where he worked as a rural laborer during the Cultural Revolution. At the meeting he said revolutionary bases were the roots of the Party and the army and they should not be forgotten, as wisdom and power is obtained from history.

"Without the development of old revolutionary bases, we will not be able to achieve a moderately prosperous society," said Xi, who urged Party committees and governments to focus on the development of those areas, so the local people could reap the benefits.

During his tour, Xi went to Yan'an, Tongchuan, and provincial capital Xi'an, to inspect villages, schools, communities, research institutions and revolutionary memorial sites, and extend Spring Festival greetings to the public.

Calling the "Yan'an spirit" of veteran revolutionaries and Party members the "spiritual treasure" of the Communist Party of China (CPC), Xi said strength should be drawn from it to ensure strict Party discipline and close Party-people relationship.

Xi visited the Fuzhou Hope Primary School at Yangjialing, Yan'an, which was built with donations from Fuzhou City, capital of Southeast China's Fujian Province, in 1995 when Xi was Party chief.

He said that education was very important as it was the key to development and more attention should be given to primary education.

Xi stressed that "core technology cannot be acquired by begging alms." Instead, one's own effort is needed, he said when inspecting Xi'an Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) on Sunday.

The president encouraged those working in the technology sector to be innovative, confident and responsible.

When visiting Xi'an Museum, Xi said a museum was a school and the relics should be treated with care, as they were the country's cultural history.

He also climbed up the ancient wall in the city to check up on preservation work. Endi