With the approach of Spring Festival, the most important Chinese celebration, Du Honggang, a 58-year-old farmer in Tianjin, has begun to stock up on goods for the Chinese New Year and make plans to celebrate festival with his family of seven, wishing for good health and more income in the Year of the Snake.
Standing in front of his house, Du couldn't help but recall this time last year, when President Xi Jinping walked into the yard and chatted with the family while holding the hands of Du's 85-year-old mother.
Months before Xi's visit, the family had faced challenges when their cornfields and vegetable patches, totaling more than half a hectare, were inundated by a huge flood in the Haihe River Basin that severely affected the village's primary industry, agriculture, in late July 2023.
Despite the hardships, Du was able to quickly restore production with the help of reconstruction funds. When Xi visited the family, the celery that Du had planted in September with government-provided seedling funds was about a month away from harvest.
"When I saw President Xi walking toward our house, my heart was beating so fast because it was the first time that we saw him in person," Du said.
"The president told us that a country is prosperous only when its people live in peace," Du recalled, adding that Xi also said in the village square that the affairs of ordinary people are very important.
The practice of Chinese leaders spending time with ordinary households before Spring Festival has been a tradition for years. Since being elected general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee in 2012, Xi has visited the homes of ordinary people across the country before Spring Festival.
Such visits allow the Chinese leader to interact directly with people and listen to their concerns, in order to gather firsthand information on social issues and public sentiment, experts said.
They noted that this tradition reflects the CPC's people-centered development philosophy and the leadership's commitment to improving people's well-being.
Xi's first such tour took place in February 2013, when he embarked on a journey across hills and bumpy roads in northwestern China's Gansu province to visit villages that were situated in a challenging natural environment.
During the tour, Xi asked villagers whether they had enough food, sufficient subsistence allowances, and access to medical and educational resources.
In 2020, as China approached the deadline for eradicating absolute poverty, Xi visited Li Fashun's house in Simola Wa, a village in Southwest China's Yunnan province, ahead of Spring Festival.
Li, the main provider for a family of six, had been nearly paralyzed in a car accident in 2010. Through the "targeted poverty alleviation" initiative put forward by Xi in 2013, Li's family was among the 16 households that successfully lifted themselves out of poverty in the country's anti-poverty campaign in 2017, elevating the entire village above the poverty line.
Talking to Li and his fellow villagers, Xi said, "I wish your village of happiness even more happiness." In the local Wa language, Simola means "place of happiness".
As more tourists began visiting the village following Xi's visit, Li transformed his house into a farm stay in 2021, offering visitors a taste of local specialty dishes and snacks. "Rice cakes like those made by General Secretary Xi during his visit are particularly popular," Li said.
Last year, the family earned annual income of more than 150,000 yuan ($20,480). "Now we are leading a content life without having to leave our home," he said.
Xi has emphasized on many occasions that the CPC never forgets that the ultimate goal of pursuing reform and development is to ensure that people live better lives.
In his 2025 New Year message delivered on Dec 31, Xi told people across the country that "of all the jobs in front of us, the most important is to ensure a happy life for our people".
"We should work together to steadily improve social undertakings and governance, build a harmonious and inclusive atmosphere, and settle real issues, big or small, for our people. We must bring more smiles to our people and greater warmth to their hearts," Xi said.
Icelandic Sinologist Ragnar Baldursson said that the CPC's people-centered philosophy has remained unchanged since "serving the people wholeheartedly", which originated with a speech by the late Chairman Mao Zedong, became the motto of the CPC.
"I think this philosophy can be traced back to Mencius, who advocated a famous saying about the importance of people. That is, the people rank the highest, the land comes next and the ruler counts the least," Baldursson said.
According to the ancient Chinese philosopher Mencius (372-289 BC), a governor exists for the sake of giving the people peace and wealth. A ruler who neglects responsibility to the people, or even misuses power and oppresses the people, could be overthrown by the people.
"Only when the government values its people and puts its people first, will the people trust the government. This is what is happening in China," Baldursson added.
Guo Daojiu, a professor at Tianjin-based Nankai University's Zhou Enlai School of Government, said that the nature and purpose of the CPC eventually led it to place the people at the center, so all the Party's work is aimed at serving the interests of the people.
"The CPC has been guiding its behavior with a people-centered philosophy in its longtime practice. Placing the people at the center is the worldview, values and methodology of the Party in governing the country," Guo wrote in an opinion piece published in Tianjin Daily.
