Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, waves to journalists at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Oct. 23, 2022. (Xinhua/Pang Xinglei)

BEIJING, Oct. 24 (Xinhua) -- After 10 years at the helm of the Communist Party of China (CPC), Xi Jinping, 69, once again stood in front of reporters as the Party's top leader, vowing to lead the country to pursue national rejuvenation through a Chinese path to modernization.

"We shall keep in mind the Party's nature and purpose and our own mission and responsibility, and work diligently in the performance of our duty, to prove worthy of the great trust of the Party and our people," Xi said Sunday, as he led his colleagues to meet the press, fresh from a Party plenum that elected him general secretary of the CPC Central Committee.

In 2012, after assuming the Party's top job, Xi said that he and his colleagues would lead the CPC in striving for national rejuvenation, pursuing a better life for the people, and addressing problems within the Party.

In the past decade, China under his leadership has witnessed historic changes, with its economy more than doubling to 114 trillion yuan (16 trillion U.S. dollars), absolute poverty wiped out and moderate prosperity attained for the country's 1.4 billion people.

It was also a decade of severe challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic, a trade war with the United States and the downward pressure on the economy all posed hurdles for China's development and tested the strength of Xi and the Party he leads.

Bringing about milestone transformations and ushering in a "new era" for socialism with Chinese characteristics, Xi is regarded as the helmsman capable of leading the country in overcoming difficulties and pursuing full modernization.

Stephen Perry, chairman of Britain's 48 Group Club, said everything he has seen in President Xi tells him that Xi's motivation is the people of China, which is very important for China's development at its current stage.

Robert Kuhn, an American scholar who authored the book "How China's Leaders Think," said Xi has an objective and comprehensive understanding of China's current situation, as well as detailed and rational thinking of its future.

Xi Jinping (2nd L) poses for a photo in Yanchuan County of northwest China's Shaanxi Province in 1973. (Xinhua)

SON OF LOESS PLATEAU

Xi Jinping was born in June 1953 into a revolutionary family. His father, Xi Zhongxun, was a revered CPC leader. Describing his father as "someone who had devoted himself wholeheartedly to the Chinese people," Xi Jinping said he was greatly inspired by the elder Xi and had pledged to follow in his footsteps.

At 15, as an "educated youth," Xi left Beijing for a village called Liangjiahe in an arid part of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, carrying with him a small sewing bag embroidered with Chinese characters "mom's heart" by his mother Qi Xin.

Xi would later spend seven years in the countryside, working and living alongside farmers. He called himself a farmer when he recalled his Liangjiahe years. He was separated from his family, slept in cave dwellings, suffered from flea bites, and worked as hard as fellow villagers to tend crops, herd sheep, carry manure and haul coal.

He joined the CPC there and later became the village Party chief -- the beginning of his political career. Xi recalled his earnest wish then was "to make it possible for the villagers to have meat and have it often." He led them to dig wells, build dams, terrace hills and set up the province's first methane-generating pit.

This experience means a lot to Xi and he often talks about it, even after becoming the top leader. During a state visit to Costa Rica in 2013, he visited the home of a farming family and talked about his experience in the countryside.

"It is extremely rare for a president to speak so passionately and with such pride about being a farmer. Some people may downplay that aspect, but he does not; he emphasizes it," said Alberto Zamora, whose family owns the coffee plantation Xi visited.

Xi Jinping visits Liangjiahe Village, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Feb. 13, 2015. (Xinhua/Lan Hongguang)

Xi said he gained his understanding of the meaning of the word "people" through his experience in Liangjiahe, and it strengthened his determination to "serve the people" -- a principle he has adhered to over the decades.

In the late 1970s, after graduating from Tsinghua University, Xi served as a secretary to the minister of defense. In 1982, he volunteered to work at the grassroots level and moved to Zhengding, a poor county in north China's Hebei Province. Peng Liyuan, his wife, later said that many of Xi's classmates went abroad and he could have just done the same. But Xi stayed and chose a much harder path -- to be a servant to the people.

In his three years in Zhengding, where Xi served as deputy Party chief and then Party chief, Xi rode bicycles to all the communes and production teams of the county to inspect work. Sometimes, he arrived when villagers were tilling the fields. He would join them and do the farm work.

Then he spent over 17 years in Fujian Province and nearly five years in Zhejiang Province. He served multiple roles in the two coastal provinces including vice mayor, prefecture Party chief, municipal Party chief, provincial governor, and provincial Party chief. In 2007, he worked in Shanghai as its Party chief before ascending to the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

Xi kept a close bond with the people wherever he worked, even after he was promoted to work at the apex of the Party. Xi has made it a tradition to visit the homes of the people ahead of every Spring Festival. Xi's early-year experience of hunger and toiling on the farms may help explain why he would check the kitchen, bathroom and cellar in ordinary people's homes. He also kept the habit of exchanging correspondence with the people. Those who received Xi's letters include farmers, entrepreneurs, pupils, grassland art troupe members, and soldiers guarding the borders.