Xi urges greater poverty-alleviation efforts

Chinese leader Xi Jinping urged local authorities to escalate poverty-alleviation work during his weekend visit to impoverished villages in north China's remote Fuping County.

Braving chilly weather around minus-10 degrees Celsius, Xi, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, reached Fuping, an impoverished county set deep in the Taihang Mountains of Hebei Province, on Saturday afternoon.

On Sunday morning, Xi visited farmers' homes in the villages of Luotuowan and Gujiatai in Longquanguan Township to get a first-hand look at people's lives there.

During chats with villagers, Xi paid special attention to difficulties in their daily life, such as problems concerning income, food, education and medical care.

He also visited village clinics and shops and talked with village officials.

During his visit, Xi said local officials should always bear in mind poverty-stricken groups and work for them with their whole heart and soul.

Local Party and government authorities should place more emphasis on the mission of helping people out of poverty, especially people in impoverished regions, he said.

Xi also said the authorities should strive to find the right way to bring the people out of poverty by adjusting policies to conditions in a scientific manner.

Xi said policies designed to support agriculture, rural areas and farmers and alleviate poverty must be implemented fully, calling the embezzlement of poverty-alleviation funds an "intolerable crime."