Xi calls on Chinese youth to contribute to nation's rejuvenation

By CGTN

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday called on the Communist Youth League of China (CYLC) to shoulder their missions to further unite Chinese youth and make greater contributions to realize the nation's great rejuvenation.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks while meeting with the leading members of the newly-elected Central Committee of the CYLC.

The CYLC held its 19th national congress in Beijing from June 19 to 22, with the attendance of nearly 1,500 delegates who carry the trust of 73 million league members across the country.

It was the first national congress for the CYLC after the 20th CPC National Congress.

Taking the Party's central task as the theme

Noting the CYLC is regarded as an aide to and reserve force of the Party, Xi said the organization's work must abide by the central task brought by the 20th CPC National Congress.

For more than 100 years, taking the Party's central task as the theme and direction of the Chinese youth movement and youth work has been a basic experience, he said.

Founded in 1922, the CYLC is a mass youth organization under the leadership of the CPC. Its first national congress proposed the lofty idea of building a communist society, which injected the strength of faith into the hearts of generations of young people.

Over the past century, it has been devoted to national rejuvenation taking deep roots among the country's youth by focusing its work on the overwhelming majority of young workers, farmers and other young people.

According to statistics released by the CYLC Central Committee in May, the CYLC had over 73.58 million members at the end of 2022.

Xi urged the CYLC to nurture young people well-prepared to join the socialist cause and the Party.

He highlighted the CYLC's significant role in educating its members and young people, guiding them to study and comprehend the thought of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era.

As of 2023, over 3.7 million young people have received training and instructions through the Young Marxist program, said China Youth Daily. The CYLC issued a management rule in February to optimize the selection of trainees and mentors, and the operation of the program.

Actively advancing Chinese modernization

Over the past five years, under the guidance of the CYLC, young Chinese people have shown their courage and competence in promoting high quality development, winning the battle against poverty and fighting the COVID-19 epidemic.

They have stood out in China's leading scientific fields. Around 80 percent of the participants in the National Key R&D Programs were under the age of 45, said the country's Ministry of Science and Technology in February.

During the COVID-19 epidemic, young people risked their lives to combat the deadly disease. More than 5.5 million Chinese youth worked on the front lines, according to a white paper on young people released by the State Council Information Office last year.

Of 28,600 nurses from the medical teams sent to Hubei Province, where China's first COVID-19 outbreak occurred, 90 percent were born in the 1980s and 1990s, the paper noted.

In his speech to the CYLC's newly-elected leading members, Xi called for the CYLC to mobilize the majority of Chinese youth to actively participate in advancing Chinese modernization, and act as pioneers in science and technology innovation, rural revitalization, green development, social services, and border defense.

"A nation will prosper only when its young people thrive," Xi noted in his report to the 20th CPC National Congress. It is an opinion that had been reiterated by him on many occasions.

"As you endeavor to build China into a modern socialist country in all respects, your youth and vitality will bloom in full splendor," Xi said in the report.