President Xi Jinping pursuing father’s legacy of simplicity

By Masood Sattar Khan
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

The Chinese President, Xi Jingping, has been leading a simple life since childhood, following the footsteps of his beloved father, Xi Zhongxun.

"There are many noble characters I wish to inherit from my father," Xi Jinping, then governor of southeast China's Fujian Province, had written in a letter of felicitation to his father Xi Zhongxun on his birthday in 2001, the Chinese media reported in an article to mark the Father's Day on June 21. 

Xi Zhongxun (1913-2002) was a leader of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the state.

Despite his heavy responsibilities, he had enjoyed the opportunities of being with his kids at home. 

The Xis have had a tradition of being strict with children and frugal, Xi Jinping's mother, Qi Xin, once said, attributing it to the influence of Xi Zhongxun. 

When China began its reform and opening up in 1978, Xi Zhongxun was serving as the party chief of the southern province of Guangdong. To get started in Guangdong, he was known to have worked round the clock and during one summer, he visited 23 counties in the scorching heat to familiarize himself with the locals. His risk-taking spirit in innovative reforms has deeply impacted President Xi.

Under Xi's leadership, China announced plans to establish the Xiongan New Area in north China's Hebei Province in 2017 to coordinate the development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region, hailed as a historic project. 

Once the mother recalled that how Xi and his younger brother used to wear clothes and shoes handed down from their elder sisters, including their old red cloth shoes. At first, Xi Jinping found this embarrassing, according to his mother. 

But his father told his boy that they could dye the shoes to make them a better match for him. This reflected a tradition in the Xi's to live a simple life, with Xi Jinping carrying on his family's tradition.