PEOPLE FIRST

A key target of the campaign is to stamp out the tendency among some officials to sacrifice public well-being in seeking to polish their performance records.

At a high-level meeting, Xi condemned the squandering of funds on facade painting in some rural areas at a time when they had freshly shaken off poverty or were still grappling with poverty.

Xi said spending lavishly to whitewash the walls there -- something that neither feeds nor clothes the people -- is "futile and a waste of public funds."

While some officials err on the side of recklessness, some others deliberately choose inaction. Some play it safe and shy away from responsibility, believing that "the more dishes you wash, the more you break."

Xi has on many occasions lashed out at such non-acting "nice guys" and "fence-sitters," saying that those who lack dedication will achieve nothing and jeopardize critical endeavors.

Conversely, one paragon of good governance frequently cited by Xi is Jiao Yulu, a humble Party chief of the little-known rural county of Lankao in central China's Henan Province in the early 1960s.

Confronted with sandstorms, floods and widespread soil salinization that left many residents struggling to feed themselves, Jiao and his colleagues worked tirelessly to plant shelter-belts in combating encroaching sands and flooding, and help Lankao gradually overcome chronic food shortages. However, Jiao did not live to see the full results of these efforts, succumbing to liver cancer at age 42 in 1964.

Xi was deeply moved when he first read Jiao's story as a middle school student. He said Jiao's spirit, defined by a people-first approach and tireless, selfless dedication, had served as a guiding light throughout his own journey from a grassroots official to China's top leader.

In the early 1980s, while working in Zhengding County in north China's Hebei Province, Xi helped cut the state grain procurement quotas that had earned the area a reputation as a "high-yield county" -- after learning that some farmers there were left without enough to eat.

"Zhengding would rather give up the fame as a national model for high grain production than compromise the well-being of our people," he said.

For Xi, governance should be guided by the needs of the people rather than political showmanship. An official's true pursuit, he has said, should not be high office, but living up to people's expectations.

Drawing on his firsthand experiences of rural hardship as a teenager, Xi launched a nationwide campaign to eradicate extreme poverty shortly after assuming the Party's top post in November 2012, mobilizing the entire Party apparatus toward the goal. Under his leadership, China lifted nearly 100 million rural residents out of absolute poverty in eight years.

Viewing poverty alleviation not as an endpoint but a stepping stone toward the people's expectations of a better life, Xi then pivoted to a broader vision -- pursuing common prosperity for all, and building a great modern socialist country by the middle of the century.

But setting the right goals is only part of the task. Xi has therefore placed strong emphasis on improving the institutional framework governing officials' conduct. He has stressed that, alongside fostering the right mindset, it is essential to strengthen systems that constrain and supervise the exercise of power.

Meanwhile, to encourage officials to take on responsibilities, Xi set clear selection and appointment benchmarks.

Officials who make errors with good reform intentions or due to lack of experience must be protected and distinguished from those who violate discipline and the law deliberately or to seek illegal gains, according to the "three distinctions" principle he proposed.

"Officials should be selected and promoted based on what they have done, what they have accomplished, and whether their work is recognized by both the Party and the people," Xi said in remarks published in Qiushi, the Party's flagship magazine, in March after the study campaign's launch.

"Preference must be given to those who dare to take responsibility, show initiative, deliver results adeptly and demonstrate outstanding performance," Xi said.