On President Xi Jinping's bookshelves, family photos of him and his wife, Peng Liyuan, sit side by side with official documents, offering a glimpse of the personal life behind the world stage.
Despite demanding schedules, Xi and Peng maintain their bond across thousands of miles. "Don't sever genuine connections due to distance or lose sight of true feelings amid a hectic life," Xi advised at a Spring Festival gathering in 2017.
Their everyday gestures speak volumes. In Costa Rica in 2013, Xi gently broke off a piece of pastry for Peng. During a state visit to India in 2014, the couple swung side by side on a simple garden swing, embodying quiet intimacy.
For Xi, love for family is inseparable from love for country. "Only when millions of households prosper can the nation truly prosper," he has said, framing family as the basic unit of society.
From his early days as Party chief of Liangjiahe Village in Hebei Province in the Chinese mainland to his current role, Xi has made poverty alleviation a core mission. By 2020, nearly 99 million rural residents living below the poverty threshold were lifted out of poverty, and all 128,000 impoverished villages and 832 designated poor counties had shaken off extreme poverty, according to the white paper "Poverty Alleviation: China's Experience and Contribution."
Looking ahead, Xi’s focus remains on people’s livelihoods. In planning for 2026–2030, he has called for development that enhances living standards and advances common prosperity, ensuring that the next chapter of China's growth keeps family and nation hand in hand.
Reference(s):
cgtn.com
