【Study Group Press】
On April 6, Xi Jinping sent a letter to congratulate the 100th anniversary of the founding of Xiamen University, and extended warm congratulations and sincere greetings to all faculty, students, staff and alumni at home and abroad.
Xi Jinping's first stop when he took office in Fujian was Xiamen.
During this period, he and Xiamen University forged a deep love.
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When working in Xiamen, Xi Jinping's secretary was a master's degree student from Xiamen University. He often contacted well-known professors at Xiamen University through his secretary or other channels, and asked them to borrow masterpieces or visit him for advice.
Among them, there is a foreign professor Pan Weilian.
He has been teaching at Xiamen University since 1988 and has lived in Xiamen for many years. He is the first foreigner to settle in Xiamen and the first foreign permanent resident in Fujian Province.
In 1999, Pan Weilian, who had been in China for more than 10 years, unfortunately suffered from cancer. His condition was very serious at the time and he felt hopeless at one time.
At this moment, Xi Jinping, the then acting governor of Fujian Province, brought flowers to the hospital for a visit. This surprised Pan Weilian. He did not expect the governor of a province to be so concerned about the condition of a teacher at Xiamen University.
In November 2001, Xi Jinping personally awarded Pan Weilian the certificate of "Honorary Citizen of Fujian Province".
At the dinner that day, Pan Weilian and his wife had dinner at the same table with Xi Jinping. They chatted for nearly 2 hours.
Speaking of how to tell the story of China to the world, Xi Jinping said, you have written a book about Xiamen, that is your second home, and you have to write about Quanzhou, that is your third home.
At the end of 2018, Professor Pan published a new book documenting China's reform and opening up from a foreigner's perspective. He wrote a letter to Xi Jinping and sent the book along with it.
On the eve of the Spring Festival in 2019, Xi Jinping replied to him, thanking the professor who "looks out" for dedicating 30 years of precious time in his life to China's education.
A blessing phrase used in the letter: “Fu'an for the whole family, and Changle for a lifetime”. Because of the cleverly embedded two Fujian place names, it became the most popular New Year greeting in Fujian that year.
Xiamen University has also become an important think tank for Xi Jinping during his tenure there.
At that time, the Xiamen Special Economic Zone entered a new stage of development after five years of construction, and there was an urgent need for a development strategy as a decision-making guide.
As the deputy mayor in charge of the planning work, Xi Jinping invited a wide range of experts and scholars from all over the world, including Xiamen University, to provide suggestions for the development of Xiamen.
After extensive research and repeated demonstrations, it took one and a half years to formulate the "Xiamen Economic and Social Development Strategy from 1985 to 2000", which is the first 15-year economic and social development strategic plan compiled by the Chinese local government.
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Xi Jinping not only likes to communicate with experts and professors at Xiamen University, but also likes to make friends with young people.
Back then, Xi Jinping took the time to go to Xiamen University to participate in a small-scale symposium on "Capital and the Realistic Guiding Significance of Marxist Political Economics".
His rich theoretical knowledge and extensive understanding of society left a deep impression on the young teachers and students attending the conference.
Xi Jinping once revealed that when he went to the countryside, he had read "Das Kapital" three times, and his favorite translation was the version translated by the former president of Xiamen University, Wang Yanan.
When he heard that the Department of Economics of Xiamen University listed the original three-volume "Das Kapital" as a compulsory course, he was very sure of this approach: "Learning the principles and reading the original is the best way to get in touch with Marxism."
One day before the Mid-Autumn Festival in 1986, Xi Jinping rode a bicycle and brought two boxes of moon cakes to the student dormitory of Xiamen University. He invited the students to eat moon cakes and celebrate the festival together. These students who were far from home felt the warmth of a big brother.
"...There are many letters in all aspects, please forgive me for the delay in replying to the letter. I can find a time to talk, and I also want to learn from you college students in the 1980s."
This is Xi Jinping's reply to Zhang Hongliang, a student of Xiamen University.
It turns out that the brother-in-law of Zhang Hongliang's high school classmate is a friend of Xi Jinping. He has some ideas on how to advance reform and expand opening up to share with Xi Jinping.
Therefore, he wrote a thick letter, especially instructing Zhang Hongliang to hand it to Xi Jinping in person.
Zhang Hongliang wrote a letter to Xi Jinping, looking forward to seeing him.
The meeting place was in Xi Jinping’s dormitory. The two chatted for a long time. Zhang Hongliang still remembers a passage from Xi Jinping: "Although you have read a lot of books, there is a lot of water in the books. Only by combining with the practice of the masses can you squeeze the water. Drop. You have to squeeze the knowledge in the books to get dry knowledge."
Later, Xi Jinping took Zhang Hongliang to investigate Hecuo Village, the forefront of Xiamen's coastal defense, and guided him to Zhengding to conduct social practice of tourism economics, and even personally helped him revise his graduation thesis on land intensification in Zhengding.
When Zhang Hongliang graduated, Xi Jinping wrote in his graduation yearbook the eight characters of "Aspirational and Natural."
He urged Zhang Hongliang to say: "You have to understand these eight words, and you must be pragmatic and work hard while you are determined."
Text/Heming
Sources/People's Daily, Xinhua News Agency, Learning Times, China Discipline Inspection and Supervision Magazine, etc.