Xi's tour inspires faculty, students at China's top-notch university

BEIJING - President Xi Jinping's recent visit to Peking University (PKU) has instilled new passion among staff and students to make new contributions to national development.

Four years after his previous visit, Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, visited PKU again Wednesday, ahead of China's Youth Day which falls on May 4.

During his visit to the campus, Xi spoke of the need for world-class universities with Chinese characteristics to nurture people well-prepared to join the socialist cause.

PKU President Lin Jianhua stressed the duty of all staff and students to meet the requirements and fulfill the tasks put forward by Xi.

All the students and teachers should continuously work for new knowledge, thinking, frontier science and technology to support national development and the creation of the world-class universities described by the president, Lin said.

A number of world leading science and technology professionals, young scientists and engineers, and innovating teams should be trained, said Xi Wednesday.

Xi's remarks struck a chord with Deng Hongkui, a PKU professor with the school of life sciences and director of the PKU stem cell research center.

"As a key part of the country's sci-tech innovation taskforce, research personnel in higher learning institutions must work to cultivate more sci-tech talent of international stature," Deng said. "We need to hold major achievements in sci-tech innovation in our own hands, and use them for the good of the nation."

At a seminar with PKU faculty and students Wednesday, Xi spoke of his hope that young people can put their roots down among the people and dedicate themselves to the country.

For Song Xi, an undergraduate at the PKU school of psychological and cognitive sciences who was present at the seminar, the president gave her a weighty sense of mission.

"College students should not alienate themselves from the general populace. Rather, we should put our roots down among the people," said Song, who was once the only female marine in the 25th fleet from the Chinese navy on escort missions in the Gulf of Aden.

"We need to ensure our time is not squandered and let our youthfulness bloom," she said.