Leadership highlights ethnic unity

China's policymakers have emphasized the need to firmly foster a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation and further promote the common prosperity and development of all ethnic groups, at a key Party leadership meeting on Friday.

At the meeting of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, which was presided over by Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, the country's top leadership deliberated a set of work regulations concerning the Party's ideological and political work, and studied a draft law on advancing ethnic unity and progress.

Recognizing the importance of the regulations, the meeting called for strengthening and improving ideological and political work in light of new circumstances, adapting to evolving social groups and enhancing precision and effectiveness. It also underscored the need to uphold and reinforce the Party's overall leadership in this field.

Regarding the draft law on advancing ethnic unity and progress, it was noted at the meeting that the purpose is to improve the institutional mechanisms for heightening a sense of identity of the Chinese nation and further enhance the unity and cohesion of the Chinese nation, according to a statement issued after the meeting.

The meeting was held following Xi's recent trip to the Xizang autonomous region, where he called for active efforts to build the region into a national model of ethnic unity and progress.

Since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, the Party has taken fostering a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation as the focus of its work related to ethnic affairs, and achieved new historic successes.

The meeting's participants stressed that continuous efforts should be made to consolidate the common ideological and political foundation for all ethnic groups to strive in unity, uphold the Party's overall leadership and unswervingly follow the correct path of handling ethnic affairs with a distinctively Chinese approach.

They also highlighted the need to properly draft, enact and implement the draft law, and to continuously improve the ability to handle ethnic affairs in accordance with the law.

The meeting also laid out requirements to further enhance workplace safety and disaster prevention, emphasizing that the safety of people's lives must always come first, and that development must never come at the expense of safety.

It was stated at the meeting that safety risks must be prevented and defused in a well-targeted way, and every effort must be made to carry out rescue and relief operations and to promptly and properly resettle affected people.

Since July, heavy rainfall has triggered severe floods and geological disasters in northern China.

According to the Ministry of Emergency Management, various natural disasters in July had affected over 8.9 million people nationwide to varying degrees, causing direct economic losses of 52.15 billion yuan ($7.31 billion).