Xi extends Spring Festival greetings to military veterans

Chinese President Xi Jinping has extended Spring Festival greetings to the country's military veterans.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), conveyed the greetings while attending a gala held by the CMC for retired military officers of Beijing-based troops on Friday.

Greeted with warm applause, Xi chatted with the veterans, inquiring about their health and living conditions. Together, they reviewed the extraordinary journey of the Party, the country and the military over the past year.

The veterans vowed to rally more closely around the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core and act on Xi Jinping Thought on Strengthening the Military.

They pledged to gain a deep understanding of the decisive significance of establishing Comrade Xi Jinping's core position on the Party Central Committee and in the Party as a whole and of establishing the guiding role of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.

They also vowed to consciously uphold Comrade Xi Jinping's core position on the Party Central Committee and in the Party as a whole and uphold the Central Committee's authority and its centralized, unified leadership.

Moreover, the veterans pledged to implement the system of ultimate responsibility resting with the CMC chairman.

The veterans vowed to contribute their part to achieving the centenary goals of the People's Liberation Army by 2027 and to advancing the modernization of national defense and the armed forces at a high standard.

The Spring Festival, also known as Chinese New Year, falls on Feb 17 this year. The official holiday lasts nine days from Feb 15 to 23.

Xi extends Spring Festival greetings to military veterans

Xi extends Spring Festival greetings to military veterans

Xi extends Spring Festival greetings to military veterans

Xi extends Spring Festival greetings to military veterans

China's real estate policies over the next five years in the country’s new economic plan, are set to place more emphasis on ensuring people's wellbeing, while emphasizing improved living quality in the quest for high-quality development of the real estate market, effectively meeting residents' demand for more comfortable housing conditions, according to Wu Jing, director of the real estate research center at Tsinghua University .

On Friday, China officially unveiled the outline of the 15th Five-Year (2026-2030) Plan for national economic and social development, which includes a focus on the real estate sector.

The outline calls for efforts to accelerate the development of a new model for real estate development and to improve the housing system, featuring multiple suppliers and various channels of support that encourage both rentals and purchases, to achieve a higher level of housing security.

Wu pointed out that the efforts signal that ensuring people’s well-being is a key development direction.

Meanwhile, the outline elaborates on the need to optimize the supply of affordable housing and puts forward more detailed requirements regarding the target groups, management processes and sources of affordable housing, and reforms to the housing provident fund system.

Wu said the core objective is to ensure people's housing needs are met.

"The outline specifies a more refined housing security system, proposing requirements such as improving the entire process of affordable housing management, exploring the orderly conversion and coordinated use of affordable housing for both rental and purchase purposes, and deepening the reform of the housing provident fund system. It also requires the housing security system to place greater emphasis on families with multiple children. All of these reflect that the coverage of the housing security system is expanding, its precision is improving, and it will be better integrated with population policies," he said.

In addition to ensuring people’s well-being, the outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan makes arrangements for promoting the stable and healthy development of the real estate market.

It urges efforts to improve basic systems for housing development, financing, and sales, and advance the sale of existing homes.

Meanwhile, it stresses local governments should be granted greater autonomy, making regulation more precise and effective, and more closely aligned with local needs.

Furthermore, it calls for building safe, comfortable, green and intelligent homes, and establishing a full life-cycle safety management system for housing.

"Most notably, the construction of basic systems has entered a substantial stage of advancement. Specific requirements are put forward, and measures are deployed to promote the sale of existing homes in a powerful and orderly manner. These are fundamental solutions to prevent risks and constitute the core institutional cornerstone for building a new model of real estate development," said Wu.

To effectively implement the policies outlined, pilot programs can be carried out in certain cities or projects and then gradually expanded, laying a solid foundation for the stable and healthy development of the real estate market, said Wu.

China to prioritize people's wellbeing, increase housing conditions in 2026-2030 Five-Year Plan