The cadre-household contact program covers all officials and households, bringing benefits to the masses and training officials, said He.

Now is a key period for development and reforms, accompanied by various social complaints, which requires officials to feel the living conditions of the masses, sincerely respond to their various demands and mingle with them, said Ma Pingchang, secretary of the CPC Jining committee.

The performance of officials in their contact with rural families will be reviewed at the end of the year and the results will serve as a reference for promotions, according to He.

In August 2013, Shandong Province issued a guideline to mobilize CPC members and cadres to contact needy families, urging that all families hit by absolute poverty should be contacted via visits, telephone, or letters.

The campaign will prompt officials to reflect on problems in their work styles so as to improve themselves, said Sun Shaocheng, vice governor of Shandong.

Similar moves have also been launched in other provinces.

In southwestern Tibet Autonomous Region, 49 officials at the regional level contacted 116 poverty-stricken households and distributed more than 390,000 yuan from their own pockets in aid to them last year.

In Baodi District of the northern port city of Tianjin, about 15,000 CPC members and officials offered help to about 6,000 households in their livelihood, employment, medical care and education.

Directly contacting needy families is a concrete implementation of the mass line and is very realistic, according to Wang Zhongwu, a professor of sociology at Shandong University.

"The CPC has more than 80 million members. If each member could reach out to needy people, it would contribute a lot to improving their livelihoods and the overall image of officials," he said.

As the central authorities care greatly about people's well-being, the innovative moves to improve ties between cadres and the masses will bring benefits to more ordinary people, he said.

Meanwhile, the solution to problems affecting people's well-being will lay a solid foundation for the country's stability, he added.