Fostering unity amid diversity in multi-ethnic communities

BEIJING, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- After concluding his state visit to Vietnam in mid-December, Chinese President Xi Jinping inspected the bordering Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in south China, a sub-tropical region known for its picturesque landscape and diverse culture.

In addition to the region's thriving sugar industry and border trade, Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, took the time to visit Panlong Community, a multi-ethnic community in the regional capital of Nanning.

Panlong has a permanent population of 27,000, about one third of whom are from ethnic minority groups such as the Zhuang, Yao and Miao. Many of them have come from other places in China to work or start businesses there.

At the community's public service center, Xi saw calligraphy enthusiasts writing Chinese characters, and listened to residents in the traditional costumes of different ethnic groups singing the lively and cheerful tunes of Guangxi folk songs.

To fulfill the residents' needs for different cultural activities, the community arranges an array of events for residents from different ethnic backgrounds, varying from the Mid-Autumn Festival to "Sanyuesan," a traditional festival for the Zhuang ethnic group, which literally means the third day of the third month in the Chinese lunar calendar.

"As people of all ethnic groups sing and dance together, live and work together, the Chinese nation is closely united, like pomegranate seeds, which stick together," Xi said during the inspection.

Guangxi is the autonomous region with the largest population of ethnic minorities in China, which accounts for 37.6 percent of the region's total permanent population.

Xi noted that Guangxi's efforts to build a demonstration zone for forging a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation should start at the community level.

Xi greatly values ethnic unity. The visit to the Guangxi residential community came two months after he chaired a CPC leadership meeting on the topic.

He said at the meeting that the Party's ethnic work and all other initiatives in areas with large ethnic minority populations should focus on forging a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation, and urged efforts to promote ethnic unity and progress in a down-to-earth manner.

It is imperative to promote population mobility and integrated habitation among various ethnic groups, build an interconnected social structure and community environment, and create social conditions for people from all ethnic groups to live, study, work and enjoy themselves together and jointly contribute to its development, Xi noted.

Communities are the basic units of grassroots self-governance and the foundation of the country's governance system, Xi said at Panlong Community, adding that building interconnected communities is an important way to promote the exchanges and interactions among people of different ethnic groups.

"All ethnic groups as one family -- this is one of the fundamental guarantees for the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation," he once said.