General secretary unanimously selected as deputy

The People's Congress of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region elected Xi Jinping a deputy to the 13th National People's Congress with a unanimous vote on Tuesday.

Xi, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, was among the 58 deputies to the NPC elected by the 13th Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region's People's Congress. The NPC, China's top legislature, will convene on March 5 for its annual session.

When Xi's election was announced at the conference, the deputies to the People's Congress of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region applauded enthusiastically.

Xi's election as a deputy to the NPC through a unanimous vote reflects the common will of more than 500 deputies to the autonomous region's people's congress and the willingness of more than 25 million people living on the grassland, and it is a vivid demonstration of more than 1.3 billion Chinese people's loyalty toward the Party's core and support for the people's leader, a Xinhua News Agency report said.

Deputies to the autonomous region's people's congress expressed their support and love toward Xi as a leader of the people, saying that under the firm leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Xi as the core, Inner Mongolia's economic and social development has achieved historical progress, the report said.

The deputies said Xi's election by the ethnic region demonstrated the new work style and image of the CPC Central Committee, which has great significance for the Party's ongoing efforts to get close to the people, enhance and improve the Party's political life, build a good political ecology, and carry out major national strategies like reducing poverty and developing the Belt and Road Initiative, the report said.

Hong Yu, a herdsman from Hulunbuir and a deputy to the autonomous region's people's congress, said Xi visited the herdsmen in January 2014, asking about their difficulties in cold weather.

"Although it is far from the grassland to Beijing, we could always feel the warmth from the CPC Central Committee and the general secretary," he said.