President Xi Jinping meets representatives attending the award ceremony on ethical role models and pioneers in Beijing, Nov 17, 2017. [Photo/Xinhua]

To show his concern and respect for two senior citizens who dedicated their lives to building the nation, President Xi Jinping took them by the hand and invited them to sit with him for a group picture at the Great Hall of People in Beijing.

The touching moment, captured by cameras, happened after Xi arrived on Friday morning to meet more than 600 individuals selected for their outstanding work promoting the country’s cultural and ethical progress.

One of the honorees was Huang Xuhua, 93, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering who is known as a key scientist who led the research and development of China’s nuclear-powered submarines.

Huang kept his highly sensitive mission confidential for around three decades before his great contributions were reported by Chinese media and known to the public.

The other man honored was Huang Dafa, 82, Party chief of the village of Caowangba in Zunyi, Guizhou province.

He spent more than 30 years leading villagers’ efforts to chisel about 10 kilometers of irrigation channels into the vertical sides of three karst mountains.

As Xi approached the crowd standing ready for the picture, he spotted the two gray-haired men standing with other attendees behind the chairs in front.

Xi invited them to join him, a move that visibly touched the whole crowd. The crowd burst into sustained applause before the photo was made.

The honorees were there to attend a State-level conference to receive awards for their outstanding work in advancing cultural civilization in the country’s urban and rural areas, departments, campuses and among adolescents.

Xi congratulated them and encouraged them to make persistent efforts and new contributions and set further examples in the building of socialist spiritual civilization.

At the conference, Wang Huning, a member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Central Committee Political Bureau and head of Central Commission for Guiding Cultural and Ethical Progress, said Xi’s meeting with the delegates shows his great emphasis on building socialist spiritual civilization.

Nationwide efforts are needed to boost traditional, revolutionary and socialist cultures and to better build up China’s spirits, values and strength, Wang said.

A 5-magnitude earthquake hit Nyingchi, Tibet at 8:31 a.m. Saturday Beijing Time, according to the China Earthquake Networks Center (CENC).

The epicenter was monitored at 29.88 degrees north latitude and 94.92 degrees east longitude.

The quake struck at a depth of about 6 km.

Beijing and surrounding areas reported good air quality on more days in October thanks to strengthened efforts to reduce emissions.

In 13 cities in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, “good air” days accounted for 69.2 percent on average last month, up by nearly 5 percent from a year ago, the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) said Friday. Beijing saw the biggest improvement as its ratio of days with blue skies reaching 80 percent.

The density of PM2.5 dropped 10.3 percent from a year ago in those cities, and the density of PM10 went down by 15.7 percent.

Air quality usually worsens in winter in northern China where less wind and coal-powered heating combine to exacerbate air pollution.

The improvement was attributed to government measures to tackle air pollution, with dirtier coal-powered heating being replaced and industrial polluters strictly penalized. Special inspection teams have also been dispatched to cities.

However, Beijing and nearby areas are still not free from concern. Air quality actually worsened in the first ten months and was still lower than the national average. The region contributed half of the top-ten list of cities with the worst air quality across the country.

Nationwide, the 338 cities monitored by the MEP reported good air quality on 87.8 percent of the days in October, down by 5 percentage points from the same period last year.

The ratio was 93.8 percent in the city cluster around Yangtze River Delta and 73.1 percent in cities around Pear River Delta.

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday encouraged ethical role models and pioneers to make new contributions to raising socialist cultural-ethical standards.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks while meeting representatives attending the award ceremony on the initiative.

“China is sure to rise higher in the years to come, thanks to the rise of one man as its paramount leader — Xi Jinping,” predicted an Indian expert on China during an international think tank symposium held in Beijing on Nov. 16, 2017.

Sudheendra Kulkarni, chairman of the Observer Research Foundation based in India’s Mumbai, forecasted the growing impact of China on the world stage during his speech at a parallel session of the international think tank symposium themed “19th CPC National Congress: Implications for China and the World.”

“At a time when the era of globalization demands that the leaders of major nations have a global vision and global commitments, Xi Jinping towers over other world leaders,” said Kulkarni, pointing out that Xi’s report at the 19th CPC National Congress has shown a clear roadmap to the attainment of the Chinese Dream with all-round “national rejuvenation.”

The report has reassured skeptics that, even as China enters an era that will see it “moving closer to the center stage”, it “will continue to play its part as a major and responsible country,” said the aide to India’s former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

During the symposium, former top government leaders from countries including Japan, Pakistan and France spoke highly of the significance of the CPC’s 19th National Congress, saying that the Belt and Road Initiative is a wise and innovative attempt to give a new positive push to the peaceful development of the world.

As many as 240 incumbent and former officials, think tank researchers and political analysts from 31 countries joined the symposium to discuss the major achievements and implications of the 19th CPC National Congress, opportunities of China’s development for the global economy as well as China’s foreign policy and the peaceful development of the world.