President Xi Jinping has called on student docents at the memorials of the birthplaces of the Communist Party of China in Shanghai and Zhejiang province to carry the baton of history forward on the new journey, as he extended festive greetings to children nationwide.

Xi, who is also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, made the remarks in a reply letter, dated Saturday, two days ahead of International Children's Day, which falls on Monday.

The Young Pioneers recently penned a letter to Xi, sharing what they had learned and gained while volunteering as guides at the Memorial Hall of the First National Congress of the CPC in Shanghai, and the Nanhu Revolutionary Memorial Museum in Jiaxing, Zhejiang.

In the reply, Xi said he was pleased to learn that the students had fostered a deep affection for the Party, the country and socialism by recounting the Party's history, revolutionary stories and heroic deeds.

Noting that this year marks the 105th anniversary of the CPC and the Party's cause calls for unremitting efforts across generations, Xi encouraged the students to follow the Party's lead, carry forward the revolutionary legacy, enhance their knowledge and skills, and build their will and character.

The reply letter once again showed that the growth of children is always a priority for Xi, who has consistently emphasized that children represent the future of the country and the hope of the Chinese nation.

Despite his tight schedule, Xi has always made time for children. This commitment was evident as early as on Children's Day in 2013, when he first extended festive greetings to youngsters across the nation "as an older friend".

Since then, he has engaged with children in various ways, such as presenting plush toys to children at a welfare home in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region and accepting candy from youngsters in Liaoning province, wishing that their lives be as sweet as the treats.

Through such genuine interactions, Xi has become not only a caring friend to children, but also the kind and approachable one they warmly call "Grandpa Xi".

For 14 consecutive years, Xi has participated in voluntary tree-planting activities with students in Beijing. To him, these events are not only an occasion to work alongside children — digging pits and watering saplings — but also an opportunity to communicate with them and express hope that the children will grow big and strong, just like the young trees they plant together.

"President Xi has often used the metaphor of 'saplings' to describe children and referred to adolescence as a 'jointing and booting period', drawing a clear parallel between the growth cycle of trees and plants and the cultivation of talent," said Liu Jia, an associate professor at Beihang University's School of Marxism in Beijing.

Over the years, Xi has emphasized the importance of children's all-around development, framed cultivating the younger generation as a strategic and fundamental task, and called for joint efforts to foster a healthy social environment for the growth of minors. "Those serve as the overarching guideline and fundamental principles for advancing the work on children in the new era," Liu said.

According to the latest estimates released by the National Bureau of Statistics in May, China's population of children, defined as those through age 14, stands at 214.36 million, accounting for 15.25 percent of the total population.

In an effort to safeguard the healthy growth of Chinese children, the nation has rolled out the Outline for Children's Development in China (2021-30), which sets out a comprehensive framework covering children's health, safety, education, welfare, family, environment and legal protection.

"It is the greatest wish of everyone that all children can grow up strong and healthy," Xi once said, calling on the Party and the government to ensure that they care about children and juveniles of all ethnic backgrounds and create better conditions for their study and development.

This care is woven into national strategies as well as Xi's personal gestures that transcend time and distance. In 2004, Xi, then secretary of the CPC Zhejiang Provincial Committee, attended the foundation-laying ceremony for the new campus of Zhijiang Primary School in Sichuan province. Originally located halfway up a mountain, with dilapidated buildings, the school was rebuilt with assistance from Zhejiang.

Two decades later, students of the school wrote to Xi, and ahead of Children's Day in 2024, they received a reply. In the letter, Xi said he was delighted to hear that the school was doing very well and the students were thriving.

Wang Fang, an associate researcher at the Institute of Sociology of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, said that supporting children's growth has evolved from a traditional family matter to an issue of national importance, now integrated into the broader national development agenda.

"In recent years, China has continuously stepped up its efforts to safeguard and support children, leading to the steady expansion of a protective ecosystem for them," Wang noted.

This includes building a robust legal framework through measures such as amending the Law on the Protection of Minors and enacting the Family Education Promotion Law, she said.