President Xi pioneers national fitness policy
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The 12th National Fitness Day will fall on August 8, a tradition started in 2008 when China hosted the Beijing Summer Olympics and Paralympic Games. 

Popularization of national fitness is a critical expression of modernization. National fitness was promoted as a national-level policy in October 2014, with President Xi incorporating the concept into the building of a moderately prosperous society for the realization of the Chinese Dream of National Rejuvenation.

President Xi himself has shared his own sports experiences on various occasions, stressing the significance of national fitness.

Let’s review his key remarks at the advent of this year’s National Fitness Day.

Critical modern role 

President Xi has repeatedly stressed the active role of national fitness in propelling further development of China’s sports and people’s health. More efforts must be made to deeply integrate national fitness and health, the president has said.

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Chinese President Xi Jinping poses for a group photo with ice hockey and skating fans at Wukesong sports center in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 24, 2017. (Photos: Xinhua)

“It is our fundamental policy and task to develop sports and build up people’s health. A national fitness policy is the basis and guarantee of a stronger body and a healthier life and people’s fitness is an important essence of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, an essential basis of personal development and a happy life. So we need to promote the national fitness policy to facilitate the development of mass sports and athletic sports,” President Xi said at a meeting with sports delegates in Shenyang on August 31, 2013.

When meeting International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach in Beijing on January 31, 2019, President Xi said, “The popularization of national sports and cooperation with international sports programs serve as important sign of modernization.” 

Chinese people have improved their health on a great scale since the establishment of People’s Republic of China 70 years ago, Xi stressed, adding that the popularity of winter sports and the improvement of people's health conform with China's two centenary goals.

Teenagers in sports

Sports are an integral part of China’s plan to transform from a major sports country to a sports power.

President Xi has issued repeated instructions on the development of a national fitness program and the coordination of popular sports, professional sports and the sports industry. He also pays great attention to the popularization of exercises and fitness and participation of teenagers in sports.s2.jpg

Chinese President Xi Jinping (C) talks with members of the Chinese Youth Olympic delegation in Nanjing, capital of East China's Jiangsu Province, Aug 15, 2014. 

“The power of China depends on its youth,” President Xi said visiting a Chinese sports delegation at the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) in Nanjing on August 15, 2014. “Their strength lies in multiple aspects including morality, academic performance, innovation, practical skills, a healthy and strong body and sportsmanship. 

“I hope your excellent performance at YOG will inspire more teenagers to participate in sports to balance their studies and health and develop in an all-round way to become pillars of China one day.”

Looking back in April 2015 on the successful hosting of the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics in Nanjing, President Xi said, “I hope you can learn from your experience, pass down and promote the treasure left by YOG in Nanjing, pay more attention to teenage sports, guide teenagers to uphold the Olympic spirit, actively participate in sports, build up their bodies and strengthen their will so as to bring together and shine with youth and enable their contribution to national rejuvenation.” 

Winter sports

President Xi has been greatly concerned with the arrangement of the 2022 Winter Olympics and China’s winter sports. 

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Chinese President Xi Jinping encourages children to attend ski winter camps at Genting Ski Resort during his inspection for the preparatory work of Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Zhangjiakou, North China's Hebei Province, January 23, 2017. 

The popularity of winter sports in China used to be just confined to the colder north areas.

President xi once said that hosting the Winter Olympics will help 300 million Chinese people to participate in winter games, which will be a great boost to the Olympic Games.

Meeting Bach on August 22, 2015, President Xi said, “The 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing will further arouse Chinese people’s enthusiasm for the Olympic Games and motivate them to care, love and participate in winter sports and actively contribute to the spread of the Olympic spirit.”

Meeting Bach in Lausanne, Switzerland on January 18, 2017, President Xi said, “We will take the 2020 Beijing Winter Games as an opportunity to make athletic sports better, swifter, higher, stronger, accelerate the development of the winter sports industry and promote sports in winter to enhance the public’s physical strength.”

Sports fan 

As a sports fan and practitioner of the national fitness policy, President Xi believes that exercise keeps people fit and efficient. 

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Chinese President Xi Jinping visits a new community, which is home to rural residents relocated out of ecological concerns, and asks villagers about their livelihoods and progress on poverty relief, in Fumin New Village of Gulang county, Wuwei city, Northwest China's Gansu Province, Aug 21, 2019. 

“I swim 1,000 meters a day whenever I can spare some time,” President Xi once told a Russian television reporter.

The president has repeatedly made clear his love of football during visits abroad. 

He has expressed hopes there will be more teenagers devoted to China’s football and football culture, injecting positive energy into pursuit of the realization of the Chinese Dream.

“Speaking of sports, I love to swim and to climb mountain,” President Xi told Russian television in Sochi, Russia, on February 7, 2014. 

“I learned how to swim at the age of 4 or 5. I also like football, volleyball, basketball, tennis and martial arts. "

“As for winter sports, hockey, speed skating, figure skating and winter sports skills are my favorites. Hockey is great. It requires teamwork and coordination as well as personal strength and skills.”

The significance of football is not competition but improving people’s physical condition and developing “patriotism, collectivism and perseverance,” President Xi told FIFA President Gianni Infantino in Beijing on June 14, 2017.

“We are developing a football culture covering the whole of society, deepening the management of the football industry into a professional and efficient one complying with the law of development of football globally and Chinese realities. 

“We are vigorously developing teenage football, upgrading infrastructure like football fields, strengthening international communication and improving Chinese football with solid efforts and perseverance to make an active football culture a positive power facilitating the realization of the Chinese Dream.”

(Translated by Yang Mengzhuo, edited by Zhan Huilan and Yang Yang)