BEIJING, April 30 (Xinhua) -- At the Ningbo-Zhoushan Port in east China, national model worker and veteran crane operator Zhu Shijie is working with electrical control engineers to advance the smart, standardized operation of remotely controlled gantry cranes.

Recognized with one of China's highest honors for workers for his spirit of hard work and innovation, Zhu has drawn on more than two decades of hands-on experience to develop a high-efficiency crane operation method now promoted across China's ports.

In 2020, Chinese President Xi Jinping met Zhu at the site, encouraging him to make full use of his role as a model worker and help cultivate more like him.

Zhu has taken those words to heart. Dedicated efforts by Zhu and his colleagues have ensured the smooth operation of the port, which handles an average of 3.9 million tonnes of cargo daily. Zhu has also led a team that has trained more than 3,500 workers, helping nurture a new generation of skilled port professionals.

PROMOTING SPIRIT OF HARD WORK

Xi has hailed the value of outstanding workers like Zhu as they take on vital responsibilities to drive the country's overall development.

"Model workers and exemplary individuals are the moral exemplars of the people and the pillars of the nation," Xi said.

This week, 3,024 individuals and organizations were honored for their contributions to major national strategies, projects and priority industries. Recipients range from engineers, technicians, teachers and doctors, to delivery workers.

Ahead of this year's International Workers' Day, which falls on Friday, Xi extended festive greetings to the working people nationwide and called on them to work hard, deliver solid results, and play a leading role in driving high-quality economic and social development.

Xi has built a reputation for hard work since his early years as a village official in a poor rural area of northwest China more than half a century ago. As the country's top leader, he has called on the society as a whole to respect model workers and promote the spirit they embody, and has backed the commitment with a range of policy and institutional measures.

He has called for building a large, highly skilled industrial workforce with strong ideals, technical expertise, a capacity for innovation, and a sense of responsibility and dedication, while also emphasizing workers' welfare and protections.

In recent years, China has continued to expand legal protections and social security coverage for workers, with growing attention to those in new forms of employment such as food delivery couriers and ride-hailing drivers, as well as older workers beyond the standard retirement age.

In his greetings to workers this year, Xi reiterated the importance of effectively protecting the legitimate rights and interests of workers and addressing their most pressing concerns.

Beyond policy measures, Xi has also conducted on-site inspections to ensure their needs are being met. In 2023, he went to a migrant worker housing complex in Shanghai, entering homes, inspecting shared facilities such as communal kitchens and laundries, and speaking with residents about their daily lives.

He said migrant workers, who come to contribute to Shanghai, are not outsiders but part of the city. "It is our responsibility to ensure they can arrive, settle down, live comfortably, and thrive here," Xi said.

MODERNIZATION IS BUILT ON HARD WORK

China's working class has played a key role from the revolutionary years to the building and development of the People's Republic of China. Today, that same formula of gritty, hands-on effort and intellectual contribution remains essential.

At the All-China Federation of Trade Unions' centenary last year, Xi said the central task of the workers' movement today is to advance the building of a strong China. He also stressed, on other occasions, that Chinese modernization is built through hard work and that great endeavors are accomplished through practical action.

This year marks the beginning of China's 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030), a key period for the country's goal of basically achieving socialist modernization by 2035.

In March, after the top legislature approved the new plan, Xi went to inspect Xiong'an New Area, about an hour's drive from Beijing.

Designed to take on functions nonessential to the national capital, Xiong'an offers a glimpse of how a modern city is built from blueprint to reality through sustained hard work. There, Xi called on the residents to continue steady work in shaping the city's future.

As China advances its modernization drive, the importance of innovation has become increasingly evident, emerging as a key focus of its push for progress.

Xi has thus called on workers to tackle challenges in upgrading traditional industries, forge ahead in developing emerging sectors, and explore new frontiers in future industries.

That priority is reflected in his inspection tours, where he visits factory floors, research labs and technology parks, meeting with engineers and technicians and urging them to strengthen innovation and applied research.

One such encounter remains vivid for Liao Xi, a 40-year-old steel technician in Shanxi. In May 2020, during a visit to Liao's workshop, Xi picked up an ultra-thin stainless steel strip, gave it a little twist and it bent slightly.

"The craftsmanship is excellent," Xi said. "It is as thin as foil and remarkably flexible." He encouraged Liao and his colleagues to keep pushing forward in innovation in high-end manufacturing. The material is now much sought after in foldable phones, new-energy cars, and aerospace.

For Liao, the breakthrough was anything but smooth. When Xi first visited the company three years earlier, he had just started working on the project, when experiments were failing roughly every other day. After more than 700 attempts, the team finally succeeded in producing what was then the world's thinnest stainless steel strip.

"We have achieved remarkable progress through hard work, and we will continue to rely on it to build an even better future," Xi once said. ■