BEIJING - Forging a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation must be the focus of the Party's work on ethnic affairs in the new era, President Xi Jinping said at a recently-concluded key meeting on ethnic affairs.

Acting upon the guiding principle put forth by Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, people of all ethnic groups are working to boost ethnic unity, in the pursuit of a modern socialist country for China.

Ethnic affairs in new era

Work related to ethnic affairs has always been a matter of significance for China, a vast and populous country consisting of 56 ethnic groups.

The sense of community for the Chinese nation was first put forward by Xi at the second central work conference on Xinjiang in May 2014. At a central conference on ethnic affairs held later in the same year, Xi once again highlighted the importance of laying a solid foundation for the sense of community for the Chinese nation.

The idea was enshrined in the Party's Constitution at the 19th CPC National Congress in October 2017.

At the central conference on ethnic affairs last week, Xi once again emphasized this point.

Liu Xinjian, an official in Hami, Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, considered making the sense of community a matter of utmost significance. From his perspective, it helps to motivate all ethnic groups to strive for the further development and progress of the Chinese nation.

Ma Guoqing, a professor at Minzu University of China in Beijing, said Xi's latest speech is significant in terms of both ideology and theory.

"It represents the latest achievement in adapting Marxist theory on ethnic affairs to the Chinese context," Ma said.