Downtown Longyan today. [Photo by Guo Yibin]

General Secretary Xi Jinping is very concerned about the development of the old revolutionary areas and about their people. He said with deep feelings that we should never forget the old revolutionary areas and their people and that we should continue to support their development as always, so that their people live a better life. Recently, China News Release interviewed Li Jiancheng, a Deputy to the National People's Congress and secretary of the CPC Longyan Municipal Committee of Fujian Province, about the development and vitalization of the old revolutionary areas and the Soviet areas.

China News Release: What are the long-lasting Communist stories of the old revolutionary area in Longyan?

Li Jiancheng: The city of Longyan is a famous old revolutionary area at the core of the former Central Soviet Area. It left a rich and magnificent chapter in the history of the Chinese revolution.

This was the site for the Gutian Meeting in 1929 and for the Gutian Military Political Work Conference in 2014. Held at Gutian town, Shanghang county, the Gutian Meeting established the Marxist principles for strengthening the Party and the military and the guidelines, principles and systems of the political work of the military. It chartered the principled course for solving the fundamental problem of building the military with peasants as the main component into a new people's military of proletarian nature. As a result, the military was reborn. General Secretary Xi Jinping profoundly stated, "This is where our Party established the principle of employing the CPC's political philosophy to cultivate the military, where the foundation of our military political work was laid, and where the new people's military was well defined." In October 2014, General Secretary Xi personally decided to hold and attended the Gutian military political work conference, which opened a new journey of building the army ideologically and politically, ushering a new journey of employing the CPC's political philosophy to cultivate the military, establishing the major strategy for strengthening the military politically in the new era, and enabling the military to continue to forge ahead.

This is the hometown of the Red Army and the cradle of generals and marshals. During the revolutionary wars, 100,000 sons and daughters from western Fujian joined the Red Army and created five armies, namely, the 9th Red Army (later changed to the 12th Red Army), the 20th Red Army, the 21st Red Army, the New 12th Army and the 19th Red Army. Among the 86,000 members of the main force of the Red Army who participated in the Long March, there were more than 26,000 sons and daughters of western Fujian, and only 2,000 of them survived to reach northern Shaanxi Province. The majority of the 34th Red Division, which was mainly composed of more than 6,000 sons and daughters of western Fujian, died heroically in the Battle of the Xiang River to cover the CPC Central Committee and the main body of troops of the Red Army. For every kilometer of the Long March, two of the Red Army soldiers of western Fujian died a heroic death. In the revolutionary struggle of blood and fire, Deng Zihui, Zhang Dingcheng, Chen Pixian, and Yang Chengwu from western Fujian became Party and state leaders, and the area also had two generals including Liu Yalou, seven lieutenant generals and 59 major generals.