Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday inspected an aviation division of the Air Force stationed in southwest China's Guizhou Province ahead of the Spring Festival.

President Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, extended festival greetings to all officers and soldiers of the People's Liberation Army and the armed police force, and all militia and reserve personnel. He then inspected regular epidemic prevention work and military training of the army.

Xi first visited the hospital at the base to learn about the army's prevention work on the COVID-19 pandemic.

Speaking highly of the military's contribution in the fight against COVID-19, Xi urged officers to stay strict in regular epidemic prevention and control and get ready to support the local prevention and control work at any time to safeguard the country's sound trend in epidemic control.

Outside the hangar, Xi learned about the basic situation of the army and its main equipment.

Stressing that information superiority is the key to victory, Xi called on greater efforts on research and development of advanced equipment to improve the army's fighting capacity.

The Chinese president also highlighted the importance of military training by instructing the air force to focus on combat training based on practical situations and improving its training level.

Noting this year marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the beginning year of the formulation and implementation of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025), Xi wished the military to make new progress, standing on a new start point. 

During his inspection tour in Guizhou Province, Xi visited a village of ethnic Miao to learn the poverty alleviation work there. He then visited a supermarket and a community in the provincial capital city Guiyang to study people's livelihood.

On Friday, he met with scientists of the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST) project to check the country's work on scientific innovation.