President Xi Jinping has urged the People's Education Press to help nurture a new generation of capable young people who are well prepared to join the country's socialist cause by creating high-quality teaching materials.

Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remark in his recent reply to a letter from some PEP retirees.

The publishing house, founded in 1950, specializes in studying, compiling, publishing and distributing textbooks and teaching materials for basic education, as well as educational books. It has issued more than 70,000 types of publications with a total circulation of over 75 billion.

In the letter of reply, Xi hailed the contributions made by the organization to education in China over the past 70 years and extended his regards to all PEP employees.

Saying that education is the foundation of national development in the long run, Xi stressed the importance of centering the publishing house's work on the fundamental task of fostering virtue through education.

He expressed his hope that the PEP would advance with reform and innovation while carrying on its fine tradition and focusing on developing high-quality teaching materials.

Xi also urged the publishing house to nurture a new generation of capable young people who have a comprehensive moral, intellectual, physical and aesthetic grounding in addition to a hardworking spirit and who are well prepared to join the socialist cause.

Recently, on behalf of all PEP employees, some retirees wrote a letter to Xi to report the publishing house's efforts in compilation and education over the past seven decades and express their determination to contribute to China's educational publishing.

According to the proposals for formulating the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) and long-range goals adopted in October at the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the CPC, the nation will become a strong country in education with the building of a high-quality education system over the coming 15 years.

Xinhua contributed to this story.