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Old photos and essays published to cement Xi Jinping's power

Publicising president's work in early days seems aimed at promoting his thinking to the public

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Young Xi Jinping talks to party veterans. Photo: CPC News
Alice Yanin Shanghai

The photographs, taken over 20 years ago, show a farm visit, a factory tour and a dinner with members of an ethnic minority.

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Now the pictures of a younger Xi Jinping have been released online, along with the rest of a book of republished essays on poverty by the president, in a move an academic says is designed to cement Xi's authority within the party.

The photographs were taken between 1988 and 1990 during Xi's two-year stint as party boss of Ningde, a city in Fujian that lagged most others in the province.

They were originally published in 1992 in a book of more than two dozen essays and lectures called .

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The book - whose topics include fighting graft, understanding the masses, the responsibilities of government leaders, as well as agriculture and journalism - was republished in August and is available on the Communist Party mouthpiece's website www.people.com.cn.
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