BEIJING - President Xi Jinping on Sunday extended festive greetings and best wishes to the country's working people ahead of International Workers' Day, which falls on May 1.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, sent the greetings and wishes on behalf of the CPC Central Committee.

Xi called on the working people to foster an ethos of work, foster respect for model workers, and promote quality workmanship.

He asked them to work diligently and boldly engage in innovation to make solid progress in advancing Chinese modernization, encouraging them to play a leading role on the new journey to build China into a stronger country and realize national rejuvenation.

Xi urged Party committees and governments at all levels to protect workers' legitimate rights and interests, earnestly help them solve their problems and difficulties, and promote a social atmosphere in which work and working people are treated with reverence and great respect.