The People's Daily (February 24) published an unusual article spread over 3 entire pages (page 1-3) portraying Chinese President Xi Jinping as a visionary leader and extolling him as personally responsible for eradicating poverty. It mentioned instances where Xi Jinping made specific proposals. The article contained 139 mentions of Xi Jinping! Xinhua published (February 23) a short report on poverty alleviation in English which similarly praised Xi Jinping. The Xinhua report said "Poverty plagued China for thousands of years. Through generations of struggle after the founding of New China in 1949, the country had lifted 700 million out of penury by the end of 2012" and the conditions in which the 100 million living under the poverty line survived. It said "In November 2012, Xi Jinping became China's top leader, and he inherited a mission China had striven to achieve for generations, which is eradicating absolute poverty. The Communist Party of China (CPC) aimed to reach the goal by the end of 2020". It highlighted that "At the end of 2012, Xi braved the ghastly winter temperatures to visit the villages of Luotuowan and Gujiatai, impoverished places set deep in the Taihang Mountains of Hebei Province. It was the first of a myriad of inspection tours dipping into the country's underdeveloped regions for Xi as the top Chinese leader". Xi Jinping, it added, knew what it was like to be hungry and quoted him as once saying, while referring to the days when he was sent to Liangjiahe Village in northwest China's Shaanxi Province as a farmer some five decades ago, that "Meat would not grace our tables for months at a time. How I wished to treat my fellow villagers to meat at least once." It recounted how in November 2015, Xi Jinping convened a conference on poverty alleviation and development, the largest of its kind ever held. It quoted Liu Yongfu, former Director of the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development as saying "Xi Jinping took a liability pledge at the meeting, and said it is just like a 'soldier's pledge' and we must keep our word." It quoted Xi Jinping saying "Should tasks not be finished on time, the signatory would be held accountable" adding that "Xi, too, had nothing to fall back on."