Xi's advice to youngsters on dealing with stress draws debate

BEIJING - Chinese President Xi Jinping has advised young people to avoid staying up late or becoming too stressed at work when meeting the country's county-level officials.

The advice has drawn heated response from Internet users on microblog Weibo after the anecdote and video were posted on People's Daily's official account Wednesday.

In the video, Xi recalled the huge pressures county officials must bear, speaking from experience as a county Party chief early in his career.

"I was so eager to do my job well that I often burnt night oil, but also fell ill quite often," he said.

He came to realize that even if work piles up, one can only do one piece of work a time, "however enthusiastic you may be about the job," he said.

Later in his career, Xi changed his schedule, making it a point to go to bed before midnight everyday, starting over the next day.

The post has elicited more than 8,000 "thumbs-up" by microbloggers and attracted many comments.

User Linxiaojianxia endorsed Xi's advice saying it is true that "We should leave whatever is unfinished by midnight to the next day."

A microblogger "Mengxie" said in discontent with her own job, "No one wants to stay up late working, but it happens if you choose the wrong job."

"Xiaqi" made an appeal in her comment that "prohibiting working overtime past 11:00 pm should be written into law."

Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, was speaking with participants of the first seminar for county-level Party chiefs at the Party School of the CPC Central Committee Monday.

During the talk, Xi lauded the role of county level governments, however, he underscored the integral role officials played in ensuring efficiency.