Chinese President Xi Jinping once again stressed the importance of loyalty from his subordinates when he recently kickstarted a training session for a group of local officials from across the country.

In his capacity as the Communist Party general secretary, Xi told the Central Party School’s newly admitted students on Monday that loyalty to the party remained their most important quality.

The school, located in Beijing, is a higher education institution that trains the Communist Party’s cadres.

The newly admitted students were mostly officials in their 40s and 50s from city or prefecture-level governments across the country, according to the official state-run Xinhua News Agency. They would be trained to become reserve manpower for provincial officials, which would be the next step up in their careers.

Xi’s speech, made during the training course’s opening ceremony, came as Beijing was planning sweeping changes to Hong Kong’s elections so only those deemed loyal to mainland China could run for seats.

During the ceremony, Xi also stressed that party officials must dare to fight. He said this spirit had enabled the party to reach today’s achievements, and local officials must rely on it for their future work.

In recent years, Xi’s speeches have repeatedly stressed the importance of loyalty.

Last year, the Communist Party’s top decision-making body, the Central Committee, issued a document requiring all party members to firmly support its leadership in China and to firmly embrace Xi as the party’s core leader.

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