General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and Chinese President Xi Jinping has recently paid high tribute to international friends who made invaluable contribution to China's revolution, construction and reform.

Xi offered his tribute in a reply letter sent on Tuesday to the families of some international friends, including Edgar and Helen Snow, George Hatem, Rewi Alley and Israel Epstein.

In the letter, Xi recalled that in the first half of the 20th century, a large number of international friends, including Snow, Hatem, Norman Bethune, Dwarkanath Kotnis, Alley and Epstein, traveled thousands of miles to China, where they stood and fought shoulder to shoulder with the CPC and the Chinese people through thick and thin.

China, he said, has always remembered their invaluable contribution to China's revolution, construction and reform and their earnest friendship toward the CPC and the Chinese people, and will always cherish their memory.

In the past 100 years since its founding, the CPC has, answering the call of the times, people's expectations, and trust of its international friends, united and led the Chinese people in delivering the first centenary goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects through unrelenting hard work, he said.

It is now leading the Chinese people in marching toward the second centenary goal of fully building a great modern socialist country, and in promoting the noble cause of world peace and development, he added.

"Indeed, the choices that your loved ones made decades ago are all worthy and honorable," Xi said in the reply letter.

History keeps surging on, and the great spirit is passed down from generation to generation, noted the Chinese president.

"I hope you will follow the steps of your loved ones, and contribute your fair share to strengthening the friendship and cooperation between the Chinese people and people of the world, and to building a community with a shared future for mankind," he said.

Recently, 16 family members of international friends, including Snow, Hatem, Alley, Epstein, Hans Muller, David Crook, Zheng Lvcheng, Elizebetta Pavlovna Kishkina, Richard Frey, Ruth Weiss, Eva Sandberg and Betty Chandler, jointly sent a letter to Xi.

In their letter, they extended warm congratulations on the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC, and expressed their hope to jointly commemorate the martyrs on the occasion of the 76th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War.

They said they are proud that their family members chose to stand with the CPC and the Chinese people, and willing to carry forward the internationalist spirit in the new era under the guidance of the initiative of building a community with a shared future for mankind, and make new contributions to enhancing people's friendship between China and foreign countries and supporting China in realizing the second centenary goal.