Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, visits the home of impoverished villager Ma Maizhi on February 3. Xi presented school supplies to Ma's children in the Bulenggou Village of the Dongxiang Autonomous County, northwest China's Gansu Province [Lan Hongguang/Xinhua]

A fresh leadership style has emerged to distinguish the newly elected leaders of China.

Elected at the 18th Party Congress in November and awaiting the completion of the leadership transition at the forthcoming annual sessions of the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Congress in early March, the new leadership, headed by Xi jinping and Li Keqiang, has already projected, communicated, and even implemented a distinctly fresh style of governance.

A new benchmark for good governance is being initiated for the decade ahead and beyond. China perceives this fact, and the worldwide press concurs.

Features of the new style are discernible from recent events. Here are some examples: The new "approachable, warm and confident" manner of the new leadership came through loud and clear when the new seven-member Standing Committee formally met the press for the first time after the 18th Party Congress. The leadership's vision for the future, now popularly known as the "China Dream," came from a statement Xi Jinping made during the Standing Committee's surprise visit to The Road Toward Renewal exhibition in Beijing. Xi said, "In my view, realizing the great renewal of the Chinese nation is the Chinese nation's greatest dream in modern history."

The leadership's preference for unadorned "practical work" emerged when Xi said during the visit that "making empty talk is harmful to the nation, while doing practical work can help it thrive". The eight measures for practical work that were subsequently formally adopted to improve the work of officials, require that they "have more contact with the people, conduct short meetings and make short speeches, and travel light with a small entourage without fanfare".

Xi Jinping's December trip to Guangdong, symbolically retracing Deng Xiaoping's 1992 southern inspection tour, exemplified the new work style. The trip was dignified and formal, but without fanfare, and conveyed the important yet simple message that reform and opening-up must continue.

In international relations Xi reiterated at a recent meeting with foreign experts working in China that China's unwavering goal is to make a greater contribution to world peace and development. But Xi has made it clear that "there should be no expectation that China will trade its core national interests" for anything.