BEIJING, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday called for consolidating and developing the unity of the Chinese nation.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the call at a grand meeting in Beijing to honor role models for ethnic unity and progress.

He urged efforts to advance the building of the community for the Chinese nation.

Premier Li Qiang presided over the meeting. Top political advisor Wang Huning announced the central authorities' decision to award the models. Senior leaders Zhao Leji, Cai Qi, Ding Xuexiang and Li Xi attended the event.

A total of 352 groups and 368 individuals were honored. Xi and other senior leaders presented the awards to representatives of the models.

Addressing the meeting, Xi said the CPC has always attached great importance to ethnic affairs. Over the past more than a century, it has blazed a correct path of handling ethnic affairs with a distinctively Chinese approach.

Along this path, Xi said, the CPC has made new advances in developing ethnic relations of equality, solidarity, mutual assistance and harmony, and promoted economic and social development of ethnic areas and the lives of ethnic minority groups to register unprecedented progress.

Since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, the Party has taken fostering a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation as the focus of its work related to ethnic affairs, and achieved new historic success, he said.