President Xi Jinping encouraged college graduates across the country to make more contributions for the Communist Party of China, the country and the people on Tuesday.

In a letter of reply to graduates who studied at the Karamay campus of China University of Petroleum-Beijing, Xi said that going through the COVID-19 outbreak this year will help the graduates better understand that those who work hard to overcome difficulties will make progress.

Xi said he supports the choices made by 118 of the graduates to take jobs with grassroots organizations in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region and work with people of all ethnic groups to build the country's western region.

The 118 graduates wrote a letter to Xi recently and expressed their firm resolution to work in the country's western region and build up the border. The satellite campus of China University of Petroleum-Beijing in Karamay, Xinjiang, started to enroll college students in 2016. About 85 percent of the total of 435 graduates at the campus this year have already gotten jobs, and 118 of them chose to work for grassroots organizations.

Xi told the graduates that the road ahead is never smooth, and the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation could only be fulfilled by the hard work of generations of young people.

Saying that the graduates have great responsibilities in striving for national rejuvenation, Xi encouraged them to set lofty ideals and work hard to integrate their personal beliefs with the cause of the Party and the country.

Xi, who is also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, said that the CPC committees and governments at all levels should take effective measures to overcome the difficulties created by COVID-19 and help college graduates obtain employment.

Party committees and governments at all levels should support college graduates in making achievements for the Party and the people, he said.

The number of new university graduates nationwide will reach 8.74 million this year, an increase of 400,000 from last year, according to the Ministry of Education.