National People's Congress deputies from the Jiangsu province delegation said they are inspired to work harder after a group deliberation with President Xi Jinping.

Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, participated in the deliberation on Sunday afternoon at the first session of the 14th NPC, the country's top legislature.

"Xi stressed a high level of self-reliance in science and technology on my suggestions to China’s approach to modernization," said Wu Qingwen, a deputy and mayor of Suzhou city.

Manufacturing industry is indispensible to China and scientific innovation should be stepped up. These words impressed me most, said Shan Zenghai, an NPC deputy and chief engineer of Xuzhou Construction Machinery Group. "To be honest, I didn't expect our industry to be his great concern."

For Wei Qiao, an NPC deputy who quit her job at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing in 2017 and returned to her hometown Zhenjiang to start a cooperative for agricultural machinery and a rice farm, Xi's words encouraged her a lot on her decision to engage in farming and agriculture.

Click the video to learn more of the NPC deputies' interactions with Xi.