BEIJING -- President Xi Jinping has encouraged Andrew Chi-Chih Yao, a professor of Tsinghua University, to further contribute to the nation's talent development and sci-tech innovation.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks in a reply letter recently sent to Yao, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences who returned to China and commenced his teaching career at Tsinghua 20 years ago.

In the reply letter, Xi conveyed greetings to Yao, acknowledging his unwavering dedication and remarkable achievements in the realms of teaching and scientific innovation over the past two decades, during which Yao channeled his love for the nation into a commitment to serve it.

Xi expressed the hope that Yao could adhere to his original aspiration and leverage his strengths to further explore approaches to the cultivation of innovative talent, and foster interdisciplinary integration and frontier innovation, in order to make more contributions to achieving high-level self-reliance and strength in science and technology and the building of a strong nation in both education and science and technology.

Yao, who taught at US universities for a long time, returned to China in 2004 to join the faculty at Tsinghua. In a recent letter addressed to Xi, he detailed his work in talent cultivation and scientific innovation during his two-decade tenure, and expressed his determination to contribute to the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

Yao, 78, is dean of College of AI and also dean of the Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences under Tsinghua University.