China's leading newspaper, the People's Daily, also the mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC), Sunday marked the 10th anniversary of the founding of the its official website: www.people.com.cn, a major news portal in the country.

Senior Chinese leader Li Changchun sent a message of congratulations to the editors of the newspaper and its web version: the People's Daily Online.

Li, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, said that People's Daily Online has played a core role in influencing the public's opinions and reporting China to the outside world in the past decade.

With the rapid development of information technologies, the Internet has left greater impacts on the people's ideas and social life, and thus become an important tool of impressing the public and improving China's image in the world, said the letter.

It encouraged People's Daily Online to stick to its tenet of being authoritative, popular and credible, further enhance its influence both at home and abroad, and contribute more to a better press for China's progress toward a harmonious society and peaceful development.

Liu Yunshan, head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, attended a celebration meeting here and urged the People's Daily Online to continue to reflect the views of the Chinese people and protect the public's interests.

People's Daily Online was formally launched on January 1, 1997. Now it has versions of Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, English, Japanese, French, Spanish, Russian and Arabic to release information and news throughout the world.