Ten Chinese youths have been awarded the "May 4th Model Medal" for their outstanding contribution to the country's modernization drive.

The winners include Xiang Libin, president of the Shaanxi Academy of Sciences, Liu Zhigang, captain of a naval ship of the People's Liberation Army, Dou Hongbo, a rural primary school teacher and seven others serving as official, worker, judge, TV producer and scientific researcher.

Also on Wednesday, another 200 Chinese were awarded the "May 4th Medal".

The May 4th Medal, beginning from 1997, was conferred by the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League of China and the All-China Youth Federation, which is the top award for Chinese youths by the two organizations.

This year the top ten were awarded "May 4th Model Medal".

The purpose of the award is to encourage the Chinese young people to remember, inherit and carry forward the glorious tradition of the May 4th Movement, and devote themselves to the building of the country, according to the two organizations.

The May 4th Movement was a patriotic campaign launched in 1919 by young Chinese students and intellectuals to fight imperialism and feudalism. It is regarded as a mark of the beginning of the

new-democratic revolution in China.

May 4th was officially set as the Chinese Youth Day by the China's Administration Council (the predecessor of the State Council) in December 1949.

Source: Xinhua