A million grass-roots cadres and Communist Party members received a surprise gift this new year - a personal text message from Vice-President Xi Jinping .
The new year's greeting was sent out on Tuesday afternoon on a new system designed to send blanket messages to the party's core base, the Qianjiang Evening News reported.
'On behalf of the central party, I pass on dear greetings to all grass-roots party organisation secretaries, university students and village officials,' the message said, followed by a simple signature of Xi's name.
The message is a sign of the central leadership's continuing efforts to reconnect with its lower echelons in the face of mounting social tensions nationwide.
It also demonstrates efforts to drag the notoriously bureaucratic Communist Party - the world's largest political party - into the modern communication era.
The unusual move appears to have taken many party insiders by surprise, with the Hangzhou-based paper reporting that some initially suspected it to be a holiday prank.