The Fifth China Forum on Civic Virtues was concluded on Sunday with an agreement reached by the participants to promote the anti-earthquake spirit as a major task for developing civic virtues.

To promote and popularize the great spirit showed by the Chinese people in dealing with the catastrophic May 12 Earthquake is a major task for developing civic virtues and will be significant for China to agglomerate nation's strength and overcome difficulties, according to the participants.

The two-day forum, held in this provincial capital of Sichuan Province, ended up with a manifesto demanding the whole people to promote and popularize the great anti-earthquake spirit while studying a speech made by President and General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee Hu Jintao at the recent national ceremony to award people for their heroic behaviors in fighting the disaster.

The great anti-earthquake spirit is a very valuable spiritual treasure for the Party and the people and has added a new gem to the spiritual home of the nation, according to the forum.

Over 200 people including some officials from central and local publicity departments and anti-earthquake heroes attended the forum.

On May 12, a 8-magnitude earthquake hit Sichuan and some of its neighboring provinces, leaving over 80,000 deaths, over 370,000 injured, millions of people homeless.

Over 100,000 service people and hundreds of thousands of civilian volunteers participated in earthquake relief over the past months.

(Xinhua News Agency October 20, 2008)