The State Council held its swearing-in ceremony to uphold the Constitution as Premier Li Keqiang administered the oath in Beijing on Nov 20.

Fifty-nine new heads of the 40 State Council departments and affiliated agencies, appointed between April and October, swore to uphold the Constitution, as required by two documents that require officials to take an oath to the Constitution.

Xiao Jie, state councilor and secretary-general of the State Council, declared the beginning of the ceremony, which started at 11 am. Everyone attending the ceremony stood up and sang the national anthem. The leader of the ceremony then placed his left hand upon the Constitution, and took the oath. Others lined up behind him and repeated the oath.

Premier Li then urged everyone to be committed and perform their duties according to the Constitution; pledge to be diligent, honest and upright; always put development as the first priority, implement new developing ideas, and promote all-round social progress; encourage programs that benefit people, solve people’s difficulties, and make efforts to create new contributions to live up to the expectations of the nation and its people.

Also attending the ceremony were Vice-Premiers Han Zheng, Hu Chunhua and Liu He and State Councilor Zhao Kezhi. Senior officials from other departments under the State Council also attended the ceremony.