by Cui Qingxin

BEIJING, April 30 (Xinhuanet) -- The Chinese government commended a total of 2,969 national labor heroes and advanced workers, including basketball player Yao Ming and track and field athlete Liu Xiang, at a grand rally held here Saturday on the eve of May 1,the International Labor Day.

President Hu Jintao, Premier Wen Jiabao and other Chinese leaders attended the rally and awarded the winners.

In his speech at the rally, Hu said that workers, farmers and other working people from all social strata all have made lofty contributions in pushing forward social advancement and building arelatively affluent society. Their enthusiasm and hard-working attitude should be popularized and carried forward, he said.

Rocket superstar Yao Ming, the 2.29-metre center for the U.S. National Basketball League's Houston Rockets, and Olympic gold medal hurdler Liu Xiang, who had incurred much disagreement with the rank and file, are also among the winners, but they didn't show up.

The nomination has drawn enthusiastic response around the country since the first release of their namelist on April 14. Some argued the award was meant to given ordinary workers, instead of social celebrities.

"We believe anyone who has contributed tremendously to social development, whatever his rank or whatever field of profession he specializes in, is worthy to the title of 'model worker'," said Yin Weimin, deputy director of the Judging Panel, told Xinhua on aprevious occasion.

"I never expect I'll receive such a great honor from our government," said Ding Xiuhua, a road maintenance worker from northwest China's Ninxia Hui Autonomous Region, "I feel real excited and greatly encouraged."

Among those rewarded along with her, more than 1,400 of them, or nearly 50 percent, are workers from industrial enterprises and other businesses, more than 600 are farmers in rural area, and about 800 are functionaries in the sphere of social administration,as well as workers involved in public service.

Approximately 30 private business owners and 23 migrant workersfrom China's rural areas have been granted the honor for the firsttime.

The nationwide release of the namelist of labor hero candidates has been the first trial in the history of selection, which aims to "pool public opinions in as wide a range as possible," according the Model Workers Judging Panel.

"We received 342 reports across China challenging the nominee's qualification and, as a result, eight among 2,977 candidates were deprived of the title after being probed," Yin told Xinhua.

"As we found these candidates cheated on their profiles," Yin said, "And some leaders of the companies have been charged of accountability for a record of accidents in their production units."

"The release of the model worker nominees to society makes the selection more fair and transparent, and revoked those who intended to seek their fame through personal connections," a Internet user named Zhou Hao said.

Since 1950, China has began selecting labor heroes nationwide. For decades, the model workers has been those proletarian workers,such as street and toilet cleaners, bus conductors, plumbers and miners.

"We can now feel ourselves some changes behind the fact that those people from diversified careers with differing ranks are honored," said Prof. Li Qiang, a sociologist at prestigious Qinghua University in Beijing.

"It represents the diversity of Chinese society at present," Prof. Li said.