BEIJING: China’s new leaders have urged an end to “pointless” meetings, speeches and other time-wasting events, state-run media said on Wednesday in the latest call for improved governance.

Since being unveiled as the ruling Communist Party’s top brass last month, party chief Xi Jinping and others have trumpeted pledges such as better serving the people and tackling hot-button issues including official corruption.

“The new leadership asked officials to slash red tape, including unnecessary visits, meetings and pointless discussions,” the China Daily said, reporting on a Tuesday meeting of the 25-member Politburo.

Also singled out were the “pointless media reporting” and “traffic disruption” that routinely resulted from senior officials’ comings and goings.

Politburo members agreed to slash bureaucracy, from the size of escorts that accompany leaders on trips to the publication of official documents, the state news agency Xinhua said.

Xi has repeatedly stressed less talk, the China Daily said, citing his comments at a party school in 2010 that “there was room for a great deal of improvement in speeches by officials, as they contained too much jargon and empty words”.

Xi’s first remarks as party chief last month had little of the Communist terminology—or references to socialist figures such as Karl Marx and Mao Zedong—that peppered the speeches of his predecessor Hu Jintao.