BEIJING, China: As the ruling Communist Party is attempting to reverse a worsening economic slump, Chinese leader Xi Jinping has called for patience from the Chinese people.

A recent speech by Xi was published by Qiushi, the party's top theoretical journal, hours after recently released statistics reported that consumer and factory activity further weakened in July.

The government also refused to release figures showing a rise in unemployment among the Chinese young.

"China must build a socialist ideology with strong cohesion and focus on long-term goals of improving education, health care and food supplies for its 1.4 billion people, instead of only pursuing short-term material wealth," Xi said.

Since taking power in 2012, Xi has tightened control over business and society, including over tech industries by launching data security and anti-monopoly crackdowns.

"We must maintain historic patience and insist on making steady, step-by-step progress," Xi said in his speech.

In the three months ending in June, economic growth slowed to 0.8 percent compared with the previous month, down from 2.2 percent in January-March, or equivalent to a 3.2 percent annual rate, which would be among the weakest in decades for the world's second largest economy.

According to a survey released in June, unemployment among urban workers aged 16 to 24 rose to a record 21.3 percent, and this week the country's statistics bureau said it will withhold updates until further notice.

After one of China's largest developers, Country Garden, failed to make a payment to bondholders and suspended trading of its bonds, the Chinese government has been trying to calm homebuyers and investors about the deeply indebted real estate industry.

Despite announcing no new incentives, Xi also called for narrowing China's widening wealth gap and said the country must "regulate the healthy
development of capital."

"Common prosperity for all people" is an "essential feature of Chinese-style modernization and distinguishes it from Western modernization," Xi said.

"Today, Western countries are increasingly in trouble. They cannot curb the greedy nature of capital and cannot solve chronic diseases, such as materialism and spiritual poverty," he added.