The picture shows the poverty alleviation industrial park of the Hongxin Village, Pingzheng Gelao Township in Bozhou District, Zunyi City, Guizhou Province. This industrial park, built by the Political Work Department of the Central Military Commission (CMC), mainly develops mushroom cultivation, beekeeping and the Chinese herbal medicine planting.With the help of the Political Work Department of Central Military Commission (CMC), the Hongxin Village has been lifted out of poverty. In 2020, the village was rated as a “Model Village in Rural Revitalization” in Bozhou District. (PLA Daily/Li Jin)
“To help the poor, we particularly need to depend on the people because they are the main force for poverty reduction.” All poverty alleviation officials from the Political Work Department of CMC have reached a consensus: The poor are the targets of the poverty alleviation campaign, and they are also the driving force for the campaign, so the key to winning the battle against poverty lies in igniting the endogenous dynamic of the people.
With the help from the military and local government, Pan Benxi contracted more than four hectares of land to plant plum trees and raise over 30 pigs and over 100 chickens. He earns an annual income of 50,000 to 60,000 yuan only from animal husbandry. He uses the excrements of domestic animals as fertilizers for the plum trees he planted, achieving a high-efficiency circulation integrating agriculture and animal husbandry.
Pan also taught his planting techniques to other local villagers. “After getting rich, I should help more others get rich as well,” he said.
Impressed with the tremendous changes of the village, poverty alleviation officials deeply feel that the achievements are attributed not only to the assistance from the military and government but also the endeavor of local people.
Wu Mingjin, a local villager, was formerly a technician at a coal mine. Impressed by the new look of his village, Wu resigned from his job and returned to the village. There, he leveraged his expertise in live streaming to sell local specialties. His story was reported several times by CCTV programs such as “Home for Dinner.” In 2019, Wu’s family was listed among “China’s most beautiful families” by the All-China Women’s Federation.
Deng Tingyong is an expert in planting tall gastrodia tuber, mushrooms, flowers, and other cash crops. Taking advantage of his technical savviness, he established an industrial incubation park to provide poor villagers jobs and teach them techniques to get rich.
Li Gen worked as a technician at a geologic prospecting company after he retired from the army. In 2019, Li quit his job and returned to the village with his wife from the city. He then began to work at the village’s veteran service station and lead 53 veterans in the village toward a well-off life.
Reporter’s Note: Always Putting the People First
During the trip to the mountainous village in Zunyi, the reporter noticed that the rural restaurant President Xi Jinping once visited has been crowded with tourists. Attracted by the fame of the small village, numerous tourists from around the world come here to experience its enormous changes.
The lives of poor people in the village have seen tremendous changes, indicating that the Party’s poverty alleviation policy has achieved results at the grassroots level. A slogan on the wall of the rural restaurant in Hongxin Village bears red words translated as “a criterion to judge whether a policy put forward by the CPC Central Committee is good or not is whether it makes the people smile or weep.” This demonstrates the Party’s determination to exercise the state power for the benefit of the people.
The slogan reflects not only the leader’s sincere care for the people but also the Party’s unswerving principle for state governance: being rooted in the people, serving the people, and benefiting the people. As the people’s armed forces under the leadership of the CPC, the PLA has always upheld the mission of wholeheartedly serving the people. In the campaign against poverty, the whole military has stayed true to its original aspiration and founding mission.
