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In Ningde, he sometimes travelled for days on the mountain roads to reach the furthest corner of the prefecture. The roads were so bumpy that he often had to take a break to recover from back pain before arriving at destinations.
He once walked nearly five hours on a rugged mountain road to get to a township called Xiadang, which was not accessible by highway, and received the most passionate welcome from local residents, who said Xi was “the highest-ranking official who has come to the village.”
He also helped thousands of farmers in Ningde renovate dilapidated thatched huts and guided fishermen to live better lives on the land.
When working as Party chief of Fuzhou, capital of Fujian, he took the lead in the country in establishing a mechanism for officials to meet with petitioners face to face. He introduced the same mechanism in places where he later served.
Once, he and other senior officials in Fuzhou met with more than 700 petitioners in two days.
While working in east China’s Zhejiang Province, he went down into a coal mine nearly 1 000 meters underground and walked more than 1 500 meters along a narrow and inclined shaft to visit miners and see their working conditions before the Spring Festival in 2005.
Xi attaches importance to communication with the people via news media. He wrote a popular column for the Zhejiang Daily, using the pen name Zhexin. In his 232 columns, he discussed everyday problems of interest to the common people.
As mild a person as Xi is, he is very tough in policing officials and preventing them from harming the interests of the common people.
In an investigation into illegal housing construction by officials in Ningde, he grew angry and pounded the table, saying, “Shall we offend hundreds of officials, or shall we fail millions of people?” Also, a number of officials in Zhejiang were punished during his tenure of leadership for failing to fulfil their duties.
His work style earned him the nickname “secretary of the people”.
“Officials should love the people in the way they love their parents, work for their benefit and lead them to prosperity,” Xi said.
Leader with foresight
On several recent occasions, Xi showed a strong sense of responsibility towards the future of the nation and declared his determination to push forward reform and opening up.
Throughout his political career, people have seen his foresight and resolve as well as his willingness to sacrifice personal gain and one-time fame for a bigger cause.
When working in Xiamen, a coastal city in Fujian, he took charge of drafting a development plan for the city from 1985 to 2000 and lobbied for preferential policies from the central government, both of which benefited the city long after he left the province.
When working in Zhengding, Hebei Province, he saw potential business opportunities when he learned that the crew of “The Dream of Red Mansions,” a popular novel-turned-TV drama, was looking for a filming location.
He then proposed building in Zhengding a large residential compound featured within the novel. The compound, which was used by the TV crew, later became a tourist attraction.
Tourist income from the compound exceeded 10 million yuan the year it was completed, paying back more than the investment.
The compound has been used as the set for more than 170 movies and TV dramas, with up to 1,3 million tourists every year.
In Fuzhou, after intense deliberation and discussion, he and his colleagues devised a strategic development plan for the city for the coming three, eight and 20 years.
All the main targets set by the plan were achieved years ago, and a number of enterprises that were set up or brought to Fuzhou when Xi served there remain the industry leaders, playing a significant role in the city’s development over the past two decades.
Working as Fujian governor, he was the first in the country to launch a campaign to crack down on food contamination.
In 1999, he first put forward the idea of improving IT infrastructure and introducing information technology to help the public.
Fujian had been the only province in China where all hospitals were linked by computer networks and shared digital medical records by 2010.
In 2002, Fujian launched the reform of the collective forest property right system, becoming the first in the country.
During Xi’s tenure, Fujian was among the first provinces in China to adopt special policies to restore ecological balance and protect the environment.
This has made Fujian the province with the best water and air quality as well as the best ecology and environment in the country.
After his transfer to Zhejiang Province in 2002, Xi put forward numerous development targets for the economy, public security, culture, the environment and the rule of law.
He initiated local industrial restructuring, transforming the province’s extensive, less-efficient growth pattern, and encouraged quality enterprises from outside the province to invest in Zhejiang.
In addition, he proposed a development mode that would give equal weight to both manufacturing and commerce, a mode based on Zhejiang’s own conditions.
He also supported enterprises’ efforts to expand overseas and supported start-ups by ordinary citizens.
At the same time, he encouraged more co-operation among Zhejiang, neighbouring Shanghai Municipality and Jiangsu Province in order to tap their potential as an integrated economic powerhouse.
In 2004, under Xi’s leadership, Zhejiang made an attempt to improve grassroots democracy. Villages there set up residents’ committees to supervise the village Party committee and administrative committee on public affairs, a move that received a positive response from the public.
Village supervision committees, which sprang from the Zhejiang model, were later introduced in an amendment to the Organic Law of Villagers’ Committees in 2010 by the National People’s Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, the top Chinese legislature.
Shanghai was Xi’s last local post before he was promoted to the central leadership. Despite a relatively short term in the country’s financial hub, he left his mark by promoting the economic integration of the Yangtze River Delta and enhancing Shanghai’s leading role in the region.
Xi added “enlightened, sagacious, open-minded and modest” to the official wording of the Shanghai Spirit slogan, which previously had just read “inclusive and sublime.”
The Shanghai Spirit was intended to capture the essence of the city. Media in Shanghai remarked that these emendations helped present Shanghai to the rest of the world in a deeper, more thoughtful way. These changes were also noticed by people outside Shanghai.
Being in front ranks requires solid work
“Making empty talk is harmful to the nation, while doing practical work can help it thrive,” Xi said during a visit to “The Road Toward Renewal” exhibition in Beijing on the 15th day after his election as the CPC’s new helmsman.
To put “practical work” in place, Xi presided over a meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee that adopted eight measures to improve Party work style and tighten the bond with the people.
The measures include more meetings with the people, travelling light with a small entourage and using fewer traffic controls, shortening meetings and speeches.
The new measures have earned acclaim both at home and abroad.
“Only solid work ensures that one will take the lead,” Xi has said. He has demanded concrete effort to tackle issues the people care about most.
He believes that without implementation, the best blueprint will be nothing more than a castle in the air.
When he served in Zhengding County, Xi said that developing human resources was the key to shaking off poverty and backwardness in the county.
He attended to the job himself by inviting professionals to the county and drawing up recruitment advertisements for talented personnel from across the country.
In the winter of 1983, he travelled to the provincial capital of Shijiazhuang to invite a cosmetics expert to work in Zhengding.
Without a detailed address for the expert, he went door to door asking where the expert lived and finally found him at night after yelling his name near his home.
Xi and the expert talked until midnight and Xi finally persuaded the man to work in Zhengding. The expert later created more than 300 000 yuan in revenue for the county within the first year.
In the same year, Xi decided to publish nine ways for recruiting talented personnel, something that was rare at the time and became a front-page story in the Hebei Daily.
He wrote more than 100 letters to experts and scholars, as well as colleges and research institutions, and paid visits to dozens of experts. Within two years, Zhengding attracted 683 talented personnel and hired 53 well-known experts as economic counsellors.
Xi, together with his colleague Lu Yulan, then deputy Party chief of Zhengding, despite heavy pressure, told superior authorities about the excessive burden faced by the county due to compulsory grain purchases. The issue was eventually resolved.
In Ningde, Xi was also practical and realistic. He pooled resources to implement aquaculture of the large yellow croaker, a local specialty, and greatly increased the income of local farmers.
He also ordered Party and government offices to make things convenient for the people. When serving in Fuzhou, he advocated the principle of “special procedures for special issues, and do things now” to make the government more efficient. This principle was attractive to numerous Taiwan enterprises and helped boost the local economy.
He also proposed the compilation of two handbooks on government procedures for residents and overseas business-people. In 2000, Xi initiated a move across Fujian to make the government more efficient. He proposed changes in government functions and procedures to reduce the number of matters that require government approval. — China Daily.
- To be continued.
Online Reporter