By PLA Daily staff reporters Wang Weidong and Deng Dongrui
Editor's Note: This is one of the heartwarming stories from China in this new era. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), President Xi Jinping, who cares for the ordinary people, has visited poverty-stricken regions many times to bring solutions to the challenges and obstacles hindering poverty reduction. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has considered its participation in poverty alleviation a concrete move to translate its loyalty to the Party into practical actions. With a strong sense of mission, the whole army is fulfilling its commitment to share the Party’s burdens and strive for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and the benefit of the people.
[Playback] On the afternoon of May 20, 2019, President Xi Jinping visited Tantou Village in Zishan Town in Yudu County, Ganzhou City, during an inspection tour of east China’s Jiangxi Province. President Xi said that he came to Jiangxi to see whether the lives of villagers have been improved or not and whether the old revolutionary base areas could shake off poverty as scheduled.
The Cultural Square of Chengjiang Village in Yudu County, Ganzhou City, Jiangxi Province (PLA Daily/Deng Dongrui)
Chengjiang Village in Yudu County, Ganzhou City, Jiangxi Province is the hometown of more than 100 Red Army soldiers who joined the Red Army during the Agrarian Revolutionary War period. However, blocked by mountains from the outside world, many people in Chengjiang Village had been trapped in poverty for decades. In 2016, the PLA Rocket Force launched a pairing assistance program to carry out targeted poverty alleviation in the village.
Since 2016, the PLA Rocket Force has made a cumulative investment of more than RMB 10 million in the village in six major initiatives and twenty projects, including the infrastructure construction, industrial development, road renovation, green planting and animal husbandry base construction.
Tan Furong, a crop grower in the village, still remembered that soon after the 2018 Chinese New Year, a team comprised of 40-plus engineers from the PLA Rocket Force came to his village for road building.
Within six months, a 6.5-meter-wide asphalt road equipped with solar-powered street lamps was completed, linking Chengjiang Village to the China National Highway G319.
In just a few years, one and another infrastructure and industrial projects for poverty alleviation have achieved progress in the village. The PLA Rocket Force’s decisive, efficient work style impressed local villagers, inspiring some villagers who had worked elsewhere to return home for starting up their own business.
Tan Jinsheng was one of them. After hearing that the PLA Rocket Force was promoting poverty alleviation through developing industrial projects in the village, Tan Jinsheng quit his job in cities and went back to the village. He planned to open a chicken farm. The poverty alleviation working team of the PLA Rocket Force not only provided seed funds for Tan to construct chicken coops and warehouses but also helped equip his chicken farm with power and water supply facilities.
The team also helped Chengjiang Village set up a farming and animal husbandry cooperative, from which villagers can get dividends and salaries. This move brings each poor household an extra income of more than RMB 3,000 a year.
The picture shows a two-lane asphalt highway leading to the Chengjiang Village after the previous narrow dirt road was renovated by the PLA Rocket Force engineers in the beginning of 2018. (PLA Daily/Gu Shuai)
