The Officials Meeting in a Freezing Night

The six-month journey of interviews stirred up mixed feelings in Yang Yao and Chen Kehai.

Yang Yao has accumulated rich experience in grassroots work for years, but as this is the first time that he serves as the deputy head of a township, it's still a challenge for him due to great differences in responsibilities between his current and previous work. He made many friends with the poverty-alleviating team members. At the time, he was also preparing for the postgraduate exam despite the challenges of his work.

Chen Kehai, a farmer's son, spends most of his time in the study, writing or editing. His novels depict the rural stories of the worldly in a brilliant manner. After being posted to the village for three months, however, he found that what he learned about the farm work and from the people in the Luyan Village went far beyond his imagination. During the six-month journey, he met a lot of first Party chiefs in the countryside who worked at the forefront of poverty alleviation, fully dedicated to work and committed to delivering tangible benefits to the people in rural areas.

After combing through their notes of their interviews with the poverty-alleviating team members and first Party chiefs assigned from the national, provincial and municipal governments, they shared their experiences and exchanged ideas about poverty alleviation. They all mentioned the officials'meeting in a freezing winter night.

It was in 2018 and the 12th month of the year of Dingyou (2017). The rural people were preparing for the Minor Spring Festival, a festival that falls on the 23rd or 24th of the 12th month of the lunar year, as well as the Spring Festival. They selected Kelan County as the first stop of their interview.

Before we set off, the officials at the Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development advised us to visit Kelan County. Our friends who are not engaged in the work related to poverty alleviation also urged us to visit the county.

There must be something to behold in the county regarding the poverty alleviation. After we began our work in the county, the first thing that attracted our attention was the officials at the forefront of the anti-poverty fight.

It was the 21st of the 12th month, with the temperature ranging between -8°C and -20°C. In no time, the water drops were frozen into ice and the breath turned into frost. Such extremely cold weather is common in the county.

The frost-free period only lasts for 120 days a year in the county. Even in May, there is a chill in the air, the hills are still capped with snow, and the poplars and willows begin to come into bud. Kelan County is not alone in such weather, joined by Wuzhai, Shenchi, Pinglu, Youyu, and Zuoyun counties in the northwestern and northern parts of the province. A friend in Youyu County once said with a sigh that there's no spring in northern Shanxi Province. The peach and apricot blossom later than in other places and suddenly summer comes before you know it. Local people have to change from sweaters to short-sleeve T-shirts in one day.

It's not a joke. Such weather almost freezes people to death. In the meanwhile, however, the local people follow a routine that's clearly marked by four seasons. For example, the 8th of the 12th month announces the beginning of the Spring Festival shopping; on the 20th day of the month, all families start to clean the house, decorate windows with paper-cuts and even repaint the house. All villages and townships are in a festive mood. The vendors sell mutton, tofu, vegetable, couplets and New Year pictures from rows of stalls on the street that's thronged with crowds of people. The Minor Spring Festival is only two days away and the Spring Festival is nine days away. It was already two days after the 1st solar term “Beginning of Spring” that fell on the 19th of the 12th moon, but the chilly wind gave people a taste of the spring.

After the interview, Mr. Wu Hongbing, the head of publicity, told us that they had a meeting at night to mobilize support for the fight against poverty. When we expressed our intention of attending the meeting, Mr. Wu agreed immediately and made arrangements for us.

Mr. Wu said that meeting has become a daily routine for them. The county committee and government could convene meetings in the daytime to formulate policies and make decisions, but the grassroots officials have more important work to do in the daytime. Moreover, it takes time to run from village to village to inform the officials of the meeting, and thus they usually hold meetings at night.

Previously, I thought that poverty alleviation work is to help registered poverty-stricken households generate an annual net income of over RMB3,200, the poverty line in China, so that they could be deregistered.

“It's far more complicated!” cried out Yang Yao.

“It's not the case at all!” said Mr. Wu.

Yang Yao continued, “If it were merely about more income, it wouldn't be necessary to send so many task forces to the rural areas.”

Mr. Wu explained that on the surface, poverty alleviation is a task, but going a little deeper, you'll find that it also involves a wide-ranging evaluation system. Poverty alleviation means to lift impoverished households, villages and counties out of poverty. The evaluation system incorporates six projects and 88 tasks. The six projects refer to the cementation of foundation in a comprehensive, targeted and standardized manner, vigorous industrial development to increase income, affordable housing project supported by coordinated and comprehensive policies, rural infrastructure development, upgraded public service and social security, and party building at the grassroots level. The six projects were divided into 28 programs incorporating 88 tasks.

The division is quite elaborate. For instance, the precondition to deregister a registered poverty-stricken household is to more than cross the current poverty threshold of RMB3,200 a year. The national requirement for poverty exit could be described as “two no-worries and three guarantees.” The “two no-worries” refers to achieving the goal of poverty alleviation so that those who used to living in poverty no longer have to worry about food and clothing; and the “three guarantees” refer to achieving the goal of guaranteeing compulsory education, basic medical treatment and housing security. In Kelan County of Shanxi Province, the standard is “one above and five guarantees” based on quantitative standards.

“One above” means one earns an annual per capita disposable income above the national poverty line with no worry about food and clothing, with a job and a stable source of income.

“Five guarantees” refer to guarantee of the old-age insurance, subsistence allowance, subsistence allowance and the Five Guarantees (food, clothing, medical care, housing and burial expenses) for eligible family members; the guarantee of access to safe drinking water, the guarantee of compulsory education to ensure no student drops out because of poverty, the guarantee of basic medical care to provide medical insurance and major disease relief, and the guarantee of the secure house (with clean bedroom, kitchen and toilet, and courtyard that's neatly-organized).

The deregistration of impoverished villages has to meet the following 13 standards.

The village has developed a collective economy with an operating income based on the transfer payment in line with regulations, and industries to help farmers increase income, in addition to the access to the tarmac and cement roads and shuttle bus services, the safe drinking water, the power, the housing security, the communication network, medical security; the subsistence allowance and old-age insurance for eligible poor people, the aged-care guarantee for poor people above 60, the qualified village clinics with qualified doctors, and the compulsory education. Moreover, the villages shall have TV and telephone networks, department stores, places for cultural activities, and village rules and regulations.

The standards for the deregistration of a poverty-stricken county are more rigid, with 14 quantitative indicators for evaluation.

I got speechless with shock.

By the time, Yang Yao had been working in the village for over three months. He added that these tasks also served as the standards for evaluation that's conducted on a monthly basis by the upper authorities. The evaluation system is extremely strict, subject to the review and examination of provincial and national government, as well as the inter-provincial cross-evaluation.

In Kelan County, the goal in 2018 was to lift 8,442 households with 19,700 people out of poverty, with the public satisfaction rate reaching over 90%, lift 116 villages out of poverty, and help 141 administrative villages to generate collective operating income, with significant improvement in the appearance of the villages and households and in the public morale. The growth of annual per capita disposable income of all the rural residents and the basic public service will exceed the provincial average. The poverty incidence in the county shall be lowered below 2%. All these serve the purpose of lifting the county out of poverty. These are all solid indicators. While the county is immersed in a festive mood for the Spring Festival, the officials are quite nervous about their work in poverty alleviation.

That's too much information for me to handle. Yang Yao continued to say that the grassroots work is quite sophisticated and complex. For instance, towards the goal of “two no-worries and three guarantees,” the first Party chief first had to visit each household for accurate information about the registered population and then categorize the households into six groups, namely impoverished households, households in hardship, households eligible for subsistence allowance, marginal households, middle-income households, and well-off households.

Kehai who had been silent for a while cut in and said, “Speaking of the registration, it involves an enormous workload. When I went to the villages for registration, I had to visit each household, take photos, and then sent the electronic registration book to the township government. As Luobaozhen incorporates several natural villages, it was impossible for me to take many photos in one day, since many of the villagers were away in the field during the day. I had to go to the fields to take their photos, which is time-consuming. After submitting the photos, I need to compile a question list and a ledger for assistance, and to work out detailed measures and solutions for poverty alleviation in the principle of ‘one product for each village and one solution for each household.’ As such, the three task forces often worked until midnight. Even so, it took me one entire week to finish the work. During the days in preparation for the third-party inspection and acceptance, we couldn't sleep at all for days. As we shared a room with two teachers, we hated to disturb their sleep by going back at midnight. Moreover, the room was smelly because of a piss pot on the floor.”

Mr. Wu laughed and said that 6 projects comprising 88 tasks all fell on the shoulders of the grassroots officials, task forces in the village and first Party chiefs. Surely they were under considerable pressure.

Yang Yao understood now and said, it's far more complicated than a net income of RMB3,200.

Mr. Wu agreed, “Far more than that!”

“The mess for us goes beyond your imagination,” said Kehai bitterly.

I was rendered speechless by this group of young people. A bit embarrassingly, I smiled. Yang Yao proposed to me, “How about you applying for the work next year?”

It didn't frighten me. Having walked in the countryside for over a decade, I'm familiar with the rural life. I replied, “I wouldn't mind it.”

Back to the topic, the poverty alleviation poses a considerable challenge for each official.

Excluding the grassroots officials in townships and villages, the number of first Party chiefs posted from provincial, municipal and county government to the poor counties and villages has been exceptionally large. Young and well-educated, these officials from government bodies,companies and public institutions formed a powerful force.

In line with the central leadership's poverty-reduction decisions, the Organization Department of the CPC Shanxi Provincial Committee, the provincial agriculture committee, the Shanxi Provincial Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development issued in 2015 the Notice on Appointing Outstanding Personnel to Serve as First Party Chiefs in Poor Villages. The work was conducted simultaneously with the work to redress demoralized Party organizations and the poverty alleviation. Outstanding personnel were selected from government bodies, state-owned enterprises and public institutions to serve as the first Party chiefs in poor villages. Among the first Party chiefs posted to impoverished villages in Shanxi Province, 15 were from the CPC central committee and state government, 506 from departments directly under the provincial governments, 1,475 from departments directly under the municipal governments, 6,483 from departments directly under the county governments, 916 from state-owned enterprises and public institutions. Among them, 113 were above the director rank, 1,275 were female, and 2,966 were under 35. They were the backbone of all walks of life. As such, the first Party chiefs were appointed to all the registered poverty-stricken villages and the villages with demoralized Party organizations.

Their positions were filled immediately after their terms expired. Despite the personnel changes the position of the first Party chief was never vacant. In 2017, the provincial government appointed another over 10,000 personnel from government bodies and public institutions at provincial, municipal and county levels to all the 1,196 impoverished townships across the province.

Apart from the party secretaries and heads of the townships, the leaders of the poverty-alleviating team and first Party chiefs posted to Kelan County attended the meeting that night.

In the middle of heated discussions, the meeting was to begin. We rushed out to the meeting room. In the dim street lights and under the starry light, it's extremely cold and there were few people outside.

The officials in the meeting room, in thick cotton or down jackets, exchanged greetings while their breath became visible because of coldness.

Soon the digital sign showed that “Mobilizing & Commendation Meeting on Improving the Working Style and Poverty Alleviation Work in Kelan County.”

We didn't know it's a large meeting.

The annual meeting for mobilization and review plays a significant role for the political work of the county government. The meeting was usually held at night so that they could do more important work in the daytime. We could not help wondering: it must be a long meeting.

We felt a bit regret. Our intention was to get a general idea about the decision-making and organization of the poverty alleviation work, so as to get a few clues for our subsequent interviews. We didn't expect such a large meeting. Moreover, Mr. Wu has arranged us to sit in the first row, just next to the platform.

Before the meeting began at 7:30 pm, I looked back and saw about 300 people in the room. At the table was a 94-page brochure titled Poverty-eliminating Program in Kelan County in 2018, containing detailed information about the poverty alleviation work. The meeting was conducted in four parts, namely interpretation of indicators, commendation, mobilizing speech by the county chief, and the speech by the party secretary Wang Zhidong.

The meeting turned out to be short and efficient and was concluded on time at 9:30 pm. The party secretary Wang Zhidong arranged accommodation at the hotel for everyone, for the darkness and slippery roads made it unsafe to go back.

Kehai and Yang Yao were touched by such thoughtful arrangements. Then, we continued to talk about the officials in the county. The meeting didn't take long but made the most efficient use of the time. Everyone was listening carefully in case they miss any point.

As a novelist, Yang Yao excels at observing details. He asked whether we noticed that everyone from the leaders at the platform to the officials in the audience were wearing down jackets before the meeting, but when the meeting began, all of them had taken off the down jackets and were sitting straight, dressed in suits.

We were stunned. Such minor details convey a wealth of information. We kept wondering: how did they cultivate such a disciplined and energetic team of officials?