First Viewpoint丨Xi Jinping's concern for Jingning's story She Nationality | Jingning | Xi Jinping

Fifty-six ethnic groups, like fifty-six flowers, together form the Chinese nation.

Jingning in southern Zhejiang, the only She Autonomous County in China, is part of the Chinese nation. Since its establishment in 1984, people of all ethnic groups have worked together to bid farewell to absolute poverty, achieve a well-off society in all respects, and move towards common prosperity. Great changes have taken place on every hilltop, every river, and every household.

In November 2002, not long after he took office in Zhejiang, Xi Jinping visited Jingning to investigate and diagnose the development of ethnic minority areas. In August 2005, Xi Jinping visited Jingning again and encouraged the She village to "keep up with the times." After he came to work in the central government, he still cared about Jingning and issued instructions and instructions many times, encouraging cadres and the masses to "not seek easy goals and not avoid difficulties."

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the establishment of Jingning She Autonomous County. On June 25, General Secretary Xi Jinping wrote back to cadres and people of all ethnic groups in the county, expressing warm congratulations on the 40th anniversary of Jingning's establishment and expressing his earnest hope for Jingning's development.

At this joyous moment, we once again walked into the She ethnic group, following the footsteps of Comrade Xi Jinping, exploring the changes that have taken place here, and feeling the inspiration of the ethnic mountainous county's leap over the mountains.

Jingning, located in southern Zhejiang and adjacent to Fujian Province, is a mountainous area, an old revolutionary base, an ethnic minority area, and once an underdeveloped area. At the beginning of its establishment, the county's GDP was only 51.93 million yuan, the per capita net income of farmers was only 148 yuan, and the county's fiscal revenue was only 2.54 million yuan.

Starting from the bottom, the She, Han and other ethnic groups united and forged ahead, worked hard to strive for self-improvement, and started their own businesses with great difficulty, striving to open the prelude to crossing the mountains.

At the turn of the century, Zhejiang's economy maintained double-digit growth and has become one of the fastest-growing and best-performing regions in the country. Jingning, which has just been freed from the title of "national poverty-stricken county", is excited but also anxious and confused: Can it successfully build a well-off society along with the rest of the province?

Moreover, the current is faster when the boat is in the middle of the river, and the road is steeper when people are halfway up the mountain. Faced with many shortcomings such as poor infrastructure, weak foundation, inconvenient transportation, and scattered resources, how can Jingning take the road to the future?

On November 21, 2002, Xi Jinping was appointed Secretary of the Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee. Four days later, he led a team to Jingning to investigate projects and visit She villages, and also convened city and county cadres for a symposium.

When working in Fujian, Comrade Xi Jinping went deep into the villages of the She people and gained a relatively systematic understanding of the She people.

At the symposium, he said at the beginning: "There is only one She Autonomous County in the country. It is the biggest feature of Jingning and also a very important feature of Lishui."

Starting with the She culture, talking about the She revolutionary tradition, and then talking about the ecological environment of the mountainous areas, Xi Jinping pointed out: "The characteristics of the She ethnic group, the characteristics of the mountainous areas, and the characteristics of late development, these 'three special features' are all your advantages, some of which are actual advantages and some of which are potential advantages."

He said bluntly: "Jingning must take the path of ecological green and sustainable development."

Then, he used a large amount of space to analyze industries such as tourism, tea, bamboo and wood, hydropower, etc. one by one.

A Jingning cadre who was present at the meeting lamented: For the same mountain, some people see inherent deficiencies and obstacles to development; but Comrade Xi Jinping sees its characteristics, advantages and competitiveness.

This investigation helped local officials in Jingning to clarify their ideas and increased their confidence and determination in achieving distinctive development.

In the new round of take-off, the She ethnic group has a clear direction and path.

Jingning She Autonomous County has set off a "She Village Style" in cultural tourism, and has become one of the top 100 counties in China in terms of comprehensive tourism strength. Image provided by Sharing Alliance Jingning

In order to achieve distinctive development, Comrade Xi Jinping not only diagnosed and directed Jingning, but also conducted detailed analysis in conjunction with field visits during two successive investigations.

Shuanghougang Village is one of the ten major She villages around Chimu Mountain in Jingning.

The village is built on the mountainside, with lush yew trees and special buildings such as covered bridges. It is also home to Lan Chenqi, the inheritor of the She ethnic minority's intangible cultural heritage, and Lei Guiqi, the inheritor of the She ethnic minority's intangible cultural heritage.

In the 1990s, the unique charm gave Lei Maolong, then Party Secretary of Shuanghougang Village, a "wonderful idea": to perform She ethnic minority weddings, develop folk tourism, attract foreign tourists, and increase villagers' income.

The villagers didn't believe it from the bottom of their hearts: "Who would come to a small mountain village like ours just to watch a performance?"

Sure enough, after finally forming a team, due to the small number of tourists and unstable income, many village actors put away their She costumes and headdresses and went back to the city to work.

On November 25, 2002, the warm winter sunshine shone on the She Village, and Comrade Xi Jinping arrived.

"Dong, Dong, Dong!" The villagers waiting at the bridge at the entrance of the village enthusiastically beat the She drum.

Walking and looking along the way, the group entered Lan Chenqi's house.

"I'm so happy..." Aunt Lan improvised a lyric and sang the She folk song excitedly. After listening to the song, everyone applauded enthusiastically.

"After watching the performance and listening to the She songs, Secretary Xi held a discussion with us in the village conference room, encouraging us to leverage our advantages and become rich as soon as possible." More than 20 years later, Lei Maolong still remembers the scene of the investigation clearly.

"The characteristics of your tourism are ecological tourism and folk tourism." "Not only is the environment here good, but it also has the customs of the She ethnic group." "The characteristics of the She village should be fully displayed..."

Every word that Comrade Xi Jinping said at the meeting has been passed on from mouth to mouth, reached many villages, and touched the hearts of the villagers.

The She ethnic group's marriage customs have been transformed into tourist products and are not only performed in Shuanghougang Village, but also spread to Dajun Township and other places, becoming a unique landscape.

On August 10, 2005, Comrade Xi Jinping came to Jingning again.

At around 6 pm, a minibus stopped at the entrance of the Malingtou Tea Base in Sanshi Village. This is one of the earliest and largest tea-growing areas in the county, covering an area of ​​310 mu.

It was getting dark, but Comrade Xi Jinping insisted on climbing up the tea mountain to take a look at how the tea was growing.

He urged the village cadres to "develop this ecological industry well."

"We were hesitating at the time whether to expand the area of ​​the tea garden, and Secretary Xi's investigation gave everyone a reassurance." Chen Chunan, the then village party branch secretary, said that after that, they went out to learn from others, held large and small meetings, and went door to door to mobilize villagers to reach a consensus.

In the early winter of that year, new tea seedlings were planted, covering an area of ​​nearly 800 acres.

Today, all the thousands of acres of land in Sanshi Village are idle. In addition to growing tea, the village has also built a green tea trading market and introduced more than 10 tea companies, extending the industrial chain.

Picking Huiming tea. Photo provided by Sharing Alliance Jingning

What is even more eye-catching is that the She singing festival, the Wufan Festival, the March 3rd Festival... the She ethnic characteristics are connected with the beautiful mountains and rivers, bursting out with tremendous energy.

During the harvest season every year, the 3,400-mu tea garden is crowded with tourists and tea merchants. Villager Lan Peizhu said with a smile: "High mountains and mist produce good tea, and we don't have to worry about sales at all."

She ethnic group songs and dances, wedding performances, etc. are performed almost every day. Ye Zhanglin, 56 years old this year, has participated in nearly 10,000 performances. When his suona sounds, the whole village knows that tourists are coming again! He can earn more than 20,000 yuan a year just from this performance.

The sea of ​​roses, Jingu Lecture Hall, Shezhai Fairy Herb Valley...the unique resources are constantly being transformed into development potential. At present, the village collective annual income exceeds 1 million yuan, and the annual per capita income of villagers is nearly 40,000 yuan.

In Jingning as a whole, the per capita disposable income of rural residents alone reached 28,100 yuan last year, ranking among the top 120 autonomous counties in the country.

Jingning Sports Park integrates basketball hall, football field, volleyball court, tennis court and other facilities. Photo by Lin Yunlong, Xu Yan and Ye Jinxia

In doing a good job in ethnic affairs, General Secretary Xi Jinping particularly emphasized the sentiment of serving the people: "We should do more practical things that conform to the will of the people, benefit their livelihood, and warm their hearts, and solve more problems that the people of all ethnic groups are concerned about."

On August 10, 2005, in the height of summer, Xi Jinping visited Jingning for the second time. The temperature was as high as 37 or 38 degrees Celsius, and everyone wore straw hats, but still couldn't block the scorching sun, and sweat kept flowing down their foreheads.

When visiting a geological disaster site in Dongkeng Town, Comrade Xi Jinping insisted on going up the mountain to see it for himself.

The year before, Typhoon Tari struck southern Zhejiang. After a violent storm, cracks appeared on the mountain, and one side sank one meter. During the flood season, the safety of 16 households at the foot of the mountain was always threatened.

Standing on the top of the mountain, Comrade Xi Jinping listened to the report and asked with concern: "Have the resettlement sites been selected?" "Centralized or dispersed resettlement?" "How will the immigrants live in the future?"

"Protecting the lives and safety of the people is the top priority." After listening to the report, he seriously reminded that Jingning has many geological disaster sites and there are major safety hazards. In solving this major issue that concerns the safety of life and property of the people, we must attach great importance to it and make overall considerations.

After the survey was completed and the car started, Comrade Xi Jinping stood by the car and urged local cadres to be self-reliant and lead the people in the mountainous areas to achieve a well-off life as soon as possible.

At the beginning of the second year, 16 households of villagers moved in one after another and moved into comfortable and spacious new homes.

However, the geological environment conditions in Jingning as a whole are fragile, and seasonal rainfall is particularly obvious. Among the county's area of ​​1,950 square kilometers, areas prone to geological disasters account for more than 90%.

Moreover, the area is 90% mountainous, 50% water and 50% farmland. There are 779 peaks with an altitude of more than 1,000 meters in the county. With so many mountains and little land, where can the villagers move to?

In November 2002, Xi Jinping visited Jingning for the first time during his research. This place is located upstream of the reservoir of Tankeng Hydropower Station. After the power station is built and the reservoir is filled with water, it will be buried under water forever. The people of Jingning proposed to build a protective dam to preserve this space.

"Under Secretary Xi's concern, the county gradually solved problems such as engineering technology and immigration and relocation, and 'grabbed' 3.3 square kilometers of land." Peng Yueshun, then deputy secretary of the Jingning County Party Committee, said that at that time, they just wanted to leave room for industrial development. Unexpectedly, Waishe would later become a strategic place for promoting the "small county, big city."

The blueprint is being laid out. Modern residential areas, schools, parks, etc. are laid out according to the terrain and water veins; another tunnel is built to connect Waishe with the county seat, shortening the driving time to 10 minutes...

Today, when we walk around Waishe, we see that the former beach has become a new city with a permanent population of more than 20,000. It has become a home for many ethnic groups including Han, She, and Miao.

Pan Changliang's family went from being a villager to a resident of Waishe, and their family grew from six to eight. His grandchildren went to the nearby Red Star Primary School, his son and daughter-in-law started a supermarket, and the old couple grew vegetables and climbed mountains, leading a fulfilling life. He said, "Just like my name, my life is getting brighter and brighter."

Over the past 10 years, Jingning has continued to improve its urban and rural layout, with the county seat as the core, the Waishe New District and Chengzhao sub-city as the "two stars" shining, and the surrounding towns and villages strung together like "pearls" in a chain.

The population has changed from scattered to concentrated, 41,700 people have moved out of the mountains, and the lives of people of all ethnic groups are getting better and better.

“No ethnic group can be left behind in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects; no ethnic group can be left behind in realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.”

This is an affectionate exhortation and a promise that weighs a thousand pounds.

It is not easy for ethnic regions like Jingning, which integrates "old, young, border and mountainous areas", to develop. To keep up with the pace of the times, we must gather endogenous power and also give a helping hand.

During his two visits to Jingning, Comrade Xi Jinping emphasized that a series of support policies and measures introduced by the province must be consistently adhered to, and at the same time, they must keep pace with the times and increase their intensity.

He also used Jingning as a contact point for grassroots work.

To this day, Peng Yueshun still feels warm inside when he thinks of an incident that happened in 2002.

It turned out that as the counterpart poverty alleviation county of Jingning, Ningbo Yin County set aside an area in an industrial park to establish the Zhejiang Yinjing Poverty Alleviation Economic Development Zone. Previously, the tax revenue of the development zone was directly handed over to Jingning.

However, with the abolition of Yin County and the establishment of Yinzhou District of Ningbo City, the fiscal system has changed. If the more than 10 million yuan in tax revenue is lost, it will undoubtedly be a huge loss for Jingning, which is in a relatively tight financial situation.

Under the concern of Comrade Xi Jinping, in December 2002, provincial leaders held a coordination meeting and made it clear that the taxation system of the Yinjing Poverty Alleviation Development Zone would remain unchanged from 2003 to 2005; starting from January 1, 2006, taxes would be collected by Ningbo City, and after part of them were submitted to the provincial treasury, the province would transfer 15 million yuan to Jingning each year.

To date, this subsidy is still continuing and has greatly promoted the progress of education, medical care, transportation and other undertakings in ethnic minority areas.

Financial support solves the "immediate need". The provincial party committee and government also plan from a higher level and a wider range to manage the "long-term".

On September 10, 2006, Comrade Xi Jinping wrote a directive on a special report: As the only ethnic minority autonomous county in the province, Jingning should focus on studying how to keep up with the pace of the times and take further strengthening measures to support it.

In accordance with the requirements, relevant departments began to study and formulate plans.

In May 2008, Document No. 53 of the Zhejiang Provincial Committee was issued, listing 19 support measures in five major areas.

"A province tailors support policies for a county, which is an unprecedented care and concern. The 19 measures involve economy, society, culture, projects, funds, etc. They are of high value and easy to implement. This is an unprecedented level of support!" Mao Huaqing, then a cadre of the Jingning County Party Committee Office, read them repeatedly with surging emotions.

Yunjing Expressway. Photo by Lin Yunlong, Xu Yan and Ye Jinxia

Take the Yunjing Expressway for example. It is only 11 kilometers long, but the people of Jingning have been waiting for nearly 11 years. Because there are many tunnels and bridges and the construction cost is high, the project has been shelved many times.

This road was included in Document No. 53, started construction in 2008 and was completed in 2013. Since then, Shexiang has entered the province's "4-hour traffic circle".

By 2011, Jingning County's GDP exceeded 3 billion yuan, nearly double that of 2007.

A blueprint is drawn to the end, and provincial policies are constantly iterating——

In 2012, Zhejiang Committee Document No. 115 was issued to increase efforts and continue to support Jingning’s accelerated development;

In 2018, the provincial government held a special meeting to strengthen assistance and support Jingning to accelerate its development;

In 2022, the Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial Government decided to use Jingning as a model to tailor support policies to support Jingning in taking the path of high-quality development and common prosperity in mountainous counties.

In 2023, the GDP of Jingning County historically exceeded the 10 billion yuan mark, and the county's comprehensive strength continued to move forward and ranked among the top among the 120 autonomous counties in the country.

On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the county, General Secretary Xi Jinping said in his reply letter that over the past 40 years, Jingning County has achieved gratifying results in ethnic unity and characteristic development, and the lives of people of all ethnic groups have become more and more prosperous, and I feel very happy.

He hopes that cadres and people of all ethnic groups in the county will conscientiously implement the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee, continue to carry forward the fine traditions, enhance ethnic unity, give play to their unique advantages, actively promote high-quality development and common prosperity in ethnic areas, and write a new chapter in the development of Jingning, the She village, in the process of Chinese-style modernization.

The General Secretary's reply has aroused a warm response in the She ethnic minority area. The cadres and masses of Jingning have expressed that they must deeply understand and implement the spirit of the General Secretary's important reply, work together in unity, promote prosperity and development, take the forging of a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation as the main line, strive to follow the path of characteristic development, and strive to be a pioneer in the common prosperity of ethnic minority areas.

Keeping the instructions in mind, being grateful and forging ahead, the She people are united in heart and hand in hand, striding forward on a new journey.