Xi's stories: Foresight helps mountain villagers shake off poverty
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Junying was once an impoverished village in the city of Xiamen, East China's Fujian Province.

When Xi Jinping worked in Fujian, he visited the village twice.

In 1986 when Xi served as vice mayor of Xiamen, he went to Junying for the first time.

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In August 1986, Xi Jinping led a delegation of Xiamen economic cooperation officials to visit Northeast China. (Photos: Xi Jinping in Xiamen)

The village, with more than 700 villagers, was the poorest in Tong'an county. By growing tea leaves, people in Junying earned only 280 yuan ($41) a year on average, said Gao Quanguo, then head of the village.

Electricity was unavailable. The village generated power using a small set of generators. But that was not enough: Each household could only access electricity a few hours a day.

Roads were poor. It took more than two hours to drive from Tong'an county to Junying village as there was only one dirt road connecting them.

When Xi first came to Junying, his car stopped at the village entrance and he walked into the village, Gao remembered.

After meeting Gao, Xi first asked about the poorest households in the village.

"Xi visited them one by one, and then came to my house," Gao said.

Xi asked about production, living standards and the economic plan for the village. "We talked for more than an hour. I felt that he was familiar with agricultural and rural work," Gao said.

Learning about the poverty in Junying, Xi asked the village to grow tea leaves and fruit while developing a tertiary industry.

"Xi suggested that we grow persimmons and asked local departments to provide fine saplings and poverty relief funds for us," Gao said.

"Encouraged by Xi, villagers reclaimed land on the mountains and grew persimmons."

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A tea farm in Junying village.

After Xi was promoted to a senior provincial official in Fujian, he was still concerned with Junying and visited the village again in 1998.

He visited villagers and asked about their production, living standards and income.

Xi asked them whether their food was sufficient and medical services convenient, remembered Gao Quanyang, then head of Junying.

Xi next held a discussion with village officials, Communist Party of China (CPC) members and village representatives.

Through discussion, Xi was pleased to learn about Junying's development.

He asked the village to plant trees to protect its ecology, grow tea leaves and fruit. His focus was agriculture and forestry.

Xi also encouraged young people to leave the mountains to seek jobs.

"Today rural tourism thrives in our village and tourists come to Junying," said Gao Quanyang.

“They come here because of our green mountains and clean water. Xi's foresight enabled us to generate wealth.”

Xi backed poverty reduction in Junying, Gao Quanyang recalled.

"We didn’t have any equipment or fine techniques to process tea leaves and so they just went bad within a couple of days and could not sell for a good price."

The villagers wanted to purchase equipment and build a processing plant.

“After learning of our ideas, Xi thought it necessary," Gao Quanyang said. “He asked local departments to take charge of the work and allocated poverty relief funds to us.”

"Many policies on poverty alleviation that Xi proposes today are in line with his thinking in the past," Gao Quanyang said.

“He led the villagers in the right direction. Within the entire town of Lianhua, the village of Junying performs well economically, educationally and in healthcare, environmental protection and village construction."

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The current appearance of Junying village.

Remembering Xi's words, villagers planted trees across more than 600 hectares and explored rural tourism.

"Otherwise, how could we see lush mountains and lucid water? Why would tourists come here?" said Gao Quanyang.

"We made use of the resources that Xi gave us, encouraged villagers to build rural homestays and develop rural tourism.”

From the poorest village in the mountains, to a demonstration village of countryside construction, Junying ranked first in Lianhua in terms of fiscal revenue, with an annual per capita income of 16,000 yuan ($2,362), said Gao Quanyang in an interview in 2017.

(Translated by Liu Xiaochi and edited by Zhang Jian. Story from Xi Jinping in Xiamen, a book about Xi's experience as a municipal official published in early 2020 by the Party School of the CPC Central Committee Publishing House.)