Women from Tuowanke Maigaiti village learn to make knitted goods at a training workshop on February 16. This skill can earn 1,500 yuan to 2,000 yuan a month. (Photo: Global Times)
"Edible fungus grown from a bacteria stick needs to be cultivated in the shade of other trees… if the water we use has too much alkali, it will damage the fungus' quality," Wang Xin said, while checking the sprinkling irrigation system in a greenhouse.
Although he can usually be seen in farmland or greenhouses in Yusitunke Ayikule village of Awati county in Aksu Prefecture of Northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, Wang is not a farmer or an agro-technician, but an official from the health commission of Aksu.
A law school graduate and former police officer, Wang is now working as the head of a six-member working group that was deployed to Yusitunke village in January 2018. Before working in the village, he was stationed in five counties and villages in Aksu.
Since 2014, more than 43,700 officials in Xinjiang have been deployed in five batches to over 1,000 villages in Aksu.
Their tasks include collecting information on local economic and social conditions and people's needs, promoting the central government and Party's favorable policies on benefiting residents, strengthening grass-roots level Party organizations, mediating disputes between residents, and in particular helping with poverty alleviation work and promoting ethnic unity.
Human touch
The village where Wang works was registered as a deeply poverty-stricken village in 2017. Sixty-eight of the total 329 households in the village were registered as poor families.
In order to get a better understanding of the reasons behind their poverty, members of the working group usually cycle or walk when they visit local residents.
"By walking or cycling, we can stop at any time to say hello to villagers… We use our legs and bicycles to measure every inch of the country road," Wang said.
In response to villagers' requests, the working group applied for the national poverty alleviation fund and repaired a 5.7-kilometer cement road. The project offered temporary work to local residents, helping them earn a total of 129,000 yuan ($19,046) in 2018.
Since the village economy is mainly dependent on agriculture, the working group encourages local residents to plant vegetables, including tomatoes as well as edible fungus.
They invited agro-technicians from Urumqi to give lectures to local farmers, cultivate the vegetables in their seeding stage, harvest vegetables with villagers and help contact buyers.
The efforts of the working group and local villagers paid off, as they saw a bumper harvest in 2018.
According to data from the working group, 47 households that planted tomatoes in 2018 have earned more than 73,246 yuan. A total of 140 tons of tomatoes were completely sold.
"None of our tomatoes was unsellable! Even our sliced and dried tomatoes were sold out," Wang said.
The village has also planted 3.82 hectares of wheat, more than 20 hectares of cotton and 9.25 hectares of fruit trees, which will benefit 58 poverty-stricken households. Tuerhong Emeti, 41, a villager in Yusitunke Ayikule, whose family was registered as poor and who previously worked as a mason, happily takes photos with the big white radishes and other vegetables he planted.
His income as a mason was unstable - sometimes earning 200 yuan in a day and sometimes nothing for a week. Now, he can earn at least 1,500 yuan a month planting vegetables and growing edible fungus. He also has another income from working at a local seasoning products factory.
According to China's poverty criteria, which were updated in 2011, a farmer is recognized as poor if his or her yearly disposable income is less than 2,300 yuan. According to this standard, Emeti has been lifted from poverty.
Another major mission for working groups in villages is fighting against extremism, something the southern parts of Xinjiang have been more susceptible to.
Ayikule is one typical example. In contrast to its poetic name - which means "moon lake" - the place has been plagued by extremism. Rumors were spread saying that pills distributed to villagers to prevent poliomyelitis were actually contraceptive medicines. Impoverished people often do not dare pick up their subsistence allowances because of threats from extremists, according to local officials.
Local working groups stationed in villages have made great efforts to eliminate the influence of extremism, including promoting national laws and regulations.
Tackling extremism
The Xinjiang regional government has also deployed officials from subordinate departments to these villages.
These officials are usually appointed as head of the working groups stationed at national-level poverty-stricken villages, or those that suffer from extremism. They usually make full use of their resources in certain fields to carry out their work in villages.
Officials from the Executive Leadership Academy and the Organization Department of the Xinjiang regional government were deployed to Tuowanke Maigaiti village in Wushi county.
Under the guidance of the working group, Tuowanke Maigaiti village has built 24 kilometers of road, 32 kilometers of canals and 10 kilometers of protective forest. It also helped bring investment and funds to build a primary school, houses for villagers, libraries, entertainment rooms, shops and public toilets near residential communities.
Working groups stationed in villages also take on the responsibility of solving residents' problems in daily life, including domestic disputes, quarrels with neighbors, shanty town transformation projects or applications for public rental housing.
Officials from the public complaints and proposals bureau in Xinjiang were stationed in Kalasa village of Wensu county in Aksu five years ago. The working group has nicknamed their office in the village the "Pomegranate Seed Workshop" and aims to get residents of different ethnic groups to bond together.
Located in the outskirts of the city, Kalasa village has a relatively large floating population and more disputes between residents. For example, many villagers used to hand in complaints to higher departments on problems of unpaid wages or land contract disputes.
Departments and institutions affiliated to the regional government in Xinjiang have stationed 70,000 officials in villages every year for the past five years.
Striving for unity
Officials stationed in villages frequently find themselves busy the whole day.
Wang usually begins work at 7:30 am even though working hours in Xinjiang usually begin at 10:00 am. Before 8:00 am, he needs to think about ways to help poverty-stricken households sell six tons of tomatoes in a day and plans out a program to grow edible fungus. At around 9:00 am, he needs to arrange the day's work with other officials.
Between 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm, he talks to residents to help solve their problems in their daily lives. He usually spends at least three hours visiting villagers in the afternoon and sometimes holds night class on Putonghua and national laws with the villagers.
For other members of the working group, when the whole village goes to sleep, they still need to work till around 2:00 am, inputting their whole day's work, especially the ways they solved villagers' problems, into their computers.
Their dedication to work means less time for their families.
Wu Min is a deputy director of the human resources department from the cadre school in Xinjiang, and now works as a member of the working group stationed in Tuowanke Maigaiti village, Qianjin county.
She said that she spends about eight months in a year working in the village, meaning she has less time to be with her husband.
"We have been married for three years and had no time to have a baby," Wu said with tears in her eyes, telling of how her husband fully supports her in her job and often calls her.
Working groups in villages are using their sweat and tears to close the gap with local residents. These efforts are paying off, as more villagers recognize their work and take an active part in it, especially on poverty alleviation, according to Wang.