A delegate's love for the Party
Source: Agencies |
November 13, 2012, Tuesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
TEARS welled in Li Jian's eyes whenever President Hu Jintao mentioned the environment in his speech to Communist Party delegates in the Great Hall of the People during China's most important political event of the decade.
Hu's exhortation last week to create a "beautiful China" and to "cherish and love nature" spoke to the 55-year-old bioengineer's dearest concerns. Hours later, still brimming with emotion, she underlined the news at a meeting with fellow delegates.
This is coming directly from Party leader Hu, she told them. "This is not from some TV anchor or some youth group speech," she said at the meeting. "This means there's no doubt we will have a beautiful China. That is absolutely certain."
Li is one of the rank-and-file delegates attending the ongoing Communist Party congress that will start to install a new generation of leaders.
Li was delighted to have been chosen.
"This is a high honor, especially for those of us who are not government officials," Li said. "Any one of us who gets elected is the cream of the crop from each and every industry."
Along with senior Party figures, government officials, managers of state industries and military commanders, delegates like Li include migrant workers, farmers, factory technicians, teachers, doctors, artists and Olympic gold medalists.
There's China's "most beautiful mother" - who shot to fame when she caught a two-year-old girl in her arms when the toddler fell from a 10th-floor window. Wu Juping became a symbol of selflessness after the July 2011 rescue crushed her left arm.
"I did what every mom would do," said Wu, then a quality control employee at e-commerce giant Alibaba in eastern China's Hangzhou.
Wu wore a rose-red blazer for the congress.
"You see a lot of bright hues of red, yellow and green from the delegates," Wu said. "This is such an important meeting that we want to host it in a happy, joyful mood, as the Chinese tradition goes."
Delegates are tasked with studying Hu's speech - a report summarizing progress and outlining an agenda - so they can share it with local members.
Li, like other delegates, received early drafts of Hu's report. She made suggestions for the section on ecological development and was overjoyed to see even stronger wording in the version Hu delivered.
Most significantly, the delegates will select the Central Committee, the Party's 350-strong policy-setting body. The Central Committee then chooses the leadership.
Li is one of 2,268 national delegates voting on behalf of more than 82 million Party members.
Li, who develops drought-resistant plant varieties in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in northwest China, joined the Party as a teenager even though she lived through some of its radical excesses. Her father, condemned as a rightist, was banished to one of China's poorest regions, Ningxia, where she joined him in the 1960s. She later worked alongside farmers by day and taught girls to read by night.
"To join the Party at 18 was more glorious than being a pop star today," she said. "I love the Chinese Communist Party. There is no reason not to love it. It gives you space and lets you grow."
Hu's exhortation last week to create a "beautiful China" and to "cherish and love nature" spoke to the 55-year-old bioengineer's dearest concerns. Hours later, still brimming with emotion, she underlined the news at a meeting with fellow delegates.
This is coming directly from Party leader Hu, she told them. "This is not from some TV anchor or some youth group speech," she said at the meeting. "This means there's no doubt we will have a beautiful China. That is absolutely certain."
Li is one of the rank-and-file delegates attending the ongoing Communist Party congress that will start to install a new generation of leaders.
Li was delighted to have been chosen.
"This is a high honor, especially for those of us who are not government officials," Li said. "Any one of us who gets elected is the cream of the crop from each and every industry."
Along with senior Party figures, government officials, managers of state industries and military commanders, delegates like Li include migrant workers, farmers, factory technicians, teachers, doctors, artists and Olympic gold medalists.
There's China's "most beautiful mother" - who shot to fame when she caught a two-year-old girl in her arms when the toddler fell from a 10th-floor window. Wu Juping became a symbol of selflessness after the July 2011 rescue crushed her left arm.
"I did what every mom would do," said Wu, then a quality control employee at e-commerce giant Alibaba in eastern China's Hangzhou.
Wu wore a rose-red blazer for the congress.
"You see a lot of bright hues of red, yellow and green from the delegates," Wu said. "This is such an important meeting that we want to host it in a happy, joyful mood, as the Chinese tradition goes."
Delegates are tasked with studying Hu's speech - a report summarizing progress and outlining an agenda - so they can share it with local members.
Li, like other delegates, received early drafts of Hu's report. She made suggestions for the section on ecological development and was overjoyed to see even stronger wording in the version Hu delivered.
Most significantly, the delegates will select the Central Committee, the Party's 350-strong policy-setting body. The Central Committee then chooses the leadership.
Li is one of 2,268 national delegates voting on behalf of more than 82 million Party members.
Li, who develops drought-resistant plant varieties in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in northwest China, joined the Party as a teenager even though she lived through some of its radical excesses. Her father, condemned as a rightist, was banished to one of China's poorest regions, Ningxia, where she joined him in the 1960s. She later worked alongside farmers by day and taught girls to read by night.
"To join the Party at 18 was more glorious than being a pop star today," she said. "I love the Chinese Communist Party. There is no reason not to love it. It gives you space and lets you grow."
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
