Officials reach out and help needy families
Print Edition
Zhang Guiqin rang in the New Year in her new house — a first for her poor family. She has always dreamed of living in a new house.
Zhang lives a hard life. She has a congenital leg disability and her aging husband is also in poor health. Her son suffers from a congenital disease. Her parents, who are in their 90s, have been plagued by health problems for years.
With little income and total dependence on subsidies, it used to be impossible for such a family to build a new house on their own. Their situation changed with a visit from a local official.
In a campaign aimed at building closer ties between officials and the masses, He Ximing, a chief accountant with the State Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Jining City, visited Zhang’s village in March and decided to help the family after learning about their difficulties.
He raised 60,000 yuan (US$9,836) through government subsidies for reconstruction of dangerous rural houses and donations from employees in his department.
“I did not dream of a new tile-brick house. I should thank the official sent by the municipal authorities,” said Zhang, in tears.
During the Jining campaign, 73,000 officials made direct contact with 1.81 million rural families, according to He Siqing, head of the organizing department of the Jining City committee of the Communist Party of China.
Each official from the city selected 10 households to contact and were required to spend at least five nights in the village within one year for research, He Siqing added.
A one-year “mass-line” campaign was launched in June by China’s leaders to boost ties between CPC officials and the people. The campaign was also designed to reduce formalism, bureaucracy, hedonism and extravagance.
Jining’s campaign also has been part of efforts by Party members and officials to improve their work styles.
The country has begun a new round of reforms, which can trigger complaints from the public.
Ma Pingchang, secretary of the CPC Jining committee, said that is why it is important officials understand how others live and that they respond to their various demands.
These visits will be evaluated and the results will serve as a reference for promotions, according to He.
In August, Shandong Province issued a guideline requesting CPC members and cadres contact needy families via telephone, letters or face-to-face visits.
Sun Shaocheng, vice governor of Shandong, said the idea was to ensure officials reflect on the problems in their work styles so as to improve themselves. Similar moves have been launched in other provinces.
In Tibet Autonomous Region, 49 officials at the regional level contacted 116 poverty-stricken households. They distributed more than 390,000 yuan from their own pockets in aid to them last year.
In Tianjin, about 15,000 CPC members and officials offered various help to about 6,000 households.
Wang Zhongwu, a professor of sociology at Shandong University, said officials can do so much good by reaching out to needy families.
“The CPC has more than 80 million members. If each member helped someone in need, it would contribute greatly to improving their livelihoods and the overall image of officials,” Wang said.
This would also lead to greater stability, according to Wang.
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