Sharpening the Blade Against the Red Wall: From Hong Kong to Handong

The morning after the meeting ended, just as dawn was breaking, a black sedan without any special markings quietly drove out of the parking lot of the Yancheng Municipal Party Committee compound. Inside the car, Zhou Jin was wearing a worn jacket, clutching a thick notebook in her hand. Beside her were not documents or briefings, but an administrative map of Yancheng and annual reports on Party building work for the past three years.

"Let's go to Nanping County first," Zhou Jin said to the driver and Lao Chen, the deputy director of the Municipal Party Committee's Organization Department who was accompanying them. "It's an old revolutionary base area with a solid foundation in grassroots Party building, but I've heard that there's a serious loss of young Party members and that organizational activities aren't carried out regularly. Let's go and see what's really going on."

The car headed south, avoiding the county's pre-planned route, and drove straight into Hongya Township, the most remote area of ​​Nanping County. They happened to arrive during the township party committee's monthly party member meeting. Zhou Jin didn't disturb anyone, and she and Old Chen found a corner to sit and listen quietly. On the stage, the township party secretary read aloud a document from higher authorities. Most of the party members below were elderly with gray hair; a few younger faces were either fiddling with their phones or whispering among themselves. After the meeting, Zhou Jin pulled aside an elderly party secretary with graying temples and offered him a cigarette: "Old secretary, where have all the young party members in our township gone?"

The old Party Secretary sighed and squatted down on the edge of the field: "The young people have all gone out to work, and they only come back a few times a year. We can't even get enough people to attend Party meetings. Sometimes when we hold a Party meeting, it's just a few of us old guys left, and we lose our enthusiasm after a while." Zhou Jin silently wrote down in her notebook: Hongya Township, Nanping County—the attrition rate of young Party members exceeds 60%, Party activities are merely formalities, and Party building is disconnected from the production and lives of the masses.

Over the next month, similar scenes played out repeatedly in various districts and counties of Yancheng. In non-public enterprises in the Yanbei Development Zone, he saw that some companies had "Party Branch" signs, but didn't even have a fixed place for Party member activities. The three Party members were scattered in different workshops, and it was rare to hold an organizational activity even once a year—this was the status quo of Party building in many small-scale non-public enterprises in 2009. Although there was a requirement for "double coverage," it was difficult to implement. In a research and discussion meeting in municipal government departments, a young cadre bluntly said: "Now, the promotion of cadres still depends on seniority. Sometimes, those of us who work hard are not as popular as those who know how to build connections." In the community service center in the urban area, grid workers (at that time, most of them were "area administrators") complained to him: "Community management is divided into areas and households, but the participation of Party members is not high. The Party building tasks assigned from above are mostly filling out forms and submitting materials, which do not match the actual needs of residents."

Wherever Zhou Jin went, he adhered to the "four no's and two direct approaches"—no prior notice, no greetings, no reports, no accompanying reception, going directly to the grassroots and directly to the scene. He stayed in township guesthouses, ate corn porridge at farmers' homes, and talked with grassroots cadres, ordinary Party members, enterprise employees, and village representatives until late at night. His notebook was filled with densely packed questions: the "hollowing out" of rural Party building, the "bureaucratization" of Party building in government agencies, and the "marginalization" of Party building in non-public sectors; the "emphasis on seniority over ability" and "emphasis on visible achievements over potential achievements" in cadre selection; the imperfect assessment and evaluation system, making it difficult to quantify the effectiveness of Party building work; some urban areas piloted grid management, but most townships still mainly relied on area-based household management, resulting in low governance efficiency.

Old Chen followed Zhou Jin for a month, his voice hoarse from exhaustion. He couldn't help but exclaim, "Secretary Zhou, you used to be so decisive and efficient in developing the economy, I never imagined you'd be so meticulous in Party building as well." Zhou Jin closed his notebook, gazing out the window at the myriad lights of Yancheng: "The economy is the flesh and blood, Party building is the skeleton. If the skeleton isn't strong, no matter how abundant the flesh and blood, it can't support the backbone of development. I've never handled Party building before, but I know that Party building work isn't just empty talk; it's about genuinely solving problems."

A month later, Zhou Jin returned to the municipal party committee building, travel-worn. Instead of going home to rest first, he went straight to his office, spread his notebook on the table, and then rummaged through his bookshelf for the valuable experiences he had accumulated in his previous life regarding party building and organizational work—the mature practices of the new era, such as "party building leading grassroots governance," "normalization of cadre promotion and demotion," and "training young cadres," all surfaced in his mind.

In 2009, Yancheng was at a critical juncture in its industrial transformation and upgrading. The provincial Party committee had designated Yancheng as a "benchmark for the entire province and a model for old revolutionary base areas," and Party building and the cadre team were the core forces supporting this designation. Zhou Jin stroked the handwriting in her notebook, and a clear idea gradually took shape in her mind: Party building work must break free from the misconception of "focusing on Party building for its own sake" and be deeply integrated with economic development, grassroots governance, and people's livelihood; cadre and personnel work must break free from the shackles of "seniority-based promotion" and establish a clear orientation of "the capable rise, the excellent are rewarded, the mediocre are demoted, and the inferior are eliminated."

He picked up his pen and wrote down the preliminary frameworks of two plans on the title page of his notebook:

Implementation Opinions of Yancheng City on Leading High-Quality Development with Party Building (Draft)

1. Strengthening the grassroots fighting fortress: In rural areas, the "Party building + rural revitalization" model is promoted, and outstanding cadres from government agencies are selected to serve as first secretaries in underdeveloped villages. An incentive mechanism for young Party members to "return to their hometowns to start businesses" is established. In communities, the "community service center + Party member household linkage system" is used as a starting point to encourage on-the-job Party members to register and identify themselves in the community and take on service positions. The Party and the masses are brought closer by "entering homes, understanding the situation, and solving the difficulties of the community". In non-public enterprises, the requirements of "organizational coverage + work coverage" are implemented. Enterprises with more than 3 Party members establish separate branches, and those with insufficient Party members adopt the "industrial park unified construction and industry joint construction" model to integrate Party building into production, operation and talent cultivation.

2. Promote the integration of Party building with central tasks: Set up temporary Party branches at the forefront of key projects and major tasks, so that Party members and cadres can be at the forefront of land acquisition and demolition, investment promotion and technological breakthroughs; incorporate the effectiveness of Party building into the core indicators of the annual assessment of districts, counties and departments, with a weight of no less than 30%, and eliminate the idea that "Party building is a soft task".

3. Uphold the seriousness of intra-party political life: Strictly implement the "three meetings and one lesson" system, themed party days, and other systems, abandon formalism such as "reading documents and filling out forms", promote the "red education + practical discussion" model, organize party members to receive traditional education in old revolutionary areas and learn development experience from advanced regions; establish a "one member, two posts" system for party members, and encourage party members to play a dual role in their own posts and community services.

Yancheng City's Three-Year Action Plan for Cadre Team Building (2009-2011) (Draft)

1. "Seedling Cultivation Program" for Young Cadres: Break down departmental and hierarchical barriers, select outstanding young cadres under the age of 35, and send them to grassroots and challenging positions such as townships, petition offices, and investment promotion offices to gain experience. Clearly define the hard rule that "no one may be promoted to a department-level leadership position without grassroots experience"; establish "growth files" for young cadres to track their development and manage them dynamically.

2. The "dual-dimensional system" for cadre assessment and evaluation: The "performance dimension" assesses hard indicators such as economic development, improvement of people's livelihood, and safe production; the "reputation dimension" introduces public satisfaction surveys and evaluations from service recipients, making "what the people say is good is truly good" an important standard for cadre assessment; the assessment results are directly linked to promotion, appointment, and commendation, eliminating the situation where "doing or not doing is the same, and doing well or poorly is the same".

3. A "normalized mechanism" for promoting and demoting cadres: Clearly define the specific circumstances for demotion, including failing performance evaluations for two consecutive years, ranking in the bottom three in public satisfaction, or shirking responsibility in major tasks; for cadres who are demoted, arrange for them to study at Party schools or take temporary positions at the grassroots level for "re-training," and those who perform well may be reinstated; establish a mechanism for tolerating and correcting errors, distinguishing between "reform mistakes" and "violations of discipline and law," and support and encourage cadres who dare to take responsibility and are good at their work.

Zhou Jin put down his pen and rubbed his throbbing temples. Night deepened outside the window, and the lights in the municipal party committee building came on one by one. He knew that these two proposals drew on advanced experiences from his previous life while closely adhering to the realities of Yan'an City in 2009—they aligned with the policy trends of "dual coverage" of Party building in non-public enterprises and the deployment of Party members to communities, while also proposing groundbreaking measures to address the pain points identified in the research. However, their actual implementation would inevitably touch upon vested interests and face considerable resistance.

But he was even more aware that if Yancheng wanted to go further and more steadily, this reform concerning Party building and personnel was imperative.

He picked up the internal phone and dialed the office of Zhang Li, the Minister of the Organization Department of the Municipal Party Committee: "Minister Zhang, I would like to meet with you at nine o'clock tomorrow morning to talk about Party building and cadre team building. Please bring the cadre selection and appointment data for the past three years and the grassroots Party building research report."

On the other end of the phone, Zhang Li's voice was efficient: "Yes, Secretary Zhou, I'll get ready right away!"

After hanging up the phone, Zhou Jin stood up, walked to the window, and gazed at the night view of Yancheng. In the distance, the lights of the Red Tourism Town were dazzling, the machines in the factories of the industrial park were roaring, and newly built highways stretched into the distance in the night.

His gaze was firm and profound. This research trip allowed him to understand the "assets" of Yancheng; and the upcoming reforms will inject strong revolutionary momentum into the development of Yancheng.