I'm a CPC member: A village Party secretary serving villagers for 27 years

Su Tiangong, secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) branch in Xianling Village in Yongchun county, Quanzhou city, southeast China’s Fujian province, has been dedicated to serving residents for 27 years, bringing better lives to them.

Photo shows Su Tiangong. (People's Daily/Kang Qingping)

"As a Party member, I should deliver good services to the people,” Su said.

According to Su, back in the 1990s, the village, home to about 306.7 hectares of hilly areas, was plagued by a lack of arable land resources and low grain yield.

In 1994, then 25-year-old Su offered himself as a candidate for director of the villagers’ committee of Xianling and was elected, vowing that he would help villagers increase their income by planting loquat.

To eliminate residents’ concerns over bad sales, Su visited farm produce markets in cities, took photos of loquat stalls with price tags of the fruit, and posted them on a notice board at the entrance to the villagers’ committee.

In this way, Su succeeded in persuading villagers to plant a new variety of loquat developed by the Fujian Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Turning from a barren place to a sea of green, Xianling became a loquat planting base with an annual output of more than 500 tons and an annual output value of nearly 8 million yuan (about $1.23 million) in the late 1990s, making it a model in casting off poverty.

In 1999, a 2,200-square-meter agricultural experimental base and an agricultural park covering an area of more than 53.3 hectares were established in Xianling, which accelerated the development of agricultural science and technology in the village.

Due to these achievements, Su was later elected as the village’s Party secretary, a position he has been serving in for more than 20 years.

In 2017, Su faced a new challenge when Xianling’s loquats were neglected by the market, partly because of the cultivation of the same variety of loquat in other provinces and partly because of the lack of online sales channels and transportation in the village.

To him, turning fresh loquats into processed products was a good way to boost sales of the fruit, but the idea was rejected by 27-year-old Su Zhenyao, who tapped into e-commerce in the village, believing that online marketing is the key to expanding sales.

Su Tiangong nominated the young man for a vacant post in the village. Soon after Su Zhenyao took office, they went to Shenzhen and Beijing for a market survey.

"I let Su Zhenyao discuss business with other young people. We built our own brand of loquats on e-commerce platforms and negotiated with courier companies for discounts on delivery fees,” Su Tiangong said.

Their efforts paid off. In less than one year, over 50 households in the village produced loquat syrup and sold their products online, increasing their income by nearly 20 million yuan. Su Tiangong marveled at the success, saying that he should let Su Zhenyao play a bigger role.

In early 2019, the young man took over for Su Tiangong as director of the villagers’ committee. With the joint efforts of Su Tiangong and Su Zhenyao, the per capita disposable income of residents in Xianling village was raised to over 20,000 yuan last year, maintaining a growth rate of more than 10 percent for five consecutive years.

Meanwhile, under the leadership of Su Tiangong, Xianling has been improving its living environment. The village is now connected by a two-lane asphalt road and is home to a training base for art students.