Xie Wenli: From former village official to poverty alleviation work

In this photo taken recently, Xie Wenli (center) helps villagers sell oil peony fruit in Yangou Village, Huaishu Township.

Text and photos by Zhang Zebin and Sun Zhiqiang

Xie Wenli was born in March 1987 in Zhangzhuang Village, Nanzhuang Town, Mengzhou City, Henan Province, and graduated from the Law Department of Henan Administrative Cadre College of Politics and Law. After graduating from university, she actively responded to the national call to support the building of a new countryside. Through an examination, in September 2008, she served as a college-graduate village official and assistant to the village committee director in Dahu Village, Heyang Subdistrict Office, Mengzhou City, her hometown, until May 2010, and was deeply liked by the cadres and villagers of Dahu Village.

In June 2010, she was hired by the Mengzhou City Administration for Industry and Commerce through the civil service examination. Although she left the countryside, she has a special affection for farmers. Ordinarily, whenever there is work in the countryside, she is always the first to sign up. Over the past few years, she has handled relevant certificates for 120 agricultural economic cooperative organizations, including the Mengzhou Mengxiang Vegetable Cooperative, Hongji Animal Husbandry, and Senyu Farm, all in a timely, efficient, and error-free manner.

In May 2016, through democratic recommendation, organizational assessment, and other procedures, she was promoted to a deputy section-level cadre for her outstanding performance. When the organization sought her opinion on adjusting her post, she voluntarily asked to work in Huaishu Township, the most remote and impoverished township in Mengzhou. In the more than 3 months since she became a member of the Party Committee of Huaishu Township, she has often gone to the fields and farmers' homes to help the masses with farm work, sort out ideas, and plan development. When talking about her next plans, she said happily: "At present, planting oil peonies is our direction for 'green development and targeted poverty alleviation.' Judging from the current hot-selling market situation, this alone can increase farmers' income by at least 1000 yuan or more per mu per year. Therefore, my goal is to use 3 years to step up publicity and promotion, expand the oil peony planting area in the 3 impoverished villages I am assigned to to 3000 mu, and help the farmers shake off poverty and become well-off as soon as possible."