Official's sacrifice transforms village

At the entrance to a village in Henan province stands a stone carved with nine Chinese characters in simple calligraphy which translate into: "Officials should be willing to make personal sacrifices."

The words have served as a governing principle for Li Liancheng, Party secretary of Xixinzhuang village in Puyang county and a recipient of this year's July 1 Medal — the Communist Party of China's highest honor.

Inside the village's greenhouses, rows of cherry tomatoes introduced this year hang from soilless vines. Workers move between the plants, harvesting the produce for markets across China and Southeast Asia.

Decades ago, such a scene seemed unimaginable.

"This was all saline land," said Wang Hongfen, who works at the village's agricultural park. "Now people from nearby villages come here for jobs. You can earn 4,000 to 6,000 yuan ($558 to $883) a month."

Xixinzhuang's transformation has made Li one of China's best-known grassroots officials.

"Officials should be willing to make personal sacrifices," said the 75-year-old, repeating the phrase that has guided him for more than 30 years.

"If people elect me as Party secretary because they want a better life, then my job is to help everyone become prosperous," he said.

In the early 1980s, the village sat on saline land along the Yellow River. Grain harvests were poor, and annual per capita income was less than 600 yuan. Li began experimenting with vegetable greenhouses and eventually earned a fortune of about 170,000 yuan over an eight-year period.

When villagers elected him Party secretary in 1991, his first official act was to donate his family's two best greenhouses to impoverished households. When residential land was allocated, he chose one of the least desirable plots — low-lying ground beside a foul drainage ditch.

"I'm a Party member, and I can't take advantage of the villagers. That's the loss I should bear," he said.

By 1994, the village had more than 40 vegetable greenhouses, but Li was already searching for another source of income for villagers.

He persuaded 12 households to invest in a recycled paper factory after most villagers dismissed the idea as too risky. The factory became profitable within two years, generating more than 2 million yuan in profits.

Soon, everyone wanted to join, but the original investors refused to share ownership.

Li first approached the six Party members among them.

"I told them that as Party members, you shouldn't be first in line to benefit. You should be first to sacrifice, first to work and first to lead local development," he said.

Eventually, the shareholders agreed to transfer the factory to the village collective for just 680,000 yuan. Every household became a shareholder and began receiving annual dividends.

The model later expanded into textiles, machinery, air conditioning manufacturing and, more recently, modern agriculture.

Today, the village collective generates more than 10 million yuan annually, while average per capita income has risen to more than 42,000 yuan.

For Li, however, economic growth was never the ultimate goal.

"The money should be invested in the people," he said.

Village revenue has funded schools, a hospital, public utilities and housing projects. Residents receive subsidies for water, electricity and natural gas. Medical expenses are covered by both the rural medical insurance system and the village.

To this day, Li begins most days by riding an electric scooter through the village, inspecting construction sites, visiting factories and asking workers whether they have been paid on time.

Despite his age, he continues to study news reports and political theories to improve his work.