Huaxi Village, a small village in Changzhou City, Jiangsu Province, was once known as the "No. 1 Village in the World" for its rapid development. In the 60s of the 20th century, it was just a poor and backward village, and the villagers lived in poverty.
Through the efforts and leadership of Wu Renbao, secretary of the village party branch, Huaxi Village has gradually embarked on the road of well-off in the east wind of reform and opening up. Today, the story of Huaxi Village has become a microcosm of China's rural economic development.
In the 60s of the 20th century, Huaxi Village was a typical poor and backward rural village. There are only 667 villagers in the village, and the total assets are only 250,000 yuan, but also burdened with 150,000 yuan of foreign debt. The land is barren, with only more than 800 acres of finely divided cultivated land, and the rice harvest is poor every year. The villagers often go hungry and live in extreme hardship.
Faced with such a predicament, Wu Renbao, secretary of the village party branch, boldly adopted measures such as improving water conservancy, renovating land, and popularizing high-quality crops.
After the reform and opening up, Wu Renbao led Huaxi Village to implement the land transfer system and established a number of small factories, such as hardware factories, weaving factories, steel factories, etc.
As a result of these initiatives, Huaxi Village quickly accumulated funds, and the villagers' annual income increased from a few thousand yuan to tens of thousands of yuan. By the mid-80s, Huaxi Village had become a well-known and wealthy village within nearly 100 miles. It's a miracle of a generation.
In view of the needs of the development of the times, since the 90s, Wu Renbao decided to vigorously introduce foreign capital and concentrate on the development of large enterprises. He successfully attracted a number of large industrial enterprises to set up branches or joint ventures in West China, so that the village-level collective economy entered a rapid growth channel.
Subsequently, he foresaw the development prospects of the real estate industry and tourism, and allocated a large amount of capital to invest in these two fields. By the first decade of the 21st century, Huaxi Village already had five leading industries: steel, textiles, chemicals, real estate and tourism, and realized a magnificent transformation from a well-off to a wealthy one.
In its heyday, the total annual output value of Huaxi Village was as high as more than 50 billion yuan. The villagers all lived in spacious and bright multi-storey villas, drove cars, and saved more than one million yuan. Villagers can stay in high-end hotels for free, and medical and education expenses are free of charge. This unconventionally high welfare and extravagant lifestyle has led to controversy over Huaxi Village's development model, fearing that it will lead to serious social inequality.
However, the good times did not last long, and in 2013, Wu Renbao died, and the situation in Huaxi Village took a sharp turn for the worse. Due to over-investment and mismanagement, Huaxi Group fell into a serious loss and high debt crisis. The villagers' confidence has been frustrated, and the collective assets have shrunk significantly. Thanks to the efforts of the new village committee, Huaxi Village has overcome difficulties and gradually returned to the right track.
People reflect on the problems of Wu Renbao's era and explore the establishment of a scientific and standardized village collective economic management and distribution mechanism to achieve sustainable development.
The development process of Huaxi Village is a footnote to the process of rural revitalization in China, and the enlightenment contained in it is worth pondering. Facing the future, Huaxi Village must keep up with the times, find its own positioning, and seek industrial upgrading and institutional innovation, so as to make it a vivid example of rural revitalization.