Stakeholders hold a meeting to decide upon profit distribution in Xamkyim Village of Riwoqi County, Tibet Autonomous Region, on December 25, 2021 (COURTESY PHOTO) 

A Party member shall serve the people and work together with them to solve problems, a young member of the Communist Party of China (CPC) from Tibet Autonomous Region told Beijing Review. What she said reflects cherished Party values, and she has matched her actions to her words. 

As the leader of a working team stationed in Xamkyim Village to help its residents, 30-year-old Kelsang Chodron has guided locals in developing the Tibetan turnip industry since 2019—the year she was assigned here. The village, which is under the jurisdiction of Riwoqi County, Qamdo City, counts 591 residents.

As part of its poverty alleviation program, China dispatched working teams, whose leader usually served as the first secretary of a village Party branch, to underdeveloped villages from 2013. A first secretary is part of the village leadership together with members of the village Party branch and the villagers' committee. Team members usually came from government organizations, state-owned enterprises and public institutions. The model has continued after China eradicated absolute poverty in late 2020 and embarked on its pursuit of rural revitalization.

Xamkyim shook off absolute poverty in 2017, Kelsang Chodron said, adding caterpillar fungus and beef were major income sources, but their output was limited.

She helped bring about a change after realizing the village is suitable for planting, on a large scale, high-quality Tibetan turnip, an edible and medicinal plant cultivated in Tibet's farming and farming-pastoral regions. Though it has long been consumed as a vegetable, the villagers had overlooked its medicinal value.

Kelsang Chodron persuaded more locals to plant the herb by trying to convince them of its potentially large profit margin. The dried substance can be sold for up to 100 yuan ($14.06) per kg, while the fresh one for 2 yuan ($0.28) per kg. Usually, one kg of dried turnip can be obtained from 2-3.5 kg of fresh ones—depending on the quality.

A group of Party members took the initiative in setting up a cooperative, which dries the turnip and then sells them in the county seat. The cooperative purchases high-quality raw turnip from locals. In 2020, a factory that can produce over 1,500 kg of dried turnip a year was built in the village with government funding.

To boost sales through e-commerce, Kelsang Chodron acts as a live-streaming hostess and promotes the goods online. The cooperative's profits are divided among villagers.

When Kelsang Chodron came to the village in 2019, she was on a one-year assignment. Before that, she had worked as a police officer in her hometown in Riwoqi County after graduating from a police academy in Tibet's regional capital Lhasa in 2014.

"An industry cannot be developed within one year and the villagers want me to stay," Kelsang Chodron said, so after completing the one-year term she chose to continue her mission. 

"I believe it is the right choice," Kelsang Chodron said, adding as a Party member, she is aware of the need to go beyond oneself for the greater good. 

Kelsang Chodron submitted application for Party membership in 2016, and joined the CPC in 2018 following two years of procedure.

"I will try my best to live up to the belief that the CPC works for the wellbeing of all Chinese people including ethnic minority groups," she said.

Copyedited by Elsbeth van Paridon 

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