Correct Outlook on Achievements, Practiced in the Barracks | "Plant the Cedar" at the Grassroots Level
"Plant the Cedar" at the Grassroots Level
■ Meng Wei, Li Qican, PLA Daily Reporter Li Youzhi Illustration: Fang Han
Among the mountain ranges of western Yunnan, Shanzhou Tree Farm is set into the vast land like a piece of jade. What were once barren hills strewn with gravel are now a sea of swaying pines and lush greenery.
At the foot of those mountains, before the morning mist had lifted, the camp broadcast of the People's Armed Police Yunnan General Corps Dali Detachment sounded reveille. In front of the headquarters building, another group of leaders and headquarters cadres participating in "Grassroots Work Day" were gathering their gear and preparing to set out……
The Cang Mountains layered in green, the Erhai Lake rippling with waves. Inside the detachment's training regiment, a scene of vigorous work and training was underway. Unlike ordinary days, those busy in every corner of the camp included not only the training regiment's officers and soldiers, but also leaders and headquarters cadres moving briskly about.
"Instructor Cao, we heard the communications signal at the training regiment has been somewhat unstable—today we came specifically to fix that." Walking into the online learning room, the leader heading the group sat down at a computer to check various network parameters. Nearby, several headquarters cadres were bent over adjusting the network signal in the server room.
The headquarters cadres moved with practiced ease; the grassroots officers and soldiers took it as a matter of course. Such a harmonious and familiar scene has now become the norm at the detachment.
Previously, things were not like this. When difficulties arose at the grassroots level, officers and soldiers often had to run back and forth to the headquarters to report them—that word "run" carried within it the exhaustion and helplessness of going back and forth repeatedly. When leaders and headquarters cadres went down to the grassroots, that word "down" was not without the air of superiority of the "headquarters attitude" and the emotional distance it implied.
Today, "going down" (下) to the grassroots has become "going to" (到) the grassroots. A change of one character reflects a transformation in the outlook on achievements (政绩观) of the detachment's Party committee and headquarters. That transformation begins with a cedar tree.
Shanzhou Tree Farm is not far from the detachment's garrison. It is both an "ecological oasis" and a "spiritual treasure trove." Officers and soldiers are well acquainted with the story of Yang Shanzhou, the former secretary of the Baoshan Prefectural Party Committee of Yunnan Province, and the Party committee and headquarters have organized Party members and cadres on multiple occasions to conduct special study sessions there and receive ideological edification.
"Communist Party members should not hide in headquarters offices growing as potted ornamentals (盆景); they should go among the people and grow as cedars (雪松)." This was a favorite saying of Yang Shanzhou during his lifetime.
These words were copied neatly by the detachment's Political Commissar Li onto the flyleaf of his notebook, beside which he had pasted an old photograph clipped from a newspaper: Yang Shanzhou standing on Mount Daliang, a towering cedar rising behind him.
Political Commissar Li often recounted this story during Party lessons: when Secretary Yang Shanzhou retired, he carried the potted ornamentals he had tended for many years up to Mount Daliang. That cedar, which had originally grown in an office, took root in the barren mountain soil, weathered wind and rain, and ultimately grew into a towering tree.
The old secretary transplanted the cedar from its pot onto Mount Daliang, and in doing so planted his own roots in the barren mountain earth and planted his heart among the people. For 22 years he never ceased his voluntary tree-planting and afforestation work, ultimately handing over to the Party and the people a "green treasury" worth 300 million yuan free of charge—erecting a monument of achievement (政绩丰碑) to the wholehearted dedication of Communist Party members to the people.
"Do some of our leaders and headquarters cadres resemble potted ornamentals?" At a special self-examination session held as part of the study and education campaign on establishing and practicing a correct outlook on achievements (正确政绩观), Political Commissar Li pointed to an elegantly shaped potted ornamental on the windowsill and said: "Staying inside the office building, writing reports that sound perfectly organized, revolving around the office, the conference table, and briefing materials—some people think this constitutes 'achievements.' But sitting in the headquarters building, where the door is easy to enter and faces are easy to look at, things are not necessarily easy to get done. In the eyes of grassroots officers and soldiers, isn't that just a collection of exquisite 'potted ornamentals'?"
"Do we truly understand what the grassroots urgently needs and worries about? Have we planted our roots in the hearts of officers and soldiers?"
The questions struck at people's hearts, and the room fell silent. Behind that silence lay a distortion in the outlook on achievements. In recent years, although the detachment had consistently required adherence to the principle of "grassroots first, soldiers first," investigations revealed that many leaders and headquarters cadres had grown accustomed to sitting in their offices, following routine procedures, handling official business through the "back-and-forth of documents and messages," while lacking the "presence of heart when people come" that comes from putting oneself in others' shoes and serving wholeheartedly. Grassroots needs were mostly left unaddressed until formally reported upward, and some matters were even left unresolved for extended periods due to poor information flow and layer-upon-layer review.
During the study and education campaign on establishing and practicing a correct outlook on achievements, in order to help leaders and headquarters cadres clear away ideological confusion and cultivate a sense of dedication to soldiers (为兵情怀), the detachment arranged an on-site visit and study session, organizing everyone to go to the local "Yang Shanzhou Memorial Forest" and revisit the moving deeds of the old secretary Yang Shanzhou.
"The old secretary spent his life working and building—not by sitting in an office issuing orders, but by staying in the fields during droughts, planting trees and collecting fruit seeds, leading by example in everything, putting hard work first in every place, and at all times working for the benefit of the people……" Strolling through the forest and listening to one moving story after another about Yang Shanzhou, many leaders and headquarters cadres fell into deep reflection.
"Yang Shanzhou moved the potted cedar from his office up to the mountains—why can't we move our desks to the training ground?" The detachment decided to establish "Grassroots Work Day": each week, one member of the Party committee standing committee leads a team, with personnel dispatched from each headquarters department to form a working group. Without prior notice, without listening to briefings, without requiring an escort, they go directly into squads and platoons, into storerooms, and onto training grounds, listening to officers' and soldiers' voices on the front line and resolving urgent needs and concerns.
Plant the "cedar" in the soil of the grassroots; write "achievements" on the hearts of officers and soldiers.
On the first "Grassroots Work Day," medical officer Li Yunxi of the medical company accompanied the working group into the Second Guard Company—the most remote unit in the entire detachment. This company's garrison is located between two mountain ranges and three counties, in a remote location with rugged mountain roads; the one-way drive from headquarters exceeds five hours, making it extremely inconvenient for officers and soldiers to seek medical care.
After a bumpy journey to the company, Li Yunxi immediately took out diagnostic equipment and conducted health examinations for the officers and soldiers. In a single day, he identified more than ten cases of training injuries and chronic conditions—all mild, in the early stages of onset. Shortly afterward, a brief meeting was convened in the company's study room, where the detachment working group deliberated on the spot and worked out a support mechanism: the medical company would rotate selected backbone personnel on a quarterly basis to provide on-site medical services, resolving the difficulty officers and soldiers faced in accessing medical care.
Not long after, Li Yunxi returned to the company, this time bringing various medical supplies and equipment. The first thing he did was conduct a person-by-person survey of health conditions and establish electronic health records for the company's officers and soldiers. During his stay, he conducted daily scheduled "ward rounds and consultations": walking through every dormitory and every guard post, learning in detail about the health conditions, diet, and daily routines of officers and soldiers, conducting thorough physical examinations, proactively relieving ideological stress, and delivering heartfelt care to the front-line grassroots.
The "cedar" is planted at the grassroots, its branches and leaves growing ever greener. Leafing through the work log of "Grassroots Work Day," the entries are detailed and specific, line by line: updating training equipment, optimizing combat-readiness facilities, coordinating school enrollment for soldiers' children…… Every grassroots request is clearly registered, and every problem has a clearly defined division of responsibility, a deadline for rectification, and measures for follow-through.
After Corporal Xiao Liu's family moved to join him at the garrison, the question of enrolling his child in a nearby school became a source of worry for the couple. During a "Grassroots Work Day" visit and heart-to-heart talk, detachment leaders learned of the situation and immediately took the lead in following up and coordinating, proactively contacting the local education authorities multiple times, repeatedly going through procedures and handling paperwork, and ultimately resolving the child's enrollment—untying the knot in Xiao Liu's heart and enabling him to devote himself fully to work and training.
Several months later, the detachment convened a phased summary meeting for "Grassroots Work Day." A set of vivid figures was placed on the table: 87 problems collected in total, 42 resolved on the spot, 35 resolved within a set deadline, and 10 addressed with explanations—with officer and soldier satisfaction noticeably improved.
"The old secretary Yang Shanzhou moved the cedar from its pot up to Mount Daliang and spent 22 years planting a whole forest. We have only been at this for a few months, and we've identified 87 problems—that sounds like a lot, but think about it: how many of these problems should we have discovered and resolved long ago? Now that people have gone down there, the roots are just beginning to take hold. But we are still far from being a 'cedar,' and even further from being 'an entire forest.'" At the meeting, detachment leaders examined their shortcomings with clear heads: "Serving soldiers should mean every day is a 'Grassroots Work Day.'"
The "cedar question" (雪松之问) strikes at the hearts of the detachment's leaders and headquarters cadres, inspiring everyone to establish and practice a correct outlook on achievements—to "plant" themselves as cedars in the broad soil of the grassroots, to sink their roots into the earth, and to remain always heart-to-heart with officers and soldiers.
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Viewpoint
Do Not Hide in Headquarters Growing as a "Potted Ornamental"
■ Zhang Yuqing
"Communist Party members should not hide in headquarters offices growing as potted ornamentals; they should go among the people and grow as cedars." Yang Shanzhou's words have crossed time and space to take root in the People's Armed Police Dali Detachment, transforming into concrete action by leaders and headquarters cadres to establish and practice a correct outlook on achievements.
A potted ornamental sits comfortably in a greenhouse, possessing only a polished appearance, unable to withstand wind and rain; a cedar takes root in the mountains and fields, tempered through cold and heat, and only then can it stand firm and unyielding. In reality, a small number of leaders and headquarters cadres rely on documents to serve the grassroots, rely on meetings to drive work forward, and rely on notifications to resolve problems. This may appear to be fulfilling their duties, but in fact they are detached from the grassroots. Such leaders and headquarters cadres are precisely like "exquisite potted ornamentals"—attractive in appearance but shallow-rooted, unable to withstand wind and rain, unable to develop real capabilities, let alone achieve genuine results.
Not being a "potted ornamental" but being a "cedar" is, in essence, a transformation in work style (作风). Sitting in headquarters, one reads documents and listens to briefings—the further one is from the grassroots, the more easily the outlook on achievements goes astray. Going among officers and soldiers, one breathes the soldiers' air and hears the soldiers' situation—naturally one knows "what to do and how to do it." Leafing through the People's Armed Police Dali Detachment's "Grassroots Work Day" work log, it is not difficult to see that those practical matters that have benefited the grassroots and satisfied officers and soldiers were not conjured up while sitting in an office—they were accomplished by leaders and headquarters cadres who, like "cedars," sank down to the front line, braved sun and wind, and worked with their feet planted firmly on the ground. This news item reminds leaders and cadres at all levels that only by planting roots in the grassroots and keeping hearts close to officers and soldiers can one achieve real results and achieve results that are truly real.