The Post-'90s Party Committee Secretary with a Remarkable Record, Called by Officers and Soldiers 'A Party Delegate Who Is Capable in Both Pen and Sword'

Wu Ge, Party Committee Secretary and Political Instructor of a Certain Rocket Force Battalion——

A Party Delegate Capable in Both Pen and Sword

■ PLA Daily Special Correspondent Li Yinghong, Li Ping

Deep in the mountains, a live-combat-condition operational training exercise had just sounded its closing signal. Before the operators had even shaken the dust from their uniforms, Wu Ge, Party Committee Secretary and Political Instructor of a certain Rocket Force battalion, had already gathered everyone beside the launch frame. A brief "combat-position party conduct after-action review (战位党性复盘会)" got underway on the spot.

"During the fueling phase, Senior Sergeant First Class Li Jie assessed the risk and stepped forward to handle it—that deserves recognition. But the handoff between positions in the second element was not smooth; awareness of covering for one another still needs to be strengthened..." There was no empty talk or stock phrases. Everyone spoke in turn, airing both achievements and shortcomings. In just over ten minutes, the performance of Party members had been thoroughly discussed, and responsibility zones for the next round of hard fighting were assigned on the spot.

The post-'90s Party Committee Secretary standing before them has a remarkable record: he enlisted in 2009, joined the Party the following year, was elected as a delegate to the Rocket Force's Second Party Congress, and has been recognized as an Outstanding Party Affairs Worker of the Rocket Force, a Model Grassroots Commander of the Rocket Force, and an Outstanding Political Cadre of the Rocket Force, among other honors. He has been awarded one individual second-class merit citation and two third-class merit citations. In the eyes of the officers and soldiers, more than these weighty honors, everyone prefers to call him affectionately "a Party delegate who is capable in both pen and sword."

From the day he became a Party affairs worker, Wu Ge has never stopped thinking: in a strategic missile force that wields the great nation's long sword, how can grassroots Party affairs work truly serve the goal of winning battles? Years of practice have brought him ever-greater clarity: "For organizational strength to reach every combat position directly, the fighting fortress must be built beneath every launch frame." He often tells the Party member backbone around him: "Party affairs work is absolutely not a self-contained 'rotation' (自转) divorced from the battlefield—it is a 'revolution' (公转) in service of winning battles. Only by converting the political and organizational advantages of the Party organization into advantages for victory, and converting the vanguard and exemplary role of Party members into the force of the charge, can Party-building work truly become a force multiplier for combat effectiveness."

When he first took up his post in the battalion, Wu Ge plunged into the tunnels and lived with the squads and platoons, quickly identifying the bottlenecks in the unit's organizational development: position sites were dispersed, duty tasks ran around the clock, and by-the-book organizational life was constantly competing for time with training tasks—the problem of Party-building and combat readiness operating as "two separate skins (两张皮)" persisted.

How to break the impasse? He fixed on one principle: "If the fortress is not built strong, the battlefield cannot be won. Organizational development must be tightly integrated with combat effectiveness development."

So Wu Ge began trying to abandon the fixed model of "centralized lectures and uniform note-taking," moving "impromptu classrooms, discussion classrooms, soldier classrooms, and online classrooms" into the tunnels and onto the position sites. During training breaks, he talked through lessons learned; during operational breaks, he explained key points—breaking down grand principles into plain language that officers and soldiers could absorb and remember. Tied to specific missions, he took the lead in establishing a work closed-loop of "pre-mission mobilization and oath-taking, Party member hard-fighting during the mission, and dual after-action review post-mission"—the "tactical after-action review (战术复盘)" to identify combat effectiveness shortfalls, and the "party conduct after-action review (党性复盘)" to examine how well Party members fulfilled their role. Both agenda items were opened and corrected in the same session, embedding Party-building work in a concrete and practical way throughout the entire combat readiness process.

One year, higher authorities issued a mission for experimental verification of a certain system, and the battalion was ordered to take the lead in tackling it. There was no mature experience to draw on, the operational environment was sealed and arduous, and the technical specifications were stringent—quite a few officers and soldiers were inwardly apprehensive. Without a second word, Wu Ge took the lead in moving into the tunnels for training, working overtime alongside technical backbone personnel to grind through parameters and troubleshoot faults. At the mission front line, he took the lead in establishing a Party member assault team, planting the Party flag at the very forefront of the experiment. He held "micro Party lessons (微党课)" at fault-diagnosis sites, and at every bottleneck organized Party member backbone personnel to hold "Zhuge Liang meetings (诸葛亮会)"—both to work through difficult problems and to boost morale. In the end, the mission was completed successfully, and the relevant results provided strong support for upgrading combat readiness support capabilities.

"Every time there is an urgent, difficult, dangerous, or demanding mission, you can always see the Political Instructor charging out in front. Wherever he goes, that is where the standard is set." Wang Wenliang, a First-Class Sergeant Major and the Party member with the longest Party standing in the battalion, said with feeling.