Cheng Yanqing (first from right) inspects the Party-Masses Service Center of the Jingning County Industrial Park. Photo courtesy of the interviewee.
Jingning County in Pingliang City, Gansu Province, is an important site along the Long March of the Red Army and a core base for the historic meeting of the three main Red Army forces in the Jingning-Huining area, possessing a rich and unique revolutionary heritage. During the Long March, the 25th Red Army, the Central Red Army, and the First, Second, and Fourth Front Armies of the Red Army successively operated in Jingning, stationing and resting in various locations, sowing the seeds of revolution, and carrying out revolutionary activities, leaving behind precious revolutionary footprints and the immortal spirit of the Long March. Villages such as Jihong Village in Jieshipu Town are key revolutionary heritage villages along the Long March route and serve as important carriers for continuing the revolutionary legacy and witnessing the transformation of the old revolutionary base area.
As a veritable hotbed of Long March revolutionary heritage, Jingning County leverages its profound red resources, deeply cultivates a path of integrated red-green development, and strives to walk the Long March road of rural revitalization in the new era. East-West collaboration is an important vehicle for consolidating and expanding the achievements of poverty alleviation, advancing comprehensive rural revitalization, and promoting coordinated regional development. In recent years, Wuqing District of Tianjin Municipality, based on the principle of "meeting Jingning's needs with Wuqing's capabilities," has precisely matched Jingning County's development shortcomings with its resource advantages, focusing on upgrading specialty industries, building brand channels, filling livelihood gaps, and enabling two-way talent empowerment. This has driven assistance work from single-point input to full-chain, systematic, and long-term self-sustaining development, allowing the Tianjin-Gansu mountain-sea collaboration to take root and bear fruit on this revolutionary hotbed.
Recently, a reporter from China Business Journal conducted an exclusive interview with Cheng Yanqing, a Tianjin aid-Gansu official serving as Member of the Standing Committee and Deputy County Head of Jingning County, to provide an in-depth interpretation of the practical achievements, innovative mechanisms, and future plans of the Wuqing-Jingning East-West collaboration.
Full-Chain Empowerment
China Business Journal: Jingning apples are the county's primary pillar industry for enriching the people. Wuqing's collaboration has provided full-chain empowerment around "one seedling, one fruit, one chain," implementing a number of key projects in seedling breeding, disaster prevention and mitigation, industrial roads, and deep processing. During your grassroots visits, what is your deepest impression? What substantive changes have these assistance projects brought to ordinary apple farmers?
Cheng Yanqing: Having spent many years rooted in township frontline work, my most intuitive impression is that collaborative assistance has truly resolved apple farmers' long-standing pain points of "can't grow well, can't prevent disasters, can't transport out, can't sell at a good price." The experience of Kang Xiaoming, an apple farmer in Chengchuan Town, is highly representative. His family's 7 mu of old apple orchards suffered declining income year by year due to aging varieties and diminishing productivity. With Wuqing assistance funds, he built a new dwarf-dense-planting demonstration orchard, with new seedlings achieving a survival rate of over 95%, completely reversing the low-efficiency predicament of old orchards. This new orchard has become the greatest hope for his family's stable income growth. Based on the entire apple industry chain, Wuqing's collaboration has achieved comprehensive upgrading from source breeding to terminal processing. At the seedling end, 5.8 million yuan was invested to build a 5,263-mu improved variety seedling tissue culture and breeding center, cultivating over 2 million virus-free seedlings annually, independently breeding high-quality varieties such as "Chengji No. 1" and "Jingning No. 1," completely ending the problems of low survival rates and unstable quality from outsourced seedlings, achieving fruiting in three years and full yield in five years. At the disaster prevention end, over 16.4 million yuan was invested to build a county-wide disaster prevention system, deploying 220 frost prevention machines and distributing 6,000 kilograms of antifreeze agents, covering 79 administrative villages and over 5,900 apple farming households, effectively resolving the "late spring cold" disaster problem. At the transportation end, 47 kilometers of industrial roads were built, breaking through the bottleneck of fruit transport from mountainous areas, allowing high-quality apples from deep mountains to reach high-end supermarkets in Beijing and Tianjin directly. At the processing end, a joint apple deep-processing industrial park was established, launching 16 products including NFC juice, apple vinegar, and apple crisps, with the county's annual fruit processing capacity reaching 150,000 tons, effectively absorbing substandard fruit and enhancing added value. Under full-chain empowerment, Jingning's apple industry has improved in quality and efficiency, and the income of the vast number of apple farmers has steadily increased.
China Business Journal: The two localities have jointly built a "one county, two parks" industrial platform, vigorously promoting apple chain extension and supplementation and deep processing, driving employment for hundreds of people. During project construction, how do you avoid "emphasizing construction over operations" and always prioritize linking farmers, bringing them along, and increasing their income?
Cheng Yanqing: We always take "linking farmers, bringing them along, benefiting and enriching the people" as the first criterion for project planning, insisting that all projects must calculate "three accounts" before approval — the number of farming households to be engaged, the number of jobs to be provided, and the amount of village collective income to be increased — ensuring projects are anchored to people-enriching attributes from the source. Relying on 33.7 million yuan in collaborative funds, the park has built over 16,000 square meters of fresh-keeping storage and deep-processing workshops. Through the model of "leading enterprise + contract planting + guaranteed purchase," stable cooperative relationships have been established with over 5,000 apple farming households county-wide. Currently, the industrial park directly employs over 300 people, and the county's entire apple industry chain absorbs 36,000 jobs, generating annual labor income of 920 million yuan. To address the challenge of emphasizing construction over operations, the two localities have innovatively explored a co-building model of "collaborative pairing, government planning, state-owned enterprise platform building, and private enterprise filling gaps," implementing a "management committee + market-oriented operating company" mechanism. The government handles overall coordination and support, while professional teams are responsible for operations and management, achieving integrated construction and management, long-term operations, and stable returns — truly building one project, revitalizing an industry, and enriching the people of a region.
China Business Journal: Jingning's townships have notably different resource endowments. How does Wuqing's collaboration layout specialty industries according to local conditions, avoiding a "one-size-fits-all" approach, so that people in different areas can share in the collaborative dividends?
Cheng Yanqing: We adhere to differentiated measures and adaptation to local conditions, precisely laying out specialty industries based on each township's natural conditions. In river valley areas with abundant sunlight and heat, we focus on strengthening apple chain extension and supplementation. In mountainous areas with rich forage grass, we focus on cultivating Pingliang Red Cattle breeding. In areas with sufficient water sources, we focus on developing facility vegetable industries. Since 2021, Wuqing has invested 23.775 million yuan to develop the beef cattle industry, building 75 thousand-head cattle demonstration villages. It has invested 10.1 million yuan to build 100 high-standard vegetable solar greenhouses. Precise industrial layout allows each township to showcase its strengths and reap returns. Haokang Animal Husbandry's ten-thousand-head beef cattle base provides stable employment for 32 people and distributes 240,000 yuan in annual dividends to Dazhai Village collective. Gangou Town's vegetable industrial park employs over 60 people, with per capita annual income increasing by over 30,000 yuan, truly achieving the right industry for the right place and benefiting the people.
China Business Journal: East-West collaboration funds are subject to strict supervision and standardized procedures. At the grassroots level, there are issues such as uneven project progress, weak maintenance, and imprecise farmer-linking. How do you achieve standardized fund use, effective project implementation, and long-term asset benefits for the people through closed-loop management?
Cheng Yanqing: In response to the practical shortcomings in grassroots project implementation, fund management, and farmer-linking, our county has established a full-process closed-loop control system covering the entire chain of project approval, construction, acceptance, operations, and maintenance. Through regular on-site supervision, we strictly control fund use, engineering quality, and project effectiveness. At the same time, we have improved diverse interest-linking mechanisms, continuously driving farmer income growth through land transfer, nearby employment, contract purchasing, and collective dividends. In asset maintenance, we adhere to equal emphasis on construction and management with clear rights and responsibilities, clarifying maintenance entities and operational responsibilities to ensure collaborative assets preserve and increase in value and continue to deliver benefits to the people.
Building Long-Term Mechanisms
China Business Journal: Assistance projects have long chains and long cycles. How do you build long-term mechanisms to avoid "flash-in-the-pan assistance" and achieve sustained farmer income growth?
Cheng Yanqing: We focus on establishing long-term systems from three dimensions: institutions, operations, and talent. At the institutional level, we have issued the "Measures for the Follow-Up Management of Poverty Alleviation (Assistance) Project Assets," implementing standardized and institutionalized management of all collaborative assets, clarifying full-process rules for ownership, maintenance, distribution, and supervision. At the operational level, we comprehensively implement the model of "state-owned platform company + leading enterprise + cooperative + farmer," using market mechanisms to stabilize production-marketing relationships and safeguard people's returns. At the talent level, relying on two-way talent exchange between the two localities, Wuqing dispatches technical specialists for on-site assistance, while Jingning's local talent goes to Tianjin for hands-on training, continuously cultivating a local talent team that "can be retained, can perform, and can be put to use," laying a solid foundation for long-term industrial development.
China Business Journal: In the past, Jingning's high-quality agricultural products were "excellent but couldn't get out, good but not expensive." Wuqing has helped "Gansu flavors enter Tianjin" through diversified consumption assistance. How have the two localities opened up market bottlenecks, allowing Jingning's good products to leave the mountains and sell at good prices?
Cheng Yanqing: Previously, Jingning apples faced problems of weak branding, narrow channels, high logistics costs, and serious waste of substandard fruit. About 15% of fruit was sold at low prices annually due to appearance issues, causing losses of over 1,000 yuan per mu for farmers. To address this, Wuqing launched a "combined punch" of channels, branding, and deep processing. In Tianjin, a Tianjin-Gansu collaborative famous and excellent agricultural products exhibition and sales center was built, incorporated into the "Tianjin-Gansu Joint Revitalization" consumption assistance system, connecting with large supermarkets and community platforms. Nationwide, 29 Jingning apple specialty stores have been established, building regional brand recognition. At the same time, the "Xiaowu Bangbang" public brand was created, incorporating regional characteristics to enhance recognition. Targeting the pain point of substandard fruit, low-temperature fermentation technology was introduced to develop apple enzyme, juice, and other products, annually absorbing nearly 1,000 tons of substandard fruit from 12 villages, helping farmers increase income by 800 yuan per mu. Since 2024, consumption assistance sales between the two localities have reached 290 million yuan.
China Business Journal: How do you push consumption assistance from short-term procurement to a long-term self-sustaining model of brand building and deep channel cultivation?
Cheng Yanqing: The core of consumption assistance is "supporting industry, building systems, and establishing brands." We have devoted full efforts to building an agricultural product traceability system, cumulatively issuing over 5.3 million anti-counterfeiting traceability labels, achieving one product one code with full-process verification, effectively protecting the "Jingning Apple" brand reputation. Relying on the Tianjin exhibition center, online platforms, and nationwide specialty stores, we have built a three-dimensional sales network, continuously enhancing brand influence. Currently, the "Jingning Apple" brand value has reached 18.1 billion yuan, and the collaboration model has successfully achieved a transformation from "blood-transfusion procurement" to "blood-creation brand management."
Filling Grassroots Gaps
China Business Journal: Healthcare and education are key areas of livelihood assistance. How does Wuqing's "group-style" assistance fill grassroots gaps, cultivate local talent, and achieve sustainable improvement?
Cheng Yanqing: The most prominent healthcare challenge for people in Jingning's mountainous areas is "far to see a doctor, difficult to see a doctor, and can't get good treatment." Wuqing annually dispatches 5 mid-level or above core experts to carry out "hospital-packages-department" group assistance, regularly going to townships for free clinics and medical services. Assistance experts deeply participate in department management, clinical teaching, and technical breakthroughs. Through the "theoretical lectures + clinical practice" model, they have trained 30 local medical backbone personnel, introduced 27 new technologies, and filled multiple county-level medical gaps, truly achieving a transformation from short-term support to discipline co-building and talent co-cultivation, creating a medical team that cannot be taken away. In education collaboration, Tianjin volunteer teachers have introduced advanced concepts, AI teaching resources, and refined management models to rural campuses. The growth of Lü Zhibo, a student at Weirong Middle School, is highly representative. Volunteer teachers innovated classroom models and broadened students' horizons, helping rural students establish ideals and goals. Through demonstration classes, teaching seminars, and hands-on training, the two localities have carried out 16 exchange activities and 21 demonstration classes, dispatching 54 local teachers to study in Tianjin, and promoting advanced campus management models. Currently, Weirong Middle School's undergraduate admission rate has increased by 10.7 percentage points compared to before the assistance, and the educational collaboration results are tangible and perceptible.
China Business Journal: Two-way talent exchange is key to collaborative empowerment. How do you avoid formalistic training and ensure advanced experience truly takes root locally?
Cheng Yanqing: The greatest value of talent exchange is conceptual innovation, capability enhancement, and mindset reshaping. In 2025, Wuqing dispatched 31 professional and technical personnel to assist in Jingning, and 71 Jingning cadres and technical personnel went to Tianjin for hands-on training, jointly conducting 6 skills training sessions. To eliminate "sightseeing-style" learning, we have established deep pairing mechanisms. Tianjin experts take root in their positions to pass on skills through "master-apprentice" arrangements, with 50 master-apprentice pairs established. Local cadres going out for study adhere to "learning with questions and returning with solutions," ensuring that learned experience fits Jingning's reality and can be implemented and transformed, continuously cultivating localized professional talent teams.
China Business Journal: Having been rooted at the grassroots for many years, how do you view the transformation of Jingning's rural areas? What are the current development shortcomings and challenges?
Cheng Yanqing: Compared to the early stage of assistance, Jingning's rural areas have achieved all-around transformation: industries have moved from relying on the weather to full-chain upgrading, roads have changed from muddy and rugged to smooth and convenient, village appearances have taken on a completely new look, and the people have greater confidence in getting rich and a completely renewed spiritual outlook. Jihong Village's collective economy grew from 23,000 yuan in 2020 to over 500,000 yuan in 2025, which is a vivid microcosm of rural revitalization. At the same time, we must also recognize that the county's industrial foundation still needs to be consolidated, and issues such as natural disaster risks, labor outflow, insufficient deep-processing chains, and weak maintenance of individual projects still exist, remaining key areas for the next stage of collaborative efforts.
China Business Journal: Looking at the new stage, what are the key plans for the next step of Wuqing-Jingning collaboration?
Cheng Yanqing: In the future, the two localities will continue to closely adhere to "meeting Jingning's needs with Wuqing's capabilities," continuously deepening all-around collaboration. In industry, we will strengthen the three major specialty industry chains of apples, red cattle, and vegetables, continuously extending, supplementing, and strengthening the chains. In branding, we will deeply cultivate the Beijing-Tianjin market, improve nationwide channels, and continuously polish the "Jingning Apple" golden brand. In livelihood, we will deepen group-style assistance in education and healthcare, filling grassroots public service gaps. In income growth, we will continuously optimize the "enterprise + cooperative + farmer" interest-linking mechanism, strengthening village collective economies and driving stable income growth for the people. Through all-around, regular, and long-term collaboration, the dividends of mountain-sea collaboration will continue to benefit Jingning's people.
China Business Journal: How do you grasp the relationship between external assistance and internal driving forces, truly achieving the fundamental transformation from "blood transfusion" to "blood creation"?
Cheng Yanqing: External assistance is an external pulling force, while internal development is the fundamental driving force. Wuqing's collaboration always adheres to "introducing external resources and cultivating internal momentum," not simply piling up funds and projects, but embedding external resources into local industrial chains through platform building, technological empowerment, and model innovation. Whether it is apple intelligent sorting, deep processing, or brand channel building, the purpose is to help Jingning establish independent development capabilities. Relying on two-way talent exchange, we continuously cultivate local technical, management, and operational talent, enabling the people to transform from "passive beneficiaries" to "active developers." In the future, the two localities will continue to push collaboration from "blood transfusion assistance" to "blood creation win-win," continuously activating new momentum for rural revitalization on the Loess Plateau.