The city’s national ethnic-unity models return with honours: setting a ‘pilot example’ for urban ethnic work
On 9 October, Lin Jie, member of the Standing Committee of the Municipal Party Committee and head of its United Front Work Department, met the representatives of the city's national model collectives and model individuals for ethnic unity and progress on their return with honours, offering them congratulations and extending warm greetings to people of all ethnic groups across the city.
At the National Commendation Conference on Ethnic Unity and Progress held recently in Beijing, 665 national model collectives and 812 model individuals for ethnic unity and progress were honoured. Among them, the Shenzhen Association for the Promotion of Ethnic Unity and Development received the honorary title of "National Model Collective for Ethnic Unity and Progress," and three people received the honorary title of "National Model Individual for Ethnic Unity and Progress": Ruxianguli Aibaidula, assistant art director of the Shenzhen OCT Happy Valley Tourism Company and vice-president of the municipal association; Deng Ke, deputy party secretary of Songgang Middle School and head of its Xinjiang Department; and Lu Ruiman, director of the office of the leading group for the mainland Xinjiang secondary vocational classes and head of the automobile department at Shenzhen No. 2 Vocational and Technical School.
Lin Jie said that holding the National Commendation Conference on Ethnic Unity and Progress at the 70th anniversary of the founding of New China fully reflects General Secretary Xi Jinping's warm concern for people of all ethnic groups and the great importance he attaches to the cause of ethnic unity and progress. Everyone, he said, should study and act on the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important speech at the conference, take the overall requirements and priorities for advancing ethnic unity and progress in the new era as the fundamental guide for the city's ethnic affairs work from now on, and, in line with the goal and requirements of building Shenzhen into a pilot demonstration area of socialism with Chinese characteristics, play a pioneering and demonstrative role in urban ethnic affairs work. He hoped the honoured collectives and individuals would set a good example, continue to lead the way in the cause of ethnic unity and progress, take the idea that "all China's ethnic groups are one family" deep into people's hearts, and help people of every ethnic group hold together as tightly as the seeds of a pomegranate, uniting and striving together for shared prosperity and development, and safeguarding the city's ethnic unity and its sound situation of social harmony and stability.
Wang Zijian, deputy head of the United Front Work Department of the Municipal Party Committee and director of the Municipal Bureau of Ethnic and Religious Affairs, attended the meeting.
Roll of honour:
National Model Collective for Ethnic Unity and Progress
Shenzhen Association for the Promotion of Ethnic Unity and Development
The Shenzhen Association for the Promotion of Ethnic Unity and Development ("the municipal association") takes Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era as its guide and forging a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation as its main thread. It has helped the Shenzhen Municipal Bureau of Ethnic and Religious Affairs organise study of the spirit of the Party's 19th National Congress among people of ethnic minorities, passed on the Party's "good voice" to brothers and sisters of every ethnic group in good time, and channelled the wisdom and strength of all ethnic groups into the cause of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Since its leadership change in 2016, the association has held 26 events in the "All China's Ethnic Groups Are One Family" themed education series, taking them into communities, enterprises, schools and cultural venues; it has set up the Shenzhen Ethnic Unity Legal Service Team and the "Ethnic Unity Volunteer Service Corps" to publicise the Party's ethnic policies and ethnic laws and regulations, strengthen the rule-of-law foundations of ethnic unity, and encourage people of all ethnic groups to take up public-interest work and play an active part in poverty relief and helping those in need.
National Models for Ethnic Unity and Progress — Collectives and Individuals
Assistant art director, Shenzhen OCT Happy Valley Tourism Company; vice-president, Shenzhen Association for the Promotion of Ethnic Unity and Development — Ruxianguli Aibaidula
Since being elected vice-president of the municipal association in 2016, Ruxianguli Aibaidula has brought together people of all ethnic groups on a broad basis, helped members of ethnic minorities solve practical difficulties, and carried out voluntary publicity and education work on ethnic unity in communities across the city, promoting contact, exchange and integration among ethnic groups and contributing actively to forging a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation. She has taken an active part in "Belt and Road" cultural outreach, travelling abroad to perform several times a year with a footprint across five continents, so that people in the countries and regions along the Belt and Road can know more and better about Chinese culture and about the great achievements of China's reform and opening up. Accomplished in her profession, she has won 43 awards at home and abroad, among them 11 international awards and awards at provincial level or above, winning honour for the country and contributing to Chinese culture's reach into the world.
Deputy party secretary of Songgang Middle School and head of its Xinjiang Department — Deng Ke
In 2000, Songgang Middle School in Shenzhen became one of the first schools to run mainland Xinjiang senior high school classes, and Deng Ke came from Urumqi No. 6 Middle School (now Urumqi Senior High School) to Songgang Middle School as a supervising teacher — and stayed for 20 years. Over those 20 years Deng Ke has consistently put the larger family before his own: to keep students company at school over Spring Festival, or to look after them travelling back to Xinjiang and back to school, he has made more than 60 round trips on the trains between Shenzhen and Xinjiang, covering over 200,000 kilometres, while never once spending a Spring Festival with his own wife and child; the students affectionately call him "Papa Deng." It is because of the sustained efforts of teachers like Deng Ke that Songgang Middle School has sent more than 2,900 outstanding graduates to Chinese universities over 20 years, 18 of them admitted to Peking University and Tsinghua University; the school has twice been named a "Guangdong Provincial Advanced Model Collective for Ethnic Unity and Progress" and has received honours such as "National Model Collective for Ethnic Unity and Progress" at the State Council's sixth commendation.
Director of the office of the leading group for the mainland Xinjiang secondary vocational classes and head of the automobile department, Shenzhen No. 2 Vocational and Technical School — Lu Ruiman
As one of the founders of the Xinjiang department at Shenzhen No. 2 Vocational and Technical School, Lu Ruiman has led the school's mainland Xinjiang secondary vocational classes in upholding the "four especiallys" spirit (especially able to bear hardship, especially able to give, especially able to fight, especially able to persevere) and keeping in mind a motto of "twenty-one characters" (be upright in heart, dutiful in post, accomplished in profession, quick in action, grateful in return, wholehearted in feeling, effective in result). He has explored and shaped a new schooling model of "four grips on maintaining stability, four guarantees of service, five courses of moral education, five modernisations of teaching," which the higher education authorities have called the "four-four-five-five" schooling model for mainland Xinjiang secondary vocational classes, training batch after batch of fine skilled personnel to serve the "Belt and Road" and to build a beautiful, prosperous and harmonious Xinjiang.