In 2021, China published a guideline supporting Zhejiang Province s efforts to build a national example of common prosperity. Part of that guideline included reducing the gap between urban and rural areas. Our reporter Wu Bin visited a Zhejiang village in pursuit of common prosperity.  

Xinchuan village in eastern China s Zhejiang Province is surrounded by green mountains. More than 3,000 residents call it home. But just 20 years ago, its environment was nearly ruined by the storage battery industry.

ZHANG JINQUAN Xinchuan Village Resident  The river was stinky in the past, and it looked yellow. Not a single fish could be seen because of the factories upstream. 

WU BIN Xinchuan Village, Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province  In 2004, current Chinese President Xi Jinping, who was secretary of the Zhejiang CPC Provincial Committee at the time, visited a local battery factory and urged locals to walk on the road of sustainable development. 

Zhang Tianren, as the president of that factory, led a petition to shut down all polluting businesses in the area. But not everyone was happy with the petition.

ZHANG TIANREN President of Tianneng Co., NPC Deputy  Surely, there were obstacles in the process of closing polluting companies. In fact, some people were strongly against it because closing those companies meant cutting a huge amount of some people s incomes. Then, the government provided certain subsidies for the companies to help them get through difficult times before they successfully transformed to a greener development mode. 

Zhang started changing his own company too, making production at his company as green as possible. As the area s leading battery company, it partnered with the village to support the region s development.

WU BIN Xinchuan Village, Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province  As the company grew, there was an opening for other factories to produce the elements for the battery. What I m holding in my hand is a finished battery for an e-bike. Every element was made in those secondary factories in the village and finally assembled here. 

ZHANG TIANREN President of Tianneng Co., NPC Deputy  Now, there are still five to six hundred villagers working in our company. Some people participate in the household services industry, which also surrounds our main industry. And our secondaries factories also promoted employment of neighboring areas. So in total, our entire industry chain has created over 6,000 jobs.

The per-capita disposable income of the village has exceeded 150,000 yuan, about 24-thousand US dollars. and that s about five times higher compared to the national average. WB, CGTN, Xinchuan village, Zhejiang Province. 

来源：CGTN