LETTER FROM X'IAN:On the cusp of a major political career, Bai Yitong says she would prefer to enrich things as they are rather than change them, writes CLIFFORD COONAN
BAI Yitong, a rising star in the Chinese political galaxy, is fiddling with her mobile phone as she discusses her political ambitions in the world’s most populous nation.
With her hair tied back tightly, and her trendy hooded top, she is every inch the kind of confident young woman you see more and more of in contemporary China, but Bai, who turned 20 in December, is one of very few women in China who have negotiated their way in the political structure.
In January 2009, when she had just turned 18, Bai was elected village chief of Gaojie, a hamlet in the loess mountains of northern Shaanxi Province.
“It’s my dream since I was a little girl to be a successful woman. Some young people are lazy, but I feel terrible if I’ve nothing to do.
“When my father contacted me two years ago at college and asked me to stand as village chief in our ancestral home, I was moved. I had to agree,” she said.
The village has 321 families, with a total population of 1,217 now – 10 people have died since she was elected.
A small village by Chinese standards, but her election brought her huge attention in China, with widespread media coverage.
Gaojie is a first step in what is looking like a major political career.
Power in China is in the hands of the Communist Party, which takes its mandate from the 1949 election that brought the party to power. However, there is a limited amount of grassroots democracy in villages and towns, including the kind of elections that brought Bai to power.
“I had no idea that I would become a village chief. I had seen shows on TV about local officials and read books, so I figured I could bring good things to the village,” she said.
Behind her black-rimmed glasses, her eyes are sharp – her ambitions clearly stretch beyond Gaojie.
We are speaking in her room at a university in the regional capital of Xi’an, where Bai has been brought for a course in political studies.
“My dream is to take part in the National People’s Congress. I’ve not yet done enough to get there, but it’s definitely an ambition,” she said.
The election was an education in itself. She stood on an anti-corruption platform and won easily.
A gift of 1,100 pounds of coal, sponsored by her father, to every household also helped win hearts and minds.
“The people were happy because earlier village chiefs had abused their positions. My family is rich and at a high level in the village, and this is why people trust me, because they know I will not cheat them,” she said.
“I make all my own decisions. The first thing I did was to introduce village games, to encourage community feeling. That was a big success.
“Also I am trying to make sure that all the young people who have left the village to go and work in the cities can come home for Chinese new year. Most people are satisfied,” she said.
At the time of her election, Bai was not a member of the Communist Party, and she insists it is not necessary to join to do well in China.
That said, there are few cases of anyone reaching major positions of power in China without joining the party, and
Bai was fast-tracked into the party after her election, becoming a formal member in November 2009.
She has ambitions in the country’s ruling structure too, although she is careful to insist that her future ambitions depend very much on what the party requires.
“Next year I want to be leader of the local party and village chief combined. I want to be the person my society needs,” she said.
One of her major influences was her Chinese history teacher Zhou Zheng.
“He spent many years in a village during the cultural revolution, and he has a lot of memories. He pushed me to try and become village chief. He is very serious about everything in life.
“He always said: ‘Don’t try to do too many things, it’s better to do one thing well’.
“Nowadays so many people are too materialistic, but Mr Zhou is pure of heart,” she said.
“Love is enough, once there is enough food and clothes. I find a lot of pop music very empty, and when I want to find my spiritual side, I go back to the village,” she said.
That said, she is not immune to all popular culture – she loves Avril Lavigne and is a big fan of David Beckham.
Bai is a strong believer in President Hu Jintao’s “harmonious society” and is
not a reformer. Asked what changes she would like to see, she said that she would prefer to enrich things as they are rather than change them.
“I would like to develop policies for healthcare, bring in good things for farmers, and I would love to do more to help old people. Most of the people in my village are over 40, so I care a lot about how older people are doing.”
“My attitude to politics is that the current system is appropriate to China’s reality and that we can’t choose a system that doesn’t work for China,” she said.