Zhang Guimei waves to children upon her arrival at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Tuesday. Zhang is the principal of a senior high school in Lijiang, Yunnan province, that offers free education to girls from impoverished families. (PHOTO / XINHUA)
It was with a sense of solemnity and awe that I witnessed Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, conferring the July 1 Medal on the honorees on Tuesday.
The process also had grandeur and at times was emotionally touching.
Before the ceremony, the recipients of the medal were received with courtesy on par with that given to visiting heads of state: a motorcycle escort, a warm welcome from pupils waving bouquets and rolling out of the red carpet.
They also arrived, side by side with Xi, at the Great Hall of the People, a place that has also seen the president conferring the Friendship Medal on Russian President Vladimir Putin and presenting the Medal of the Republic to honorees such as the "Father of Hybrid Rice" Yuan Longping and Nobel Prize winner Tu Youyou.
Many of the recipients arrived at the hall in wheelchairs, some being attended to by a close relative. Some of the medals were conferred posthumously. Chen Hongjun, commander of a People's Liberation Army infantry battalion, died in a border conflict with India in 2020 and Huang Wenxiu, a college graduate who led poverty alleviation efforts, lost her life in a flash flood in 2019.
But all the medal recipients share one common characteristic: They are all ordinary Party members making extraordinary achievements in their everyday lives and work.
A motorcade carrying July 1 Medal honorees is escorted by motorcyclists to the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Tuesday. A ceremony was held in the morning to award the July 1 Medal to outstanding Party members. (PHOTO / XINHUA)
They come from various occupations, different ethnic groups and diverse education backgrounds. And during the ceremony they all struck me with their modesty, simplicity and down-to-earth manner.
Ai Aiguo, 71, is a welder who became a leading figure in his profession and tackled hundreds of technological challenges through five decades of dedicated work.
"I have been a front-line worker for 53 years. I see welding as a source of joy. I will continue to work on the front line as long as my company keeps me there," he told me.
Ting Bater, born in 1955, has spent more than 40 years improving the lives of people in an impoverished village in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region. "It is an honor that belongs to the CPC members from my region. Many Party members at the grassroots are equally hardworking, and I am only here on their behalf," he told me in a calm voice.
Some winners of the July 1 Medal have received less recognition in the media for seemingly having undistinguished titles and positions. However, they are heroic in a way that truly explains what a CPC member is.
The timing of the event, two days ahead of the 100th anniversary of the Party's founding, is significant.
The CPC wrote in its charter that members of the Party will forever be ordinary working people, and they must wholeheartedly serve the people.
The ceremony, the list of honorees and what they have accomplished, best exemplify that statement, and the character of the Party.