Ma Huijuan is a grassroots writer and deputy to the 14th National People's Congress (NPC). Originally from the countryside of Northwest China's Ningxia Hui autonomous region, Ma recalls how the poverty-alleviation policy has changed her life over the decades.

Ma dropped out of school to help her parents make ends meet in a small mountain village in the Xihaigu area of Ningxia Hui autonomous region in the autumn of 1996. The then 16-year-old girl thought that she would never have a chance to escape the mountain village in her lifetime.

However, things began to change for the better, following a poverty alleviation survey in Xihaigu by Xi Jinping, then deputy secretary of the Fujian Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and head of the Fujian leading group for paired-up assistance to Ningxia, in April 1997.

Xi was distressed by the impoverished living conditions of the local people and was determined to promote paired-up assistance between the two regions, which are more than 2,000 kilometers apart. Over the past 26 years, Xi has visited Xihaigu four times, making painstaking efforts to alleviate poverty and support the region's development.

"I didn't expect that more than 20 years later, I'd become a deputy to the NPC, sitting in the Great Hall of the People as a representative of Ningxia to exercise State power. This era has given me a new life," Ma said.

Ma recalled that all the households in her village were successively moved to a village in Hongsibu town, Wuzhong city in central Ningxia, a place with better ecological environment. The relocation opened a new "window" for Ma and completely changed her life. It also helped turn her dream of being a writer into a reality.

Ma Huijuan, a deputy to the 14th National People's Congress. [Photo/npc.gov.cn]

The life of Ma and her family continued to improve after they contracted a piece of farmland and started doing some odd jobs. Starting from 2010, Ma began to write essays about the life of her family and neighboring villagers and their efforts to promote rural development and vitalization, uploading them on social media platforms.

Her prose, novels, and reports have been published on various platforms, such as People's Daily and Prose Digest, and have attracted much attention. Her books, such as The Whispers of Streams and Winds and Hope Grows in the Earth, are popular with readers.

NPC deputy Ma Huijuan (center) receives a press interview at an NPC deputies' passage during the fifth session of the 13th NPC in Beijing in March 2022. [Photo/Xinhua]

In 2018, 38-year-old Ma was elected a deputy to the 13th NPC. Coming from a once poverty-stricken village, the farmer-turned NPC deputy has maintained her pristine nature and kept close contact with fellow villagers. She has continued to voice their concerns and expectations through suggestions at the NPC annual sessions.

"The lives of villagers in Hongsibu have undergone tremendous changes over the past 20 years and there are good experiences that can be shared,” Ma said, recommending that it be made a national demonstration area for resettlement and prosperity promotion.

In the past six years, the lawmaker has submitted a number of suggestions on upgrading grassroots medical services, enhancing the protection of traditional folk culture, and strengthening the cultural education of adults.

She said that thanks to the suggestions submitted by the Ningxia delegation in 2018, the Yinchuan-Xi'an high-speed railway was officially opened to traffic at the end of 2020, and the subsidy policy on returning farmland to forests was extended, bringing tangible benefits to local villagers.

In 2023, Ma was elected a deputy to the 14th NPC. Over the past six years as an NPC deputy, Ma has met lawmakers from all walks of life and has joined them in voicing the aspirations and appeals of various groups for a better life at the annual sessions.

A notebook copy of the report on the work of the NPC Standing Committee delivered at the first session of the 14th NPC recorded by Ma Huijuan. [Photo/npc.gov.cn]

As her performance of duties continues as an NPC deputy, Ma feels more keenly the superiority and vitality of the system of people's congresses in China. "My story is not a legend as some people might say. It is a reflection of the superiority of the socialist system under the CPC leadership," she noted.

"As long as you have made achievements in the country's development, our Party and country, and the system of people's congresses will give you a chance to shine, to participate in and witness the development of the country," she added.

"The system of people's congresses is the most direct platform for implementing the Party's original aspiration and mission of seeking happiness for the people and rejuvenation for the nation," said the NPC deputy from Ningxia.