Once laid-off, Song Ying's life experience, full of ups and downs, has earned her a chance to attend China's major national meeting this year.
The mould worker, 48, from Guixi Huatai Copper Industry Company, was just elected by around 50,000 Communist Party of China (CPC) members in Yingtan city, eastern China's Jiangxi Province, as a national delegate candidate to the 19th CPC National Congress.
Her nomination, which still needs to be reviewed, does not affect her everyday work, developing new moulds in the workshop.
Nationwide, a total of 2,300 delegates will be elected before June to represent China's 88 million CPC members to take part in the national congress.
The meeting, slated for the second half of the year in Beijing, will discuss and set the future direction for the Party and state, as well as elect a new central leadership.
"I didn't expect so many people to trust and elect me. I'm very grateful," said Song, who became a CPC member five years ago.
People placed their trust in her for various reasons. At the age of 33, she was laid off from a brewery where she worked for 16 years, but pulled herself together to find a job as a warehouse keeper in a copper firm.
Song wanted more, and she pushed herself to become a skilled mould worker, learning from colleagues.
Over the past decade, she has led a team to develop new technologies, creating a profit of more than 30 million yuan (around 4 million U.S. dollars) for the previously loss-making factory.
The CPC national congress takes place once every five years. The delegates are not full-time and come from all walks of life: state leaders, officials, workers, farmers and teachers.
The upcoming session will see a higher percentage of grassroots delegates working on the frontline like Song.
These frontline workers should account for no less than one-third of the delegates, representing provincial level regions, the central financial sector and centrally-administered enterprises in Beijing, which increased by 1.33, 13.3 and 1.33 percentage points respectively, compared to the 18th CPC National Congress.
Governments at various levels put forward that Party officials, front-line workers, women and those from ethnic groups should account for a certain proportion of the total.
Meanwhile, excellent Party members making outstanding contribution to reforms, technological innovation and poverty alleviation should also be recommended.
As a migrant worker contributing to poverty relief, Yu Dechun has been nominated as a candidate delegate in Shuizi township, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province.
Yu, 45, has helped many women in the township find jobs related to housekeeping services in cities, increasing their annual income by 8,500 yuan per capita.
More focus on grassroots delegates represents a change in Party membership. Party authorities approved 1.965 million new candidates in 2015, of whom 977,000 were frontline workers, such as industrial employees, farmers, herders and migrants.
"The rising number of frontline delegates can better reflect the views of Party members and cement public support for the Party," said Chu Xiaotao, deputy head of organization department of Yingtan city.
