The recent national conference on Party building has systematically outlined the implementation of Xi Jinping's thought on Party building, emphasizing it as the fundamental guide for strengthening the Party in the new era. For the textile industry, this is not merely a political directive but an operational blueprint to transform organizational advantages into industrial competitiveness. Under multiple pressures—global supply chain restructuring, rising green barriers, and a sluggish domestic market—the principles of 'unified central leadership' and 'self-reform' embedded in this thought offer a logical path for the industry to escape low-end competition and ascend the value chain.
The Logic Loop of Policy Transmission and Industrial Resilience
Xi Jinping's thought on Party building asserts that 'the key to China's affairs lies in the Party,' a claim with concrete manifestations in the textile sector. Over the past five years, while China has maintained its position as the world's largest textile exporter, profit margins have continued to shrink, with the average profit rate of enterprises above designated size standing at only 3.8% in 2023, well below the manufacturing average. The root cause lies in a long-standing structural weakness: over 90% of enterprises are small or medium-sized, lacking collaborative innovation mechanisms. The Party building principle of 'centralized unified leadership' translates at the industrial level into coordinated governance among trade associations, leading enterprises, and small factories. For instance, Shengze Town implemented a 'Party building + industrial chain' model, integrating over 2,000 weaving enterprises into a unified quality and environmental standard. This raised the local fabric pass rate from 82% in 2019 to 96% in 2023, while reducing energy consumption per unit of output by 14%. This demonstrates that Party leadership is a key lever to break the 'everyone for themselves' dilemma and enhance the systemic resilience of the industry.
From 'Never Forget the Original Intention' to Green Transformation
The requirement to 'never forget the original intention and keep the mission firmly in mind' aligns closely with the textile industry's ongoing green transition. Public industry data show that the dyeing and printing segment accounts for approximately 70% of the sector's wastewater discharge, while global buyers are increasingly scrutinizing supply chain carbon footprints. In response, the Keqiao dyeing cluster adopted a 'Party building + environmental protection' approach, with local Party committees leading the formation of green technology task forces. This drove 178 dyeing enterprises to complete water reuse retrofits, raising the reuse rate from 45% in 2018 to 78% in 2023, saving water equivalent to the volume of two West Lakes annually. This is not mere administrative command; it involves Party organizations coordinating research institutes, equipment suppliers, and factories to materialize the 'serve the people' principle into concrete pollution control targets. For buyers, this implies that in the future, whether a supplier holds a 'Party-building-driven green certification' may become a more reliable indicator of credibility than standard ISO certifications.
Self-Reform: Forcing Technological Breakthroughs in Textiles
The spirit of 'self-reform' inherent in 'comprehensive and strict Party governance' finds industrial expression in the proactive elimination of inefficient capacity. Data from the National Bureau of Statistics show that in 2023, fixed-asset investment in the textile industry fell by 2.1% year-on-year, but investment in high-performance fibers within the chemical fiber sector surged by 23%. This contrast reveals a trend: guided by Party building thought, local governments are using stricter energy efficiency and environmental standards to phase out obsolete capacity, forcing enterprises to shift toward technology-intensive models. In Nantong's home textile cluster, for example, a 'Party organization leadership + leading enterprise breakthrough' model was used to overcome production technology for high-end filament yarn, reducing the import dependency of domestic ultra-fine denier polyester filament from 70% in 2018 to 35% in 2023. This process was not market-driven but resulted from the rigid execution of the 'technological self-reliance' strategy by grassroots Party organizations.