Textile Industry Embraces Party Building: From Red Genes to Industrial Competitiveness

Around July 1, 2025, over a dozen leading enterprises under the China National Textile and Apparel Council simultaneously launched Party-building activities, covering industrial belts from the Yangtze River Delta to Inner Mongolia. Companies including Shenghong Holding Group, Weiqiao Pioneering Group, Erdos Group, Dasheng Group, Hongdou Group, Dali Silk, Tongkun Group, Hengli Group, Anhui Huamao, and Yueda Textile held award ceremonies, red-education tours, themed party lectures, and cultural performances. This phenomenon is not merely ceremonial but signals a deeper industry shift—as external market volatility intensifies, firms are turning inward to mine management and cultural dividends.

Deep Integration of Party Building and Strategy: From 'Red Classroom' to 'Decision Engine'

At Shenghong's June 30 conference, Party Secretary Miao Hangen proposed a 'four-in-one' framework: integrating Party building with business, management system optimization, work style construction, and talent development. This is not empty rhetoric; it embeds Party organizational structures into corporate governance. Erdos Group demonstrated organizational density with 13 Party committees, 8 general branches, 92 branches, and 1,956 members. For a group with annual revenues in the tens of billions, such a network means information transmission and execution have capillary-level penetration. At Hongdou Group, Party Secretary Zhou Haijiang directly translated the four dimensions of Yan'an Spirit—correct political direction, seeking truth from facts, serving the people, and hard struggle—into corporate development principles. This transformation logic shows that top firms no longer treat Party building as a separate task but as a management tool to unify values and reduce internal transaction costs.

Historical Legacy and Industrial Resilience: Dasheng's Centennial Answer

Dasheng Group's case is unique. On June 27, it commemorated the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Nantong Independent Party Branch at Dasheng Cotton Mill. Dasheng, founded by Zhang Jian, is one of the birthplaces of China's modern textile industry. Chairman Bao Weidong noted that Dasheng's spirit encompasses Zhang Jian's entrepreneurship, red genes, craftsmanship, and patriotism. For century-old firms, Party building is not just a current management need but a continuation of industrial lineage. Amid overcapacity and order outflows, this historical identity can translate into workers' professional pride and stability, indirectly reducing turnover.

From Ceremony to Impact: How Party Building Affects Procurement and Production

For buyers and foreign trade firms, these activities may seem unrelated to orders but release important signals. First, firms with solid Party building typically have strong management and compliance, offering higher supply chain stability. Hengli Group set up 'Party Member Pioneer Posts' and 'Model Party Member Posts,' meaning key processes have backbone members overseeing quality, reducing fluctuation risk. Second, Tongkun Group sent over 650 members to Zunyi for a red-education tour, with Chairman Chen Shiliang and Party Secretaries Xu Jinxiang and Chen Lei attending. Such high-level collective outings indicate strong strategic consensus among decision-makers, potentially faster responses to market changes. Third, Dali Silk combined red themes with silk cultural products, launching red-themed silk textiles. This is not just a Party activity but product innovation—converting cultural IP into high-value-added fabrics, attractive to brand buyers.

Regional Differentiation and Convergence

Geographically, participating firms cluster in Jiangsu (Shenghong, Hengli, Dasheng, Hongdou, Yueda), Zhejiang (Tongkun, Dali Silk), Shandong (Weiqiao), Inner Mongolia (Erdos), and Anhui (Huamao)—all traditional textile strongholds. Notably, Erdos in Inner Mongolia shows no significant difference in Party-building investment from Shenghong or Hengli in Jiangsu, indicating that top firms have transcended regional limits in management modernization. However, small and medium enterprises have not broadly followed suit, suggesting accelerated polarization: firms with robust Party building may gain hidden advantages in compliance, financing, and recruitment, while those ignoring this dimension may lose customer trust.

Practical Recommendations

For Buyers - Include suppliers' Party-building systems in compliance assessments, focusing on whether they have Party member pioneer posts and regular red-education tours. Such firms typically have more transparent management and higher employee stability. - Explore Party-theme derivative fabrics, such as Dali Silk's red silk products, which combine cultural narrative with practical value, ideal for brand collaborations or limited editions. - Prioritize cooperation with firms where the Party committee is deeply involved in operations, like Tongkun's high-level collective study model, indicating strategic alignment and lower delivery risk.

For Foreign Trade Enterprises - Actively showcase Party-building achievements in client factory audits, such as 'Two Excellence and One First' awards and Party member ratios, as CSR evidence in international compliance reviews. - Emulate Hongdou's method of converting Yan'an Spirit into management standards, systematizing and visualizing internal values to reduce cross-cultural trust costs. - Use collective study tours during Party activities to build informal communication channels with upstream suppliers, like Tongkun's Zunyi tour, facilitating long-term supply agreements in a relaxed setting.