On the 105th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, the textile industry has seen a wave of red-themed activities. While the sector faces slowing export growth and uneven domestic recovery, leading firms like Shenghong, Weiqiao, and Tongkun are pouring resources into party-building events. This is not mere political gesture; it signals a strategic shift from scale expansion to high-quality development, where party-building becomes a tool for navigating cycles, retaining talent, and addressing global challenges.
Party Building Embedded in the Supply Chain: From Slogans to Governance Gears
At Shenghong Holding Group's June 30 conference, party secretary Miao Hangen proposed a 'four-combination' framework: integrating party-building with business operations, management optimization, work style, and talent cultivation. This directly targets textile enterprises' pain points: decision-making efficiency, organizational rigidity, and talent drain. With Shenghong's 2024 revenue exceeding 400 billion yuan but profit margins in chemical fiber as low as 2%, reducing management redundancy is critical. By leveraging party-building to enhance organizational discipline, the group essentially converts political mobilization into production mobilization.
Erdos Group's practice is even more illustrative. The cashmere giant operates 13 party committees, 8 general branches, 92 branches, and 1,956 members, covering the entire value chain from raw material procurement to retail. Its PVC innovation team won the Inner Mongolia Youth May Fourth Medal, and the knitting factory branch was named a regional 'Fortress' branch. These accolades reflect deep integration of party-building with innovation incentives. For an industry where innovation often means process improvement rather than breakthrough tech, party cells provide a grassroots organizational vehicle.
Dasheng Group's historical depth adds another layer. As one of China's earliest modern textile mills, its Nantong Independent Party Branch was founded in 1926, marking a century this year. Party secretary Bao Weidong tasked branch secretaries with becoming 'cultural storytellers,' blending Zhang Jian's entrepreneurial spirit, red genes, craftsmanship, and patriotism. This cultural asset activation holds universal value for heritage textile firms: in a zero-sum market, brand premium increasingly depends on narrative, and party-building offers the most authentic narrative foundation.
Red Study Tours and Industrial Breakthroughs: From 'Zunyi Spirit' to 'Tongkun Methodology'
Tongkun Group organized over 650 party members for a red study tour to Zunyi in June, with CEO Chen Shiliang and party secretary Xu Jinxiang in attendance. The company's spirit—'unity, hard work, pragmatism, innovation'—was directly likened to the Long March spirit. This is not hollow rhetoric. Tongkun's polyester filament output surpassed 10 million tons in 2024, but industry average capacity utilization is only 70%, with heavy inventory pressure. In a capacity-shedding cycle, what firms need most is 'unity,' and the red study tour effectively served as high-density communication between executives and frontline members.
At Hongdou Group, party secretary Zhou Haijiang used the four dimensions of Yan'an spirit—correct political direction, seeking truth from facts, serving the people, and self-reliance—to chart development paths. For this private enterprise, the 'self-reliance' dimension directly addresses supply chain autonomy amid trade frictions. Hongdou's industrial park in Cambodia exemplifies the convergence of 'going global' and 'political direction.'
Weiqiao's choral gala, attended by 2,000 employees, is more than a cultural event. For the world's largest cotton textile firm with over 100,000 workers, collective rituals strengthen identity and reduce turnover, a critical issue amid rising labor costs and recruitment difficulties.