Migrant worker secured his position on merit

JU XIAOLIN, an ordinary technician without any title or rank in the bureaucratic system, was elected to be deputy chairperson of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions on Sunday, the first time such an appointment had been made in the history of the unions. That's a significant move for the organization and the whole country, says youth.cn on Monday:

Some have voiced suspicions about why Ju Xiaolin was elected to a vice-provincial level position when previously he was without any title in the bureaucratic system. Actually that's legal because the law does not specify only officials can be elected. Ju's might be a rare case, but it is not untoward.

A look at Ju's past record shows he merits the position. Coming from a remote village, he served first as a migrant worker. Yet he worked hard and participated in the construction work of more than a dozen key railway lines. During that time, he improved 43 construction skills that brought profits of more than 6 million yuan ($923,000). He holds nothing more than a high school diploma yet he authored a textbook published for his fellow technicians.