Aoyuan residential complex in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, which is home to about 8,600 residents, runs well thanks to the support of a Communist Party of China (CPC) committee.
Since 2013, the nine-member CPC committee has played the middleman, coordinating between residents, the developer, the property management firm and the government.
"We do things like help settle disputes," explained Han Exin, deputy secretary of the committee and the only full-time member of the CPC committee. The rest of his team work part-time and were selected from the 283 Party members living or working in the community.
The committee has achieved a lot for the community. One of the biggest successes, Han said, was a trash processing unit, which had the residents at loggerheads.
"No one wanted the unit near their building because of the smell," Han said.
The committee assigned CPC members to talk with every household so that an acceptable plan could be agreed upon. It coordinated with the developer to ensure the processing unit would be top of the range and inked a contract with the property management firm to ensure it was efficiently managed.
Guo Ziwen, chairman of the board of China Aoyuan Property Group, has to make time to sit on the Party committee, despite being busy running a large real estate firm. But he said it was worth it.
"Normally the developer is quick to leave the table once the property has been transferred to the tenants and the property management firm. There was no process by which we would all sit down and discuss any major problems. The Party committee has stepped into this role -- and proved to be quite efficient," Guo said.
The CPC Aoyuan community committee is the first of its kind in Guangdong Province.
The CPC is set to celebrate its 95th anniversary on July 1. For almost a century it has supported and maintained a far-reaching network spanning the country's urban sprawl right down to its tiny hamlets. However, as urbanization has exploded, the Party has been faced with the challenges brought about by this rapid change.
A real estate project like Aoyuan, where, despite being a "community," the tenants are mostly strangers, is uncharted waters for the CPC.
According to Han, the committee has assigned each apartment building a sub-committee. There are also sub-committees for migrant workers, the community dance troupe, a choir and a pool of volunteers.
The Party committee also maintains an active online presence including a website and various social media accounts, including WeChat, Weibo and QQ.
Meanwhile, in rural areas, the former stronghold of Party networking, the CPC is facing challenges as more and more villagers leave for cities.
This year, the CPC Central Committee launched a new education campaign, which focused on the study of the Party Constitution and rules and pledged to cover every branch in the Party's network and every member.
Party members in the Aoyuan community have been involved in the campaign through their Party committee.
Retiree Zhao Xuewen, who is the head of the community dance troupe, not only attended the study and reading sessions but also started a free weekly tailoring service with her fellow Party members, a project following the Party doctrine of "serving the people."
Dai Yanjun with the Party School of the CPC Central Committee, told Xinhua that the CPC has been fine tuning its networking methods as society has shifted.
"Close connections with the people is how the CPC will win the support of the people and rule China in the long run," Dai said.
