How should young people find their path in this era? The youth within China's central state-owned enterprises are providing a resounding answer through their actions.
On the path to promoting high-quality economic development, a group of bold and enterprising young people are dedicating themselves to the vast fields of new energy, new industries, and new equipment. Their footprints are left in the depths of the Gobi, on the front lines of research, and within manufacturing plants, allowing the flowers of youth to take root and bloom where the nation needs them most.
**Anchoring Youth's Course with Purposeful Choices**
Choices often determine one's future direction. For some young people, it is precisely the choice to train at the grassroots level that has given their lives a clear course.
In Santanghu Town, Barkol Kazakh Autonomous County, Hami City, Xinjiang, hundreds of wind turbines stand in rows across the seemingly endless Gobi desert, with dark photovoltaic panels shimmering like the sea. This is the country's first desert and Gobi new energy transmission base – a large-scale wind and solar power base on the northern slopes of the Tianshan Mountains in Xinjiang. New energy installations here account for over 70% of the total, and it can transmit more than 21.6 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity to Chongqing annually. When construction began in 2023, the area was uninhabited for dozens of kilometers.
That year, dozens of university graduates from across the country packed their bags and ventured into the desert, forming a youth task force for the desert and Gobi base project. Their average age is only 28, but they all made the same choice: to advance westward and shoulder the responsibility of safeguarding national energy security.
"We knew it would be tough, we knew it would be hard work, but the sweat we shed can contribute to ensuring national energy security. We find it worthwhile," said Ma Zijian, a member of the youth task force from Huadian Xinjiang Company's subsidiary, Xinjiang Huadian Tianshan Power Generation Co., Ltd.
By the end of 2025, China's cumulative installed capacity of wind and solar power is projected to exceed 1.8 billion kilowatts. The transformation of the new energy industry is profoundly reshaping the global energy landscape and supply chain system, generating employment demand across the entire chain from planning and design, equipment manufacturing to construction, and operation and maintenance. More young people, like the members of the youth task force, are finding their path to realizing personal value on the front lines of energy supply.
Aiming high with a national perspective ensures a steady and far-reaching journey. For young people, the grassroots level is precisely where they can realize themselves and dedicate their passion.
**Riding the Momentum: Expanding Stages for Growth with Opportunity**
As industrial upgrading and national strategic layouts continue to advance, the landscape at the grassroots level is undergoing profound changes. Positions that were once rarely sought after are now becoming hubs for new technologies and industries, opening vast arenas for young talent to showcase their abilities.
Looking back today, members of the "post-90s" Luo Yang Youth Task Force for hydrogen-powered drones at AVIC Chengdu Aircraft Industrial (Group) Co., Ltd. admit that everything has exceeded their initial expectations.
"We started exploring simply because the domestic hydrogen-powered drone field was a blue ocean. We never imagined this long-endurance, silent hybrid hydrogen-powered drone could truly reach productization, let alone that we would encounter the wave of the low-altitude economy," said Tang Peng, a team member and graduate of the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China.
Starting from scratch in 2022 to explore hydrogen power technology, they have now developed a product-level drone integrating hydrogen, lithium battery, and solar power – a "tri-energy" system. They have set a domestic record of 30 consecutive hours of flight for a long-endurance, silent hybrid hydrogen-powered drone.
Today, their drones are not only making significant contributions in domestic fields like forest patrol but have also become a shining "Chinese name card" on the track of the low-altitude economy.
With favorable winds as their wings, they soar to great heights. As the Luo Yang Youth Task Force sends hydrogen-powered aircraft into the sky time and again, they themselves are riding the spring breeze of the times.
According to predictions from the Civil Aviation Administration of China, the market size of China's low-altitude economy is expected to exceed 35 trillion yuan by 2035. Below a thousand meters, opportunities are limitless. This blue ocean of employment is opening its arms to young people, waiting for them to explore infinite possibilities in a vast world.
**Forged in Fire: Cultivating Solid Skills Through Perseverance**
The grassroots front line has always been the best classroom for honing talent and forging key personnel. By settling down, immersing themselves in their posts, enduring solitude, and delving deep into research, young people are precisely tempering solid skills through day-in, day-out perseverance.
In the heavy-duty gas turbine manufacturing workshop located in Deyang, Sichuan, the precision casting production line operates around the clock. Young members of the Dongfang Turbine precision casting technology team repeatedly optimize parameters to ensure the turbine blades of heavy-duty gas turbines can withstand the challenges of high temperature, high pressure, high speed, and high corrosion during operation.
"The turbine blade is the core component of a gas turbine. Previously, we were constrained by foreign technology. Its technology is complex, the precision casting process is long, and over 160 influencing factors are intertwined. We had to find the optimal solution amidst contradictions," said team member Zhang Qiongyuan.
Upon learning that Dongfang Electric Group was establishing a laboratory in Deyang to tackle critical "bottleneck" technologies, a group of motivated young graduates from universities like Tsinghua University, Northwestern Polytechnical University, and Xi'an Jiaotong University flocked to join. For over a decade since, they have dedicated their youthful passion to laboratories and workshops, determined to overcome this challenge in the equipment manufacturing industry.
After more than ten years of relentless research, in 2020, the country's first independently developed F-class 50-megawatt heavy-duty gas turbine (G50) achieved full-load operation for the first time. In 2023, this model successfully connected to the grid for power generation, officially entering commercial operation.
Zhang Qiongyuan still remembers the day the G50 achieved full-load operation; team members embraced each other in tears. Since then, news of various awards has followed one after another.
"It was as if a breath we had been holding in our chests was finally released. For researchers, there's nothing more fulfilling than seeing your own research bear fruit," he said.
A strong youth makes for a strong nation; capable youth drives powerful development.
From mega-projects laying a solid foundation for development to technological breakthroughs opening future tracks, from safeguarding people's livelihoods and protecting the well-being of millions to serving the broader picture and fulfilling missions, central state-owned enterprises shoulder significant responsibilities and build platforms. They attract wave after wave of young students to devote themselves to the grassroots and pursue their dreams, writing a youthful answer on the questionnaire of the times – one that is worthy of their prime years and their mission.
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