"General Secretary, this is our second handshake!"

On July 17, 2015, General Secretary Xi Jinping came to CRRC Changchun Rail Bus Co., Ltd. to inspect the high-speed EMU assembly production line. In the assembly workshop, welder Li Wanjun shook hands with the General Secretary excitedly. This is the second time he has seen the General Secretary. It has only been more than two months since the last meeting.

Turn back to more than two months ago, the International Labor Day celebration of May 1st and the National Conference on Commendation of National Model Workers and Advanced Workers was held in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. In a solemn and warm atmosphere, Li Wanjun, as a representative of national model workers and advanced workers, read out the proposal. At the meeting, the General Secretary personally awarded him a certificate of honor.

Li Wanjun read out the initiative on behalf of national model workers and advanced workers. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Ju Peng

"The moment I received the certificate from the General Secretary, I felt a heavy responsibility and responsibility. As a technical worker, I will work hard and contribute to China's high-speed rail cause." Li Wanjun recalled the scene at that time, and his words were full of persistence in his mission.

"High-speed rail is a bright business card for my country's equipment manufacturing and has become a 'hot product' of my country's foreign economic and technological cooperation. We must seize the opportunity and take advantage of the momentum." Li Wanjun is not only a listener, but also a key player in the high-speed rail from introduction, digestion, absorption and then independent innovation.

When talking about the difficulties of trying the bogie ring of the brake unit, Li Wanjun's words still exudes a sense of unyielding power: "When foreign experts saw it, they said 'No! No!', saying that we couldn't weld it, and there were too many defects."

It was in 2007. As the sixth major speed-up model of the national railway, the EMU was trial-produced by CRRC Changke. The contact ring between the cross beam of the train bogie and the side beam, this seemingly ordinary but extremely critical component, carries about 50 tons of the entire vehicle and is the core stress point for the train to operate safely and at high speed. According to conventional welding methods, due to the large number of welding sections, serious defects of non-fusion are prone to occur at the joints, and the quality cannot be guaranteed at all. For a time, this problem became a "stumbling block" on the production road.

However, Li Wanjun firmly believed: "Chinese welders must be able to do the work that foreigners can do." In the days that followed, he plunged into the welding workshop and embarked on a difficult journey of exploration on the workbench full of welding materials and tools. After continuous research, he successfully overcomes technical difficulties and explores the "seven-step operation method for ring-mouth welding". This "unique skill" that surprised foreign experts very much solved the key problems that restrict the mass production of "Harmony".

CRRC Changshi EMU Assembly Production Line. Photo by Ren Jiahui, People's Daily

Time flies in a blink of an eye, and 2015 is coming. CRRC Changke has ushered in a new challenge - trial production of my country's first domestically produced standard EMU with completely independent intellectual property rights. The "Fuxing" EMU is designed and operated at 350 kilometers per hour, representing the highest speed of the world's commercial high-speed EMU. Its technical difficulty and strict process requirements are unprecedented. What's even more difficult is that in this field, there is no mature foreign technology to learn from, and everything depends on your own exploration.

Faced with such a arduous task, Li Wanjun stepped forward again and led the team to shoulder the heavy responsibilities. After countless failures and improvements, they have successfully broken through many key technical problems such as irregular welds of bogie side beam torsion rod seats, and summarized a set of efficient and scientific operating techniques, providing solid guarantees for the on-time production of the "Fuxing".

Li Wanjun who is working. Photo provided by CRRC Changke

Short after General Secretary inspected CRRC Changke, Li Wanjun met with the General Secretary twice at the Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, intellectuals, model workers and youth representatives.

Recalling the General Secretary’s care for workers on different occasions, Li Wanjun sighed a lot: "The General Secretary said that no matter what the technical content of the labor he is engaged in, as long as he is diligent in learning, good at practicing, and diligent in his work, he will definitely be able to create a shining life. This gives us craftsmen full affirmation and great encouragement."

In 2019, Li Wanjun was awarded the honorary title of "Craftsman of the Great Power" by the All-China Federation of Trade Unions. The skill improvement craftsman class he established has trained tens of thousands of welders.

Talking about his expectations for his disciples, Li Wanjun's eyes were firm and his tone was full of earnestness: "I hope that these disciples can continue to improve their skills and grow into independent craftsmen in the future!" In his words, he conveyed the sincere expectations of an industry leader for his descendants and his persistent belief in inheriting craftsmanship. (Ren Jiahui)