A screenshot from a live stream of He Jiaolong, director of the agricultural products brand development and production-sales service center of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, who passed away on January 14, 2026.

He Jiaolong, an internet-famous official from Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region who gained wide acclaim for promoting local tourism and agricultural products via social media, passed away in a horse-riding accident in January. She has posthumously been conferred the title of outstanding member of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in the Xinjiang, Xinjiang Daily reported on Monday. 

Born in 1979, she worked as the director of the agricultural product brand development and production-marketing service center of the Xinjiang. She fell off a horse during filming for an agricultural e-commerce promotion event in Bole. She had been given numerous honors, including the Awards of March 8th Red-Banner Holder, 2022 figure of the year in agriculture, rural areas and farmers, and outstanding regional worker, according to the report. 

He Jiaolong was loyal to the Party and firm in her convictions, deeply devoted to her cause and profoundly committed to the people. She has made outstanding contributions to advancing all-round rural revitalization, promoting the integrated development of culture and tourism and strengthening ethnic unity. She was a model of devotion to grassroots work and a life dedicated to the frontier regions.  

Working long hours and often at personal risk, she pioneered the use of short-video platforms and livestreaming to promote local products, turning online traffic into tangible benefits for people's livelihoods. Her efforts helped boost tourist arrivals and tourism revenue in Zhaosu county by more than 30 percent and 25 percent annually, while elevating Xinjiang's agricultural brands to national prominence.

A total of 239 regional agricultural brands have been consolidated into 10 major product clusters, generating cumulative sales surpassing 500 billion yuan. She also organized more than 500 livestreams and spearheaded charitable initiatives that raised over 11 million yuan for disaster relief, poverty alleviation and rural infrastructure.

Party members and officials across Xinjiang are urged to take He as a role model by learning from her loyalty to the Party, firm ideals, and strong sense of responsibility.

In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic when agricultural produce in her hometown of Zhaosu was stranded, He, then serving as a deputy county head, took an unconventional step: She turned to livestreaming to promote sales — an approach then unfamiliar to her and unusual for a government official, according to the Xinhua News Agency. 

Also on Monday, Xinjiang Daily published a report commemorating He, reviewing her life and work, and detailing the challenges she faced when pioneering livestreaming to promote local tourism and agricultural products. The report provided details of the accident on January 11 that claimed her life, including that she insisted on calling the filming team to finish the shoot after she fell from the horse and that she underwent two craniotomy surgeries after being transferred to hospital.

The phrase "He Jiaolong, who fulfilled a people-centered mission with her life," was included in this year's Xinjiang government work report released on January 27, reflecting strong official recognition of her character and contributions, as well as a positive response to public sentiment, according to Xinjiang Daily.

After news of He's passing, many netizens took to social media to mourn. While some expressed sorrow over her untimely death, others paid tribute to her contribution to agriculture. Numerous netizens praised her as "a true public servant of the people."