She then became a member of the Secretariat of the Chinese Communist Party, thus officially ranked as a "national leader", and served as vice chair of the State Planning Commission.

In the People's Republic of China, she was extolled as a symbol of the ideal worker who improves production through innovation, and her political career benefited as a result.

[2][3] Having had only one year's education in primary school, she began applying for jobs at local cotton mills at the age of nine, and eventually entered the state-owned No.

She also studied the widespread problem of broken yarns, and discovered that breakage rate could be substantially reduced if the room was cleared of fluff.

Her innovation was officially dubbed the "Hao Jianxiu (Fine-Yarn) Work Method" and it was instituted in textile mills nationwide.

[1] In 1954, Hao joined the Chinese Communist Party and was awarded a scholarship to attend the Intensive High School for Workers and Peasants of Renmin University of China in Beijing, graduating in 1958.

[1] Unlike many other cadres who rose quickly during the Cultural Revolution, Hao's career was not adversely affected by its end in 1976,[1] and she continued to rise during Deng Xiaoping's reform era.