FOUR COMMENTS ON DOING GOOD WORK WITH CADRES1
MARCH 9, 1991
Discussions of the past few days have left some impressions on me about work with cadres and about four issues in particular.
1. The Training, Selection, and Assessment of Cadres
The Central Committee has very high hopes for Shanghai. While he was in Shanghai, [Deng] Xiaoping asked us to do faster, better, and bolder work. Looking back at the past few years, primarily when it was under the direct leadership of Jiang Zemin, work in Shanghai progressed quite well and the situation became very good. Although we encountered some difficulties, we also had countermeasures. It seems now that the key to doing faster, better, and bolder work lies in our cadres—cadres are the decisive factor. The ideology, leadership, and particularly the macroeconomic management of Shanghai’s cadres are still not at a high enough level to meet the needs of our development. As we carry out Party work, we must therefore shift the emphasis to training, selecting, and assessing cadres.
We’re already late in doing this, and if we still don’t focus on it, we’ll regret it in the future. It would also cause irreparable damage to our work. Shanghai people are very clever: they can be very calculating and they run their own little households very well, but they don’t care what goes on outside their homes; they’re very capable but also good at passing the buck. They can be very systematic in listing other people’s shortcomings but make no strict demands of themselves, so that all their energies are neutralized. They’re like a basket full of crabs, biting into each other so that nobody can move. Perhaps we aren’t quite that bad, but if I claw at you and you claw at me, we’ll at least move more slowly.
Why are we not as good in attracting and utilizing foreign investment as Guangdong, Fujian, Dalian, and Qingdao, perhaps not even as good as other provinces and municipalities? It’s because you’re tied down by 126 chops. If a single chop is missing, the project can’t be brought in [from abroad]. Add to that a lot of interpersonal relations, a reluctance to concede anything to each other, and low efficiency, and many things become delayed. In short, to do good work in Shanghai, we must focus on cadres. Many of you here are fast approaching retirement age—we must have an idea of who will take over from us. Our cadres should have a firm Marxist orientation and a command of dialectical ways to work and think; they should be liberated in their thinking, have a mastery of their work, dare to pioneer, assume individual responsibility, and be bold in decisionmaking. I hope that you will treat the training, selection, and assessment of cadres as an important task and focus on it.
As we reform and open up, we must be diligent in studying and absorbing advanced technologies and experiences in scientific management from foreign countries. To build a socialist economic system with Chinese characteristics, we must absorb several thousand years of human history, including all the good things from several centuries of capitalist development, and use these for socialism. The one thing that absolutely must not be changed is the system of public ownership—we can identify and choose from other economic forms according to our needs. Maintaining public ownership can prevent great gaps between the rich and the poor and prevent polarization. As cadres in leadership positions, if we are to further demonstrate the superiority of socialism, we will need some courage and dare to explore. We must be prepared to fail in the course of exploration, but it’s unimportant if we fail.
The coming decade will be a crucial one. If our economy can flourish, if various institutions can get on track and form a socialist economic system with Chinese characteristics, then our socialism will be firmly grounded and we will be able to develop quite rapidly in the next century. To achieve this, we must study. We say we should have courage and a pioneering spirit, but this all presupposes the necessary knowledge. If you’re ignorant, if you know nothing, how can you pioneer? There are still many things we don’t know. We must go everywhere to listen and ask, talk to people, and learn from them.
I raised the issue of training cadres as soon as I arrived in Shanghai in 1988, asking that we centralize all cadre training in the city, but nothing much came out of this over the past three years. Now we have to focus on this again. I’d like Shi Tao2 to send me a list of 100 bureau-level cadres—they should be about 40 years old. If we can cultivate 100 entrepreneurs within 5 or 10 years, there’ll be hope for Shanghai’s economy. Shanghai must train a group of entrepreneurs if it is to become an international city that reforms and opens up. Also, it must train a group of people who specialize in engaging with foreigners. If Shanghai is to utilize foreign investment and attract foreign businessmen, it must have people who know how to do this. In addition, we need a group of people who are familiar with urban administration, who understand the problems of the major cities of the world and how these are solved. They must have this knowledge and fully understand urban administration. Current management standards in Shanghai are too low—the handling of garbage, for example, requires a lot of know-how. There are methods for managing a great city, and we must definitely acquire this expertise.
Of course the Party’s leading cadres are the most important ones to nurture: they must be farsighted, quite well-versed in Marxism, able to identify problems, and ready to ensure that socialism will never change its colors. At today’s meeting to learn from Lei Feng,3 we must strongly affirm reform and opening up, and we must also uphold the four cardinal principles4 and prevent a peaceful evolution into capitalism. In short, we need people who can control the whole picture. Otherwise, Shanghai will go awry and that would be terrible. Those of us who are Party secretaries must always keep this in mind.
Here is a question that I hope everyone will think about together: how should we train, select, and assess cadres? What standards should we use? Some say that in the early 1980s, the emphasis was on selecting those from a good [class] background and those obedient to the Party; cadres selected this way were not so good at pioneering. Now there’s too much emphasis on competence in cadre selection, and character gets short shrift. In assessing cadres, we must also dare to criticize. At present, the spirit of criticism and self-criticism is somewhat lacking among our leading cadres—we aren’t able to put face-saving behavior aside. We should still be strict toward cadres—better to help them now than to have them commit errors in the future.
2. How to Streamline Agencies, Focus on the Grassroots, and Increase Efficiency
A common view is that government agencies are too large, efficiency is very low, people hold each other back, and their energies are exhausted by this. Therefore it appears that government agencies need to be streamlined—preferably by reducing the verticals and strengthening the horizontals. For the verticals, “untouchable” organizations should be dismantled as circumstances permit, staff should be trimmed, and powers devolved. This will enable the horizontals to have higher-caliber cadres to do substantive work for the people. After all, government work should only consist of two things: one is to make the economy grow, and the other is to carry out more urban construction and solve people’s problems.
Along Nanjing Road visiting and greeting militia members with a decade of service, accompanied by Ni Hongfu, deputy secretary of the Municipal Party Committee; Yu Yongbo, deputy chief of the general political department of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA); Pei Jiuzhou, deputy political commissar of the PLA Nanjing military command; Xu Wenyi, member of the Standing Committee of the Shanghai Party Committee and commander of the PLA Shanghai Garrison; and Zhu Xiaochu, political commissar of the PLA Shanghai Garrison, March 9, 1991.
How do we grow the economy? By relying on enterprises. Enterprises must in turn rely on autonomous operations, take responsibility for their own profits and losses, accumulate capital on their own, and remake themselves. This absolutely cannot be done well by sitting on high and giving commands. We should keep things steady at the macroeconomic level, but give all the microeconomic decisionmaking responsibilities to enterprises. To do substantive things for the people, we must rely on the districts and counties. They are close to the people, aware of their hardships, and can do many things quickly, well, and economically. The other day I went to see a vegetable market. Several hundred people surrounded it on the outside while several people clung to me inside, crying as they spoke. They were having great difficulties in their daily lives but had nowhere to seek assistance, no one to help them resolve their difficulties. It was as if a word from me, the mayor, could solve everything.
How wonderful it would be if our neighborhood organizations cared about the people’s hardships and solved them—then why would they have to come to us? The people trust our Communist Party and have deep feelings for us. The question is how can we do substantive things to help them? Under our present system, those who want to do something aren’t capable of doing it, while those who are capable do nothing. What should we do? I think that in the future, everything like sanitation, environmental protection, management of water pipes and sewers, and so on should be devolved to the districts. They can’t deal with power generation, but they can manage power supplies; otherwise even the streetlights would go dark. The streetlights aren’t working—I’ve mentioned this many times, but who’s listening to me?
The director of the Bureau of Electricity isn’t afraid: he’s thinking, surely you can’t relieve me of my job just because the streetlights aren’t working. Of course if we devolve this work to the districts, they too will have to build up the ranks of their cadres and improve their caliber. Given the current abilities of the districts, many problems would arise if we were to devolve all powers to them. That’s why we can’t do this unless we transfer a batch of cadres to the districts. It seems that if Shanghai is to truly free up its thinking, be in the forefront of reforms, and have its work take a mighty step forward, it will have to reform its institutions—this must be put on the agenda.
Some people have suggested that now is the best time to redraw administrative jurisdictions, so that Shanghai will have fewer jurisdictions and fewer districts. Some have even suggested integrating urban and rural jurisdictions. This is an issue we can certainly consider—there would be some benefits if we were to merge our 21 units, comprising 12 districts and 9 counties, into 10 or even fewer units. The 350 square kilometers of Pudong constitute a single jurisdiction. But such merging must integrate organizations and not simply adjust the boundaries between districts and counties. If you take this county and completely fold it into that district, it will be easier to make arrangements for its cadres and there will be less buck-passing. This is just the right time to study this issue—a one-time solution can be found when the new administration’s term begins in 1993. Otherwise, if you have already put 6 sets of staff in place and then make adjustments, where will you send these people?
That’s why streamlining government agencies is both necessary and possible. It’s necessary because the present system wastes too much of our energy; it’s possible because after the government loosens its grip on enterprises, they will operate autonomously and form enterprise groups, so the economic management functions of government agencies will be greatly reduced. The verticals will devolve powers to the horizontals and many management functions will be transferred to the districts. The city will still manage affairs that must be managed centrally, but much of the rest can be devolved. In addition, if administrative jurisdictions are adjusted, city government agencies can then be streamlined. In our past experience, each time we streamlined, agencies expanded instead. If we want actual results, we will have to be fully prepared and not act in haste.
The three years beginning now will be a crucial period for Shanghai. If the guidelines are set, the money for infrastructure construction is invested, and we do our work well in these three years, the direction of Shanghai’s development for the next 10 years will be set. That’s why we must not let organizational reforms interfere with concentrating our forces to boost Shanghai’s economic and urban construction during these years. I think we should take no action to streamline agencies in this period but should make preparations for doing so. Once administrations change in 1993, we’ll deal with the agencies, staff, and cadres all at once. By then the situation will be even better, people’s sentiments will be on the upswing, and it will be easier to act.
Of course this doesn’t mean we will do nothing for three years, because if you want to do something important during this time, who would be able to put up with 126 chops? We will make some necessary adjustments but no major ones as these would make people jittery. We still need stability in order to focus on construction single-mindedly. To ensure that organizational reforms, cadre selection, and staff adjustments can proceed smoothly, I propose that we ask [Wu] Bangguo to take charge of the process. For the next year or two, concentrate your energies on studying this issue; you should organize a group of thinkers to examine how to reform organizations and how to assign cadres.
As for yourselves, most of you are fast approaching retirement age, but you absolutely must not think that “the boat has reached the pier and the train has reached the station”—this is the most important thing to say here. Whether or not Shanghai can be revitalized, whether or not we can create a new situation—all this will depend on these three years, and it will also depend on you. You must go all out and you absolutely should not feel that you’re just about at that age and start thinking about what you’ll do next. The organization will consider what you should do next—don’t think about it on your own. Focus your energies on doing your work well during these three years—they will be decisive, because during this period we will be concentrating on large-scale infrastructure construction and a series of reforms affecting people’s lives and economic development. It will take great boldness to carry out these reforms, and I hope you will summon up all your energies for the task. One day, when you retire, the people of Shanghai will not forget you.
Our cadres are now becoming increasingly detached from the people. I’m not blaming the cadres—it’s our work procedures, our working methods, organizations, and a system that stifles everyone. We have meetings all day and issue documents all day. Many people don’t read these numerous documents carefully. If I were to read all the documents that are sent to me, I would not be able to do anything else. And I happen to like to read things, I always want to leaf through them, so I’m incredibly tired at the end. I’m not saying that we don’t have to know about the situation involved, but just that we need to experience how the people feel and learn about their actual circumstances. Particularly those of you working at the district level, I hope your first-in-command will take the lead, free himself from some office work, and go deep into the grassroots, go down among the people. Only then will you know how to focus on this district’s work: where the emphasis should lie, how to improve performance, how people will react to a proposed method or policy. We mustn’t do things too quickly, but even more important, we mustn’t do them too slowly. Right now there aren’t too many cases of things being done too quickly in Shanghai, but doing them too slowly is commonplace. Leaders lag behind the people in their understanding.
How should we take the lead in freeing ourselves from some work and go deep into the grassroots? Empty talk harms the country, but perhaps there isn’t that much empty talk. However, there’s quite a lot of impractical talk, and that is also harmful. If you’re at meetings all day, you’ll get nothing done. When some of our district leaders chair meetings, they speak for at least three hours, from the first sentence of the meeting until it is adjourned. This habit must be changed—how can you have so much to say? Certainly you might have that much to say the first time—there may still be quite a lot of fresh content. But I’m sure that the second time you speak, 20% will be repetitious, which will bump up to 50% the third time. Why waste everyone’s time? If you’re the only speaker, how can you listen to different views from others? Our district Party secretaries and district heads must take the lead in talking less and doing more substantive work.
District Party secretaries should, of course, focus on Party conduct, on Party building, on ideological work—all this must be soundly implemented. They should also take up certain major issues in economic development, such as doing substantive things for the people, which will have a direct effect on their interests. At present, you also need to help cadres adjust to the developments in our situation, which should be done in conjunction with concrete work. In the past I first focused on housing construction. Can you also focus on that?
I don’t mean you should do this in place of the district head. You should be providing the research, finding out how people feel, learning about how various relationships are balanced and how contradictions intersect, and then give the district head some rather practical advice in the way of guidance, and let him organize its implementation. This is a very important move because it will give you a clear understanding of all the households in the district that are in difficulties. Then you can follow up with in-depth studies of the district’s financial resources, the extent of people’s incentive, the possible impact of our work, the new areas to develop, how much renovation will be completed in a few years’ time, and the means to convert land that has been emptied into a commercial area, a pedestrian zone, or commodity housing. If you focus on this unstintingly, you will not only form close connections to the people, but you will also help the economy thrive and make the entire district come alive.
Such a move will not only motivate the people but is also the most substantive thing you can do for them. It is an equally vital step in making the economy thrive. If it is done right, the people will be satisfied and later generations will benefit. Next, you should all study the problems that affect people’s lives and most urgently need solving, as exemplified by the vegetable markets, and then address them one by one. If the district Party secretary takes the lead and solves one, the district government will learn by example and solve three. Under no circumstances should you do nothing because you think that the system has yet to be reformed and powers are yet to be devolved, that you therefore have neither power nor benefits to offer and cannot do anything.
Provided you look into it, there will always be many things that you can do. The more such things you do, the more stable Shanghai will be, and the more enthusiastic the people will become, which will be very helpful for achieving a turnaround within three years. People’s sentiments are quite positive at the moment and they urgently want to change the status quo—we can make use of these sentiments. If we go deeper among the people and rouse their spirits, we will be able to do better work.
4. How to Be the First-in-Command
Relations in Shanghai between the top Party and government leaders at all levels, including the district, are basically good and united. However, I understand there are a few conflicts between some district Party secretaries and district heads. In some cases, the district head was mentored by the Party secretary, so the conflicts aren’t serious; in other cases, the two have comparable backgrounds, experiences, and levels, so some conflicts are unavoidable. In one case, an individual was transferred in from outside, so the two don’t understand each other. This problem is worth noting.
The key to the Party’s internal unity is unity of the leadership team, and there, the most important factor is unity between the top Party and government leaders. To ensure unity between them, the Party secretary must take the initiative and assume responsibility for this. To reiterate: responsibility for unity between the top Party and government leaders lies with the Party secretary. We must all align our thinking about this. As the first-in-command, we should place strict demands on ourselves. If we always assume the responsibility for unity ourselves, our team will be more united.
Why do some problems arise? Often it’s because individuals have different backgrounds and different experiences, so they will have different approaches to their work. Several district Party secretaries who were promoted from district heads tend to have insights into the shortcomings of their successors as district heads and thus often feel they can do better. In helping a district head, you must be a bit artful and not embarrass him or sound as though you are lecturing him. It’s also not necessary to give instructions about everything—better to let him work on his own, as that’s the only way to train a person. I say this, but it doesn’t mean that I’m doing so well myself. I started off doing economic work and manage many things very concretely—that’s one of my shortcomings. If you rely on one person, it will be hard to do things well no matter how capable he is. At most, I’ve read up to 100 documents a day and signed off on 92 of them—I manage very concretely. But even if you solve 92 things, Shanghai still has 92,000 others to attend to. Now I can see beyond these matters and try to issue as few directives as possible—I will only sign off when required.
Let me now make one thing clear: I’m the mayor, but my ass sits over at the Party Committee. If Huang Ju at the city government hasn’t yet stated his view, don’t send anything over to me. If Huang Ju has stated his position, then I can sign off. If he was wrong, he’ll learn the lesson and sum up his experience. But there are some matters that I consider to be major and that I must be involved in. Housing construction is an example—if I don’t make up my mind to do it, it will be very hard for others to do so, and I should therefore step up and assume the responsibility. As a result, I’ve spent a lot of time going to all the districts and listening to everyone’s opinions. Whenever an important decision is to be made, Huang Ju must participate.
Important matters should be brought to the Municipal Party Committee’s Standing Committee for discussion and not decided by one individual. We must make full use of the collective wisdom, including the wisdom of retired colleagues. Jiang Zemin was very good at this. All major things were decided by the Standing Committee of the Party Committee, including the project for cold-rolled steel plates. But he placed great trust in me and gave me a free hand to do my work. We should all learn from Jiang Zemin’s approach and be more magnanimous, and we should especially think in terms of what is best for the overall picture. The next three years will be crucial ones for Shanghai’s revitalization, and whether or not our work proceeds well will greatly depend on those of us here who are first-in-command. We must all have a strong sense of responsibility, be broad-minded and magnanimous, dare to take responsibility, be strict on ourselves, unite our entire leadership team, and knit it together tightly to do better work.
In dealing with problems and shortcomings in a leadership team, we must provide earnest and patient help and we can have individual heart-to-heart talks. In accordance with our Party’s principles, we should help our colleagues very caringly. Through criticism and self-criticism, with warmth and earnestness, we can always reach an understanding. I think that if everyone deals with others sincerely and does not play power games, we will be able to handle relations between colleagues well.
1. Zhu Rongji delivered this speech at the closing session of the first study session for district, county, and major industry Party secretaries organized by the Party School of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee.
2. Shi Tao was then director of the Shanghai Bureau of Human Resources.
3. The meeting to learn from Lei Feng was a rally held on March 8–9, 1991, to review experiences and present commendations honoring a decade of service to the people by the People’s Militia and by the Nanjing Road People’s Militia.
4. The four cardinal principles were continuing to uphold the socialist road, the dictatorship of the proletariat, the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, and Marxism–Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought.