THREE EXPECTATIONS OF ALL CITY OFFICIALS AT THE BUREAU LEVEL AND ABOVE1
JUNE 28, 1988
I hope that all city officials at the bureau level and above can be reformers who are liberated in their thinking, have the courage to take action, and dare to take risks. Jiang Zemin spoke about this issue at a symposium on theoretical work this March. In analyzing the current state of thought among Shanghai officials, he called on us to overcome these mindsets: (1) an attitude of superiority, (2) gripes about and a fear of difficulties, and (3) a stubborn complacency. He also discussed how to truly shift our thinking onto an appropriate track for a socialist commodity economy and for an externally oriented economy based on a policy of fiscal contracting. I think this is a question that is well worth examining.
We Must Unshackle Our Minds
Because of long-standing constraints on our thinking and our institutions, our ideas really haven’t kept pace with current developments, as reflected in a very thought-provoking article2 I recently read that compares people’s awareness of a commodity economy in Guangdong and Shanghai. If we don’t address the problems in our thinking, if we don’t unshackle our minds and just continue in our old ways while society and the economy are changing so drastically, it will be hard to maintain Shanghai’s status, and we might use up in a year the little bit of help that the central government had given us. Then by next year we’ll be poor again and our revenues will resume their decline. That’s why we must cultivate the reform mindset.
Currently, my greatest headache is this: whenever we propose doing anything, some will say, “This has never been done in such a way in Shanghai before. Let me tell you something about Shanghai’s history!” Then I respond, “I’m willing to hear about the background, but what we need now is change and reform.” I’m not saying that everything that wasn’t possible in the past still isn’t possible now, nor that we must change everything, but surely you shouldn’t be put off and resist as soon as you hear that something is going to be done somewhat differently than in the past. If your approach can halt the slide in revenues, then I’ll adopt your approach. The problem now is that we are unable to stop the slide in revenues, so we have to think of ways to change. That’s why it would be very worthwhile for us to further study and analyze this problem and see how we can catch up.
Of course we must proceed from realities when unshackling our minds—the advanced experiences of this or that province can only provide limited lessons, showing us how to do certain things but not others. We can learn from township and village enterprises, but there are also some things we might not be able to learn from them. To truly inject vitality into Shanghai’s large and medium enterprises, we must do so via their management, product quality, and genuine skills. We absolutely must not create chaos in the behavior of our large and medium enterprises. If we were to do so, the impact on China would be greater than if it were to happen in any other province. We can’t do that—we still must rely on improving enterprise management.
Open recruiting must be used at every level from the factory director on down to branch factories, workshops, and work teams so that capable people can stand out from the crowd and demonstrate their abilities. If we are adept at changing people’s thinking and motivate all the workers, we might even be able to have shareholding systems. This would align the interests of the workers with those of the enterprises and allow some of the funds used for consumption to be used for production—we could have pilot programs for all these in Shanghai. In short, to improve Shanghai’s economic performance, we must rely on enterprise management, product quality, and our achievements in science and technology.
We Should Run a Clean Government
Government needs to be clean, work efficiently, and honestly endeavor to be the servant of the people. Slogans along these lines were proposed by the Party Central Committee, and we should put them into practice. The slogans “clean government” and “efficient government” were actually welcomed by the people and are the most effective means of boosting the morale of Shanghai’s people. After we proposed these slogans on April 25, I received 3,696 letters from the populace, and even now I still receive over 100 letters daily. Although some of then ask us to solve personal problems related to housing or job titles, for example, or request that false accusations and erroneous judgments be reversed, a considerable number offer suggestions to the government and keep watch on our officials. For instance, people are very eager to expose who has been wining and dining and who has been accepting gifts. While these letters reflect concern about whether our actions can live up to our words, their sheer volume shows that people still care about the government and trust it.
The key in this matter is to start with high-ranking officials. That’s why the city government’s decisions on stopping the tendencies to wine and dine and to accept gifts are mainly aimed at officials at the bureau level and above. It’s better to educate with actions than with words: if you act as role models, others will follow. So we should first start with ourselves. Some problems must be resolved through the legal system, and we should use various ways to let the people monitor our work. Take, for example, the matter of the “local offices,” namely the local tax offices, police offices, and so on, all of which deal directly with the people. It’s true that some of them have violated laws and regulations. How should we resolve these cases? I think we must have heavy penalties and also gradually refine the legal system. In addition, we must make public the scope and system of work at each office so that everyone can exercise oversight—this is the only way for mores to change for the better.
At the moment, we’re preparing to start with a pilot program in one district and one county. Top beams must be straight or else lower beams will be crooked. If the offices below are to be straight, our 506 bureau-level officials, including district and county heads, must be able to walk straight and sit upright. Otherwise, people won’t accept us. I can tell you all that things haven’t been bad over the past few months. Our investigations showed that all those charges of bureau chiefs wining and dining did not accord with the facts. In terms of the government system, our 506 bureau-level officials are currently really observing the rules, taking their jobs seriously, and acting quite responsibly. Provided we persist, social mores can be improved.
Powers Should Be Devolved
We must devolve powers, go down to the grass roots, strengthen oversight, be adept at mediation, and become experts at problem solving. We already demand this of our leading officials, including myself. In the first half of this year, with the support of the Municipal Party Committee, the city government devolved two powers. First, the city government transferred responsibility for all matters that can be handled by districts and counties to those entities; second, enterprises are to manage all matters that they are capable of handling, and the various bureau-level agencies are to devolve those powers to the enterprises, as their function is to work on macromanagement.
The first of these two devolutions has been handled a bit better, with powers transferred more thoroughly and district and county heads now highly motivated. For their part, the bureaus must stop clutching at powers such as allocating money and materials and avoid excessive administrative intervention at enterprises. Just now I said that factory directors aren’t adapting to the needs of a commodity economy. One reason is that you keep power in your own hands, so how can they swim in the ocean of a commodity economy? You should give them the power and the responsibilities, devolve both to them, and we should be less involved. Excessive government intervention in enterprises is not conducive to their development—this is a fact.
You mustn’t intervene too much, but you also mustn’t not intervene at all. If they’re up to no good, how can you not intervene? If quality worsens, how can you not intervene? But you should move to intervene less and let the markets guide enterprises. That’s why I hope that you bureaus, as well as those companies that seem to be administrative in nature—I hope you won’t get involved in things like allocating funds and goods, or redistributing to even things out, taking care of one thing today and another thing tomorrow. This won’t do anything to improve Shanghai’s economic performance. Let enterprises work with a free hand and be responsible for their own profits and losses. If they can’t pay bonuses, let the workers approach the factory director rather than the government to create a nuisance. Factory directors should be in charge of this sort of thing, so let the workers go to the factory directors.
Furthermore, after devolving powers, we still have to strengthen supervision. A while back, we discovered that a foreign businessman had signed contracts for a project with four of our counties. He went “comparison shopping” between them, seeing which was cheapest and then worked with that one. He exploited our loophole, which we must hurry up and notify everyone about so that enterprises don’t try to underprice each other. This sort of supervision is necessary in our work.
We also have to be good at coordinating and mediating. Some problems will always arise between the horizontal and vertical elements.3 Leading officials should go down to the grass roots more often to understand the situation, and if there’s buck-passing or quarreling anywhere, that’s where they should coordinate. Wherever problems pop up, that’s where you should go to solve them. That is what we as leaders are capable of. Motivate those under you and let them go do things. You should be coordinating and supervising, not adding to their burdens.
Letter of May 4, 1988, to Mao Jingquan, member of the Standing Committee of the Shanghai Party Committee, director of its United Front Department, and vice chair of the Shanghai Municipal People’s Political Consultative Conference, apologizing for not writing an inscription.
I hope you will also consider the following proposal: might we not do fewer things purely for appearances? We must improve our work methods a bit. As soon as I came to Shanghai, I imposed “five taboos” on myself: that is, I would not be covered in newspapers, not appear on TV, not attend ribbon-cuttings, not write inscriptions, and not accept gifts. Now I frequently violate these “five taboos.” Not be covered in newspapers? Reporters won’t agree and insist on coverage. Every week I visit a factory, a district, a county, a bureau, and if these were all reported, I’d be in the papers every day—what good would this do? How could I have that many good ideas? What’s the point of coverage? It’s also impossible for me not to appear on TV. Of course I absolutely forbid TV reporters to come with me to factories, but sometimes when I’m receiving foreign guests or foreign presidents, it won’t do to forbid TV coverage, so I still have to appear on TV. I’ve managed not to cut any ribbons regardless of who asks me to do so. I’ve declined to write any inscriptions—so far I’ve written none. I’ve also not accepted any gifts—the ones presented to me when receiving foreign guests have been handed over [to the government].
But there are still too many activities now, and I feel that attending them is a heavy burden on me. Whenever there’s an inauguration or a celebration, I have to go sit there for a while. If I don’t attend, it would result in a great misunderstanding: people would say is it because you don’t think this is important? Moreover, I have to meet with everyone who comes here. This way I can’t truly think quietly about problems and research them. Therefore I once again call upon all of you here not to invite me to your celebratory activities. Are the results of these activities all so good? I doubt it. There are currently many meetings—a meeting today to commend, a meeting tomorrow to inaugurate. We need to simplify these activities and more often go to the grassroots ourselves to resolve problems. That would be better.
Also, I think we should have fewer activities for rankings, inspections, and whatnot. I want to discuss with the Municipal Party Committee whether Shanghai can do away with rankings other than those mandated by the state. At least the government shouldn’t do any more; the private sector can. Many such rankings only go through the motions. In order to survive, foreign enterprises work hard. They don’t rely on these rankings, they compete on their product quality. Don’t apportion quotas, don’t just go through the motions of inspections and rankings. As soon as you have rankings and inspections you’ll have wining and dining, which would affect social mores. Can we not streamline governance in this area and lighten the burden on enterprises and on the people somewhat? I believe this is also a measure to motivate people and boost morale. These are the expectations I wanted to discuss. Even I myself have not achieved all of them, but I hope we can all work on them together.
Closing Thoughts
Now I want to speak to you from the heart. I have many personal shortcomings. My words may not be that carefully considered or deliberated on, and sometimes I don’t weigh them very well. But outsiders exaggerate how fierce I am, saying I’m so severe in this way or that—this is hearsay and it’s untrue. I also have this shortcoming: sometimes when I analyze a question and make a demand, my attitude isn’t very good and might easily make others feel awkward. This is a shortcoming I must correct. Be advised, however, that I will seriously consider any criticism you raise and earnestly correct myself. No matter how different your opinion may be from mine, if I am wrong in any way, you can tell me straightforwardly and I will think it over very seriously. I believe this is something I will be able to do.
At the moment, Shanghai is confronting a severe challenge: it truly needs to speed up its revitalization, it needs to speed up decisionmaking, and can waste no more time. There are so many ideas from all quarters and so many capable people in Shanghai that there will be no end to debates, so now is the time to be decisive. No decision can be entirely perfect, of course, as there’ll always be a flaw of some sort. All of our major decisions have been discussed by the Standing Committee of the Municipal Party Committee, they’ve all passed scrutiny by Jiang Zemin, they were all made after listening to the views of retired veterans. If there is a policy mistake, because I am in charge of actual execution I will assume responsibility and absolutely will not pass the buck to those above or below me. But once a decision is made, it must be carried out. We must all unite and thoroughly implement it with one mind and without wavering.
1. This is part of a speech made by Zhu Rongji at the start of a study class on the current situation organized by the Municipal Party Committee for officials of bureau level and above.
2. This refers to the article “A Comparative Analysis of Concepts of a Commodity Economy in Shanghai and Guangdong” written by Wang Dawu of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. It was published in Social Science News on May 5, 1988, and subsequently in People’s Daily on June 5, 1988.