THE KEY ISSUES AND KEY TASKS TO FOCUS ON IN 19891
JANUARY 4, 1989
The city government’s research office will, I hope, give us more feedback on the people’s opinions, their expectations, and their hardships. We must pay close attention to their sentiments, take their pulse, and be ever ready to cope with all types of situations.
With the guidelines, policies, and principles for this year’s work already decided, what we need to think about now is how to focus on them. We also have to think beyond this year’s plans—plans must also be made for the city government’s five-year term, and this makes me wonder if I can be a bit more detached. If I go on as I did last year, personally seeing many things through to the end, some major matters might be delayed. Therefore the day-to-day work of the city government will be handled by Huang Ju, and I’ll do my best to help him with some issues. I’m asking Huang Ju to deal with reports submitted to the city government by lower levels, and the general office will also send me copies. I’ll have another look after Huang Ju deals with them. Actually, it’s not necessary to send me all of the city government’s reports. Too many documents are being sent to me daily: for some matters, it’s enough just to notify me. Some matters don’t need to be handled by me, yet they await my comments, which actually just delays everything. Henceforth, reports to the city government will be handled by Huang Ju and the other vice mayors, and I will only need to be informed of the results.
The general office’s Compilation of Directives from Municipal Government Leaders has already played a very positive role in this regard, and I will urge further checks. I can issue warnings ahead of time for some issues such as the joint operations of the entire ball-bearing industry, which were under way at lower levels for some time before being reported to the city government. However, attention has not been paid to some critical questions such as asset valuations, rights to sell products, and rights to supply materials, so I convened a small meeting of directors of the bureau-level departments concerned to remind them.
The general office’s handling of documents needs improvement. Some documents submitted to the city government don’t get a response for a month or two. Because these matters must first be mediated at lower levels, it’s already very late by the time the reports reach the vice mayors. By way of improvement, from now on whenever reports are submitted to the city government, the rule will be that the department in charge must first coordinate matters and include in the report what various agencies will and will not agree to, which problems have yet to be resolved, and what the reasons are for disagreement. This way we can overcome a dependent mentality at lower levels. They should coordinate on their own and not just push everything onto the city government. Henceforth when a report is received, the vice mayor in charge should first state his view in principle. Then a deputy secretary-general should coordinate, and finally the executive vice mayor should sign off. Questions should not be decided by a single vice mayor alone because matters that require coordination by the city government often touch on several areas. If a vice mayor in charge of one area makes the decision by himself, the work may become disconnected from work in other areas, resulting in some negative consequences.
We still have to meet and greet: when leaders from departments of the central government and from other provinces and municipalities come to Shanghai, I still have to meet with them. However, there should be as few banquets as possible. I’d like the general office to institute a system and come up with some ideas. To attract more foreign investment, I can meet with more foreign guests. After I set some time aside, I hope you will think about what I ought to focus on and draw up a work progress chart showing what should be done each month. I’d like to highlight some major questions, do a bit more research, hold some meetings on special topics, and spend more time at the grass roots.
I’ll now turn to this year’s key issues and tasks in order [of priority].
1. Stabilize the Markets
Although Shanghai’s markets are relatively stable now, to keep them stable, we must do several things. One is to supervise the production and prices of 26 types of daily necessities. We will hold special meetings to study how to implement this and how to see it through to the end. Issues including hidden fiscal subsidies and the issuance of industrial coupons must be studied. We must start focusing on this in January in order to truly stabilize the markets.
We must also focus on the management and services of vegetable markets. I’ve been looking into this all along, wanting to come up with effective methods. Otherwise even if we can give fiscal subsidies, the people still won’t truly benefit. If we give a coupon for one jin2 of meat, we must make sure people can buy one jin of meat of guaranteed quality and weight. What’s more, they should be able to do so without standing in long lines. I believe this can be done: we have to standardize non-staple foods, especially pork, produce them in quantity, and prevent people from doing anything underhanded in the process that would harm the consumers.
2. Restructure Our Industries
We need to hold a special meeting over several days to focus on industrial restructuring as a major task. Moreover, it must be handled very firmly and very concretely. We will first ask all departments to conduct studies, prioritize and draw up lists of which products should be developed, which ones should be eliminated, and which enterprises should be shut down or merged. Then we’ll listen to reports for three days and decide on which products stay, which products go, and which enterprises will be shut down or merged. Without such painful adjustments, Shanghai won’t be able to properly restructure its industries. The goal of this restructuring is not to achieve very rapid growth—it will suffice to maintain this year’s growth of 5%. But the benefits have to be better than last year’s, and the consumption of raw materials and energy should be lower than last year.
3. Properly Organize Our Plans and Teams for Urban Construction
We have to determine how urban construction should proceed, which projects must be ensured this year, and which projects must be eliminated. We must continue devolving power in urban construction, and the authority, responsibilities, and benefits associated with environmental protection and ancillary projects must all be devolved to the districts and counties. The planning departments must go to the districts and counties to help them plan properly and make clear what should and should not be done in urban construction.
4. Handle the Construction of Major Projects Well
The city’s Office of Major Construction Projects should focus its energies on this and prioritize key projects—what should be done this year, what should be done next year. This year, we must get projects under way that can deliver benefits in the short term. If we keep a firm grip on the projects for color TV tubes, cold-rolled steel, and 300,000 [annual] tons of ethylene and get results from them, Shanghai’s performance will improve.
Visiting and greeting public transit workers at the terminus of the Route 57 bus as they worked overtime during the Spring Festival, February 6, 1989. On the left (with glasses), Wang Enzhen, Party secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Transit Company; to his left, Vice Mayor Gu Chuanxun.
5. Implement “Double Contracting”3and Integrate Industry with Trade
This should be given some priority and implemented soon. Shanghai’s forex shortage is a big problem, and we won’t have a future unless we deepen reforms of the foreign trade system and increase forex earnings through exports. The program for integrating industry and trade has been unveiled, and we have also established the basic approaches to be used for “double contracting.” Now we must conduct further studies.
6. Tackle Some Substantive Tasks and Concretely Solve Some of the People’s Urgent Problems
Just as Cao Can followed the rules of his predecessor Xiao He,4 we should build on Jiang Zemin’s foundation of focusing on substantive matters and continue to do a good job of doing substantive things for the people. But there should be further development: if major projects are already included in the plans and will be ensured, then they needn’t be listed as substantive tasks. Projects that couldn’t be completed during the year needn’t be listed either. All the items listed as concrete tasks should be focused on by leaders at all levels, should show results quickly, and should be problems the people urgently need resolved. I think we should concentrate our efforts on improving management, finding and using potential, changing our work style, and improving service attitudes.
I’m asking Hou Lüshi5 to reprioritize the substantive tasks for this year. The most important issue right now is public transportation. At present, it doesn’t cost a lot of money to alleviate traffic congestion by strengthening management and imposing order, and if these are done well, they can indeed solve some problems. The key is to have leaders go on-site to examine ways to solve problems, to focus on dispatching buses and keeping order at bus stops. Some assessment targets can be set for doing this: for example, reducing staff commuting time from an hour and a half to an hour. We could select several of the busiest traffic routes for inspections and do some opinion polls to see if the quality of public transportation services has improved and if traffic congestion has eased. The most important measure to alleviate congestion this year will be to separate motorized vehicles from bicycles. This would be a big step forward as it would allow motorized vehicles to travel faster and may also reduce traffic jams. In addition, roads that have been taken over [for various unauthorized uses] must be taken back so that traffic can flow freely. I’m going to undertake a study with colleagues from the head office of the municipal transit company that will include on-site visits to public transit routes.
Since it will take a lot of effort to handle public transit well, we’ll have to determine the best time to arrange this study. We should also look at major construction projects at frequent intervals. In due time, I’ll go to the site for color TV tubes as well to supervise inspections and help the project move forward. Another thing: we have to address the problem of repairing elevators, doors, and windows of high-rise buildings. The building management department must assume this responsibility and get the job done well.
On a visit to Nanhui County the day before yesterday, I saw serious and haphazard misuse of arable land. They’re putting up buildings everywhere—how can this go on? Getting the misuse of land in villages under control is a substantive task. The planning departments must go down to the villages to help them plan and build new communities. This isn’t something that can be done in one year, and we can look into whether or not it should be listed as a substantive task. In a word, our substantive tasks must touch on the personal interests of the people and be achievable within a year. Some engineering projects that are closely related to people’s lives could also be included, and the emphasis should be on leaders at all levels truly serving the populace.
7. Undertake Reforms of the Political System
As I see it, the January 3 meeting of the city’s leading group for reform of the political system suggests that we mustn’t become impatient about such a move this year. After three months of repeated studies and debate, there were some proposals such as dismantling commissions and establishing bureaus, dismantling bureaus and establishing commissions, having large commissions and small bureaus, having large bureaus and small commissions, but these are now all off the table and won’t be discussed any further. This is because whatever the proposal, we can’t have a one-size-fits-all approach. Moreover, this could easily lead to uncertainty in the minds of cadres. Therefore the goal of our reforms of government agencies at this stage will still be to change government functions, rationalize relationships, devolve powers, improve efficiency, and strengthen the role of general [affairs] departments.
In the case of changing functions, an industrial bureau, for example, should gradually devolve its operational and management powers to enterprises and evolve into a professional association for the sector, which in the future will mainly conduct open hiring of factory directors, train entrepreneurs, and do policy research. The rationalization of relationships consists mainly of sorting out the current overlapping and crisscrossing relationships between various bureau-level departments. In addition to giving enterprises powers to operate and manage, devolving powers means giving further power over urban construction and management to the districts and giving power over rural construction and management to the counties. We absolutely must not increase staffing at government agencies this year. We must issue an order to control staffing at all costs. Agencies may perform internal adjustments and then, on that basis, sign lump-sum contracts for total wages to be paid.
Please prioritize the issues that I’ve discussed and determine which we should focus on each month—some may need to be dealt with more than once. These 7 issues are not the only ones requiring attention; you might come up with a list of 8 or 10. Please offer some ideas for working methods as well. My general aim is to concentrate on some major issues this year, and to do so in depth.
1. These are the main points of a speech made by Zhu Rongji at a meeting of the Party branch of the Municipal Research Office.
2. One jin is equal to 0.5 kilogram.
3. “Double contracting” was also known as “two-front contracting.” Under this system, industrial and foreign trade departments would jointly contract to meet forex earnings targets. This was a shift from the system in which the foreign trade department purchased goods [from industry] to one in which it acted as an agent, and the contracting was done on this basis.
4. Cao Can and Xiao He were senior ministers of the Han dynasty (206 BCE–20 CE).
5. Hou Lüshi was then a deputy secretary-general of the Shanghai municipal government and also director of its Research Office.