LEADING CADRES MUST NOT BE DETACHED FROM THE PEOPLE1
AUGUST 7, 1989
Although our economic work in the second half of this year remains very difficult, I feel very certain that the direction set by the Municipal Party Committee and government will be able to solve the problems that our economic work is currently encountering. The issue now is how to win the hearts of the people so that the workers and farmers are of one mind with us, which will enable us to do our work well. Solving this problem is much harder than economic work itself, because some of our cadres and Party members are quite detached from the people. They are unable to go through thick and thin with them; instead, they stay above it all, sit in their offices instead of going out, and thus fail to implement many things and pass the buck for long stretches of time.
Yesterday’s Xinmin Evening News reported that no streets were sprinkled with water this year. Why? Because of buck-passing. The city’s Bureau of Environmental Protection had sent the water-sprinkling trucks to all the districts, but the districts didn’t want the drivers who used to drive those trucks, so the buck-passing started and went on for half a year—the trucks couldn’t be dispatched. The people criticized us, saying, “You haven’t finished passing the buck yet, so how can you sprinkle the streets?” This episode shows the bureaucratism in our government agencies, their lack of involvement with the people, and their lack of concern for the people’s hardships.
I’ve repeatedly said that you can devolve powers and you can undertake some systemic reforms, but this mustn’t affect the work originally being done. That’s why I spoke to [Vice Mayor Ni] Tianzeng yesterday, asking him to tell Shi Zhenguo2 to stop the buck-passing. I don’t care how you do it, but you have to have the sprinkler trucks out there within three days. If they’re not out, you won’t be the bureau head. Shi Zhenguo is himself very hardworking and we shouldn’t criticize him because of this, but this matter reflects problems in the way our city government agencies work. A report about it should be circulated—we can’t do this sort of thing again. Buck-passing has turned everything into a mess. Nothing gets done and the interests of the people are cast aside.
Accompanying Party General Secretary Jiang Zemin on an inspection tour of Wujing Village, Tangwan Township, Shanghai County, August 3, 1989. Third on the left, Zhang Yan, chair of the Municipal Agricultural Commission; fourth on the left, Huang Ju, vice mayor and deputy secretary of the Municipal Party Committee; third from right, Vice Mayor Ni Hongfu.
This includes our key projects. The other day I learned from a briefing paper on key projects that those working on the central technical upgrade project at the Bureau of Petrochemical Industries are only on the job three hours a day. What’s more, they’re not even working properly during those three hours. Equipment and materials are piled up all over—you call that a key project? If important projects of the city government are like that, it shows that our cadres never go down. If the Municipal Party Committee and the municipal government don’t change the way they work, our economic work in the latter half of the year won’t be done well no matter how good our programs, policies, and measures are.
Recently, we at the Municipal Party Committee and the municipal government responded to the central government’s call. They want to do seven things3 and we also want to do seven things.4 These have already been announced in the newspapers. I hope the Standing Committee members of our Municipal Party Committee and our vice mayors will take the lead, that they will lead by example and do what they say. I also hope the Municipal Party’s Discipline Commission and the city’s Bureau of Supervision will supervise us. Wu Derang,5 didn’t you tell me this before? That you don’t dare supervise vice mayors and above? Isn’t that so? (Wu Derang: the central government is in charge of vice mayors and above.) You are a supervisor, so why can’t you supervise? We, too, are within your supervisory jurisdiction.
Furthermore, I hope that those in charge of bureau-level agencies will, on the basis of their own circumstances, do what our Standing Committee members and vice mayors can do. We’re not asking you to do exactly as we do, but you must also have rules to constrain yourselves and transmit this conduct down level by level. There are 600 bureau-level or higher cadres in government; when you add those from the Municipal Party Committee and other bureau-level cadres, there are over 2,000 people. If only these 2,000-odd people truly lead by example, then the way things are done in Shanghai can be changed and social mores can be changed. After all, those 2,000-odd people lead 20,000 section-level cadres. These cadres have as many problems as one can find. Recently the Municipal Bureau of Audits produced a hair-raising report. When section chiefs go down to lower levels, they lord it over everyone and demand to eat this and to eat that—how is this possible?!
An item in today’s Liberation Daily about a foreign trade building in the Putuo District states that many cans of ham were thrown into the garbage because there was no room for them in the warehouse for gifts. They couldn’t all be eaten and had spoiled, so they were thrown out. That’s a sign of a country on the verge of destruction—how is this possible?! That’s why if these 2,000-odd bureau-level cadres—ourselves, mainly—spend the whole day thinking of nothing except our houses, our cars, and our travel abroad instead of thinking about our work, there will be no hope for Shanghai.
In the second half of this year, we must make rectifying Party conduct and reinforcing clean government our foremost priorities. Jiang Zemin has asked us to get a good grip on revitalizing large and medium enterprises in that period, and it will be our focus. But we must first work on the conduct of factory directors, especially those at large factories. Some directors aren’t able to go through thick and thin with their workers—how can they run their factories well? They won’t be able to no matter how many favorable conditions you create for them. The Wenhuibao has published one editorial on the seven things, the Liberation Daily has put out none, and the Xinmin Evening News has issued a commentary—this matter still isn’t being taken seriously enough. I hope the cadres in our Municipal Party Committee and government will pay sufficient attention to it. You should supervise us and we should supervise you.
I hope that you will soon be able to do what we are able to do. If we fail to do certain things, you should criticize us and report us—only then will there be hope for Shanghai.
1. This is part of a speech by Zhu Rongji at the 44th mayor’s administrative meeting of the Shanghai municipal government.
2. Shi Zhenguo was then director of the Shanghai Sanitation Bureau.
3. This refers to the “Decision of the Party Central Committee and the State Council on Doing Several Things the People Are Concerned About” of July 28, 1989. The “Decision” pointed out that in the near term, seven things needed to be done to punish corruption and take the lead in establishing integrity and a spirit of hard struggle: (1) further clean up companies; (2) put a firm halt to the children of senior officials engaging in business; (3) eliminate the “special supplies” of small quantities of foodstuffs to leaders; (4) strictly allocate vehicles according to the rules and forbid imports of cars (except when implementing long-term trade agreements signed between governments and state-approved technology trade contracts); (5) strictly forbid the hosting of banquets and presenting of gifts; (6) strictly limit foreign travel by leading cadres; (7) strictly and carefully investigate cases of corruption, bribe-taking, and profiteering, with a special emphasis on major and important cases.
4. The “seven things we want to do” refers to implementing the “Decision” referred to in note 3. The seven things the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee and government resolved to do well were: (1) further clean up companies and investigate cases of profiteering units; (2) reiterate that the Standing Committee members of the Municipal Party Committee and the vice mayors would not receive “special supplies”; (3) strictly allocate vehicles according to the rules and no longer import cars; (4) strictly forbid the hosting of banquets and presenting of gifts; (5) strictly limit foreign travel by leading cadres; (6) resolutely investigate cases of corruption and bribe-taking; (7) strictly investigate major cases of using power for personal gain.
5. Wu Derang was then director of the Shanghai Bureau of Supervision.