DISCIPLINE INSPECTION CADRES MUST DARE TO TACKLE TOUGH CASES1
AUGUST 17, 1989
As a newcomer to the work of leading the Municipal Party Committee,2 I’ve come to listen to your thoughts. For a long time, my work has been in the economic sphere and I may not have covered all areas very well.
Before coming to Shanghai, I didn’t have a very deep understanding of Party conduct. Although the caliber of cadres at central government agencies is relatively high, they have less direct contact with money and material goods. At most, people will invite them to banquets when they travel to local areas, and major cases of corruption and bribe-taking aren’t likely to occur. Since coming to local government and seeing many letters from the public as well as actual problems, I’ve sensed the seriousness of problems with Party conduct, and that the conduct of the Party in power is a matter of its life or death. There can be no equivocation on this point.
As a result, we’ve insisted on clean government for over a year, which is why my televised address of June 83 was quite effective. Otherwise, the people would have had no confidence in us and no one would have listened to us at a critical moment. Clearly, if we are to revitalize Shanghai, if we are to do better work in Shanghai, we must still focus on clean government and on Party conduct—we must treat these as our lifeblood.
Of course there’s considerable resistance in this area. It can be very difficult—very painful—to address this issue. It distresses me greatly to see some of the problems among some leading cadres. Among our colleagues, some may not have very serious problems but they do not make strict demands of themselves. For example, I originally had a rather favorable initial impression of some leading cadres until they actually started saying inappropriate things because of their own housing issues—this worries me. How can Party conduct improve if we don’t focus on clean government? If everyone is out for himself, how can we build our Party and our country well?
The problems of Party conduct that have emerged over the past few years are new ones that we are tackling in the course of reform and opening up. Because we lack experience and psychological preparation, in some cases we’ve been unable to draw clear lines between right and wrong, between legal and illegal; we didn’t have a deep understanding of the consequences and harm caused by inequitable distribution. However, some problems developed even before reform and opening up. For instance, privileged treatment within the Party was never properly resolved when the Party entered the cities. Some cadres were seriously detached from the people, some had a feudal mindset and were very hedonistic. The fine traditions and conduct of the Party were not fully sustained.
The current obstacle to clean government is the lack of separation between government and enterprise—this is responsible for a lot of corruption. Government agencies have a great deal of power and can control the destiny of enterprises. If you use the powers of your office just to give an enterprise a hard time, it will have to offer you gifts. Moreover, our enterprises belong to the state, and no one is in charge even if you eat away or give away all their assets. Corruption also exists under capitalism, but it’s not like ours, where nobody cares if an enterprise goes bankrupt.
I think it’s entirely wrong for government agencies to make money and felt that way when I first arrived in Shanghai, though I later agreed to it. Looking at the practice now, I see incredible abuses. Staff at government agencies should have the utmost integrity, and if they accept money or goods from enterprises, it should be treated as corruption and bribe-taking. Feudal society used brutal measures against corruption—surely we can do so too? During the reign of Empress Wu Zetian (r. 690–704), one could buy an official position, but an official would be executed if he accepted bribes.
We can’t allow these agencies to make money and can’t raise their salaries, yet we have to enable people to live decently. We can do three things here.
—Improve the caliber of government cadres and take strict measures to prevent agencies from ballooning. I’ve kept very tight controls on city government agencies; some of their powers can be devolved to the districts, so the city’s agencies can be somewhat streamlined.
—Improve the status of government cadres.
—Give cadres some consideration in housing. In the future, we should gradually improve the salaries and benefits of cadres, including teachers at primary and secondary schools, intellectuals, and police.
To develop good Party conduct it is very important to rely on stronger inspection of discipline. Some problems along these lines have historical roots and need to be worked on over a long period—we can’t create good Party conduct overnight. The first step in improving social mores is to do a good job with the conduct of the Municipal Party Committee and the municipal government. To reiterate, we must be strict, so I’m placing very high demands on you. Discipline inspections and supervision are very difficult tasks. To some extent, they are even harder than our work [as leaders.] You will offend others, yet have little to gain from it. I’d like to pass along a couple of sayings to those who oversee discipline: “Be full of righteousness, with nothing up one’s sleeves,”4 and “Be upright and unbiased.”
Actually, the caliber of Shanghai’s discipline inspection cadres is good, as is their performance. I have yet to see cases of corruption or lawbreaking among them—this is a fine thing, and it should be encouraged and recognized. This is our hope for revitalizing Shanghai. Otherwise, we’d have to say, “There is not a single good person in Hongdong County”5—what would we do then? Discipline inspection cadres must dare to tackle tough cases, hold firm to principles, and have very strong Party spirit. This is an honor. We have been endowed with this honor to win glory for the Party—that is what gives meaning to our lives. Henceforth we must live up to this tradition. We at the Municipal Party Committee absolutely will not compromise our principles. We would rather give up our offices than trade away our principles—we won’t do that. Please believe that we will support you. Together, we can bring about good Party conduct in Shanghai.
We cannot waver on matters of principle, but even as we stand firm in this regard, we have to show some flexibility. These problems did not take shape overnight, nor is any single person responsible for some of them. If we’re too impatient or strike out too broadly, things may backfire and we might even lose support from some people. When we do something, we should have the backing of many people. If conditions are not ripe for doing something, if results are not there for the picking, if we charge ahead on our own, we won’t achieve the outcomes we want. This isn’t a question of compromising our principles—but a matter of studying strategy, having plans, working step by step, and setting priorities. We must pay attention to this.
1. This is the main part of a speech Zhu Rongji delivered after listening to a work report by the Discipline Inspection Commission of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee.
2. On August 1, 1989, the Party Central Committee decided to appoint Zhu Rongji Party secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee.
3. This refers to his televised speech of June 8, 1989. See chap. 53.
4. Translator’s note: this is a metaphor for incorruptibility in an official.
5. A line from the lyrics of the Beijing Opera “The Trial of Su San.”