DO THREE PRACTICAL THINGS FOR THE PEOPLE OF SHANGHAI1
MARCH 3, 1990
I hope to do at least three things for the people of Shanghai while I’m working here.
The first major thing is to lay a firm, reliable, and stable foundation for the “vegetable basket.” The newspapers published some of the points I discussed at a citywide conference on work involving vegetables, but they didn’t report everything. If we could truly establish a modern production system to supply non-staples for Shanghai, if we could truly process clean vegetables and package them in small quantities, if we had a modernized transportation management system, then the returns would be very high, and this would be the ultimate solution to our problem of over RMB 1 million a year in subsidies.
The targets I’m proposing are to devote the first year to a pilot program, the second year to promoting it, and the third year to extending it everywhere. Some of you are asking if I’m being too demanding, but I’m confident that Shanghai has this ability—this is fundamental.
I went to see your farmers’ markets today and many people surrounded me, saying that vegetables are too expensive, that state-owned vegetable markets aren’t playing any role, and that everything has to be done by trading at the farmers’ market—this is a problem. Right now our city government is paying several billion RMB in subsidies every year. We’re like a very long bamboo stem that is pierced through with holes. The subsidies leak out from the holes, and much of the money goes into the pockets of individual operators—there’s collusion between those inside and outside government. Many people at the vegetable markets are cheating their customers: they short–weight their wares, they resell, or they falsify.
At the most basic level, we must focus on Party conduct, promote clean government, and correct social mores. This will take some time, but we also have to work on operational management. The production of non-staples should be modernized, their retailing should take place in supermarkets, and operations should be managed from end to end. This is one of the major things we must do.
On an inspection tour of the Jiading County trading center for agricultural and sideline products, Shanghai, March 3, 1990. Third from the right, Qian Genxing, deputy county head, followed by Shen Yongliang, member of the Standing Committee of the Jiading County Party Committee and director of its General Office.
The second major step is to solve the various infrastructure problems centered on road transport. This requires a plan. Of course it can’t be completed in just a few years—it will take several decades—but what we can do now is make a start. We must have a plan and we must have a target. We can’t keep working haphazardly. Without two ring roads, Shanghai’s traffic problems can’t be solved. At the moment, we have to build at least one ring road, and we must draw up the plans for it. We must also solve the problem of traffic across the Huangpu River. In the future, Shanghai’s vertical jurisdictions will be vertical and horizontal jurisdictions will be horizontal—we must have a target.
The third major concern is Shanghai’s housing problem, which requires urgent attention. A while ago, when many workers were laid off, I visited some families and residents. I found the passageways to their living quarters piled high with all sorts of clutter. It was hard even for people to get through, let alone bicycles. Every household was as crowded as could be. The housing problem in Shanghai is much more serious than in Beijing and won’t be solved for several years. We must rely on the state and on enterprises to build housing, and I’ve now asked [Vice Mayor Ni] Tianzeng to organize a large group of people to study the problem, to come up with possible solutions, and to draft an overall policy.
In Hong Kong and Singapore, the basic approach is for the state, enterprises, and individuals to address it together. I think Shanghai must come up with a similar strategy that involves the state, enterprises, and individuals working together. The place where we have the land to build housing is Pudong. Once the problem of cross-river transportation is solved and infrastructure is in place, we will build housing batch by batch, and schools, hospitals, and stores to go with them. By building good infrastructure and reducing exploitation by middlemen, housing costs can be somewhat lowered. I believe that Shanghai’s housing problem can be gradually solved. Living conditions are terrible in the shantytowns. In the future, those should all be demolished and turned into green land. We mustn’t build any more tall buildings in Puxi; otherwise we still won’t be able to solve our traffic problems. If they want to build they should go to Pudong. Those places in Puxi must be made green—we should increase the green coverage of the entire city and renovate all of Shanghai, and then it will be beautiful.
That’s a vision of the future. We need a plan for all the residents of the city to discuss—the only way to solve the housing problem in Shanghai is if everyone thinks this approach is reasonable and fair. I think we can start seeing results after 5 years, a considerable change in the look of the city after 10 years, and almost a complete transformation after 20 years. Is this estimate too optimistic?
1. This is part of a speech by Zhu Rongji at a meeting of Party and government cadres from Jiading County.