WE MUST PROPERLY PROTECT THE UNPOLLUTED LAND OF CHONGMING1
NOVEMBER 6, 1990
After an on-site visit to Chongming, I can say it truly is one of our poorer rural counties and part of Shanghai’s “Third World.” The standard of living is even lower than that in Jinshan. The municipal departments concerned must support Chongming and help it develop more rapidly. On the other hand, we cannot act too quickly because not all the necessary conditions are present, certainly not enough to attract large amounts of foreign investment. If foreigners were to come, there wouldn’t even be a guesthouse for them to stay in.
The approach that Chongming should take is to play to its strengths, avoid its weaknesses, and turn the situation to its advantage. Exactly what are Chongming’s strengths and advantages? We must figure this out, turn the situation to our advantage, and develop what we are best at developing. If we go on doing this, we can build up our capacity and enable the people to become better off. If the ordinary people are to become a bit more prosperous, they must save a little more; they mustn’t consume excessively and should be a little slow to build houses. There are very few new houses in Chongming. Although this shows that the people still aren’t rich enough to build them, it can also be considered an advantage. By starting with a clean slate, it will be easier to build high-rises in the future. It’s better to act a bit more slowly now, and then when we do things, we’ll do them a bit better.
I see Chongming’s development this way: playing to its strengths, avoiding its weaknesses, turning the situation to its advantage, building up its strength, laying a solid foundation, preparing during the period of the Eighth Five-Year Plan, and taking off during the Ninth Five-Year Plan. The focus of Shanghai’s investments will shift after the Eighth Five-Year Plan, and it can shift to Chongming, which can then lift off during the Ninth Five-Year Plan. I don’t know if you agree with my view or not, but you can discuss it. Don’t be impatient about developing Chongming—you can’t do it well if you’re impatient. This strategic thinking gives rise to several policy ideas.
1. Remain Focused on Agriculture
Your policy must continue to treat agriculture as its foundation: Chongming must be agricultural. At the same time, you must properly protect the unpolluted land of Chongming. There isn’t much clean land left in Shanghai—the air, the water, and the soil are all polluted. It will take decades to resolve this problem. Chongming is such a fine place—don’t ruin it. You must continue to preserve this agricultural foundation. As I said to Yao Mingbao2 and Tian Changchun,3 please safeguard the rustic charm of Chongming. It would be so good if our urban residents could come to Chongming during holidays to experience rustic charm—that’s why you must develop agriculture.
What type of agriculture? I still say that grain production should increase steadily. I ate some of the new crop of rice here—it was delicious, and it’s not available in urban Shanghai. You should also make a big effort to develop cash crops: one could be cotton, another could be mulberry for raising silkworms, and a third could be oranges and tangerines. You should build yourself up into a base for forex-earning agriculture and for producing special non-staples. Sweet corn is for export—grow more of it. The reason I said “special non-staples” is because your vegetables here aren’t polluted; there’s no pollution in your non-staples. Your golden spaghetti squash is also unique—it isn’t produced anywhere else. I think the taro I ate today is also a Chongming specialty. I ate crab here once—the crab was very small, but it had a lot of roe.
You should therefore build a base for producing these distinctive non-staples. In the future, when urban residents come to Chongming, they can bring some home. Make small packages of golden spaghetti squash, taro, crabs, and asparagus—the packaging should be nicely designed. This would bring high returns and you’d make money. In short, play to your strengths and avoid your weaknesses—work on whatever you have strengths in. Eventually, you should put labels on your products, such as “Pollution-free Chongming milk” on the milk you sell. Napa cabbage from Chongming is pollution-free, and in time, the price of vegetables from Chongming can be increased a little. Your soil is better than the soil in other rural counties, so you should definitely put agriculture in first place and develop distinctive and forex-earning agriculture so that cash crops and grain can be developed more steadily.
2. Concentrate on Infrastructure
Concentrate your energies on building Chongming’s infrastructure. There’s no need to be in a rush to build houses right now—what you should hasten to do is solve Chongming’s transportation problem. A port, a highway—you must make Chongming easily accessible, with very convenient transportation. In opening up, who is Chongming opening up to? I think it should first open up to Shanghainese. It will be very good for Chongming if the people of Shanghai all come here. I visited several units: I saw the Guanghui Automation Instruments Factory and the Changjiang Farm Instrumentation Factory—they really have done well, and their returns are high. There’s also the toothpaste factory in Qianwei Village. These factories are all jointly operated with urban districts. Chongming people work hard and their labor is relatively inexpensive. Transportation must be convenient—you must manage to have one boat every half hour at a port. Then it would be convenient to travel here, urban residents would definitely come, and there would be many tourists.
The port must also be very well planned—it can’t be slapdash. Planning must encompass the entire port area. You should have tertiary industries and many stores. They should sell all your specialties like golden spaghetti squash and taro in big packs and small. People will buy several packs to take home, and then wouldn’t you make money? Wouldn’t you have good returns? You must plan well. In the future, you should add a passenger ferry and advertise it. I suggest you build a riverside boulevard, a high-standard highway that follows the Yangtze River and goes around the island. Plant trees all around it and it will be very beautiful. This way, the foreign businessmen will come.
After the construction in the Eighth Five-Year Plan is implemented, transportation all over the island will develop. Chongming must continue to make itself green. On my visit to Lühua Township yesterday, I found the sides of its roads quite green—there are forests everywhere, one stretch after another. You can’t find such bucolic sights in urban Shanghai. There are over 13 million people in Shanghai but only several hundred thousand here. If the 7 million or more residents in the urban parts of Shanghai were to visit Chongming once a year, that would be enough [to boost its development].
3. Develop Tourism
You should make a great effort to develop tourism. Chongming must become the pearl of Shanghai, a very beautiful rustic island surrounded by trees. This is something I’ll discuss with others. At the moment, Shanghai is preparing to establish a citywide organization for promoting tourism. It might be called the leading group for tourism planning, construction, and management, and it would bring in the Municipal Bureau of Parks and Greens, the Civil Aviation Bureau, the Transportation Bureau, and the Tourism Bureau to undertake unified planning for tourism in Shanghai. One thing is certain: in developing tourism, Chongming must become an attraction. Whether it be your Dongping Tree Farm or other scenic spots, these must all be part of a unified plan, and we have to see how to make foreigners want to come to these places, how to make urban residents willing to come for tourism—the returns will definitely be good. If you don’t have the money right now, then do things a bit more slowly. Don’t ruin the scenic spots—it’ll be too late to regret it in the future. I’m just proposing this broad direction. You must get experts to do the planning and not just listen to one or two people. You should invite experts, including foreign experts, to study how to develop tourism in Chongming.
On an inspection tour of the Qianwei Village Toothpaste Factory, Chongming County, Shanghai, November 6, 1990.
4. Develop Industries
While developing agriculture and tourism, Chongming shouldn’t ignore industry. However, its components should be nonpolluting, fine–processing, and deep-processing industries that accord with the direction of Shanghai’s industrial restructuring—this is especially important. You shouldn’t be in a rush to develop all sorts of nonsensical things—if you do so, you’ll regret it later. Several of your current industrial projects are developing quite well. One is instrumentation—Chongming has good air, its environment is relatively clean, and its people are quite simple and honest. There are very good prospects for developing high-tech industries like instrumentation here. You should also develop some light industries, but not heavy industries. It’s also all right to develop foodstuff industries. You can do deep processing of your agricultural products on-site, and both your environmental and hygienic conditions are quite good. The products of your foodstuffs industries can be exported for forex, and they can also be supplied to high-end hotels in Shanghai.
1. This is part of a speech by Zhu Rongji at a meeting of leading Party and government cadres from townships and from city-owned state farms in Chongming County.
2. Yao Mingbao was then county Party secretary of Chongming County in Shanghai.
3. Tian Changchun was then head of Chongming County in Shanghai.