A Peasants Son
One of a number of interesting articles from here
For a long time, nobody has mentioned 'Tang ????', nor has anbody spoken about 'China's backbone'[I think a reference to the agricultural workforce]. In 2000, with the turn of the century, these few words returned. His name was Li Changping, just a small town's party secretary. Because he wrote a letter to the president, saying 'The peasants' life is difficult and poor, agriculture is dangerous' he suddenly became famous, then was defeated equally suddenly.
Before he was selected as Southern Weekend's Person of the Year in 2000, he 'voluntarily' left work and became one of the many people rushing south to find work.
Your resignation was last year, August. The media said you were in Shenzhen or Zhuhai working, and today you are in Guangzhou. Are you hear on business or to see friends?
Neither, I'm looking for work.
It's said you had a good standard of living with your previous work, so why did you leave?
It's funny. When my bosses from Jingzhou found out I was working for Lantian here in Zhujiang, they called the head of the company. The head office is in Jingzhou, so things could be difficult for the president. I shouldn't cause the company problems, so I left of my own accord.
Oh.
The Ideal Village Head
If officials are getting more and more important, yet the situation is getting worse and worse, what's the point of being an official?
I have a question. You are 37, and you were a grassroots official for 17 years and you also have a masters in economics. I'd like to know more about your childhood.
I graduated in 1983(?), there were still communes then. I returned home to become a Commune Secretary. In 1983 the allocation of land had just started, I observed and participated in the whole process of rural reform and was the party secretary of four townships. From 1987 to 1989 I studied Economics at Central China Agricultural University, from 1996 to 1998 I studied at Mid-south Finance University and got a Masters Degree.
Cadres in towns and villages have good lives, only you frown upon village affairs. This has a precedent, for example Peng Pai is a landlord, yet he insists on opposing landlords. Meanwhile, you are a cadres, and an Economics Master. Don't you want to have a good job? What need is there for you to oppose cadres having a good life.
I'm not against anyone having a good life, but no matter who you are, your good life shouldn't be built on a foundation of misery
You mean the village and town officials are impoverishing the officials?
Not only them, you still have county and provincial levels, the people in the city, every level of government, every year the ranks of people eating the grain gets bigger , and the burden of working in the fields gets greater. The peasants toil in the fields all year to feed these swollen ranks, while they are heavily in debt themselves, their children can't study, the elderly can't get medical treatment, the young and strong leave home to seek work, fields are abandoned and left fallow. Agriculture can't continue.
Anyway, you have already left your hometown. Speaking honestly, serving as a party secretary were you ever involved in corruption, for example receiving bribes or the privilige of a car?
Before I sent the letter to the president, I thought for three days, thinking about whether I could say that. I know it was to risk everything, and one swing of the club would finish everything. But I said proudly 'I can do it'. 4 years ago I left Zhougou village, when I left there were over 3,000,000 yuan available. I had spent 10,000,000 repairing the school and the road to the village, but in four years not one official came to inspect anything, or to visit. After I sent the letter, before the reform started, district officials came to check up on me, and they didn't find anything. In all those years I didn't help one relative get a government job, I just found the people suitable for the job. My sister died and left three children, my brothers and I each took in one, and after they graduated they left for Guangdong to look for work.
Currently in the villages and counties, honest governance is not a common sight. If you are uncorrupt, you must have stuck out. Perhaps this is why you remained at the grassroots level for 17 years.
Yes, if I wasn't uncorrupted, I would have been promoted. If I had been willing to spend money, I wouldn't have served in Jianli county for so long.
I'd like to know how much money you can earn in Jianli county?
In the better villages, 1000 yuan, in the others not quite 600 yuan. The average was 800 yuan, this is the income from one family working 30 mu (1 mu=1.6acres) for one year. One mu requires 800 jin (500g +-) of grain, 0.40 yuan for one jin makes 170 yuan, and this will bring in 230 yuan. Add in the cost of people and working in the fields will make a loss.[(NB I'm really not sure about the translation of this paragraph, don't go quoting it in any dissertations]
In Shenzhen and Zhujiang, how much did you earn?
At Lantian's Zhujiang branch I was a general manager, I made 6000Y. That's the equivalent of a years income in the villages
With that kind of disparity, how can you achieve psychological balance?
You can only measure balance by comparing with the environment. In the villages you work for over 10 hours, people come looking for you before it's light, and you still can't rest at 11pm. Some cadres say we work so hard, yet our salary still isn't enough to eat two meals in the city, so they eat the peasants food with one hand, and take their things with the other. I worked for them and also worked for myself. If one person has a problem, I hope I can take it to the county magistrate or secretary, it's worth it for myself. In Zhougou village, I could put my own policies into effect, and people with different opinions could denounce me. But to put a whole village in order gave me a great sense of acheivement. Now, when I feel unhappy, I always think of going back for a couple of days.
That kind of state makes me remember those times fondly
At [placename?] I was punished once. After I often returned to Zhougou, the people there often talked with me after tea and rice, asked me what unfairness I'd met, I alway went home happily.
Before Hongchao's guerilla warriors came back, they would go to the lake to swim. There were a lot of mosquitos, so they were really unhappy. They took tea and lotus leaves back to Beijing. At first I thought this was a waste of time, but now I understand, I hope I can find this kind of happiness in the environment. Because of this, I like the kind of work in the villages.[damned if I know what that's all about]
Because you know the people regard you as a good official?
There are three standards for a good official. One, don't fear the peasants. Two, don't fear the people at the level below you or beside you. Three, don't fear your leaders. If you can do these three things, you are certainly a good cadre. I use this to measure myself and those above and below me.
If you had the chance to go back to where you were, do what you did, earn what you used to, would you go?
I'd like to go back one day and run for office, I really would
Don't you feel wronged? Initially you aspired to be a county head or secretary, and now you said you aren't even sure you
can be head of a village.
Current village heads aren't like before. They can embody the will of the people. If bureaucracy gets bigger and bigger,
but things are getting worse and worse, what's the point of being a cadre? That's what started me writing my letter.
China doesn't lack people with masters degrees in economics or small-village cadres. It just lacks people with an economics
background who can serve as cadres in small villages. Facing inequality, we never lack sympathy or knowledge, we just lack
the will to fight.
What help were your studies of ecomics when you were a party secretary?
From the point of view of management, you can reduce inefficency. For example, rural management of people, finance and
produce is chaotic from the villages to the town. If you can't even read a financial statement it's very easy to be cheated
by people. An expert can get first-hand information in one glance and can make rules according to the evidence.
After working in the rural areas for so long, I formed a set of methods for dealing with financial management in the
villages. After I wrote the letter, the central authorities started to take an interest, they wanted to spread my
experience throughout the province, and one important part of this was my theories of rural financial management. Hubei
Agricultual Committe Assistant Chairman, Yan Guanjin, an expert on rural affairs, said after reading my theories that after
several decades of travelling the whole province, I was the only person who had really researched management, and that my
theories were just what the rural areas needed.
In your opinion, have all the policies implemented in the rural areas been thought through carefully from the economic
point of view?
Take the 'three encouragements, three depend upons, three changes' development plan implemented in the counties as an
example. Encouraging agriculture, work and commerce, changing counties producing only grain into counties that produce
a range of crops. The three depend upons are grain, cotton and oil [presumably not crude?], depend on diverse sources of
wealth and depend on industrial enterprise to succeed. This is a slogan everywhere, and provincial leaders agree. However,
this lacks support from economic theory. At the time, I wrote an article entitled ' Are the three dependencies dependable'
and raised this doubt.
Chinese rural areas can't rely on grain, cotton and oil as their starting point. We are still involved in farming, supplying raw materials for industry and cities. We are still a long way from any starting point. Relying on different sources of wealth is also unreliable. You dont' get rich by being diverse, you get rich by being better than competitiors. Our small villages don't have experience in large-scale projects, and we can't effect years worth of changes in one week. All these so-called breakthroughs and leaps in development seem a little bit like the Great Leap Forward of those years. [bit I can't do]
In Jianli, the income from industry was greater in the 70s than it was in the 80s, and greater in the 80s than it was in
the 90s. Industry is withering. This is the 'Matai[???]' efficency effect, the developed regions get more and more developed,
the backward regions get more and more backwards.
The suggestion I gave was this: use the two big natural resources of Jianli, allow the land to change hands.
Send labour out, help more and more people find work in the developed areas, liberalise the land laws and rent it out to
people from outside. This method would promte a fundamental rethinking of our agricultural methods. At the time the county
officials were very unhappy, some groups wrote criticisms of me. I feel this is just the difference between studying and not
studying. If you don't study, you don't have a broad overview of the direction agriculture is taking. Jianli was a champion
producer of grain for ten years, was this necessary [I think referring to the criticism]? Some people did it for political
advancement, some because they didn't understand market economics.
Normally, if you study economics, in 17 years you can do a lot for the village, why have so many people phoned you asking
[????????] questions after you left. In these 17 years, haven't you solved all the questions?
In Qipan village I only had 9 months, in 1997 to 1999 Qipan raised [some kind of crab / seafood?] in 1999 there was a
production surplus, this is the [?????] of the rural economy. Economy requires competition, but excessive competition can
produce bad results. With China's 200 million production units, it's no wonder that it's a bad idea to follow the governments
exhortations. In 1997 [????s] exported to Japan were worth 400yuan a jin, in 1999 only 60-odd yuan. Unplanned production
cannot guarantee the competitiveness of superior products.
Last year I looked at raising yellow [somethings]. Because they can't be raised artifically and there are limits on seeds,
our lake area has an advantage, Honghu's naturally raised [????] are of good quality, and can be exported to Taiwan. In
August 2000 I went and in September they went on the market at 20 yuan a jin, a profit of 8 yuan. I hear the price is the
same this year.
A flash of brilliance is the inspiration of morality, and enviromental harmony's [#????????]
You passed central inspection after you sent your letter to the president, why do people think your letter when beyond the
facts and look at you angrily?
Because it wasn't easy to read. I said blindness is like a flood, and the burden is like Taishan, the debts are like
[another mountain], cadres are like locusts, government policies are like lies, responsible control is like a cage,
falsehoods are like truth, today, who can say that kind of thing? Everyone looks to their own political advantage, trys
to influence those who can help them on the road to advancement. They will naturally hate it with all their heart. The same
facts can be viewed in different ways.
But the reform from the top is still strongly developing in Jianli, and the experience of Jianli has been widely broadcast
and you have recieved recognition. It's difficult to think that this hasn't changed everything that happened at Qipan and
prevents you from starting again. Aren't you worried that after you go the noises will die out, and everything will return
to the way it was?
What kind of reform is that!?
After the investigation group left I was alone for one month, Jianli TV no longer had my 'Jianli Report" and used
'Qipan Leader" to represent my name. When I went to county meetings I had to sit alone, I had to be the last to leave,
and when I met those who used to be my friends I had to pretend not to see them. When I came into contact with province,
city and county officials Provinical Head Jiang Zhuping was the only one to officially recommend me, to tell the truth.
Reducing the burden of the masses is reducing the profit and privilige of the cadres, so every level will admit the
burden is heavy, but noone is willing to put into practice any policy that will relieve it. The average village's debt
is in the region of 10,000,000 yuan, and no leader hopes that that problem will blow up while they are in their post.
However, Qipan's current reforms are going to cause them to blow up in advance. [to defuse ?]
Against corruption, one provincial secretary or provincial head won't help one small anti-corruptionist - you can see
how difficult it is to fight corruption.
Laying off employees, in 1997, I became[ ???'s] secretary and at one go laid off 121 people. The county secretary gave
me a note of the people to retain, I sent it back and laid off 121 people. Equality doesn't have sympathy or special people.
However, when I left 121 people all got their jobs back. Ever since I started work, the central party has wanted to
rationalise and refine the labour force, but they still haven't got out of the cycle of cutting back, expanding, then
cutting back again. Moreover, the problem of over-employment has become an almost uncontrollable problem. Why do central
policies change when they reach provinces, even to the point of being unworkable. The reason is actually very simple -
one hand isn't strong enough.
In the world, only those who will sacrifice personal profit can help society advance. In the world, only power that is
under the control of the people is safe power. However, you can't freeze three feet with one day of cold - how many people
dare to sacrifice?
Has reform lost direction?
In March while planning reforms for Qipan I decided on a target - reduce the burden and liberate the people,
develop the economy and promote stability.
Now, we should be liberating the peasants for the third time. This time we should permit them to leave the ground and
leave the village, allow them to go into or out of farming. This way, we can move the peasants, reduce the peasants, enrich
the peasants". This will advance cities and towns, and cause consolidation of agriculture, gather together, specialize,
productionalize, marketise. This will help break through the second barrier and build a framework for a genuine market
economy, promote the advancement of the national economy and the building of a new socialism.
Reform cannot contradict government policy - this sentence gave a base to the reform in Qipan. Reform cannot be opposite
to the higher levels. This sentence gave a base to Li
Changping's letter to the centre
The reduction of the labour force in Jianli is something everyone has an opinion about, but no leader or media has raised
substantive doubts. If Hubei's Rural Reforms are all carried out like this, what a sad thing that would be.
Provincial, City and County workers planned to work in Qipan for one month and a half, but actually only worked for one
month. In one month you can only do one thing - send a statement of account to each household. The total debt was just
under 5,890,000. Having done this, they could say they were done.
This reform, as far as some leaders are concerned, is a political game. For me, it's a difficulty.
Some people say the villages are stacked up like mountains. If you want to find a solution, you'll need five years.
But in Jianli's one month of reform became the guide for reform in the whole province.
If you say a falsehood 100 times, it becomes true -- whoever doesn't belive, will believe.
You left behind everything you loved, perhaps it's the price of traitorhood. You've said everything you want to, and the
result is still the same. How do you feel?
Society's advance needs the sacrifice of many. If the sacrifice of one small party secretary can let the national leaders
know what the situation is, it's worth it.
Like Anhui Lixin's Xia Yisong, who raised the issue of reform with central authorities and was still unable to continue,
where were my reasons to stay? My loss is the gain of the cadres, the peasants profit is conserved, but the upper levels
will decide my fate. The peasants are god to me, but it's no use.
What can be done?
Economist Laisite Suoluo {anyone know any economists called Lassiter Something?] said the rural areas are the crucial
point of the Chinese economy. If the three questions aren't solved, it will be the downfall of stability, because the
slow pace of reform in rural areas will waste the benefits of the reform of the economic system.
From old we have immersed ourselves in hard work, worked for the benefit of all, given our lives for the law . . .
this is the backbone of China.
I still want to ask you, when you found problems you didn't go to another village, you went to the city. Is it that
the city can temporarily conceal your brilliance to the villages, or because you can find a better way to help the villages
here, or because you believe your mission has finished and you are now living for youself.
I'm not worried about money, my parents are still fishers, my children are at Jingzhou studying, I need these days to
calm down and broaden my vision, let people recognize that I'm not just a party secretary, that I can also do other things,
because management is a transferable skill.
Do you still think of the countryside when you are among the red and green lights of the city?
There are big differences between those born in the city and those born in the countryside. The responsibility is huge,
I'm always thinking about how to change unfairness. I think of the rural areas, the peasants, my home, my parents and
children.
Looking at the next ten years, will you stay in the city, or show your abilities in the villages?
There are two possibilities. If I can find an investor with interest in rural areas, I will go back and start a business.
Otherwise, I will research the problems of the countryside.
A real village.
This kind of reform.
Seeking truth from facts, it's easier said than done.
Children of the Peasants