Rebirth: I am in Jin-Cha-Ji

The development of these trades has greatly promoted the development of domestic economy and industry.

The atomic bomb entered its final sprint, and diplomacy blossomed everywhere, conquering cities in Europe and the Middle East. As the year drew to a close, good news continued to spread across the country.

However, Wei Hongjun was more cautious about this kind of good news, fearing that people might get carried away. Therefore, he asked the Propaganda Department to strictly control the scale of publicity.

At the same time, the reports submitted by the four central working groups after their local inspections were sorted out.

Issues that fall under the jurisdiction of the Party Committee should be handled by the Secretariat. Some issues fall under the jurisdiction of the administrative department and should be transferred to the administrative department for handling.

During this inspection, six items were mainly transferred to the Finance and Economics Work Committee, one item was transferred to the Political and Legal Affairs Committee, and one item was transferred to the Culture, Education and Work Committee.

The first issue handed over to the Finance and Economics Working Committee was about the product range of the supply and marketing cooperatives established by rural cooperatives in the free market for agricultural and sideline products.

The central government first established a free market for agricultural and sideline products in order to solve the purchase and sale problems of various wild vegetables from the mountains, vegetables grown at home, fruits and other agricultural and sideline products in rural areas.

State-owned supply and marketing cooperatives and state-owned commercial companies were initially responsible for the purchase and sale of agricultural and sideline products, resulting in numerous problems and excessive losses. Not only were rural areas struggling to make money, but cities also faced a shortage of agricultural and sideline products. To address this, rural cooperatives were encouraged to establish their own supply and marketing cooperatives to sell agricultural and sideline products.

However, with the development of the free market, these supply and marketing cooperatives added rural handicrafts and then some meat products, mainly domestically raised pork, chickens, ducks, etc. Now, with the development of rural industry and commerce, some rural industrial products are also sold through supply and marketing cooperatives.

Moreover, they not only sold goods from the countryside, but also took advantage of the supply and marketing cooperatives in the city to purchase large quantities of industrial products from the state supply and marketing cooperatives at one time. Then they sold the goods to the countryside, acting as a middleman.

Therefore, the supply and marketing cooperatives run by many rural cooperatives are now expanding their business scope, ranging from vegetables and meat to rural handicrafts and industrial products. Precisely because of the increasing variety of products sold by rural supply and marketing cooperatives, some provinces have begun to restrict the types of products they can sell.

There's a significant contradiction here. The local government's restrictions on sales by these supply and marketing cooperatives are well-founded. Originally, you were allowed to sell agricultural and sideline products like vegetables and wild vegetables, which is the scope of your supply and marketing cooperatives' business. However, these local restrictions also undermine the prosperity of the free market for agricultural and sideline products and undermine rural industry and commerce.

With the development of rural industry and commerce, the output of rural industrial products has increased. So, are rural supply and marketing cooperatives allowed to sell products produced by rural factories? If rural supply and marketing cooperatives are not allowed to sell these rural industrial products, will the state supply and marketing cooperatives purchase all of them?

We can’t just not sell industrial products produced in rural areas?

The second issue is the spatial scope of rural supply and marketing cooperatives, that is, where can these cooperatives be established? Should they be limited to the county, city, or province?

When promoting the development of a free market for agricultural and sideline products, Wei Hongjun believed that given China's current transportation conditions, such fruits and vegetables could only be sold within nearby counties and towns. Therefore, he hadn't considered the possibility of rural supply and marketing cooperatives selling in more distant cities or counties.

However, the farmers in these rural cooperatives were more resourceful and determined to get rich than Wei Hongjun and his colleagues imagined. To earn more money, they were willing to walk for more than ten hours a night to the city to sell their goods. Furthermore, they failed to consider the practical conditions of the connections between counties and cities. This led to the current problem.

Local governments artificially restrict the development scope of rural supply and marketing cooperatives.

But the rapid development of the free market for agricultural and sideline products, combined with the booming rural industry, has created a contradiction: should rural supply and marketing cooperatives be allowed to sell their products in other counties or cities?

Third, regarding the serious shortage of electricity in counties, towns and rural areas, the central government must provide more support.

Regarding the development of rural electricity, plans were made as early as when Wei Hongjun was still in the State Council. The central government and local provinces invested in large and medium-sized power plants, which were mainly for industry and large cities and could not take into account the rural areas of counties, towns and villages.

Therefore, the central government’s decision at that time was to support the development of small hydropower projects in counties, townships and rural areas.

At the time, the Ministry of Rural Affairs issued a notice: "Any water conservancy project capable of generating electricity should, as far as possible, simultaneously carry out small and medium-sized hydropower construction, combined with the construction of large and medium-sized national power projects, to gradually increase rural electricity consumption."

Following the Ministry of Rural Affairs' notice, the Ministry of Water Resources and Electric Power also issued a notice: "Small hydropower stations should be constructed in areas with suitable natural conditions, a good foundation for mutual assistance and cooperation, relatively concentrated populations, and the ability to raise funds. Those under 100 kilowatts will be approved by the provincial government, while those over 100 kilowatts will be approved by the Ministry. Power stations should be primarily operated and managed by the masses, with agricultural cooperatives as the core, and collectively owned."

Following the central government's directive to support rural cooperatives in establishing small hydroelectric power stations, small hydroelectric power stations have developed rapidly across the country.

The central government sent technical personnel to study how to use local materials, manufacture locally, spend less money, achieve quick results, save steel, and facilitate pilot projects and promotion of small hydropower stations.

Later, technicians discovered, inherited and carried forward my country's experience in using wooden water pumps to pump water and wooden impellers and gears to drive generators to generate electricity in the 30s. At the same time, they learned from the Soviet Union's early practices in building rural electrification and actively promoted wooden water turbines and small hydroelectric power stations that used indirect transmission to drive generators to generate electricity.

According to statistics in 1957, more than 1200 small hydropower stations with a capacity of 12000 kilowatts were built in more than 41 counties across the country, and the annual power generation could reach 16 billion kilowatt-hours.

This type of small hydropower project requires minimal investment, typically 800 to 1000 yuan per kilowatt. Therefore, these small hydropower stations, with a capacity of only a few dozen kilowatts, typically require only to yuan, including other supporting measures. Larger hydropower projects typically cost to yuan, and rarely exceed yuan.

These small hydropower projects are now very profitable. Of the numerous small hydropower projects nationwide, 80% can recoup their costs and become profitable within two years. The remaining 20% ​​can generally recoup their costs within three years. It can be said that once invested in and constructed, small hydropower projects are like a hen that lays eggs.

Small hydropower projects in rural areas were once a promising development, effectively filling the gaps in electricity supply in counties and townships. However, with the rapid growth of rural industry and commerce in recent years, especially the proliferation of factories, electricity consumption has increased exponentially. As a result, the development of small hydropower projects in rural areas has lagged behind the growth of the rural economy.

Not only is the steel industry impacting the development of light industry, but insufficient power generation is also impacting the development of rural industry and commerce. Previously, the central government and local provinces did not invest much in electricity development in counties, townships, and rural areas. Small hydropower development was largely funded by counties, townships, and rural areas themselves. However, the current situation requires central coordination and planning. Adjustments should be made to support electricity development in counties, townships, and rural areas.

The development of rural areas can provide the country with a huge market and an economic buffer zone. Even with the growth of urban populations, especially the large-scale increase in high school graduates, it is definitely rural areas that can provide them with sufficient jobs.

Fourth, there is the issue of debt owed by local governments and large state-owned enterprises. When doing business with local governments, large state-owned enterprises, and rural cooperatives, there are often delays in payment.

This situation was not uncommon in Hebei and Liaoning regions during this inspection.

What local governments and large state-owned enterprises mean is that there are internal audit and internal budget issues, so payments will be late.

However, this delayed payment has severely impacted many small factories in rural cooperatives. Large factories may think that small amount of money is nothing, but for small factories, it is an astronomical figure.

This issue is complex, but also simple. The central government needs to come up with more specific policies to protect everyone's interests on payment issues.

Fifth, there are now problems with funding for rural industry and commerce. When rural industry and commerce were just starting out, Wei Hongjun and Deng Zhihui chose credit cooperatives.

Back then, the funds from credit cooperatives were sufficient to support the development of rural industry and commerce. However, as rural industry and commerce flourish, the demand for funds is increasing. Clearly, the funds from credit cooperatives are no longer sufficient to meet the needs of rural industry and commerce.

To further promote the development of the county and rural economy, more funds need to flow into the county and rural areas. If the state does not provide support, it is easy for a large number of private lending and private financial institutions to emerge in the county and rural areas.

Wei Hongjun expressed his opinion in this report, which is to separate the Agricultural Bank of China from the People's Bank of China, allowing the People's Bank of China to perform more of the role of a central bank, while the Agricultural Bank of China becomes a specialized commercial bank serving the county and township rural economies.

Having such a commercial bank can not only mobilize more funds in counties, towns and rural areas, but also guide some urban funds to flow into counties, towns and rural areas.

Sixth, urban construction: With the increase in urban population, urban construction has become an important task in many cities.

However, according to the inspection report, many cities choose to solve urban construction, especially urban expansion, one problem at a time, without any foresight.

As a result, the newly expanded area was no longer suitable within two years and needed to be expanded again.

Urban development should be planned with at least a ten-year horizon. This is especially true in industrializing countries like China, where urban populations are changing rapidly. Millions of people migrate from rural areas to cities every year. Therefore, urban development must be forward-looking, considering what will happen ten or fifteen years from now.

These six issues were summarized by Wei Hongjun among many issues after the inspection by the working group and handed over to the Finance and Economics Working Committee.

A large number of inspection reports were included as examples.

Then came the inspection report to the Political and Legal Affairs Commission, which mainly covered various disputes between local governments and state-owned enterprises, and between state-owned enterprises, due to contract issues, product quality issues, and price issues.

All details are written in. This will allow the Political and Legal Affairs Commission to see the current economic disputes. Like the Ministry of Public Security, the work will become increasingly complex. Various economic cases will require not only the courage of public security comrades, but also their professional ability.

Next, the Cultural and Educational Work Committee discovered a problem during this inspection: the lack of a wide variety of books on the market. This includes novels by modern authors, newspapers from other fields besides the Party newspaper, magazines, and comic books.

The working group believes that with economic development, people have more money on hand, leading to a growing demand for cultural goods. The central government should seize this opportunity.

Of course, after these are handed over to the Finance and Economics Working Committee, the Political and Legal Affairs Commission, and the Culture and Education Working Committee, how to supervise them in completing these tasks is also a problem.

Whether it is supervision by the Secretariat, supervision by the Supervisory Commission, or supervision by the Central Bureau of Letters and Calls, all need to be gradually improved.

"The work of the petition bureaus in several provinces shows that many local governments still don't have a correct understanding of petition work."

After the report is handed over, the Secretariat will handle matters related to the work of the Party Committee.

During this inspection of local provinces, we found many problems in the construction of local petition bureaus.

"Yes. Currently, local governments have a vague understanding of the Letters and Calls Bureau. They simply view it as a facade and a department for passing letters between higher and lower levels."

"This must change. Local provinces must clearly define the importance of the work of the Letters and Calls Bureau. Comrade Lu Yuwen suggested that important provincial leaders should be directly responsible for letters and calls work, and the same should apply to the cities and counties below. I think this makes sense. Provincial Party Committee leaders should be directly responsible for the work of the Letters and Calls Bureau. The Organization Department and the Letters and Calls Bureau should discuss the specific regulations in this regard."

"it is good."

"Yes."

Chen Tanqiu and Xiahou Wen both nodded.

Whenever the central government attaches importance to a certain matter, it will select important local leaders to take charge of it. For example, after the liberation, rural work was the top priority, so each province would have a deputy secretary of the provincial party committee in charge of rural work.

The Secretariat must now attach importance to petition work. This means placing greater responsibilities on local officials. Without a prominent local official to spearhead petition work, this work will become superficial.

"Then there was Comrade Xia Houwen's report, which focused on the issue of favoring boys over girls in Zhejiang Province. Starting with education, rural Zhejiang places greater emphasis on boys' education. However, the number of girls attending middle school is far less than that of boys. In some middle schools, the male-to-female ratio is as disproportionate as nine to one."

Xiahou Wen followed the old farmer to the countryside to take a look.

Rural development is booming. Land improvement, small hydropower projects, tree planting, factories opening, and even pig farms along the way—it's a truly busy scene.

The only thing that Xia Houwen found problematic was that boys and girls were treated completely differently.

The phenomenon of favoring sons over daughters is extremely serious. The most obvious example is education. Many boys attend middle school, and many families hope their children will bring honor to the family. Girls, however, have fewer expectations; two or three years of elementary school are enough to achieve literacy. Girls in their teens often stop attending school and begin helping with household chores. While adults work at the cooperative, the girls are left to care for the children, raise pigs, cook, and do the laundry.

Xia Houwen was from Jiangxi, and the situation in Jiangxi was the same before. The phenomenon of favoring sons over daughters was very serious.

After a little understanding, Xia Houwen realized that things were much better now. Before liberation, drowning of baby girls was a common phenomenon in this area.

Xia Houwen later visited several counties in Zhejiang and found that the concept of favoring sons over daughters was deeply rooted and difficult to solve, so he wrote a report on the issue.

"Gender equality isn't just talk; it has very real implications. Our revolution is anti-imperialist and anti-feudal. We need to completely eradicate the feudal stigma stigmatizing the masses, and gender equality is the best way to do it. Furthermore, industrial development requires the joint efforts of both men and women; women cannot be confined to the home."

"Actually, it's not just Zhejiang. As far as I know, Jiangxi and Fujian are also provinces where son preference is particularly strong. The stronger the clan power, the more entrenched the feudal ideology, and the greater the oppression of women. It's been ten years since the founding of New China, but we still haven't been able to completely solve this problem. Everyone, please tell me how we can quickly change this situation."

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, it was easy to change other aspects of life, but the people's habits, the ideological imprints that had been ingrained for thousands of years, were the most difficult to change.

Why has every change in customs and practices throughout history always brought about a huge upheaval? It is because external things are easy to change, but internal things are the most difficult to change.

"Secretary Wei, I believe we still need to formulate policies to protect women's rights and increase publicity efforts in this area. We need to ensure that the idea of ​​gender equality is deeply rooted in people's hearts. Regardless of whether they truly believe it or pretend to, we must let the slogan of gender equality resound throughout the country. We must ensure that everyone, at least on the surface, supports gender equality. Only in this way can we create a favorable atmosphere in public opinion and promote genuine policies for gender equality."

Duan Chengwei, acting Minister of the Propaganda Department, expressed his views.

We need a politically correct public opinion climate. Regardless of what we think in our hearts, we must publicly support gender equality. This is the importance of public opinion. Some people clearly look down on women, but under such public opinion, they can only pretend to respect them.

"The Propaganda Department needs to develop a propaganda plan against feudal oppression, clan oppression, and gender equality. It must stay true to reality and not be divorced from the masses, producing incomprehensible, rambling, and incomprehensible writing. Ideally, this should take the form of a wartime drama, or a comic book or even a movie, highlighting domestic violence such as son preference, mothers-in-law abusing their daughters-in-law, and husbands beating their wives. We need to make it so that people can relate to the happenings around them."

Wei Hongjun agreed with Duan Chengwei's idea. The Propaganda Department had a lot of work to do, but changing rural customs remained the most important task and required perseverance. Otherwise, many bad rural customs would easily return.

"Yes."

"I think we need to have role models. We should send capable female cadres to places where men are valued more than women. The more severe the preference for men over women, the more female cadres we should promote. We need to show them that women are just as good as men."

Chen Tanqiu spoke.

Many people blame Confucianism for favoring sons over daughters. However, while the development of Confucianism was driven by the will of rulers, it also fostered the soil for its emergence. In China, with its smallholder peasant economy, the emphasis on sons, particularly in rural areas, is closely tied to the rural living environment, economic development, and agricultural production patterns.

In rural areas, where agriculture is the norm, men represent labor, a certain degree of force, and the ability to protect their families. Therefore, families with many sons tend to be more powerful.

To change this mindset, we must show the public that women can earn money for their families, make significant contributions to their families, and bring honor to their families. While this may sound cliché and overly utilitarian, in many cases, clichés and utilitarianism are the reality.

With more female cadres, it will naturally affect the thinking of many people.

"That makes sense. Since we're focusing our inspection on Zhejiang this time and have discovered problems there, let's start there. The Organization Department should communicate with the Organization Departments of the various provinces and select a group of capable female cadres from across the country to go to Zhejiang. We'll go to the cities and counties where male chauvinism is most prevalent, and let them see the elegance of female cadres in New China."

"it is good."

Xia Houwen said, "Secretary Wei, I was pressed for time, so I wasn't able to get a more detailed understanding of the internal situation of some local cooperatives. But I think that given the local preference for boys over girls, there's a high probability that there will be problems with this aspect of distribution within the cooperatives."

"I'll pass this on to the Rural Work Department. Let them take a look. This could be a breakthrough, and the Propaganda Department will have to follow up."

"Yes."

1059

“Jinhua’s development is really good.”

After the meeting, Xia Houwen stayed to share more of what he had seen in Zhejiang with Wei Hongjun. Previously, reports had been written, but now, face-to-face, he could provide a more detailed account of the situation in Zhejiang, including the situation of some of its cadres.

Xiahou Wen focused on introducing Jinhua's development and the cadre situation in Jinhua to Wei Hongjun.

Wei Hongjun listened to Xia Houwen's report and nodded repeatedly as he looked at the data report on Jinhua. Jinhua's development since liberation was truly remarkable.