The story of Wang Ruifen and Cheng Weigao

The story of Wang Ruifen and Cheng Weigao

Zhang Jianxin

In the eighties and nineties of the 20th century, an internal organization of the Handan Machinery Bureau was called the Enterprise Reform and Enterprise Management Section (hereinafter referred to as the Enterprise Reform Section). As the name suggests, the name of this department is what it does. The practice of setting up government agencies is to go to the top. The counterpart unit of our enterprise reform section is the Economic System Reform Office of the Handan Municipal Government. As a section chief, I often attend various meetings held by the Municipal System Reform Office, accept their leadership in business, and complete the tasks assigned by them.

At that time, the director of the Municipal System Reform Office was called Wang Ruifen, which sounded like a woman's name at first glance, but in fact it was a middle-aged cadre. He was not tall and skinny, but his thin face had a pair of big eyes that were so bright that as soon as his eyelids blinked, a scorching light immediately erupted from his eyes, which seemed to melt iron into gold. So every time he had a meeting, as soon as he walked into the door of the conference room, as his gaze swept slightly towards the venue, the whole venue immediately fell silent. Because, everyone is looking forward to Director Wang's speech as soon as possible, and listening to him speak is a real enjoyment.

Director Wang's speech is indeed level. He is probably from the northern county of Baoding, Hebei Province, and his accent is close to Beijing, but it is a few more soothing and subdued than Beijing. He speaks clearly, at a moderate pace, in a well-organized manner, and is not an exaggeration to say that he is similar to the announcer of the CCTV news channel, but slightly inferior to the announcer's Mandarin level. If his speech is recorded in its entirety, it will be a well-structured, grammatically standardized, and logical article. Therefore, the cadres of the city's structural reform system not only love to listen to his speech, but also consciously and sparingly do not hesitate to implement it. Director Wang enjoys a high prestige among those of us.

In 1993, Handan City was merged, and the two machinery bureaus of the city became one, and a cadre of the former regional machinery bureau told me: Wang Ruifen was not a cadre of Handan City, but worked in the Handan Administrative Office. For some reason, Wang Ruifen was ostracized in the region. The administrative office couldn't stay any longer, and was demoted to Wu'an County as deputy county magistrate, but the people who opposed him were still unwilling, and privately organized a group of people, taking advantage of a government change to make a big fuss among the people's congress deputies, in an attempt to elect Wang Ruifen in the people's congress election. However, the election results frustrated the conspiracy of those people, and Wang Ruifen was not only not defeated, but was once again elected as the deputy county magistrate with a high vote, because he did a very good job after coming to Wu'an, and his performance and ability were generally recognized by the whole county.

Wang Ruifen quickly sensed the thrilling inside story of the general election, and knew that if he stayed in the region, the dissidents who opposed him would not give up, and they might be more fortunate in the future. So he found Bai Lutang, the then mayor of Handan City, and asked to be transferred to Handan City to work. Bai Lutang had previously served as the deputy commissioner of the Executive Department, and he had a better understanding of Wang Ruifen's talent and personality, so Wang Ruifen took office as the deputy director of the Handan Municipal System Reform Office.

Beginning in 1986, under the auspices of Wang Ruifen, Handan City implemented the reform of the enterprise contracting system among the city's state-owned and collectively-owned enterprises. The contract period is 5 years, that is, from 1986 to 1990, commonly known as the first round of contracting. That is, on the basis of not changing the main body of investment, the leading group headed by the original factory director is contracted, and the ownership and management rights are relatively separated. More than 20 enterprises affiliated to our Municipal Machinery Bureau have all implemented the contracting system. The contracting system has better implemented the reform requirements of the State Council on expanding the autonomy of enterprises, promoted enterprises to enter the market, and stimulated the vitality of enterprises' independent operations. Handan City's business contracting system has been implemented very smoothly, both in terms of the number of contracted enterprises and the contracting effect, it is among the best in the province, and it has become famous in the province's system reform system.

In 1989, when the first round of enterprise contracting in Handan City was coming to an end, Wang Ruifen was intensively planning and deploying the second round of enterprise contracting. He visited other prefectures and cities in the province and visited the State Commission for the Reform of the State System in Beijing. Immediately afterwards, the municipal government held a second round of contracting deployment conference, the then secretary of the municipal party committee Bai Lutang personally attended the meeting to speak, Director Wang Ruifen made the deployment, and the city's second round of contracting was officially launched, marking the city's enterprise reform will be further developed again.

The above achievements are only part of Wang Ruifen's political achievements, as far as I know, his most outstanding credit is the discovery and summary of the "Handan Iron and Steel experience". Around 1990, Handan Iron and Steel fell into the lowest point, a super-large enterprise with tens of thousands of people, with an annual profit of only a few hundred thousand yuan, fell to the brink of loss. Under the leadership of General Manager Liu Hanzhang, Handan Iron and Steel Group is poor and thinks about changes, strengthens the independent operation accounting of each branch, calculates the reasonable product cost of each link by the method of market price backwards, and forces and motivates grassroots units to reduce costs. It is named "the business model of simulated market and independent accounting within the enterprise". When this practice of Handan Iron and Steel was still in its embryonic state, it was discovered by Wang Ruifen's discernment, he sent people to investigate, and he also visited the site to investigate, and then after systematic summary and demonstration, a relatively complete set of experience materials was formed. Wang Ruifen first held an on-site meeting to promote it in the city. I attended this meeting, and before the meeting ended at noon, Director Wang announced: "Handan Gang would like to express his courtesy to the guests at the meeting, please have lunch, let us express our heartfelt gratitude!" It was as if it had happened yesterday, and his rarely high-pitched, agitated voice still rings in my ears today. Soon, Handan Iron and Steel's practice of "red apricots out of the wall" was affirmed by the State Economic and Trade Commission and the Commission for Structural Reform, and began to be promoted on the national industrial front. A year later, the State Economic and Trade Commission and several other ministries and commissions held a meeting to promote the experience of Handan Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. Wang Zhongyu, secretary general of the State Council and director of the State Economic and Trade Commission, attended and presided over the meeting of unprecedented scale. Subsequently, the State Council issued a document to raise the practice of Handan Iron and Steel to the national level, and then became the "Handan Iron and Steel Experience" that is well-known throughout the country. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, it is very rare to learn from a certain enterprise through the document issued by the State Council, there are two in total, the first time is the industrial Daqing, this is the second time.

Around 1992, Wang Ruifen was suddenly promoted to the provincial government as the deputy director of the Provincial System Reform Commission, promoted from the department level to the department official, and presided over the work, exercising the power of the first leader. That year, he was 58 years old, and his promotion at this age was an unprecedented event in Handan officialdom, causing quite a stir, so much so that he was talked about in the streets. However, I am sincerely happy for Director Wang, and with his talent and conduct, this promotion is reasonable.

There are unpredictable circumstances in the sky, and people have good and bad luck. Who knew that it was only a year, but there was the sad news that Director Wang died suddenly of a heart attack. At that time, I felt very unhappy in my heart, and it was regrettable that such an outstanding cadre died young. So I made a special trip to the Municipal Commission for the Reform of the Municipal System, met with the successor Director Kang Youtang, and expressed condolences to Director Wang on his death. This time, Director Kang opened the conversation box and introduced to me the reason why Director Wang was transferred to the Provincial System Reform Commission.

It turned out that Director Wang's promotion was due to a report to Cheng Weigao, secretary of the provincial party committee. At the end of 1992, the city's second-round enterprise contracting had been largely completed, and preparations were being made for the next year's work plan. Cheng Weigao came to Handan to investigate the province's structural reform work and arranged the work in 1993. On this trip, he brought with him the heads of various departments of the provincial government, including a director of the provincial system reform commission. One day, Cheng Weigao listened to the report of the Handan Municipal Government on the work of structural reform, and Bai Lutang, Secretary of the Municipal Party Committee, participated, and entrusted Wang Ruifen to report. Director Wang talked eloquently, with a clear and well-organized manner, which convinced Cheng Wei and nodded yes. As soon as Wang Ruifen finished speaking, Cheng Weigao immediately said to the director of the Provincial System Reform Commission next to him: "Next year, the province's system reform work will be done according to what Handan City just said!" It shows that he is very satisfied with Director Wang's report, and highly agrees with and fully affirms.

Back in Shijiazhuang, Cheng Weigao convened the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee and proposed to transfer Wang Ruifen to the Provincial System Reform Committee to preside over the work. Some members of the Standing Committee present at the meeting expressed different opinions, holding that Wang Ruifen is 58 years old and is about to retire and cannot be used. Hearing this, Cheng Weigao slapped the table and said categorically: "Wang Ruifen is capable and open-minded. I'm using his abilities, not his age. Even if he is about to retire in half a year, I will use him for half a year! As soon as these words came out, it was useless for others to object. So Wang Ruifen took office.

After working in the province, Wang Ruifen worked harder to repay the kindness of the encounter. Cheng Weigao and Ye Liansong (provincial governor) often called in the middle of the night to consult and seek advice on the work of physical reform, which made Director Wang often eat at night, unable to sleep at night, and exhausted. After a long and high-intensity work, he finally destroyed his not very strong body, which led to a recurrence of heart disease and died at work.

Director Kang Youtang finished telling this anecdote with a heavy heart, because he did not have ordinary respect and admiration for Wang Ruifen.

The two people introduced in this story are both ancient. One is an outstanding department-level cadre with a well-known reputation in Handan City, and the other is the former secretary of the provincial party committee who was expelled from the party and revoked his provincial-level treatment.

November 6, 2023