Former Premier Li Peng went to the Soviet Union to study electricity-related knowledge when he was young, and after returning to China, he worked in relevant departments, during which he also made great contributions to the development of the mainland's electric power industry, and showed outstanding personal ability.
Therefore, in 1980, when Liu Lanbo, the former minister of electric power, was transferred and resigned, he decided to let Li Peng take over his position.
However, when Liu Lanbo put forward this proposal, it caused widespread controversy, and some cadres of the Ministry of Electric Power held that Li Peng was too young and should be "trained and trained" in other positions.
After learning of this, Chen Yun was very dissatisfied with the practices of some veteran cadres, and immediately launched a vigorous campaign to rejuvenate cadres in the central government departments.
As an orphan of a martyr, Li Peng has been cared for by party and state leaders since he was a child, and was sent to the Soviet Union to study electric power-related majors.
After leaving the country, Li Peng lived up to expectations, quickly mastered advanced knowledge of electric power, and after returning to China, he devoted himself to the cause of electric power construction in New China, making certain contributions to the development of the mainland.
In addition to learning professional knowledge, Li Peng also worked hard to cultivate his political qualities and grew into a staunch communist.
His work ability and personal conduct are well known among the cadres of the Ministry of Electric Power, and Liu Lanbo, who was the Minister of Electric Power at the time, also appreciated him very much.
In the second half of 1980, Liu Lanbo received an order to serve as an adviser to the State Council, so he needed to find a suitable successor as soon as possible.
After thinking about it, Liu Lanbo felt that Li Peng was a down-to-earth and responsible person, an expert in the field of electric power, and had worked in related industries for more than 20 years and accumulated rich experience, so he should be the best choice for the new minister.
However, as soon as Liu Lanbo put forward this idea, he immediately received the opinions of many veteran cadres.
Many of them used to be Li Peng's leaders, and if Li Peng had become minister, it would have been difficult to deal with the relationship between them.
Therefore, some people have suggested that Li Peng, who has just been 52 years old, should be allowed to "accumulate experience" in other posts, and then let a vice minister make a transition, which should be better for all parties.
However, Liu Lanbo believed that there should not be such an idea of ranking seniority according to seniority, and still insisted that Li Peng take over his position.
At this time, some people gave new reasons for opposition, saying that during the April Fifth Movement, some workers of the thermal power plant under Li Peng's charge went to Tiananmen Square, as if to prevent the people from mourning Premier Zhou, which showed that Li Peng's position was not firm or his management level was insufficient, and such people were not qualified to be ministers.
After receiving this information, the relevant personnel immediately launched an investigation, and finally they confirmed that the thermal power plant workers were mainly responsible for protecting the masses and maintaining order after going to Tiananmen Square, and did not have any excesses.
Moreover, at that time, Li Peng and his wife went to Tiananmen Square almost every day to mourn Premier Zhou, and the previous report was not accurate, and Li Peng was able to officially take over as minister of electric power.
The issue of Li Peng's appointment has also been highly valued by Deng Xiaoping, Chen Yun, and other state leaders.
This is because in 1980 they had just put forward the proposal of rejuvenating the ranks of central leading cadres.
After the reform and opening up was proposed, in order to enable the state leaders to concentrate on major affairs, the Party Central Committee decided to re-establish the Secretariat to be responsible for the handling of some affairs.
However, after the establishment of the Secretariat, Deng Xiaoping found that the average age of its staff members was over 60 years old, and the problem of the aging of leading cadres became a problem that needed to be solved urgently.
In view of this situation, Deng Xiaoping, Chen Yun, and other state leaders held discussions, and Chen Yun felt that among the leading cadres, there are not only few young people, but also relatively few intellectuals, and experts in some fields also have leadership potential, and some talents can be appropriately selected from them to be trained as reserves.
At the Sixth Plenary Session of the 11 th CPC Central Committee, Deng Xiaoping and Chen Yun reported on the above-mentioned problems and demanded that governments at all levels give priority to promoting young and promising cadres, and to bring about a younger and more professional cadre contingent as soon as possible.
Although the participants were well aware of the dangers of the aging of cadres, they were unable to let go of their prejudices against young people when it came time to carry out reforms, and the twists and turns suffered by Li Peng in the course of taking office were typical examples.
When Chen Yun learned about Li Peng's assumption of office, he was very disappointed by this, saying:
It's like this, 52 years old, who specializes in electricity, who has worked in the power sector for more than twenty years, and there are arguments!
Because Li Peng is impeccable in terms of background, work experience, and professional skills, if even he is so criticized, then it will be even more difficult for other young cadres to be promoted.
Chen Yun felt that it would not be possible to solve the problem if this continued, so he decided to use more direct means to complete the work of renewing the cadre ranks.
In May 1981, Chen Yun sent a report to Deng Xiaoping and Hu Yaobang, in which he proposed that in order to complete the work of replacing the cadre contingent as soon as possible, it was necessary to promote thousands of young cadres and put them in leadership positions.
In addition, we should not only focus on 50-year-old cadres who can take over immediately, but also on young people in their 40s or even under 40.
Deng Xiaoping and Hu Yaobang very much approved of the report, but if they want to promote young cadres, they must first let the old cadres retire.
To this end, they held a number of meetings and conducted in-depth discussions on the issue of the transition from the tenure system to the retirement system for cadres.
After reaching a preliminary consensus, the "Decision on Establishing a Retirement System for Veteran Cadres" was officially issued in early 1982.
A large number of veteran cadres have withdrawn from leadership positions one after another, leaving room for young people.
In September of that year, the 12th National Congress of the Communist Party of China was held in Beijing, which elected a new Central Committee and the Commission for Discipline Inspection.
Of the 348 members and alternate members of the Central Committee, 112 are under the age of 55, which has led to a reform of the central government's cadre ranks.
These young cadres also included Jiang Zemin, Li Peng, Hu Jintao, and other future leaders of the party and the state, which also reflected the ability of the leaders at that time to recognize people.
Although Li Peng's obstruction to his appointment as minister of electric power was eventually properly resolved, Chen Yun and other leaders sensed the potential difficulties in renewing the contingent of cadres and accelerated the pace of reform in view of this problem.
More direct measures were adopted to complete the replacement of the cadre contingent within one year, which greatly improved the administrative efficiency of the relevant departments and injected vitality into the leading groups.
It laid the foundation for the rapid development of reform and opening up, which once again proved the superior judgment of Chen Yun and others in the political field.
Resources
Part of the content of this article is referred to from "The 80s of the 20th Century: The Central Committee Vigorously Selects and Promotes Young Cadres", published in the "Party and Government Forum (Cadre Digest)" 2010 Issue 07.
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