There is so much to account about in Deng Xiaoping's magnificent life. He experienced three historical periods of China's revolution, construction and reform, and reform was the most important of them.
If Deng Xiaoping, as the core of the second generation of leadership, presided over the reform and opening up for more than a decade, there is any regret, it must be that the reform process in Shanghai gradually lagged behind that of Fujian and Guangdong on the southeast coast in the 1980s, that is, the period when he was in power.
To make up for this shortcoming, Deng Xiaoping made several trips to Shanghai in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Although Deng Xiaoping would go to Shanghai every year to spend the Spring Festival with his family, it was during these last few trips to Shanghai that he expressed his feelings more and more sincerely: We must make Shanghai the locomotive of the whole of China again!
Since the opening of the port in modern times, Shanghai has always been the most important economic center in the whole of China, and both the economic scale and fiscal revenue have long dominated the country.
After liberation, Shanghai's economy did not show signs of decline due to the shift to a planned economy, and the leading edge was more prominent. In 1978, Shanghai's total industrial and agricultural output nearly doubled that of second-place Beijing.
However, after entering the 1980s, as the wind of reform accelerated across the country, Shanghai gradually began to subjugate.
Since 1986, Shocking figures have been frequently displayed on Shanghai's financial "screen": local fiscal revenue has "slipped" from 18.16 billion yuan to 16.5 billion yuan in acceleration of 550 million and 1.11 billion yuan for two consecutive years.
As an important comprehensive indicator of national income to measure economic development, Shanghai has won the national championship for more than 30 consecutive years. However, since 1983, the national ranking has changed suddenly, and Shanghai has gradually fallen behind Jiangsu, Shandong, Sichuan and Guangdong.
After Jiangsu took away the two national firsts in terms of total industrial and agricultural output value and industrial output value with an aggressive trend, the "top spot" in the total value of foreign trade exports also changed to Guangdong.
At the same time, the theory of "economic center shift" is not far away. The evidence provided by the theoretical circles is that the three cornerstones supporting the economic center - product advantages, production factor distribution advantages, and investment environment advantages - have also weakened in Shanghai in recent years.
Shanghai's economy has encountered great difficulties. Resource shortage, processing advantages are difficult to play, and the price of products controlled by planned management cannot withstand the impact of high-priced raw materials.
In the process of changing from a highly centralized planned economy to a planned commodity economy, Shanghai has been unable to avoid these sharp contradictions.
Shanghainese have reason to be proud. In the three decades before the reform and opening up, they provided financial support for national construction of 425.7 billion yuan, of which more than 70% came from industry.
Even in the difficult period of transition, Shanghai's annual net outflow of national income is still more than 10 billion yuan. In the initial turmoil of reform, Shanghai shared the pressure for the whole country.
However, it is precisely because this long-term effort has triggered the mood of comparison and complaint, which to a certain extent hinders the vision and thinking of Shanghainese, makes people pay more attention to the negative effects brought about by reform, and weakens the sharpness of forging ahead in the reform.
People recall that in Shanghai, there is no shortage of pioneering acts of reform, but self-imprisonment and missed opportunities abound.
The rise and fall of Shanghai is related to the overall situation of the whole country. Therefore, both the leadership of the central government and Shanghai Municipality, as well as ordinary Shanghai citizens, are struggling to think about ideas.
In 1988, when the state's financial resources were still not loose, the central government decided to release Shanghai, which accounted for 1/8 of the country's finances, and provide it with a stage for long-sleeved good dance. The central government not only expects Shanghai to tide over the difficulties as soon as possible, but also hopes that it can gain a firm foothold in the international market as soon as possible.
The idea of revitalization is the foundation for Shanghai to revitalize its might. In 1988, the first move of Shanghai's top decision-makers was unusual. They formed a high-level delegation and went to Guangdong for a 12-day study tour.
After returning from the south trip, the leaders publicized the new feelings and new ideas they had gained from their inspections on various occasions. In the hall of the Shanghai Gymnasium, Jiang Zemin, secretary of the municipal party committee and mayor, made a report on his study and inspection in Guangdong, and he borrowed a phrase from the Guangdong people to express the new idea of revitalizing Shanghai: "It is more open to the outside world, more invigorating to the inside, and more decentralized to the lower levels."
The rectification of the bureaucracy is also an important part of Shanghai's re-transformation. As soon as Zhu Rongji, mayor who had been transferred from the Central Planning Commission, got off the plane, he talked about his precepts to the comrades of the municipal government who had come to greet him: "Do not be polite, do not cut the ribbon, do not write inscriptions, do not publish newspapers, and do not go on television."
From this "five no's statement", people got to know the new mayor for the first time. On May 10, the first executive meeting after the establishment of the new municipal government, on the basis of "four dishes and one soup", discussed and adopted 8 provisions on the hard work and honesty of a municipal government organ.
Cadres at or above the bureau level are required to strictly abide by the implementation and announce it to the whole city through the news media, ask the grass-roots level to assist in implementation, and the general public will supervise at any time.
In addition, Shanghai's ability to take off is also inseparable from a flexible and pragmatic foreign investment policy. The ultimate goal Zhu Rongji set for Shanghai when he was just becoming mayor of Shanghai was to ensure that the whole of Shanghai would attract 10 billion to 20 billion U.S. dollars of foreign investment by the end of the twentieth century.
He also served as the director of the newly established Shanghai Municipal Foreign Investment Working Committee, and promised foreign investors at a press conference: "Improving Shanghai's investment environment and ensuring that Shanghai's work of attracting foreign investment is carried out in accordance with international practices is Shanghai's prudent decision-making, and long-term decision-making will never change." ”
Zhu Rongji also took time out of his busy schedule to fly to Beijing to attend the Sino-US Trade and Economic Development Seminar. In his speech at the conference, Zhu Rongji once again made a big advertisement for Shanghai, listing various favorable conditions and preferential measures for Shanghai investment.
At the same time, Zhu Rongji also ordered that the newly established Shanghai Municipal Foreign Investment Work Committee be divided into fourteen groups and visit 394 foreign businessmen's institutions in Shanghai to solicit foreign businessmen's opinions on Shanghai's investment environment.
It is not enough to have a series of efforts by Shanghai, the top-level design of the central leadership determines the direction of Shanghai's development today. Deng Xiaoping has visited Shanghai seven times since 1988 and given many valuable instructions on Shanghai's reform and development, and as many as 56 places mention Shanghai in the three volumes of Deng Xiaoping's Selected Writings alone.
The leaders of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee, the Municipal Government, and the vast number of cadres and masses kept in mind Deng Xiaoping's entrustment and finally enabled Shanghai's economy to take off in the 14th Five-Year Plan stage, with an average GDP growth rate of 14.5%.
In early 1990, Deng Xiaoping inspected Shanghai, during which he emphasized the development of the Pudong New Area. He said to the leaders of Shanghai Municipality with a heavy heart: The development of Pudong in Shanghai is not a matter for one place in Shanghai. The development of Pudong can drive the development of the Yangtze River Delta and the Yangtze River Basin, so it is a national affair.
Looking at the map and the model, he said: "The identification of four special economic zones that year was mainly based on geographical conditions... If it had been decided at that time that a special economic zone would be set up in Shanghai, it would not be like this now. Pudong would have been developed a few years earlier, like the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone. ”
After returning to Beijing, Deng Xiaoping continued to blow the wind among the central leadership: "Shanghai is our trump card, and getting Shanghai up is a shortcut."
After opening up special economic zones and coastal cities in the 1980s, Deng Xiaoping finally played the "trump card" of Shanghai in the 1990s. He stressed that "if you grasp Shanghai, for example, it is a big measure." Shanghai is our trump card, and getting Shanghai up is a shortcut. ”
On February 18, 1991, on the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, Deng Xiaoping came to the revolving restaurant on the 41st floor of the newly completed New Jin Jiang Hotel in Shanghai, and while looking at the appearance of the downtown area of Shanghai through the spacious and bright glass windows, he said to Zhu Rongji, then secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee and mayor next to him: "Shanghai is late in development, we must work hard!"
Deng Xiaoping further emphasized: "Reform and opening up still need to be stressed, and our party will continue to talk about it for several decades." It is not enough for me alone to speak; our party must speak for decades. Shanghai was late in development. If it had been decided at that time that a special economic zone would be set up in Shanghai, it would not be like this now. ”
The party and government leaders of Shanghai Municipality realized from this that this was not just a specific work requirement for the development of Shanghai, but a strategic reflection by Deng Xiaoping on the overall situation of China's development with a profound historical vision, looking around at the world political and economic situation, and establishing a new strategic positioning of Shanghai in the overall pattern of economic development in the 1990s and even the twenty-first century: that is, the economic center, financial center, trade center and shipping center of the whole of China.
Deng Xiaoping came to Shanghai again during the Spring Festival of 1992, this time focusing not only on the development of Pudong, but more urgently on mapping the blueprint for Shanghai's future: finance.
Deng Xiaoping repeatedly stressed to Zhu Rongji: "Finance is very important and is the core of the modern economy... China's international status in finance depends first on Shanghai. I hope that the people of Shanghai will be more emancipated, bolder, and faster. ”
Feeling that time was pressing, he said to Zhu Rongji next to him: "This is your last opportunity in Shanghai, and you should not let go of this opportunity. ”
In accordance with Deng Xiaoping's strategic conception, Jiang Zemin pointed out in his report to the Fourteenth National Congress: "Taking the development and opening up of Shanghai's Pudong as the spearhead, we should further open up the cities along the Yangtze River, build Shanghai into one of the international economic, financial, and trade centers as soon as possible, and bring about a new economic leap in the Yangtze River Delta and the entire Yangtze River Basin region." This decision has finalized the strategic positioning of Shanghai's development and has been left behind to this day.
At the end of 1993, Deng Xiaoping came to Shanghai again, which was his last time here. On the Huangpu River, the cold wind whistles, and the rain and fog are vast. At the age of 89, Deng Xiaoping stood on the majestic Yangpu Bridge overlooking the two banks of the Pujiang River. He groaned happily: "I like to see today's road, and I am better than reading a hundred years of books." ”
The old man once regretted that Pudong was late in development, and was even more pleased that Shanghai had come to the top. He praised the people of Shanghai: "They have special qualities and special character," and he placed great hopes on Shanghai: "We must go faster with complete conditions."
At the end of the inspection, Wu Bangguo and Huang Ju, then secretaries of the Shanghai Municipal CPC Committee and mayors of Shanghai who came to see him off on the train, said: You must seize the tail end of the twentieth century, and this is shanghai's last opportunity. Shanghai has special qualities, and Shanghai is fully equipped to go faster.
The Shanghai Municipal Government immediately wrote "Seize the Opportunity and Accelerate Development" on all important occasions on Airport Avenue and People's Square in the most eye-catching places, which not only showed the world but also reminded itself.
Huang Ju has repeatedly reminded cadres at all levels in Shanghai that from the perspective of the whole country and neighboring countries, new development opportunities are not unique to Shanghai; from the perspective of Shanghai, Shanghai's opportunities are not equal to the opportunities of various departments, districts and counties. Without a strong sense of opportunity, the opportunities we face will be lost, the opportunities that appear will not be grasped, and the opportunities we see will not be used.
Under Deng Xiaoping's far-sighted decisions, the pace of Shanghai's reform and opening up has become more determined.
It is precisely because of the central government's strategic positioning of several centers in Shanghai that Shanghai can make up its mind to re-choose its own urban development strategy, abandon the previous single processing industry-based economy, and decisively implement "two changes":
The urban function has changed from a single production function to a comprehensive service function, and the industrial structure ranking has changed from "two, three, one" to "three, two, one"; and accordingly, the strategic focus of "three priority development" has been clarified: priority development of urban infrastructure, tertiary industry and high-tech industry.
It is precisely because of this strategic positioning that Shanghai has put the development of the financial industry in the position of "first". In the five years from 1992 to 1997 alone, Shanghai's financial industry developed beyond the norm, forming a financial system with seven levels, including professional banks, commercial banks, foreign banks, local banks, cooperative banks, trust companies and insurance companies.
The number of foreign-funded financial institutions reached 210. The continuous expansion of financing means and channels at home and abroad has provided strong financial support for the construction and development of Shanghai.
Today, Shanghai is the absolute leader in China's financial industry and an important financial center with world influence. The daily traffic and people in Lujiazui come and go, not only the invisible capital, but also the future of China and the world.