Wake up（345）

 

345

 

Hua Guofeng, Hu Yaobang, and Zhao Ziyang are all tragic characters on the Chinese political stage. Zhao Ziyang's experience is no longer his personal tragedy, but the sorrow of an era.

In order for Old Pantou and those young people to have a better understanding of Zhao Ziyang, Liu Xiaosheng chatted with them and talked about Zhao Ziyang's events during the Anti-Rightist Movement and the Cultural Revolution.

In 1957, Mao Zedong, chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, launched the anti-rightist movement. Tao Zhu had to designate a large number of intellectuals as rightists because of his duties; Zhao Ziyang was not required to participate in the work of designating rightists because he was in charge of agriculture. However, in this difficult environment, Tao Zhu and Zhao Ziyang withstood the pressure from all sides and secretly protected a group of intellectuals. They published articles to promote the view that the large-scale class struggle is over, that the important task of the government should be to lead economic construction, and to increase the enthusiasm of senior intellectuals. Zhao Ziyang also personally formulated special living allowance and medical care policies for senior intellectuals.

In terms of foreign relations, Zhao Ziyang adopted a relatively independent foreign policy in Guangdong, which echoed Liu Deng's "three peaces and one less", and Guangdong's foreign relations were improved. For example, in the relationship between Guangdong and Hong Kong, in February 1961, Zhao Ziyang allowed the reservoir in Baoan County to supply water to Hong Kong; later, Guangdong and Hong Kong reached an agreement on the Dongshen Water Supply Project, which solved the fresh water supply problem in Hong Kong. In 1962, the people of Guangdong set off a large-scale "escape from Hong Kong" in order to get rid of the famine. Thousands of people rushed through the border defense line every day. The central government ordered Guangdong to take this matter as the first task. Zhao Ziyang was under a lot of pressure, but the countermeasures he proposed mainly emphasized the need to "arrange the lives of the masses well, let the masses see the future, do ideological work with the masses, and explain that it is difficult for the masses to gain a foothold in Hong Kong. liquidation". Zhao Ziyang's compassionate approach has won praise from the outside world.

At the beginning of 1965, Tao Zhu served as the first secretary of the Central South Bureau, and no longer concurrently served as the secretary of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee; the position of the first secretary of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee was naturally officially inherited by Zhao Ziyang, who at the age of 46 also became the youngest provincial party secretary in the country at that time.

Soon after Zhao Ziyang took office, he put forward the policy of "building a new socialist countryside", intending to change the backwardness of the countryside, realize water conservancy, chemicalization, electrification, and mechanization in the countryside, and introduce advanced foreign farm management technologies. Disrupted by the Cultural Revolution.

In April 1966, on the eve of the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, Tao Zhu, who was the first secretary of the Central South Bureau and also the political commissar of the Guangzhou Military Region, was suddenly promoted at the Eleventh Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. , Vice Premier of the State Council, Director of the Central Propaganda Department, and Advisor to the Central Cultural Revolution Group, ranking second only to Mao Zedong, Lin Biao and Zhou Enlai.

Wang Renzhong, the first secretary of the Hubei Provincial Party Committee, the first political commissar of the Wuhan Military Region, and the second secretary of the Central South Bureau replaced Tao Zhu as the first secretary of the Central South Bureau and the deputy head of the Central Cultural Revolution Group, and accompanied Tao Zhu to Beijing.

Zhao Ziyang once persuaded Tao Zhu, saying that the situation in Beijing was dangerous and this job was not suitable for him, but Tao Zhu failed to heed Zhao Ziyang's advice and went to Beijing to take up the post.

After Tao Zhu was promoted to the central government, Zhao Ziyang lost his greatest protection in Guangdong. Huang Yongsheng, the commander of the Guangzhou Military Region and a member of Lin Biao's command, was no longer restricted by Tao Zhu and quickly developed his own power. Zhao Ziyang was in danger of being overthrown.

At the beginning, although the Red Guard movement in Guangdong was also under the influence of other places and under the leadership of students from Sun Yat-sen University and South China Institute of Technology, there were even voices that questioned Zhao Ziyang and the provincial party committee. However, due to Tao Zhu's promotion to the top, No one dared to openly criticize the line of Tao Zhu and Zhao Ziyang. In addition, Tao Zhu was trying to protect Zhao Ziyang who was on the front line in Guangdong, so Zhao Ziyang could still try his best to bring the surging rebel movement under the leadership of the provincial party committee.

However, the situation quickly reversed. Tao Zhu did not implement Mao Zedong's line during his short six months in the central government. This "Deng Xiaoping's agent".

On January 4, 1967, Chen Boda led all the members of the Central Cultural Revolution to meet the "Red Guards who went to Guangzhou to arrest Wang Renzhong's revolutionary rebel group", and officially announced Tao Zhu as China's "biggest royalist" and "overthrow Tao Zhu".

Tao Zhu was quickly overthrown, and then the "January Storm" in Shanghai caused the wave of rebels to seize power to spread across the country.

On January 21, 1967, the "Guangdong Revolutionary Rebel Joint Committee" (Guangdong Revolutionary Federation) seized power from the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee, and Zhao Ziyang and others were detained in the main building of Sun Yat-sen University.

However, this seizure of power was only symbolic. Since the rebels had absolutely no ability to govern Guangdong, Zhao Ziyang negotiated with them and agreed that the Provincial Revolutionary League would supervise the provincial party committee, and the provincial party committee would continue to handle daily affairs.

But a bigger storm came soon. The Provincial Revolutionary League and the rebels supported by the Guangzhou Military Region had a power struggle and even armed struggle. On February 28, 1967, the Guangzhou Military Region imposed military control on the "Guangzhou Daily" controlled by the Provincial Revolutionary League , the Provincial Revolutionary League eventually collapsed.

On March 15, 1967, the Military Control Commission of Guangdong Province was established and became the highest authority in the province. Huang Yongsheng was the director of the Military Control Commission.

After Huang Yongsheng took control of Guangdong, Zhao Ziyang became the most important target because he was "Tao Zhu's agent in Guangdong". He was listed as "eight major crimes" and subjected to guardianship review:

 

Two-sided three swords, holding the red flag against the red flag;

Cooperating with class enemies at home and abroad, rampantly attacking the party and socialism, blowing up the independent style, and destroying the people's commune system;

Use meritorious service as a substitute for class struggle, frantically promote Liu Shaoqi's line of Ming Left, Real Right, and destroy the socialist education movement;

In the name of building a new socialist countryside, promote the revisionist line;

Stubbornly adhere to the bourgeois reactionary line of Liu, Deng, and Tao, and attempt to reject the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution;

Protect the ghosts and gods of the cows, Tao and Zhao protect each other, and a nest of snakes and rats;

A conspiracy to symbolically seize power;

The nature of the landlord class remains unchanged, indulging in the smelly and rotten bourgeois life.

 

On June 30, 1970, Zhao Ziyang, his wife Liang Boqi, and their two children aged 16 or 17 were sent to work at the Xiangzhong Machinery Factory in Lianyuan County, Hunan Province.

In May 1971, under the protection of Zhou Enlai, Zhao Ziyang was assigned to Inner Mongolia as Secretary of the Party Committee of the Autonomous Region (there was a first secretary at that time) and Deputy Director of the Revolutionary Committee.

In 1972, he was transferred to Guangdong again, and was appointed as the first secretary of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee, director of the Provincial Revolutionary Committee and political commissar of the Guangzhou Military Region.

At the beginning of 1975, Deng Xiaoping returned to his hometown of Sichuan for inspection. Affected by the negative effects of the Cultural Revolution, the situation in Sichuan chilled Deng Xiaoping. The people of Sichuan suffered from hunger and the economy was on the verge of collapse. Sichuan, in October Zhao Ziyang became the first secretary of the CPC Sichuan Provincial Committee and the first political commissar of the Chengdu Military Region.

But in November of that year, the "Criticize Deng, Fight Against the Right Deviation and Overturn the Case" campaign launched by the Gang of Four was launched across the country. By 1976, Deng Xiaoping was overthrown, and Zhao Ziyang was implicated as a result.

On February 14, 1976, the "Gang of Four" named and criticized Zhao Ziyang for his restoration and retrogression.

In October 1976, the Gang of Four collapsed and Deng Xiaoping made a comeback, which laid the foundation for Zhao Ziyang to carry out his work smoothly in Sichuan.

During Zhao Ziyang's tenure in Sichuan, he devoted himself to economic recovery and the development of industrial and agricultural production. Relax policies on agricultural issues, promote the development of diversified operations, reduce the burden on farmers, and allow farmers to recuperate. The policy has achieved remarkable results. In 1977, compared with 1976, the total grain output of Sichuan Province increased by 10%. Support farmers to contract production on a household basis.

With the popularization of the household contract system, Zhao Ziyang took the lead in carrying out the earliest pilot project in Sichuan to transform the people's commune into a township government, providing experience for the abolition of the people's commune system nationwide. Anhui echoed each other from afar, opened the prelude to China's rural reform, and achieved good results. At that time, there was a jingle: "If you want to eat rice, look for Wanli; if you want to eat grain, look for Ziyang."

While carrying out agricultural reforms in Sichuan, Zhao Ziyang was also exploring industrial reforms. The policy of expanding the autonomy of enterprises and the 14 supporting policies he implemented in the industry made the pilot enterprises truly the main body, released the vitality of enterprises, and contributed to promoting For industrial development, a series of policies such as exempting new communes and brigade enterprises and urban collective enterprises from income tax within three years, and implementing fixed-rate subsidies for policy-related loss-making products have been introduced. These policies have actively promoted the recovery of industrial production and commercial circulation services in Sichuan. And development. The growth rate of the total output value, realized profits, and turned-in profits of the pilot enterprises have all increased significantly.

When chatting with those young people, Liu Xiaosheng said that Zhao Ziyang's success was not just his personal achievement, but the progress of that era.