Wake up（346）

 

346

 

Entering the period of reform and opening up, Zhao Ziyang has become an important role in the Chinese political arena.

Liu Xiaosheng talked with Lao Pantou and those young people about what happened to Zhao Ziyang during the reform and opening up period.

After Deng Xiaoping replaced Hua Guofeng as the "Supreme Leader" of China, he took Zhao Ziyang's "Sichuan Experience" as a model for China's economic reform, and promoted Zhao Ziyang as an alternate member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China in 1977. In 1979, he became the Official member.

Zhao Ziyang served as vice chairman of the CPPCC National Committee from February 1978 to June 1983. In February 1980, he was elected as a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (ranked seventh) at the Fifth Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. Team leader, served as Vice Premier of the State Council in April. After the third meeting of the Fifth National People's Congress in August 1980, he became Premier of the State Council. In June 1981, at the Sixth Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, he was elected as the vice chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, and his ranking in the party rose from seventh to fourth.

After Hu Yaobang resigned, Zhao Ziyang, then Premier of the State Council, was elected as Acting General Secretary at the enlarged meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee in January 1987. General Secretary and First Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of China.

In April 1988, he was appointed vice chairman of the Central Military Commission at the first session of the Seventh National People's Congress.

In the tide of China’s reform and opening up in the 1980s, Deng Xiaoping, who held great power in the military, Hu Yaobang, who took the lead in vindicating unjust cases politically, and Zhao Ziyang, who promoted reforms in the economy, these three chariots conformed to the historical trend, and made China, which was waiting to be rebuilt, emerge as a whole. Good momentum of development.

Zhao Ziyang has long abandoned the Soviet Union's public ownership and planned economic model in terms of values, and laid the foundation for marketization and privatization in the practice of reform.

During his tenure as Premier of the State Council, Zhao Ziyang was the actual organizer and leader of China's economic restructuring. He promoted the separation of ownership and management rights of state-owned enterprises, boldly introduced and promoted the establishment of stock markets and futures trading, and personally led the overall design of joining the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (the predecessor of the World Trade Organization), leading China step by step The plight of the economy is on the way to marketization and globalization.

According to Western observers, the period of Zhao Ziyang's tenure as Premier of the State Council and General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was the most open period in the history of the People's Republic of China. Many restrictions on freedom of speech and freedom of the press were relaxed, allowing intellectuals to express themselves freely.

Although democracy was not fully realized politically at that time, it was full of democratic atmosphere ideologically and culturally.

On March 17, 1980, Zhao Ziyang became the head of the newly established Central Finance and Economics Leading Group and began to lead China's economic policies. After becoming Premier, he promoted the economic policies during his tenure in Sichuan to the whole country. His economic reforms were dominated by simplification of administration, decentralization and loosening of ties, decentralizing land use rights and township enterprises' management autonomy in rural areas.

In 1980, Zhao Ziyang implemented a fiscal contract system for all provinces, aligning local fiscal interests with the direction of marketization, thereby forming a force to resist the planned economy and making it difficult for political forces opposing market-oriented reforms to reverse China’s economic reform path.

However, this reform has been attacked by two forces for many years. One is the political forces advocating the restoration of the planned economy, and the other is the intellectuals advocating centralized reform.

In order to attract foreign capital and create exports, Zhao Ziyang actively supported the special economic zones established by Xi Zhongxun, Ren Zhongyi and others in coastal provinces. At the same time, enterprise reforms were carried out in cities, such as tax cuts and profit concessions in 1982, profit-to-tax reforms in 1984, enterprise contracting system in 1986, and shareholding system experiment in 1988.

Through a series of reforms, China's agricultural and industrial production increased rapidly in the 1980s, and the agricultural output, gross national product, national income, and total foreign trade import and export volume continued to grow.

In 1984, China entered the stage of comprehensive reform. Since the fourth quarter of 1984, the Chinese economy has been overheated. Zhao Ziyang proposed a soft landing policy. Under his auspices, the Chinese economy has cooled down without recession.

The dual-track pricing system launched in early 1985 marked the beginning of the transition of China's economy to price marketization. Zhao Ziyang pointed out that if prices are not formed in the market, enterprises will not be competitive. However, most state-owned enterprises are still only accustomed to obeying orders and cannot respond effectively to market prices. Therefore, the price reform adopts a combination of lowering and lowering.

As China's opening-up policy continues to develop in breadth and depth, the Chinese government hopes to restore its seat in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade during the period of the Republic of China. On January 10, 1986, Zhao Ziyang sent a letter to General Dunkel publicly expressed this intention for the first time. Zhao Ziyang said that if China's status in GATT is restored, the trade between China and GATT member countries will be further expanded.

In September 1988, under the arrangement of economist Zhang Wuchang, Zhao Ziyang met with Nobel laureate in economics and American economist Milton Friedman in Beijing. When China's economy was overheated again, Zhao Ziyang, who presided over the economic reform policy, faced the dual problems of price reform and enterprise reform.

With the approval of Deng Xiaoping in May, Zhao Ziyang made a report on "Establishing a New Order of Socialist Market Economy" at the enlarged meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, proposing to spend five years at the cost of a certain price increase index every year to straighten out prices and solve wage inequality. Reasonable questions to achieve price breakthroughs.

In the context of the continuous rise in prices since the reform, China's price increase hit a record high of 19.3% in July. After the news of the price breakthrough in August was officially released, there was a large-scale panic buying across the country and accompanied by inflation.

The above-mentioned hyperinflation is the economic and era background of social turmoil in the later period. The negative effect of the price breakthrough became the main reason for the "conservative forces" to attack the "reformers" led by Zhao Ziyang at the Third Plenary Session of the 13th CPC Central Committee in September 1988. The reformers were frustrated by inflation and advocated economic austerity and governance. Conservative forces are on the rise again, and the policies of the conservatives make the people full of doubts about the prospect of reform and opening up.

After Hua Guofeng stepped down and Deng Xiaoping returned to power, Zhao Ziyang, Chen Yun, Li Xiannian and others had differences in power distribution and governance concepts. After Hu Yaobang was forced to resign in January 1987, Deng Xiaoping proposed that Zhao Ziyang act as the general secretary. However, the conservative group headed by Chen Yun, Li Xiannian and others liked Deng Liqun. Wang Zhen went around to support Deng Liqun and even persuaded Zhao Ziyang not to be the general secretary. .

Originally, Zhao Ziyang had no intention of becoming general secretary, and was more willing to continue economic reforms as prime minister. However, the activities of conservatives aroused Zhao Ziyang's vigilance. If Deng Liqun took over as general secretary, the anti-liberalization situation would be even more severe.

In the political structure of the high-level CCP at that time, one faction was the reform force headed by Deng Xiaoping (left), and the other was the conservative group headed by Chen Yun (right). The conflict between them had a long history.

Although in the end Deng Xiaoping gained the upper hand in the political contest within the party and Zhao Ziyang successfully acted as the general secretary, Chen Yun's forces still had a huge influence.

This group of forces began to question the reform and opening up due to some problems in the economic reform, thinking that the reform was messed up, so it is better to return to the planned economy.

Beginning in 1987, the relationship between Zhao Ziyang and the anti-reform dogmatic forces within the CCP became tense, and conflicts intensified.

Zhao Ziyang cannot fully agree with the anti-liberalization movement. If this movement continues, the 13th National Congress will not be able to set the tone for deepening reform and opening up. For this reason, Zhao Ziyang issued an article to make strict regulations on anti-liberalization, delineate the boundaries, and clarify the concept of liberalization as "opposing the leadership of the Communist Party and advocating total Westernization."

In the atmosphere of anti-liberalization, conservative forces attempted to expand anti-liberalization to the economic field, and there were voices opposing "one center, two basic points" and the rural contract responsibility system in the party school.

Zhao Ziyang pointed out to Deng Xiaoping that the interference of liberalization is a period of time, and in the long run it is mainly interference from the "left". Deng Xiaoping agreed with Zhao Ziyang's views.

In the summer of 1987, after learning that Deng Xiaoping had agreed to oppose the Left, the Central Propaganda Department showed resistance. Zhao Ziyang criticized the head of the Central Propaganda Department, Wang Renzhi, and the vice-minister, Wang Weicheng. people. As early as March 1987, Zhao Ziyang suggested to Deng Xiaoping that Li Ruihuan should go to the Central Propaganda Department to assist Deng Liqun in his work, so that some opinions from below could be reflected and the opinions of the Central Committee could be better implemented. Deng Xiaoping agreed to this, but Chen Yun, the conservative veteran, opposed it.

In 1987, as the 13th National Congress of the Communist Party of China was approaching, Zhao Ziyang formally suggested to Deng Xiaoping that Deng Liqun could join the Political Bureau of the Central Committee and give him a place to express his opinions, but he could not join the Secretariat of the Central Committee and would no longer be in charge of propaganda work.

When this matter was brewing, Li Rui, an old comrade in the party, wrote to Zhao Ziyang to reflect Deng Liqun's life style and moral problems in Yan'an. Zhao Ziyang forwarded the letter to Deng Xiaoping, and Deng Xiaoping instructed Deng Liqun to no longer be in charge of ideological propaganda work. Later, Hu Qili was in charge of ideology.

But in the end, Deng Liqun was not elected as a member of the Central Committee and a member of the Standing Committee of the Central Advisory Committee at the 13th National Congress of the Communist Party of China due to a competitive election, and was only elected as a member of the Advisory Committee.

Zhao Ziyang set the tone at the 13th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. The two basic points of the primary stage of socialism are mainly anti-left. This further aroused the dissatisfaction of conservatives. Li Xiannian publicly attacked Zhao Ziyang after the 13th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, saying that Zhao Ziyang had learned too much from Western countries.

On May 13, 1988, Zhao Ziyang pointed out to people in the ideological and theoretical circles that since the anti-liberalization movement started, the situation has changed, and the anti-liberalization should come to an end, after which daily education should be mainly carried out.

The Research Office of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China is the stronghold of the conservative ideological pens controlled by Deng Liqun. It has gathered a large number of writers who oppose reform and opening up. As early as the end of 1985, when Hu Yaobang was in charge of the work of the Central Committee, he planned to remove Deng Liqun as the director of the Research Office of the Secretariat, but Blocked by Chen Yun.

What Hu Yaobang failed to do, Zhao Ziyang continued to do. With Deng Xiaoping's support, Zhao Ziyang abolished the research office of the secretariat, the base camp of the conservatives, and the "Red Flag" magazine.

In the first half of 1986, Deng Xiaoping proposed "political reform" again, and initiated the discussion and formulation of "political system reform". Bo, Peng Chong.

In October 1986, the Central Research Group Office proposed by Zhao Ziyang was established (referred to as the "Central Political Reform Office"), which was specifically in charge of Bao Tong, Yan Jiaqi, He Guanghui, Zhou Jie and others, and submitted a report to the Central Committee the following year "Overall Vision for Political System Reform" was approved by Deng Xiaoping.

Backed by Deng Xiaoping’s speech on political reform, Zhao Ziyang and others formulated a strategy for political reform in terms of goals, models, and processes, and proposed that among China’s reform goals, the modernization of the political system should be achieved. The theme of political reform is to transform the revolutionary system into the construction The transformation of the system has brought China's political operations gradually onto the track of proceduralization, standardization, and institutionalization.

Under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping, Zhao Ziyang and others designed a set of feasible political system reform plans to get rid of the shortcomings of the old system. Aiming at the drawbacks of the old system of over-centralization of power, strong rule of man, and opaque political operations and information, he proposed that party and government affairs should be separated, which was a taboo before that; secondly, further decentralization of power is suitable for local government decision-making Third, reform the official appointment system to overcome personnel corruption and provide institutional guarantees for building an efficient and stable civil servant team; finally, establish a social consultation and dialogue mechanism to increase the openness of government activities and inform the people of major situations , needs to be discussed by the people in order to gradually realize the political opening advocated by Zhao.

In October 1987, after Zhao Ziyang was elected as the General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee at the 13th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, he implemented political system reform. On December 3 of the same year, the CPC Central Committee decided to establish the Political System Reform Research Office of the CPC Central Committee.

Reform must be comprehensive reform. How extensive should the reforms be? Deng Xiaoping believed that China's reforms included not only reforms in the economic system, but also reforms in the political, cultural, and social systems; reforms at the institutional level as well as reforms at the level of ideology and specific practices. Deng Xiaoping said: "Reform is a comprehensive reform, including economic system reform, political system reform and corresponding reforms in various other fields."

Chen Yun also put forward specific views on how population, resources, environment and other issues should be adapted to the needs of the reform.

Reform of the political system is an important symbol of the advancement of comprehensive reform. Deng Xiaoping attached great importance to the reform of the political system, and Deng Xiaoping also specially delivered a speech on "Reform of the Party and State Leadership System". "We cannot adapt to the situation without reforming the political system. Reform should include the reform of the political system, and it should be taken as a sign of the advancement of the reform." "Without reforming the political system, economic reform will be difficult to implement." The reform of the economic system should be interdependent and cooperate with each other. Only the reform of the economic system, without the reform of the political system, the reform of the economic system will not work... Whether all our reforms can ultimately succeed depends on the reform of the political system.”

The political system is mainly the organizational system and leadership system of the party and the country. System issues are fundamental, overall, stable, and long-term. They are related to whether the party and the country change their colors, and the whole party must attach great importance to them. There are three general goals of political system reform, one is to consolidate the socialist system, the other is to develop the productive forces of a socialist society, and the third is to promote socialist democracy and mobilize the enthusiasm of the broad masses of the people.

Under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping and Chen Yun, China's political system reform in the 1980s started with the reform of the party and state leadership system, and improved and strengthened the party's leadership by focusing on solving problems such as excessive concentration of power and life tenure of leading cadres. The construction of political civilization opened the way. It can be said with certainty that since the reform and opening up, without the follow-up of political system reform, it is impossible to have the continuous deepening of China's economic system reform and sustained and rapid economic development.

Liu Xiaosheng said: There is no doubt that both Deng Xiaoping and Chen Yun advocated the reform of the political system, and proposed to start with the reform of the party and state leadership system. Today, however, the lifelong system is implemented, and the boss alone has the final say. Obviously, this is completely contrary to the political system reform advocated by Deng Xiaoping and Chen Yun.

Liu Xiaosheng also said: At the same time that the conservatives were blowing up the "wind of Zhao Ziyang" and the "wind of anti-reform and opening up", rumors about Zhao Ziyang's son being a corrupt official began to explode. Li Peng claimed that Wei Jianxing and Lu Peijian found out that Zhao Ziyang's eldest son dumped color TVs and his second son dumped cars and made tens of millions of dollars. In this regard, Zhao Ziyang offered to investigate his family members, but Li Peng claimed that he was powerless to prevent his son from quitting the company. After Zhao Ziyang stepped down, the central government investigated his children, but no problems were found.

The writer Hu Ping called it a frame-up by the "Falling Zhao faction". In June 1990, Wang Renzhong handed over to Zhao Ziyang 30 pieces of material on the investigation of Zhao Ziyang, none of which included the issue of his son's corruption. Hu Ping said that if Zhao Ziyang's son really had the problem of being an official, Li Peng only mentioned one sentence in his diary in June 1989, but he did not make a big fuss about it afterwards. This is not in line with Li Peng's character and style.