Internal Reference 092

  After Xu Haikuo and Song Ying's interview, for two or three months, everything was calm and nothing happened. Lin Zhenhua originally thought that after the two reporters returned from their interview, they would definitely publish an article, but after waiting for two months, there was still no news, so Lin Zhenhua gradually forgot about this matter. He thought that perhaps Xu Haikuo had suppressed the incident in order to protect him.

  Lin Zhenhua was unaware that at the same time he had forgotten about this matter, in a classroom at the Central Party School in western Beijing, his name was being repeatedly mentioned by a group of officials. These officials were mid-level and senior officials from various local economic management departments, mainly deputy directors and department heads, who were key reserve talents for each level of government. They were discussing an internal reference document provided by their teacher, "Observations on the Contracting Reform Pilot Project of Hanhua Machinery Factory Labor Service Company".

  This internal reference was written by Xu Haikuo, who used a realistic approach to introduce the process of Lin Zhenhua's labor service company. He truthfully recorded all aspects of the factory, from leaders to ordinary workers' opinions. The two most sensitive issues in this internal reference are: first, whether Lin Zhenhua should receive high contract fees; second, whether Lin Zhenhua's proposal to reinvest the contract fees into the enterprise and own shares in it conforms to socialist principles.

  "I think Lin Zhenhua's behavior is a serious act of undermining the socialist foundation." A director angrily said: "This so-called reformer is actually just a capitalist hiding in our system. His purpose is to use state property for his own primitive accumulation, and when the time is ripe, he will show his fangs and swallow the people's assets into his belly."

  "Lou, I think your view is a bit too conservative." Another director countered, "Isn't the central government repeatedly emphasizing the need to boldly promote reform? I think that since the contract system has achieved good results in rural areas, why can't it be promoted to cities and applied to the reform of our state-owned enterprises?"

  Lao Wei is right, and what's more, I see that this case mentions that Lin Zhenhua contracted not a state-owned enterprise, but a large collective enterprise. The collective was originally collectively owned by the labor group, and its distribution system can be flexible and diverse. Another student said.

  "I actually support Lu's point of view. Everyone should see clearly, the key to the Lin Zhenhua phenomenon is not that he took a high contracting fee. Alright, let's assume that according to the principle of more work and more pay, Lin Zhenhua fulfilled his contractual promises and taking more money was also reasonable. But everyone take note, he didn't take the money for personal consumption, but instead demanded that it be invested in the Labour Services Company to purchase machinery and equipment, and even proposed to the factory that he should have shares based on his investment. Isn't this just wanting to become a capitalist?"

  "Didn't Professor Li from Beida mention the issue of shareholding last time he came to give a lecture? Our country is currently facing a severe shortage of construction funds, and encouraging personal investment, what's wrong with that?"

  "Where has the socialist system gone? If individuals can invest now, won't the country become capitalist?"

  "No matter how much individual investment, can it be compared with the country? Our country is still dominated by public ownership, and individual economy is only a supplement. I assert that even if the policy is relaxed for 30 years, the proportion of personal capital in the entire national capital will not exceed 10%, and public ownership will account for more than 90%. How can it be considered capitalism?"

  “……”

  Today's people may not be able to understand the controversy of that year at all. At that time, there were tangible and intangible constraints on ideology, which can be described as absurd from today's perspective. Decades later, a doctoral supervisor at the Academy of Social Sciences recalled that when he was writing his doctoral thesis, he planned to write about labor market issues, but his supervisor immediately warned him: "This is a minefield, absolutely cannot touch it." Under the socialist system, workers are the masters of the country, and labor power cannot be treated as a commodity. If he dared to write like that, let alone not getting a degree, he might even lose his personal freedom.

  In Anhui Wuhu, Nian Guangjiu hired 12 workers, causing a huge stir. A group of theorists used Marx's original works to argue that hiring more than 8 people was exploitation. The emergence of an exploitative system in a socialist country was unacceptable. The question of whether Nian Guangjiu was restoring capitalism even reached the highest levels of the central government.

  At the same time, while decision-makers and scholars are cautiously exploring these minefields, tens of thousands of ordinary workers are throwing themselves into this reform with their former courage. Their practice has far surpassed theory and policy.

  In Taizhou, Zhejiang Province, a group of peasants could no longer tolerate the private partnership enterprise being forced to wear the "township enterprise" red hat, and submitted an application for registration as a private partnership enterprise to the Wenzhou County Social Enterprise Management Bureau. Chen Xinhao, the head of the Production Department, stamped a bright red seal on this application, unaware that it was this seal that made him the first person in China's shareholding system reform in the true sense.

  In Sunan, as early as 1969, when the political storm was raging, a group of ordinary farmers in Huaxi Village had quietly started their business. By 1978, Huaxi Village already had 1 million yuan in fixed assets and 1 million yuan in bank deposits. Thirty years later, this richest village in China spent 6 billion yuan to build an 118-story skyscraper.

  In Zhongguancun, just a few kilometers away from the Central Party School, Chen Chunxian, one of the first 10 professor-level researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and an expert in nuclear fusion, boldly started his own business. In a warehouse, he established China's first private science and technology entity - the Advanced Technology Development Service Department of Beijing Plasma Physics Society. His first business deal was to help a small factory in Haidian District solve a minor problem with their power supply...

  Mediocre scholars are still holding onto "Das Kapital" or "The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money" to find a model for a strong country and rich people, while wise ordinary workers, farmers, cadres, and scientific and technological personnel have long set sail and ventured into the blue ocean of market economy.

  "Comrade He Haifeng, why aren't you speaking up?" The teacher stood on the podium, looking at the students' heated discussion and feeling very pleased. His gaze shifted, and he found that He Haifeng, a cadre from Hunan Province's Light Industry Department who was always full of ideas and had a unique perspective, was smiling but remained silent. The teacher felt puzzled and couldn't help but directly call out his name.

  He Haifeng stood up and said to the teacher and classmates: "Sorry, everyone discussed very enthusiastically just now. I didn't dare speak, actually mainly to avoid it, because I have a close private relationship with Lin Zhenhua, who is written in the internal reference, can be said to be an old friend."

  As soon as this sentence came out, all the students in the class were excited, and everyone asked He Haifeng questions in a flurry.

  "Really?"

  "Lao He, tell me, is this Lin Zhenhua really a superman?"

  "Neizhāng lǐ shuō, tā de yīngyǔ nénggòu hé wàiguó zhuānjiā duìhuà, zhè shì chuī niú ba?"

  Translation: "Inside the reference said, his English can have a conversation with foreign experts, is this bragging?"

  "Moreover, with so many technological innovations, it can't be that their factory is trying to set an example by attributing others' achievements to him? Such things have happened in our system before."

  “……”

  He Haifeng nodded and said to the crowd: "The situation of Lin Zhenhua mentioned in the internal reference, based on my understanding of him, should all be true. If there is anything insufficient, it is that Lin Zhenhua's abilities have not been fully demonstrated."

  "Is he that great? Old He, don't blindly praise him just because he's a friend. According to this internal reference, he must be at least at the level of a master's student from Huaqing University." Someone loudly retorted. If Lin Zhenhua were present, he would probably rush over and shout: "Brother, you know me too well!"

  He Haifeng said: "I chatted with him, he said that when he was in the army, he had studied for a period of time from a right-wing professor who was labor reforming near the garrison. My dealings with Lin Zhenhua were actually because he solved two technical problems that had been troubling us for a long time with just a few words at the dinner table."

  He then introduced the two porcelain factories to everyone, and also talked about meeting Lin Zhenhua at the petrochemical plant and recommending Lin Zhenhua as a translator for Ford. What he said was all his personal experience, which made Xu Haikuo's internal report even more realistic. The students and teachers present listened with rapt attention, and even those who had some reservations about the "Lin Zhenhua phenomenon" began to think that this person was not bad at heart.

  "When I heard Old He say that, I started to like this little Lin. Old He, you said he's only 20 years old this year?" a student asked.

  He Haifeng nodded: "That's right, he's only 20 years old, and my daughter calls him brother."

  "It's a pity for someone so young and talented to be placed at the grassroots level, he should be transferred to a higher position, then there won't be any problem with contracting." Someone suggested.

  Another person said, "I don't think so, young people, it's better to start at the grassroots level. Our company can't always rely on Qiao Guangpu, we also need a younger generation to take over."

  The person mentioned is Qiao Guangpu, the protagonist of the sensational "Qiao Changzhang's Appointment Record", a director of a certain heavy machinery factory, who was already over 50 years old at that time. At that time, the aging of the cadre team was also a very serious problem.

  "Alright, today's class discussion will end here. If you're interested in this case, you can continue discussing it after class. However, this material is classified as internal reference and has a confidentiality level, so no one is allowed to disclose it externally." The teacher instructed, then turned to He Haifeng and said: "Comrade He Haifeng, come with me after class, I have some things to further understand from you."

  ——————————

  Thanks for correction from book friends, the birthplace of the first joint-stock cooperative enterprise Wenling belongs to Zhejiang Taizhou, which was mistakenly written as Wenzhou in the book and has been corrected.

  Taiwan and Wenzhou areas are important sources of China's reform.