Author: Xuedad Egg Source: Super Xuedad (ID: chinasuperdad)
On the afternoon of November 30, the bad news came that Comrade Jiang Zemin, the third generation of collective leadership of the Party, died in Shanghai at the age of 96 because of leukemia and multiple organ failure.
The Central Committee of the Party and the State Council made a high evaluation of Comrade Jiang Zemin in the “Letter to the whole Party, the whole army and the people of all ethnic groups in the country”. Let me talk about his great achievements from the perspective of the post-80s generation.
In April 2009, Comrade Jiang humbly said in a conversation that he had done three things in the past ten years: first, he established the socialist market economic system; Second, Deng Xiaoping Theory has been written into the Party Constitution; Third, three representatives are proposed.
In addition to mentioning these three things, he added that if there is one thing to be said, the army is not allowed to engage in business, which has a lot to do with the fate of the army.
At the end, he said, “The flood fighting in 1998 was also great. But these are secondary. The main thing is three things. I am ashamed to have done a little work. Thank you all.”
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the world situation was volatile. The most typical major events are the upheaval in Eastern Europe and the disintegration of the Soviet Union. The world left-wing movement has dropped sharply, and the international communist movement has entered a low tide.
In sharp contrast, the capitalist world has begun to enter a rising period. The trend of economic globalization is obvious, and the scientific and technological revolution, represented by electronic information and computer technology, has gradually been set off.
The theme of the world has gradually changed from war and revolution to peace and development. The second generation of China’s collective leadership also keenly grasped this trend and opened the curtain of reform and opening up.
But this transition is extremely difficult. When the door of the country was wide open, the trend of thought of capitalism also poured in crazily. In addition to all money worship, there was also inferiority and loss in the face of the gap between China and the West.
How big is the gap between China and the United States? In 1988, the total GDP of the United States was nearly 17 times of ours, not to mention 70 times of ours per capita.
In 1988, the global per capita GDP was about 3749 US dollars, while China’s per capita GDP was 283 US dollars, one thirteenth of the world’s per capita GDP. This gap is suffocating and despairing.
Therefore, in the 1980s, there was a certain degree of belief collapse in China. Some people began to question socialism, and some people began to reflect on whether it was the cause of national inferiority (Heshang).
The road of the Soviet Union seemed to be impassable. At that time, China really had to cross the river by feeling the stones, and had to break an unprecedented road, which could not avoid some rapids and dangerous shoals.
For example, the price dual track system is the witness of that specific historical period. Before 1981, China had implemented a completely planned economy. Enterprises had strict plans for production and the prices were set by the state.
However, since 1981, the state has allowed enterprises to produce an additional part of products to sell on the market after completing the planned instructions. The price can be determined by the market, so a commodity has two prices.
But the problem that followed was corruption. Because if the goods purchased within the plan are brought to the market for sale, you can earn a lot of money once you switch hands.
Some materials do not need to go out of the warehouse. Instead, they directly resell the approval notes, which leads to a dozen times increase in the price of materials. A more exaggerated thing happened in Nanjing. A batch of steel products remained unchanged and were sold 129 times by fallen men.
At that time, there was a saying: “One billion people, 900 million people, and another 100 million people are looking for.” However, men hoarded and lived in curiosity, which led to the soaring price of steel and other means of production, and gave rise to a huge foam, with soaring prices and serious inflation.
In order to eradicate this problem, the price must be integrated, that is, the price is set by the market. This is the price breakthrough in 1988. The problem is that the breakthrough failed.
In August 1989, as soon as the price reform plan was introduced, a thousand waves were aroused by one stone. The market witnessed a wave of withdrawals and panic buying, and the whole country scrambled for all the materials that could be seized.
Due to the competition, the supply and demand are seriously unbalanced, leading to soaring prices. In less than a month, the price of meat products increased by 70%, and retail commodities increased by 30%~50%. Therefore, the price breakthrough has to be urgently stopped.
The year 1988 was the year with the largest price increase and the most serious inflation since 1950. In addition to the intricate triangular debts in various regions, the country fell into an economic crisis, and the number of private enterprises fell from 200000 to 90000.
Since 1989, China’s economy has been in a state of depression. The superposition of this economic state and the international climate has created a political crisis.
Comrade Jiang, on the other hand, was appointed as the general secretary in the face of danger. If you look at China’s inflation rate over the years, you can see how difficult Comrade Jiang was at that time and how dangerous the economic system reform was.
It should also be mentioned that China was still very poor, especially in the central finance. We should start with the tax system. Since 1980, various financial and tax systems have been implemented in various parts of China.
Take Shanghai for example. Shanghai implements the model of quota splitting plus increasing share. When Shanghai’s fiscal revenue is less than 16.5 billion yuan, it will pay a quota of 10 billion yuan to the central government. When it exceeds 16.5 billion yuan, half of the excess will be distributed to the Central Committee.
Guess what? Before the reform of the tax sharing system, Shanghai’s fiscal revenue hovered between 16.3 billion yuan and 16.5 billion yuan for five consecutive years, with no growth at all. As long as I don’t grow, no one can share more of my cake.
Why? Because if it grows, half of the extra will be taken away. So they try their best to control the growth of financial revenue, and try their best to reduce and exempt taxes for enterprises (and then receive them from the local finance in the form of fees).
On the surface, it is rich in enterprises and rich in places. In fact, it is a local treat and the state pays the bill. Therefore, there is a phenomenon that the local economy is developing rapidly while the national tax revenue cannot be collected.
So is Beijing. In 1988, Beijing began to implement the mode of contracting for increasing income, and the agreed annual growth rate was 4%. But the actual economic growth rate is far higher than that. Therefore, after the implementation of the tax sharing system, Beijing’s income soared by 9.8 billion yuan.
Guangdong has explored a variety of tax package systems. Since 1980, the quota has been increased, and since 1988, the amount has increased by 9% annually.
But in fact, this 9% cannot catch up with the inflation rate, let alone the GDP growth rate of Guangdong. From 1989 to 2012, Guangdong’s GDP ranked first in China for 24 consecutive years.
Therefore, there was a problem at that time. The local government used various means to reduce taxes and exempt taxes, so as to reduce the book revenue; Then apportion various charging items and receive the money into your own small vault.
The national economy has developed, but the central finance is very poor. The proportion of central government revenue in GDP fell from 29% in 1980 to 12% in 1992; The proportion of central government revenue in national revenue fell from 40% to 15%.
one can’t make bricks without straw. The country has no money and can’t do a lot of things. The ability of macro-control is greatly affected. How poor was the central government? The salaries of the ministries and commissions can not be paid.
And there are many economic lords in the local area. When the central financial conference is open, it becomes a collection meeting or a begging party. The finance minister asked for money from the local government, and the director of the local finance department also had someone turn over on the spot.
In 1992, Liu Zhongcheng, then the finance minister, complained at a symposium in Hainan: when Li Xiannian was concurrently the finance minister, he wore a coat and trousers; When Wang Bingqian was in office, he still had shirts, but only vests and underpants were left to me.
Just after the speech, a participant shouted at the side: You may not even have a vest, but only your underpants. Although it’s a joke, it’s not too much.
In a word, at that time, the central government was powerless to save the disaster in Guizhou because of the excess investment and serious inflation in the eastern coastal areas, the depletion of domestic demand in the central and western regions, and the financial collapse.
Therefore, the reason why the army did business at that time was also due to the times. Because the Central Committee could not afford more money, the army had to find its own way to raise some funds. The army has no money to place orders, and military enterprises are difficult to maintain.
The transition from a planned economy to a market economy is extremely difficult. The state-owned enterprises should become the main body of the market economy, but the burden is too heavy, and they have to bear a lot of social welfare responsibilities.
Employees of state-owned enterprises take the enterprise as their home. Children go to school by enterprises, while the elderly depend on enterprises. In the past, the production was completely dependent on the state’s instructions, and the mechanism and system were not flexible. The transformation into the main body of market economy competition faced great challenges.
At this time, the Soviet Union and East Asia are undergoing great changes. Many western countries believe that China will follow suit and wait to see Chinese jokes. China has also witnessed some changes, which is a bit unsettling.
So why did Comrade Jiang take orders in the face of danger? Why did Comrade Jiang regard the establishment of the socialist market economic system as one of the three things he did? Because it was too difficult, but he did it.
Let’s talk about Comrade Jiang’s second thing he said he would do – to include Deng Xiaoping Theory in the Party Constitution. Why does Comrade Jiang attach great importance to this matter?
First of all, the Party Constitution is the fundamental law of the Party and the general rule that the whole Party must abide by. The revision of the Party Constitution is a very serious and important matter.
The writing of Deng Xiaoping Theory into the Party Constitution means that China, a big ship with ups and downs, has sailed out of another rapids and dangerous shoals, which can be said to be a successful breakthrough, and then has stabilized its position and explored a new way forward.
The third thing Comrade Jiang said was that he put forward the important thought of Three Represents. At the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2002, the Three Represents were also included in the Party Constitution as the guiding ideology of the Party.
When it comes to the contribution of the important thought of Three Represents, we have to mention the background of the times, including domestic and international backgrounds. The domestic background is that China began to move towards reform and opening up in an all-round way, from a planned economy to a market economy.
This change also poses a severe challenge to the Party’s own construction. For example, at that time, there were 3 million private enterprises and 15 million individual enterprises in China, and the number of employees reached 130 million.
The vast majority of these enterprises do not have Party organizations. If the Party has no contact with these 130 million people, how can we understand their opinions and requirements and represent their fundamental interests?
In these private enterprises and institutions, there are a large number of intellectuals and social elites who hold advanced science and technology and productivity, but our Party organization is blank.
Some people were originally party members, but they became senior intellectuals through learning, or became entrepreneurs or enterprise executives by going to the sea or starting their own businesses, and became billionaires. Can they still be party members?
At that time, there were more than 60 million Party members, and how many others could play a vanguard role? How many can maintain the progressiveness of the Party? How many young Party members have systematically learned and mastered Marxism?
There is also the question of belief in communism. Everywhere Comrade Jiang went, the first question liked to ask how the people believed in Marxism and socialism.
However, under the impact of the market economy and western cultural trends, not only young people, but also some old party members, including some senior cadres, no longer believe in the communist ideal.
For example, Chen Xitong, Li Jiating, Cheng Weigao, Liu Fangren, Tian Fengshan and others took part in the revolution earlier, but they quietly abandoned the communist ideal and betrayed the communist cause.
Chen Xitong often talks on TV about his selflessness, hard work and plain living. But later, when he appeared on TV, he was accused of corruption and depravity.
Similar examples include Wang Huaizhong of Anhui, Xu Guojian of Zhejiang, and Zhang Zonghai of Chongqing. One of them is the former deputy secretary of the Anhui Provincial Party Committee, the other is the former director of organization of the Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee, and the other is the former director of publicity of the Chongqing Municipal Party Committee.
At that time, the corruption of Party and government cadres was very serious. A publication called People said in an article that the number of people who fell due to corruption in China in the past five years has exceeded the total number of our troops killed in the three major campaigns.
In the three major campaigns, 46993 people were killed in our army, and 137711 people (expelled from the Party) fell from corruption in the past five years (October 1997 to September 2002), nearly three times as many as in the three major campaigns.
In the past five years, 708439 people were injured (disciplined) due to corruption, nearly four times as many as in the three major campaigns. There is no doubt about the authenticity of the data. This figure comes from the report of the Commission for Discipline Inspection at the 16th National Congress.
In short, the seriousness of corruption is so alarming that it poses a huge challenge to the ruling position of the Party. Therefore, Comrade Jiang pointed out in the report of the 15th National Congress that fighting against corruption is a serious political struggle that concerns the survival of the Party and the country.
He said: We are invincible to any enemy. The fortress is the easiest to break through from the inside, and you can never destroy yourself. If corruption is not effectively punished, the Party will lose the trust and support of the people.
In the international context, the new scientific and technological revolution has advanced by leaps and bounds, greatly promoting economic development. In the middle and late 1990s, after Clinton came to power, the economy of the United States achieved high growth.
At that time, China was also faced with the challenge of hegemonism and power politics. How can our Party ensure that our country will win the initiative and remain invincible in the fierce international competition in the new century? This is a major issue worthy of deep consideration by the whole Party.
Under such a background, the Three Represents came into being and gradually matured. They creatively answered the key question of what kind of party to build and how to build the party. The answer is the Three Represents:
The CPC must always represent the development requirements of China’s advanced productive forces, the direction of China’s advanced culture, and the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the Chinese people.
In the 16th National Congress, the nature of the Party was redefined: the CPC is the vanguard of the Chinese working class, the vanguard of the Chinese people and the Chinese nation, and the leading core of the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics.
Such a new statement is conducive to expanding the coverage of the Party’s work, expanding the Party’s mass base, and helping all Party comrades to more deeply understand and implement the historical responsibility of the Party.
Besides what Comrade Jiang said, the army must not engage in business. As I said just now, the military business is also a product of a specific historical stage. The central government is seriously short of finance and military expenditure is very tight.
In this context, I made an attempt. Since 1985, the financial department has allocated only 60% of the military expenditure, and the remaining 40% has been raised by the military itself. How to raise funds on their own is to allow the army to engage in production, management and foreign trade.
However, since then, there have been shortcomings. A considerable number of cadres and troops have been neglecting their duties, which has weakened their ability to perform their duties and combat effectiveness to a certain extent; In addition, there was a struggle for profits with the people and local people, which affected the military and civilian fish and water situation.
The army’s business corrupts the cadres and corrupts the morale of the army. The purity and discipline of the army are greatly challenged. In fact, the army’s business is just like destroying the Great Wall itself.
In 1990, after taking the leadership of the Military Commission, Jiang Zemin began to adopt the method of gradual contraction and step by step consolidation under the advice of Zhang Wannian and Zhu Rongji. By 1998, he had stopped all business activities of the military and the armed police forces.
Comrade Jiang also mentioned the flood fighting in 1998. The 1998 flood swept 29 provinces in China. The state mobilized hundreds of thousands of troops to rush to the flood fighting front.
The flood fighting in 1998 was the largest troop mobilization in the Yangtze River basin since the river crossing campaign in 1949. By the end of the flood fighting, the PLA and the Armed Police had invested 4.3322 million troops.
(In order to reflect the real history, some pictures use the primary color, but the black border is specially added for commemoration)
The flood fighting in 1998 once again consolidated the military and civilian fish and water situation, and the PLA and armed police soldiers are still our patron saint; The flood fighting in 1998 once again strengthened the relationship between the Party and the masses, and the Party is the backbone of the people.
The flood fighting in 1998 proved once again that the PLA is still the people’s army that “obeys the Party’s command, can fight and win, and has a good style”, fighting in western Hunan, seizing Luding Bridge, and fighting in Shangganling.
During the flood fighting in 1998, the flesh and blood of the PLA created a history, that is, the Yangtze River was blocked again after the breach of the dike, which is unprecedented in history, and it can be said that the image of the soldiers was reshaped to a certain extent.
At the end of the flood fighting, Jiujiang City was deserted. Countless people spontaneously went to see the PLA off. How many people cried, shook hands and hugged reluctantly, and how many people chased military vehicles for forced feeding.
In fact, Comrade Jiang’s contribution to the army goes beyond that. He also promoted the modernization of the army. Of course, we should also thank the teacher Meidi for this.
When Jiangtong Zhigang became the chairman of the Military Commission, the US emperor personally demonstrated a modern war – the Gulf War. Comrade Jiang was a senior man of science and engineering. He graduated from Shanghai Jiaotong University, worked as a worker and served as the minister of the Ministry of Electronics Industry, so he immediately understood.
After the Gulf War, Comrade Jiang realized that the Gulf War showed that high-tech war has become a basic form of war today. The local wars we may face in the future will also be high-tech, at least with high-tech characteristics.
He also said: In the past, we have fought local wars, but they are not high-tech. There are some modern technologies, but not many. Although some research has been done on local wars under high-tech conditions, the research from the perspective of combat preparation is not enough.
In 2002, Jiang Zemin further revealed the core of the new military reform: informatization is the core of the new military reform. The war form of human society is changing from mechanized war to information war.
He believed that the weaponry, organizational system, military theory, military training and logistics support methods of the army in the entire industrial era would be completely transformed according to the requirements of informatization, and the mechanized army was being transformed into an information-based army.
Once the understanding is in place, the army will have a way forward. In 1997, under the leadership of Comrade Jiang Zemin, the Central Military Commission established the strategic concept of “three steps” for the cross century development of national defense and military modernization.
Since then, the whole army has set off an upsurge of scientific and technological military training, and the ideological and political work of the army has been further strengthened; The military academies have set up professional disciplines for the new century. Military spending has continued to grow, and a large number of high-tech military projects have been launched.
So this time, Comrade Jiang Zemin was called a great proletarian revolutionist, politician, militarist and diplomat in the Letter to the Whole Party, the Whole Army and the People of All Nationalities issued by the State Council of the CPC Central Committee yesterday.
In addition to his military achievements, let’s look at his diplomatic achievements. At that time, China’s diplomacy was relatively scrawny, and we often said that the 1990s had three major diplomatic humiliations.
They are the Galaxy incident in 1993; The Taiwan Strait Crisis in 1996; The embassy was bombed in 1999. In fact, during his tenure, there were many so-called diplomatic humiliations, such as the Yellow Sea confrontation in 1994 and the Sino US plane crash in 2001.
As a result, Comrade Jiang also carried a lot of names. However, facts have proved that it was extremely correct for China to adopt the strategy of keeping a low profile at that time. It made the best use of the international environment for its own use and won a golden development period for the country.
Comrade Jiang clearly pointed out at the 16th National Congress that the first 20 years of this century are a period of strategic opportunities for our country that must be firmly grasped and can make great achievements. Facts have proved that this judgment is extremely accurate.
In 2001, China’s GDP was less than one third of Japan’s, and now Japan is less than one third of ours. In 2001, the GDP of the United States was 16 times of ours, and now it is 1.4 times of ours.
But in fact, Comrade Jiang was very principled in diplomacy. At that time, no one except the United States would bully us if they wanted to. Comrade Jiang lost his temper, which was enough for them to drink.
Moreover, Comrade Jiang’s diplomacy has very distinctive characteristics. During his visit to Switzerland in 1999, Comrade Jiang became angry about the Tibet issue. He put aside his prepared speech notes and improvised to denounce the Swiss government.
He sternly questioned the Swiss side and said, “Do you have the ability to govern this country?”? The Swiss government may have won some points in internal affairs, but it has lost a good friend!
At last Comrade Jiang finished his speech in English and French, and then left the scene angrily. The Swiss side realized its mistakes and made urgent diplomatic remedies. Only then did it manage to strengthen the solution to the diplomatic crisis.
Comrade Jiang has unequivocally maintained the reunification of the motherland, defended territorial sovereignty and resolutely opposed separatist forces and activities on major diplomatic occasions. This attitude and position is always worthy of our admiration and study.
During Comrade Jiang’s tenure, evil cults were eliminated. Comrade Jiang attaches great importance to the rejuvenation of the country through science and education, and attaches great importance to talents. It has also made strategic deployment in high-tech fields such as electronic information and aerospace, which is very forward-looking.
He is a very outstanding leader with a distinctive personality. He is not only full of science and engineering masculinity, but also versatile. He is also a language master, and it is still a mystery how many foreign languages he knows.
If the realization of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation requires seven baked cakes, Comrade Jiang, as the core of the third generation of collective leadership, has contributed the fourth baked cake to help us safely pass through the important period of connecting the past and opening the future.
During the historical period when Comrade Jiang was in office, both internal affairs and foreign affairs were faced with very difficult situations and severe challenges in all aspects, which was somewhat unsettling.
That period of time is unforgettable, but it is not worth our nostalgia. It was precisely because of the difficulties that his historical contribution was highlighted, that is, he led us through the rapids of reform and opening up.
His historical contributions will shine through the annals of history. Although he has gone west with a crane, his voice, face and smile will be forever popular. As a true fan of him, we must send endless grief!
Deeply remember the beloved Comrade Jiang Zemin!