How Can a Weak Hatchling Bird Be the

First to Fly?

-Thoughts from Inspecting the

Nine Counties of Ningde

September 1988

Impoverished Ningde Prefecture is undoubtedly just a “weak hatchling bird” in the vast space for developing the commodity economy. I arrived in Ningde in June to take up my new post, and from early July to early August several of my colleagues joined me in a tour of nine counties of Ningde as well as neighboring Wenzhou, Cangnan, and Yueqing in southern Zhejiang Province. As we visited, contemplated, and studied, our thoughts never strayed far from this question: in developing a commodity production economy in which “fish can leap at will in a boundless sea and birds can soar free beneath the limitless sky” can this “hatchling bird” of Ningde be the first to fly, and how can we make it so?

1. Being the first to “take flight”

Ningde is almost a world to itself - hard to get to, little information from the outside world, and an economy based on small-scale farming. Its commodity economy has developed even more sluggishly than other impoverished regions. When you mention Ningde five words come to people's minds: “old, ethnic minority, remote island, impoverished.” In such a place that so much resembles a weak hatchling bird, how can we even dare to think about being the firs to "take flight"? In my eyes, not only can we talk about it, we must loudly proclaim it. Impoverished regions cannot have impoverished ideals. “Being at peace with our lot,” “finding contentment in poverty,” “waiting for government aid, relying on financial grants, requiring poverty allowances,” blaming everyone but ourselves - all of these concepts must be swept out with the trash. The weak hatchling bird can be the first to fly, and the poorest can be the first to become rich. But to be the first to “take flight" or to “become rich”,we must first have such a concept in mind. Therefore, I believe that the most pressing task at the moment is for our Party members, officials, and people to free their minds, update their thinking, and tell everyone that the “weak hatchling bird can be the first to take flight and the poorest can be the first to become rich.” This will allow us to break through old ways of looking at problems and do things in a positive frame of mind.

Many of our colleagues put their hopes in the state allocating more funds and arranging for more raw materials in their planning Like General Han Xin's need for soldiers, the more the better. Generally speaking, it isn't a bad thing to have someone watching over you. This mindset is understandable, but we must also get one thing straight: we must see ourselves as the key to resolving shortages of raw materials and funds, and this changing responsibility is the prime concept of being the first to “take flight." We must not look to others for the answers to all of our problems, but rather to ourselves. For example, we can look to uncovering potential and reducing costs; we can build a stable network for material assistance through seeking domestic cooperation and foreign investment; and we can encourage counties to formulate preferential policies. There is no reason why impoverished regions cannot make extraordinary gains in unconfined areas and areas to their advantage. That is to say, it is entirely possible for impoverished regions to rely on their own efforts, policies, strengths, and advantages in certain areas to be the first to “take flight,” and make up for the disadvantages brought about by poverty. There is no dearth of examples of this. While many major electronics companies in large cities and even in special economic zones suffer from excessive capacity and find it difficult to pick up their operations, our impoverished region Xiapu continually produces its own electronic massage devices and special medical devices for men. They are in high demand with good reputation in China and overseas. Clearly, we cannot say that Xiapu has better conditions than the large cities and special economic zones, nor can we say that its industrial environment is better than what other major electronics companies have.This only goes to show that not only is it possible to be the first to “take flight”, it is realistic. To impoverished regions,the concepts of commodities, markets, and competition are entirely new, and they all should be integral factors of wanting to be the first to “take flight” . Without under standing these concepts, no matter how loudly we shout about it, the commodity economy will fall flat.

Here I want to especially emphasize the notion of building a commodity economy,and we cannot completely separate politics from economy. The five leading departments of all counties must arrange their own departmental work based on developing the economy. We must have an“economic chorus”. It has already been ten years since the Third Plenary Session of the 11^th CPC Central Committee made the decision to shift the focus of the Party's work onto economic development. But many of our colleagues still “act like they don't see what is right in front of their eyes” when they encounter specific problems and cannot differentiate what is primary from what is secondary. Economic development is our primary theme, and the economy cannot be developed without us bearing it in mind day and night. Many of our township colleagues said that non-economic work has taken up most of their energy, and I believe that we must quickly put a stop to this. Most of the energy and time of township officials must be spent on economic work.

The coastal province of Guangdong was one of the first to open up, and it acted quickly and made brilliant achievements. The most important thing was that everyone throughout Guangdong wanted to be the first to "take flight,” and with such a strong desire, they were eventually able to fly.

2. Flying across the sea

Once we can fly, of course we must strive to fly across the sea. weather the storms of the international market, and live through commodity economy in the world.

Of the four coastal counties of our prefecture, Ningde and Xiapu counties have been on the list of opening-up counties, and Fu’an and Fuding are doing everything they can to get on the list. The first two counties already have basic policies for opening up. Of course,this only shows the direction we are going in, and whether or not we can keep on opening up will depend on our own work. We must clearly recognize this and have a sense of urgency.

How do we develop the opening-up counties? This is a general question. Due to differences in time, location, and production factors the models of opening up will be varied, and we cannot simply copy the methods used by special economic zones or opening-up cities. We must forge our own suitable path based on our own actual situation Opening up requires a process of preparation such as improving the investment environment, creating conditions for foreign exchange earnings, and making more products that can be sold overseas.

Let's take the investment environment as an example. Even though we cannot compete with cities and developed regions in terms of “water, power, gas, roads, and bridges,” we can at least get off to a good start. Some say that we have to start over from scratch, but I disagree. We must come up with our strategy based on the regional situation and regional strengths. We must rely on the current layout of our cities and towns, and we cannot depart from our current urban living facilities to start over and build a new development zone. This might work in other places, but not in our prefecture. The reason is simple: our finances simply won't support such a plan.

Since we lack “hardware,” we can turn to “software.” There is much we can do in building our soft environment. Foreign companies that invest in China complain the most about poor efficiency, too many authorities, and authorities passing the buck all too often. If we look at general conditions such as input, output, and cost, our prefecture cannot rival other places. But this is all the more reason to build our soft environment. Such “software” effort is a superb technique that “weak hatchling” impoverished regions can use to soar across the sea. We should not imitate the big cities and set up giant institutions, but rather take a completely new approach from the beginning.For example, we can simplify procedures, reduce fees, improve the quality of service, and go through one-stop registration at “one window and with one official stamp,” and so on. Furthermore,while resolutely following national laws and regulations, we can also focus on the local situation and consider formulating our own rules and regulations that offer genuine protection of the legitimate rights and interests of foreign companies. Without a sense of security, foreign companies will not come,and those who are already here will leave. I must remind everyone here that we cannot turn foreign-invested enterprises into state-operated enterprises We must truly allow foreign companies to have their own production management that follows international norms.

We will know that our “software” effort has succeeded, and we will be able to fly across the sea after our message gets out and we start seeing people willing to travel the rugged terrain for hundreds of miles to come to our impoverished region, begin investing, and start setting up businesses.

3. The bird fills out with strong wings

To make the weak hatchling bird be the first to take flight, fly fast, and fly high, we must explore a local path suitable for economic development.

The key to what kind of development path Ningde takes lies in how the wheels of agriculture and industry turn.

Ningde mainly relies on agriculture for a living, and while we are poor because of agriculture, we can also only become rich through agriculture as well. The small farming economy cannot make one rich, nor does it have much of a future. Instead, we must turn to “big agriculture” That is,agriculturally, “on the mountain one lives off the mountain and by the sea one lives off the sea.” While guaranteeing food production, we must rely on mountains, seas and paddy fields, develop rural enterprises, and have an all-round development of agriculture, forestry livestock, side-line products, and fishery. To “live off the mountain,” we must look to forestry, tea, and fruit. “The forest grows as soon as the land is set aside.’ In Zhouning County, Huang Zhenfang's family has a nice forest that has provided us with some ideas for developing forestry industry. Our prefecture has a great advantage in producing tea leaves and it accounts for 1/4 of all production in the province. Currently per-hectare yield is low, and our main efforts should be on increasing the per-unit yield while also focusing on rebuilding old tea plantations There is also a great future in fruit planting, and in particular we should greatly develop the fruit that Ningde specializes in, such as the late maturing lychees in Xiapu and Ningde, four-season pomelos of Fuding, Furong plums of Fu'an,and Younai plums of Gutian. To “live off the sea,” apart from continuing marine fishing, tidal-flat aquaculture also has potential and can increase per-unit yield. The key to developing tidal-flat aquaculture is how the feed industry can meet the demand of aquaculture farms.Township enterprises are important pillars of the rural collective economy, and they should take advantage of local conditions, that is the need to process and utilize agricultural and side-line products. Labor intensive enterprises that serve large urban industries should mostly be collectively run to absorb much of the surplus labor force, and the rural industry structure should be properly adjusted to let more farmers get on the path toward prosperity.

Industry is the driving force for developing our prefecture. For industry, the relationship between speed and benefits must be properly handled: both must be firmly focused, and one cannot be neglected for the other. Once the benefits start to come in, the speed can be increased, and this is the only way to quickly shrink the gap between it and other cities.We must develop industry using local resources, but we also should not blindly oppose starting new projects. We can start projects as soon as opportunities present themselves. As long as there are good benefits from the investments and loans and as long as the products can be sold well on the market, we should also consider developing the processing industry with non-local resources. Of course,we should not start any project that doesn't deliver good benefits, and we must absolutely not allow the short-term behavior of blindly starting projects just to acquire officialdom vanity.We must emphasize the benefits of economies of scale. For example, the electronic massagers and medical devices produced in Xiapu and toys in Fuding have both good economic and social benefits. We must do all we can to increase their output and scale. They can only occupy a greater market share by reaching the proper scale. We can also consider establishing an industrial project database that is constantly updated. As long as there are good projects, there will be funding. Funds can be raised from multiple channels, and more joint stock enterprises can be formed.

Poverty alleviation is another important task in Ningde Prefecture. It has a large impoverished area, and after three years of poverty alleviation, there have been some heartening changes. But we should clearly see that poverty alleviation is still at a low level and still unstable. This is a long-term, arduous task, and we must make mental preparations for a protracted battle. Poverty alleviation requires a change of attitude and mentally wearing away at the“poverty mentality”. We should not be constantly harping on about poverty. Some townships that are developing pretty well include themselves in the scope of impoverished regions. This can only have a negative effect. Furthermore, we must clearly lay out our poverty alleviation measures and whether it is planting and cultivation, animal husbandry, or the processing industry, we should strive for “one product for each village” (each village should focus on a specialized product). Houyang Village in Fu'an County raised village-wide average incomes to over RMB 800 per person through planting Kyoho grapes, thereby casting off the shackles of poverty. Mushrooms and tea leaves are important poverty-alleviation projects for suburban farmers, and the departments in each county must provide technical support to bring farmers from poverty to prosperity; Third, we must combine poverty alleviation with rural socialist cultural progress. Some farmers in Shouning County live alongside their livestock in squalid conditions, and the counties must help these farmers plan and build their rural residences to separate people from their livestock. The vicious cycle of “poverty-unsanitary conditions-disease-poverty” must be broken. Fourth, a portion of poverty alleviation funds must be used to support rural collective economic entities to give us the stamina needed for poverty alleviation. For households hit hard by years of disease and natural disasters, we must give them appropriate relief and help them develop production projects that they are capable of.

The She people of Ningde account for 40% of the country's She population and 70% of the province's. Most of the She people live in remote mountainous areas and are relatively impoverished. Working with ethnic minority groups is a fundamental task for us, and a basic part of our Party's ethnic policies is to strive for equality and unity for ethnic groups. Ethnic work is rooted in developing the economy, as true ethnic equality can only come with a good economy We must formulate special preferential policies for supporting the rural development of areas inhabited by minorities and offer them better assistance. We must focus on training minority officials, developing and documenting ethnic culture,and providing good secondary education to minorities.

All of this will gradually help the “weak hatchling birds” fill out with strong wings and create the necessary conditions for being the first to “take flight.”

4. Lofty ambitions

Without the lofty ambition of steadfast integrity and constantly serving the people, it is difficult to maintain long-term flight and “soar high.” 

Strictly governing the Party and governance with integrity are linked to the success and failure of reform and opening up, and they are continually the lifelines of the Party.We absolutely cannot allow people to seek personal gain from the power they have been given. The principal aim of being an official is to contribute and serve. “Both things you desire cannot be obtained at once”. Officials cannot also covet wealth-“don't extend your hand; the extended hand will be caught.” Of course, while advocating a clean government with integrity, we must also differentiate illegal behavior and discipline violations from mistakes made in the course of reform and opening up. It is important to keep up the enthusiasm of reformers and encourage officials to be the first to act for the people's causes. We must both dare to punish wrongdoing and be good at providing incentives, and we must always make sure we have good policies.

As for Ningde Prefecture, I am fully confident that through our tireless hard work we can create a miracle of the “weak hatchling bird” being the first to take flight in many areas.

Notes

¹In Book 30 of A General Source for Remarks on Poetry, the Song Dynasty's Ruan Yue quoted a line from Chats on Past and Contemporary Poetry, “during the reign of the Tang Dynasty Emperor Dali, the Buddhist monk Yuan Lan inscribed this poem on a piece of bamboo, ‘Fish frolic in the vast sea and birds soar in the open skies.’” This poem expressed the monk's magnanimity and animated language. It was later revised,“Fish can leap at will in a boundless sea, and birds can soar free beneath the limitless sky" It is a metaphor for the ability to move without constraints or display one's abilities freely.

² This expression refers to obvious matters that are right under one's nose and should have been handled with the proper attention, yet are forgotten and treated with neglect. It is based on a line from the Tang Dynasty writer Du Mu (803-853) in his poem “Climbing Chizhou’s Nine-peak Tower with Zhang Hu.” It reads, “They fail to see to the lashes growing before their eyes.”

³ Closing off mountains to encourage afforestation is a measure that ensures forests have the opportunity to grow. Mountainous areas that sprout young growth or have the potential to develop into forests cannot be used for pasture, timber, on fuel during a fixed period.

⁴ This expression is based on the following line from “Book 6A” of the Mencius, “I desire fish, and I also desire bear's paws. If I cannot have both of them, I will give up fish and take bear's paws." [Source of English translation: Mencius,“Book 6A,” in Mencius,trans.Irene Bloom (New York: Columbia University Press,2009),127.-Tr.]

⁵ This expression is from Chen Yi's poem “Seven-character Verse, Don't Extend Your Hand,” in Selected Poems of Chen Yi. It admonishes those who harbor evil intentions, “Dont extend your hand; the extended hand will be caught. The Party and the people are watching; it is difficult to escape the public glare.” A native of Lezhi Sichuan Province, Chen Yi (1901-1972) was a Marxist, military strategist, and proletarian revolutionary. He co-founded and commanded the Chinese People's Liberation Army.