Chapter 27 Title IX Business History

In the first spring of the 1980s, the wind and rain in the north and south of the river were smooth, and the whole country felt an irrepressible joy. The 24-year-old Beijing poet Gu Cheng published his famous work "A Generation" in the "Star" poetry magazine. The whole poem is very short, only two lines, but it detonated the long-awaited emotions of a whole generation like an atomic bomb: "The night gave me black eyes/I used them to find light." This is an indescribable emotional confession, the resistance to darkness and the awakening of personal consciousness are forced out in these two lines of poetry.Everyone seems to be beginning to realize that this will be an uneasy start.

In order to let people across the country enjoy the first Spring Festival in the 1980s, the Ministry of Commerce issued a special notice on January 18, requiring major cities to open up the supply of pork.In the previous year, the number of live pigs in the country increased by 8 million, and the average gross weight of each pig increased by 12 kilograms. The notice requires all regions to "purchase locally, slaughter locally, and sell locally."A few days later, the State Council issued a document allowing "seasonal price differences for eggs", which shows that the country is already trying to use price leverage to coordinate the market.Such notices and documents will continue to be distributed tirelessly for more than ten years, and no one will find them very abrupt. The country has always been like a big nanny, carefully taking care of the people's basic necessities of life.One day before and after the Spring Festival, an interesting incident happened in Deng Xiaoping’s hometown, Guang’an, Sichuan: a train pulled 20 tons of corn from Heilongjiang, and stopped in front of the platform of Guang’an Railway Station. A piece of white paper with a few big characters written on it: "Down with Deng Xiaoping!" Not long after, someone wrote a comment under the big characters: "Do you still want to eat Heilongjiang corn?"

In the spring of 1980, the most important political event was the rehabilitation of former President Liu Shaoqi by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.At the Fifth Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held on February 23, the 65-year-old Hu Yaobang was elected as the general secretary of the Central Committee, and a group of younger cadres were promoted to important leadership positions, including the previous two years in Anhui, Wan Li, Zhao Ziyang and others in Sichuan vigorously promoted the joint production contract responsibility system.The smug Deng Xiaoping said in his speech at the meeting that after solving the political and ideological lines, the future work should focus on the study of system reform.

Deng Xiaoping obviously wanted to focus the attention of the people of the whole country on the reform of the economic system.By the end of last year, there were 4,200 state-owned enterprises in the country that had carried out pilot projects of expanding autonomy. In 1980, there were 6,600 state-owned enterprises, accounting for about 16% of the total number of industrial enterprises in the national budget, and their output value and profit accounted for 60% and 70% respectively. about.The key state-owned enterprises in the eyes of the central and local governments have basically been put into the big basket of "pilot projects".In order to promote this important reform, on January 22, based on the experience of pilot enterprises such as Shougang, the State Council issued the "Trial Measures for Profit Retention of State-owned Industrial Enterprises", allowing pilot enterprises that expand their autonomy to retain the original amount of profits. , changed to "base profit retention plus growth profit retention", however, industrial enterprises must complete the four planned indicators of output, quality, profit, and supply contracts before they can withdraw all profit retention funds according to the approved and stipulated retention ratio.In February, the State Economic Commission issued another notice, requiring the pilot enterprises to ensure that “the state receives more, the enterprise retains more, and the employees get more.” This is of course a requirement that sounds good, but it is very difficult to implement.There are various indications that the control is being loosened step by step, but the central government hopes that everything will be carried out in an orderly manner under the control of the plan.All over the country, news of new reforms is emerging one after another. At the beginning of the year, the People’s Insurance Company of China came back and the domestic insurance business was allowed to resume; on April 10, the Beijing Administration of Civil Aviation of China and Hong Kong China Aviation Catering Co., Ltd. established a joint venture with a registered capital of 5.58 million. Beijing Aviation Catering Company", Wu Shuqing, a Hong Kong native, serves as the executive director of the Hong Kong side.The State Administration for Industry and Commerce issued the No. 001 business license for Sino-foreign joint ventures. This is the first Sino-foreign joint venture officially approved by the Chinese government.At that time, the daily catering volume of Beijing Aviation Catering Company was only 640. Twenty years later, this number will rise to 25,000.Compared with the Sino-foreign joint venture of this small company, a project that is getting off to a rough start in the South sounds much larger.This plan, which will affect China's opening up in the future, is to establish a "special economic zone" in the south.

The economic term "special zone" is a new invention of the Chinese.It is said that its inventor was also Deng Xiaoping.In April of last year, he discussed opening-up matters with Xi Zhongxun, the first secretary of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee and governor, and proposed to establish a new open area in Shenzhen, fully introduce foreign capital, and implement special economic policies.One day after the meeting, Deng and Xi were walking in the Zhongnanhai courtyard. The two chatted about the old stories of the revolution in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region. Deng suddenly stopped and said, "Shenzhen, let's call it a special zone! Yes, do it. A special zone. In the past, the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia border area was a special zone. The central government has no money, so you should do it yourself and fight your way out.”

When Deng Xiaoping said this, Yuan Geng had already gone to the south to start his Shekou Industrial Zone. As soon as the word "special zone" came out, Xi Zhongxun, who understood it, immediately accelerated the speed of opening up.Soon, on July 15, a "Two Reports of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council Approved by the Guangdong Provincial Committee and the Fujian Provincial Committee on the Implementation of Special Policies and Flexible Measures for Foreign Economic Activities" was formed. The report clearly stated: "In Shenzhen Zhuhai, Shantou and Zhuhai tried to set up export special zones. In the special zones, overseas Chinese, Hong Kong and Macao businessmen are allowed to invest directly in setting up factories, and some foreign manufacturers are also allowed to invest in setting up factories, or to set up joint ventures and tourism businesses with them...the construction of the three special zones must also have steps We will proceed in a timely manner and focus on the construction of Shenzhen City first.”

The idea of ​​establishing the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone gradually became clear, and it was clearly defined as a "special economic zone".The state provided a loan of 30 million yuan for the development of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone. This figure is insignificant compared with the future development of Pudong. It can be seen that the special zone was purely experimental at the time, and the central government did not care about it No strategic expectations.Shenzhen has been upgraded from a county-level city to a prefecture-level city.This time, the special zone's handwriting is still much larger than Yuan Geng's Shekou. The total area of ​​Shenzhen is 2020 square kilometers.The total area designated as a special economic zone is 327.5 square kilometers, with a length of more than 50 kilometers from east to west and an average width of more than 6 kilometers from north to south.A bird's-eye view of the SAR from the plane looks like a long and narrow kelp floating at the foot of the mountain and the sea.Among them, 110 square kilometers can be planned and developed.

The larger the area, the bigger it is, but there is still only 30 million yuan in loans—this amount is not enough to provide three links and one leveling for 2 square kilometers.The developer has no choice but to rent out the land and exchange the land money for cash.This idea was considered "rebellious" in China at the time.The reason for the opponents is simple: how can the land of the Communist Party be rented out to capitalists?At that time, a cadre of the real estate bureau named Luo Jinxing searched through the original works of Marxism-Leninism, and finally found out in the thick "Complete Works of Lenin" that Lenin quoted Engels: "...houses, factories, etc., at least in the transitional period, may not be It is handed over to individuals or cooperatives at no cost. Similarly, the abolition of private ownership of land does not require the abolition of land rent, but the transfer of land rent—albeit in a modified form—to society.” Luo Jinxing found this passage After a while of ecstasy, he rushed to knock on the door of Zhang Xunfu, Secretary of the Municipal Party Committee that night.It is said that all the cadres in Shenzhen at that time would recite this quotation, and when inspectors and questioners came from afar, they recited it fluently to those people.

The first land lease agreement in Shenzhen was signed on January 1, 1980.The first Hong Kong businessman who ate crabs was named Liu Tianzhu, and the one who negotiated business with him was Luo Jinxing, who found Engels' original words in "The Complete Works of Lenin".According to Luo’s later recollection, the negotiation conversation at that time was like this—Liu said: “Just set aside a suitable piece of land. I will organize the design, pay for the construction of the house, and sell it in Hong Kong. It’s a small head.” Luo said, “How about setting aside a piece of land near the East Lake Park?” Liu said, “Okay, you get seven of the profits, and I get three.” Luo shook his head: “You can get it.” There are too many." Liu said with a smile: "You take eight, I take two, how about it?" Luo said: "I take eight and a half, and the rest is yours!" Liu said: "We are dealing with each other for the first time, what we have to do in the future There are many more, this time it's up to you!" Such a conversation is indeed a business discussion.

The real estate developed by Liu Tianzhu is called "East Lake Liyuan". There are 108 new houses in the first phase. After he designed the blueprints of the houses, he began to sell them in Hong Kong. In just three days, the 108 houses that were still on the blueprints were sold. And empty. The success of "Donghu Liyuan" has greatly enlightened the people of Shenzhen. They quickly came up with a new plan and proposed the idea of ​​collecting land use fees. The land use fee is 4,500 Hong Kong dollars per square meter, which is only equivalent to a river. One-eleventh of Hong Kong on the other side.Shenzhen used the hundreds of millions of dollars it received to cut down mounds, fill in ravines, open roads, connect electricity, water, and postal services.In the five years from 1980 to 1985, Shenzhen actually utilized 1.28 billion yuan of foreign capital, completed a total of 7.63 billion yuan in infrastructure investment, built a large number of new energy, transportation, communication and other infrastructure projects, and initially formed 9 industrial zones , Hong Kong and foreign businessmen poured into the special zone to set up factories and start companies.Since then, the south wind has gone all the way northward, and the momentum of opening up is unstoppable.

In a country or in life, the greatest depression is that depression is suppressed in the heart and cannot be vented.In 1980, with the loosening of the system and the emergence of various new things, people began to express their emotions, and the state also acquiesced to such a move.In Guangdong, Dai Houying's novel "People, People" caused a sensation. This female writer who was killed by a burglar at home was the first to describe the lives of ordinary people in a tone full of compassion; And "Legend of Tianyun Mountain" made young people flock to the cinema like crazy. Every floral dress of the heroine Zhang Yu aroused great curiosity among the girls; A still photo from the British movie "The Crystal Slipper and the Rose". The photo shows a pair of young lovers kissing passionately. In May, "China Youth" with a circulation of more than two million copies published a long letter signed by "Ordinary Female Worker Pan Xiao" "The road of life, how is it getting narrower...", this title completely defeated It broke the crumbling ideological fence in people's hearts.Pan Xiao said in the letter: "The times are advancing, but I can't touch its powerful wings; some people say that there is a broad and great cause in the world, but I don't know where it is. The road of life, how to go beyond it? The narrower I walked...Really, I secretly went to a Catholic church service, I once had the idea of ​​shaving my hair and becoming a nun, and even, I thought of dying in the past... My heart is really chaotic and contradictory." The article aroused great resonance, but also attracted fierce attacks.As a result, on the issue of life path, a large-scale discussion was launched across China, and Pan Xiao's name caused a sensation.The great discussion continued until March of the following year, causing "China Youth" to reach its highest circulation of 3.69 million copies, and the letters from readers to the magazine and Pan Xiao alone exceeded 60,000.This kind of discussion is undoubtedly very subversive to a society that has been closed for a long time. It makes people doubt the meaning and value of the existing living conditions, and has unprecedented visions and plans for future life. In the future, China's largest He Boquan, the founder of Guangdong Robust Group, one of the famous beverage companies, recalled that when he was the deputy secretary of the Communist Youth League of Zhongshan County, he discussed this topic enthusiastically with a girl. It was the "letter from Pan Xiao" that made him re-examine and Planning his own life, the girl later became his wife. The government has remained neutral and silent on this big discussion, which was unthinkable before.Openness and change have gradually become the main theme of this country, and its evolution path will be very tortuous, but the direction of progress seems to be irreversible. The changes that would turn around the fortunes of Chinese companies are still germinating outside the system.For Lu Guanqiu in 1980, his biggest victory this year was his first squeeze into the "plan" sequence.From the present point of view, this incident can be regarded as an "accident". At the beginning of the year, Lu Guanqiu made a decision. He took down the seven or eight brand plates hanging at the factory gate one by one, and finally only one "Xiaoshan Universal Joint Factory" remained.He is the kind of person with good intuition—this is the common talent of almost all start-up entrepreneurs. After ten years of ups and downs, he is determined to devote his energy to only one product in the future, that is, the consumable parts of the car. Accessory "Gimbal" on.He excitedly went to the industry trade fair with his products on his back, but was kicked out because, except for state-owned factories, other enterprises were "not allowed to enter."Of course Lu Guanqiu would not be reconciled to this. He secretly set up a stall for sale at the entrance of the venue. The universal joint he brought was sold at a price 20% lower than that of the state-owned factory, so he was popular. He quietly expanded like a groundhog. own territory.In order to let the manufactured products truly occupy the market, Lu Guanqiu showed extraordinary determination. This summer, a customer in Wuhu, Anhui sent a return letter, saying that some of the universal joints sent to them had cracks.Lu Guanqiu immediately organized 30 people to go to customers all over the country to check and clear the goods, but they returned more than 30,000 sets of universal joints.Lu Guanqiu gathered all the workers in the factory, and then he was the first to carry the straw bag full of waste products with a stern face, and walked towards the waste recycling station in Ningwei Town.These 30,000 sets of universal joints were all sold as scrap iron for six cents a catty, and the factory lost 430,000 yuan.This was almost an astronomical figure back then. Lu Guanqiu's almost legendary action made the rural factory he led begin to have the temperament of a large industry.At that time, the China National Automobile Industry Corporation wanted to determine three designated production plants for universal joints. Among the 56 universal joint production plants in the country, Xiaoshan Universal Joint Factory was the only "collectively owned township enterprise". There was no chance, but Lu Guanqiu moved around, insisting that the expert review team in Beijing included it as an object of participation, and finally passed the review and became one of the three designated factories.The determination of this fixed point is decisive for Lu Guanqiu.It allowed this "low status" enterprise to be recognized by mainstream factories.Universal joints are not a big industry, and Lu Guanqiu's victory seems to indicate a possibility that private enterprises outside the system have the opportunity to enter some unpopular industries with flexible mechanisms and technical advantages. be successful. The "plan" seems so strict, but it may be broken through by the flexible "little guys". This truth will come true again and again in the future. Like Lu Guanqiu, who tried his best to tear open the "plan", more and more rural factories in Wenzhou, Fujian, and the Pearl River Delta in southern Zhejiang have shown their extraordinary vitality.A reporter from the US "Newsweek" went to Shishi, Fujian and Nanhai, Guangdong for interviews. In his report, he said, "The small commodity trade in Shishi is similar to the small hardware, small chemicals, small plastics, small textiles, small smelting, and small Processing, it grows like a weed all over the world." Wenzhou in Zhejiang Province is located in a remote area, without trains for many years, the transportation is extremely inconvenient, and the cultivated land is even scarcer, with an average per capita of only a little more than two cents. Therefore, farmers here have had the urge to leave the land and go out to survive for a century. After 1979, there was a sudden smuggling frenzy in the Yueqing and Cangnan areas here. One by one smuggled fishing boats smuggled in overseas clothing, small household appliances, hardware, etc., and formed a smuggling market in some remote small docks.The local government is not responsible for the law, so it has no choice but to turn a blind eye.As a result, these smuggling markets became the first generation of commodity bazaars in China, and those bold vendors who came to purchase smuggled goods and Wenzhou people who carried these commodities away to sell them became the first generation of merchants.Statistics show that by around 1980, there were more than 3,000 individual businesses in Wenzhou. In some market towns with active transactions, such as Liushi in Yueqing, some professional manufacturing workshops appeared one after another. With the title of "big king", such as Hu Jinlin, the king of electrical appliances, Liu Dayuan, the king of screws, Cheng Buqing, the king of miner's lamps, Zheng Xiangqing, the king of coils, and so on.The assets of these people had exceeded 100,000 yuan at the time, and the quality of the products they produced could probably compete with state-owned factories.Unlike Lu Guanqiu, these kings and their enterprises were private from the very beginning. Except for Wenzhou and a few areas in the Pearl River Delta, it was almost unimaginable in China at that time. The completion of gray primitive accumulation due to smuggling was an important driving factor for the germination of the rural economy in the southeast coast at that time, and this point has not been noticed by the academic circle. Around 1980, the places where smuggling was the most rampant in the country were the Wenzhou and Taizhou areas in southern Zhejiang, and the coastal areas of Guangdong and Fujian. Therefore, they became the areas where the commodity economy started the fastest and the private economy was the most active at that time.Xinhua News Agency reporter Wei Yunheng once described the smuggling scene along the coast of Fujian in this way: At that time, there were dozens of smuggling ships from Hong Kong and Taiwan mooring and swimming in the waters of Dongsha Island every day, and hundreds of smuggling ships from the mainland going to exchange smuggled goods.Electronic watches and nylon fabrics flowed into the mainland like a rising tide, while gold and silver dollars flowed out like an ebbing tide.Thousands of people are crazy, and several well-known distribution markets for private goods have been formed in coastal cities and villages. Just when the "underground factories" in the Pearl River Delta and Wenzhou are proliferating like weeds, in the central cities or sub-central cities, individualized economic activities are still so cautious and rare.In the long-term planned economy, people have become accustomed to living in a formative, disciplined and organized environment. Once they break away from that inertia, it often requires great external force or courage.This is why in the early days of reform and opening up, the vast majority of those engaged in individual business activities came from the bottom of society. They were the unemployed, those who returned to the city, those with criminal records and those with low education. In addition to the "warm" and "secure" system, when he had no choice but to embark on the road of doing business and starting a business.In Shanghai, a 19-year-old street gangster named Zhou Zhengyi opened a small wonton shop in the bustling Yangpu District because he couldn't find a job. Later, he became the controversial "Shanghai's richest man"; In Urumqi, Tang Wanxin, a 16-year-old school dropout who also had nowhere to go, opened a photofinishing shop with his elder brother Tang Wanli. No one expected that he would start from this remote border town more than 20 years later and create a German company with a market value of 120 billion yuan. Long Empire.In Beijing, a middle-aged woman named Liu Guixian accidentally got the city's first private restaurant license. Liu Guixian is a handyman in a kindergarten. There are five children in her family. Because her livelihood is really difficult, she has the idea of ​​opening a small restaurant. Her restaurant is located in Cuihua Hutong, Dongcheng District, and is named Yuebin Restaurant.Now there is no information to show why Beijing chose this woman with no background to open the first independent restaurant.On the first day of opening, the director of the District Industrial and Commercial Bureau came to warn Liu Guixian: "This is the first individual restaurant approved by the above, you must open it well, and don't discredit the government!" It is not easy for Liu Guixian to open a restaurant. At that time, almost all food items—grain, oil, fish, meat, poultry, and eggs—were supplied by tickets. In order to help her get tofu tickets, pork tickets, food tickets, etc., Dongcheng District mobilized the Bureau of Industry and Commerce, Food Bureaus, catering service companies and other departments have specially opened "small stoves" for Yuebin restaurants.Only in this way, Liu Guixian's small restaurant will not close down.Because it is the first individual restaurant in Beijing, many foreign journalists come to take pictures and interview every day, and the questions they ask are generally the same: "Is this restaurant opened by yourself or the government asked you to open it?" "Are you worried that you will suffer in the future?" Criticism?" "Will others take away the money you earn?" In fact, Liu Guixian himself wanted to find someone to ask these questions clearly.On the New Year's Eve of the second year, two big shots came to Yuebin Restaurant, and the two vice premiers, Chen Muhua and Yao Yilin, came to greet her in person.It was at this time that a new identity term began to become popular in the city: self-employed, which refers to people like Liu Guixian and Zhou Zhengyi who have no national protection and set up small shops on their own. It sounds like a mixed bag. Chen has contempt, sympathy, and a little secret admiration for "freedom". As the first individual restaurant in Beijing, Liu Guixian's career has never left Cuihua Hutong.Twenty years later, people can still find that small restaurant that can only accommodate seven or eight tables of Eight Immortals in that narrow and decaying alley. In December 1980, at the gate of a warehouse of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, 46-year-old Chen Chunxian stood in the cold wind and warmly greeted people who came by bicycle. There were 14 people who came, and everyone He has a weak appearance and a gentle tone of voice.They are all researchers from the Institute of Physics, Institute of Electronics and Institute of Mechanics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. This time they were all "fooled" by Lao Chen.On this day, they will start a "big thing" together. The initiator of this "big event" is Chen Chunxian.He is a well-known scientific genius of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He studied in the Soviet Union in his early years and was received by Stalin because of his excellent grades.His special subject is very cutting-edge nuclear fusion. He built the first tokamak device in China and established China's nuclear fusion base in Hefei. In 1978, the Chinese Academy of Sciences appraised and hired the first batch of professor-level researchers. There were only ten places in the whole academy. He was on the list together with the famous mathematician Chen Jingrun.In the past two years, he has visited the United States three times as one of China's most important scientists, and these three expeditions have completely changed his life. Chen Chun first went to the famous Silicon Valley and Route 128 in Boston. He was deeply moved by the prosperity of high-tech companies in those two places.Chen Chunxian, who is eager to serve the country, intuitively believes that China should also have its own Silicon Valley, so that those scientific and technological achievements sleeping in the laboratory can be transformed into commodities with market value.After returning to China, he made many speeches and appeals on various occasions.In his plan, the location of "China's Silicon Valley" has even been delineated, which is Zhongguancun, where he works. Zhongguancun is the name of a small village in the north of Beijing. Before 1949, it was a small natural village with 70 households and 276 people. The surrounding cemeteries accounted for more than 30% of the land. In 1952, the Chinese Academy of Sciences was located here, and the next year, Yenching University and Peking University merged to form a teaching and research institute in the north of this small village.In the future, several key research institutes of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a large area of ​​staff dormitories were successively built in the Zhongguancun area, becoming an area with a high concentration of scientific researchers.In Chen Chunxian's mind, "The density of talents here is by no means lower than that in San Francisco and Boston, and the quality is not bad. I always feel that there is a lot of potential that has not been tapped." Chen Chunxian has been excited by his idea for a long time. After returning to China for the third time, he finally decided to start from himself to give birth to China's Silicon Valley.Under his help, the Beijing Association for Science and Technology became his supporter. This weak association lent Chen Chunxian 200 yuan and helped him open a company account.Therefore, as the new year was approaching, Chen Chunxian set up the first private technology entity in China: "Beijing Plasma Society Advanced Technology Development Service Department" in a warehouse in Zhongguancun. Chen Chunxian's actions caused quite a stir within the Chinese Academy of Sciences, but in society, this was a very inconspicuous event.No media reported on this, and Chen Chunxian didn't know how far he could go.The middle-aged man with the most active thinking in the Chinese Academy of Sciences has completely given up his career as a scientist. He will start a mediocre and bumpy entrepreneurial experience. kidnapping.He is a frustrated corporate operator. However, it was this Chen Chunxian who single-handedly moved China's high-tech industry.The operating principles he set for the service department later became the common law for the establishment of private high-tech companies in China, that is: scientific and technological personnel leave the research institutes, follow the laws of technology transformation and market economy, do not use state funds, and do not occupy state establishments , Self-raised funds, self-responsibility for profits and losses, independent management, independent decision-making according to law.Behind him being suspected, insulted and ridiculed, one technology company after another was born in Zhongguancun.Three years later, without any investment from the state, Zhongguancun has become the most famous "electronics street" in China. By 1992, there will be 5,180 private technology companies here. The winter in Beijing in 1980 was very cold, and there were five heavy snowfalls in December. According to reports, the amount of snowfall in this winter was the largest in the past two decades.Chen Chunxian's service department finally received its first business two months after its opening. The director of a small street factory in Haidian District asked Chen Chunxian, a nuclear fusion scientist who came to sell the business, "Can you help us solve the problem on the power supply?" Is it?" Chen Chun froze for a moment, then said, "Of course, how much can you give?" , "Extraordinary Marketing", "Exaggerated Mission" and so on.