Chapter 17 "Bronze Statue" County Party Secretary

In 1992, the Small Commodity Market Management Office received a group of special Yiwu farmers.They were carrying a heavy snakeskin bag, and when they opened it, it was full of cash. Lao He, who received them at that time, is still working in the management office.He was very nervous at first, not knowing what was going on. "The small commodity market is about to celebrate its 10th anniversary, and we would like to express our gratitude." The stone in Lao He's heart fell to the ground, "But what did you spend so much money on?" Farmers, look at me, I look at you, and finally a young man said: "We want to build a statue, and we are here to represent everyone."

Lao He was a little nervous again, what does it look like, don't be the God of Wealth Bodhisattva or something, this time it seems to be quite serious, so it will take a lot of words to dissuade him. However, what the farmers said next was beyond his expectation. "We want to build a bronze statue for Secretary Xie." The Secretary Xie they are referring to is Comrade Xie Gaohua who became the Party Secretary of Yiniao County in 1982, eight years after he left Yiwu. It was a thin and short middle-aged man, at most ninety catties, less than 1.65 meters, walking on the road, like a cotton flower floating.

However, it is this "cotton flower" that has become a very charming legend in the Jinqu Basin.It is said that at that time, the county party committee and the county government held three office meetings to see whether the small commodity market could continue, but there were still disagreements: . In the smog that filled the room, Xie Gaohua waved his hand: "Seek truth from facts, let's go to the people to find the answer." Then there were more than 20 days of in-depth investigations, debates, exchanges, and confrontations in rural areas, streets, and institutions.

It is said that in the end it was the experience of a lame old man that made Xie Gaohua and his colleagues make up their minds. This old man is from Huaxi Village. In the past, he reached out to the country for relief every year, and he still couldn't afford a wife in his forties. After 1980, under the instigation of others, he also joined the ranks of traders. He went to Jiangxi to purchase goods on crutches, and hired someone to deliver them. After two years, he not only married a wife, but also saved tens of thousands of dollars. It is said that Xie Gaohua was conducting investigations in Huaxi Village at the time. When he heard this example, he slapped his thigh excitedly, straightened up, and said loudly: Okay, isn't this very illustrative!

Xie Gaohua said at the enlarging meeting of the county party committee and county government that it was a major advantage of our county to exchange sugar for wool, and it should be strongly supported.The small commodity market is the root link, and management must be strengthened to run it well. On August 25, 1982, the Yiwu County Government announced that it would officially open the Choucheng Town Small Commodity Market from September 5. On November 25 of the same year, the Yiwu County Party Committee and the county government held a meeting of representatives of rural professional households and key households.At the meeting, Xie Gaohua, secretary of the county party committee, proposed "four permits": allowing farmers to do business, allowing long-distance trafficking, allowing open urban and rural markets, and allowing multi-channel competition.

Feng Aiqing was one of the professional households who participated in the representative meeting that year.She is also a very well-known person in Yiwu, and the first business license for the Small Commodity Market was issued to her. She had acted as a vendor's representative many times, and expressed her opinions directly to the county leaders, and she was an old acquaintance with Xie Gaohua. She recalled: "On the day of the representative meeting, I sat in the first row, face to face with Secretary Xie. His eyes were bloodshot, and he seemed to have stayed up for several nights. The 'four promises' were his word for word. It was forced out between his teeth, and after he finished speaking, there was silence in the venue, and many people shed tears."

Today, it may be difficult for people to truly appreciate the huge impact and liberating force brought by the "four permits". It is also impossible to truly appreciate the tremendous mental pressure that Xie Gaohua and his colleagues undertook back then. Because, whether it is the official opening of the professional market or the "four permits", at that time they all hit the "high-voltage line" of certain policies in a daze. During the period from 1979 to 1982, there were market sprouts in many coastal areas of the country. However, when the new things in the reform collided with the original rigid system.Many people chose to evade and shrink back, and some held the idea that "one thing more is worse than one thing less". Countless fragile "market embryos" quietly died and shrank in such an atmosphere.

Even in Zhejiang Province, which was the first to open up the trend, it was not until March 1984 that it publicly proposed "invigorating circulation, promoting commodity production, developing market trade, and supporting individual trafficking activities." An obvious fact is that in the tug-of-war between the market economy and the planned economy in the early 1980s, grassroots party cadres and government officials played a very delicate role.At this time, a large number of local cadres who respected reality and had the courage to innovate emerged, and they timely became the leaders of the peasant masses, the midwives of the professional market, and the defenders of the entrepreneurial spirit.

In 1992, a reporter interviewed Xie Gaohua.Recalling the past, Xie Gaohua was still very excited. He said: Being an official is not for the people, it is better to go home and grow sweet potatoes.Feudal officials can still do this, let alone our Communist Party cadres. Without Xie Gaohua and his comrades, it is indeed doubtful whether the Yiwu Small Commodity Market can go to where it is today.It is these cadres who dare to be responsible for reality, the people and themselves, and their brave persistence at a specific moment have achieved a glorious myth. In fact, whether Xie Gaohua's bronze statue can be erected in Yiwu is irrelevant.

He and the Communist Party cadres of his generation have been interpreted as living legends, and their fame will be passed down to the people from now on. At the end of 1982, the number of stalls in Yiwu Small Commodity Market surged to 7,000. At the end of 1983, the number of stalls increased to 1,050. In July of that year, the Yiwu County Government invested 580,000 yuan to build a stall-style market covering an area of ​​20 mu. The venue is all cement floor and steel frame glass tiles.Different from the previous street transactions.It is called the second-generation small commodity market.This may also be the most advanced professional market in China at that time.

In 1984, the market stalls increased to more than 1,800. In the same year, Yiwu County was the first in the country to clearly put forward the strategic policy of "prospering businesses and building counties", which was also the last work Xie Gaohua did for Yiwu.In November of this year, he was transferred from Yiwu.Now, he is the deputy director of the Standing Committee of the People's Congress of Quzhou City, Zhejiang Province. Everything is difficult at the beginning, and Xie Gaohua is missed by the people of Yiwu as the first local cadre who opened the way for the professional market.However, when our eyes leave the t984 that is being narrated, we will find that Xie Gaohua is not the only one.From the proposal of "prospering businesses and counties" to "running the market and prospering all industries", to cultivating a multi-type, multi-level, and complete market system, one or another county leader has continuously promoted the small commodity market to a new level. These cadres learned from the people and explored in practice, gradually turning themselves into "market experts".And that kind of baton-like development idea finally enabled Yiwu to embark on a market road that can be regarded as a model for the whole country.