Chapter 46 Longgang Dialogue

In 1987, the summer in Wenzhou was extremely hot. In the hot June, more than ten economists gathered in Longgang, headed by Zhang Guangyou, editor-in-chief of "Farmers Daily" and Professor Ma Jiaju of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. As a result, the "Longgang Dialogue", which is still talked about by the theoretical circles, came into being. Outside the window is a spacious road and rows of buildings. Even Zhang Guangyou and Ma Jiaju, top experts on rural issues, can't help feeling an excited sense of strangeness. Professor Ma, who is famous for his honesty, joked that this was an "encounter".Facing the vibrant Longgang, the theoretical circles are obviously not prepared enough, but the farmers in Wenzhou have already found their own "argument".Today, their spokesperson is Chen Dingmo, secretary of the Longgang Town Party Committee, whom they call a "practical theorist".

Sitting alone in front of more than a dozen economists, Chen Dingmo's mood at this moment is much calmer and more confident than when he faced the tidal flat three years ago.By 1987, the number of farmers in Longgang had reached 6,300, and more than 200 million yuan was invested in raising funds to build an urban area of ​​1.02 million square meters, 27 roads with a total length of 23 kilometers, and urban facilities. Five schools, seven kindergartens, three movie theaters, and a roller skating rink. Chen Dingmo first spoke: "The development of Wenzhou's private economy and professional market will inevitably bring about a new transfer of population, and therefore put forward an urgent need for urban construction. To build a new city in the countryside, we must first have some innovations in the system. As the experience of Longgang, the first is to give full play to the creativity of farmers, and the second is to try the commercialization of non-agricultural production land."

Before Chen Dingmo finished speaking, an economist tapped the table lightly with a pen and asked a question: "The land is publicly owned by the state, how can it be commercialized?" .Our current land system is not truly public ownership. For example, which department or farmer builds a house on which piece of land, the piece of land on which it is located actually belongs to him, and what does the country get?Therefore, we should learn from the theory of differential land rent in western countries, and use the method of paid land use to truly guarantee the nationalization of land in the form of land rent. "

"Is this set of things too westernized and suitable for the national conditions?" "I think it is suitable, at least it works in Longgang." As a practitioner, Chen Dingmo feels confident, "I would like to ask the big professors here, why are all the construction projects in your city Always can’t make a trip? Why do people in the city always have trouble walking, drinking, and going to school?” Economists have widened their eyes. Obviously, this is not a study topic, but a stumbling block facing countless Chinese cities.They really wanted to hear what this soil theorist by peasant background had to say and how he did it.

"Because the land has no value, the country has no money for redevelopment." Chen Dingmo said bluntly, "In Longgang, every inch of land is valuable. It was a wasteland before, so the value was low. Later, construction was carried out. , the land price has risen, and it will become more and more expensive in the future. Not long ago, we conducted a public bidding for construction land. The most valuable lot, 42 square meters, was invested for 75,000 yuan. We sold a drawing for 1,800 yuan. Ten thousand yuan, with this money we started municipal construction... "I advocate the concept of population gradient transfer, that is, the transfer from plains to towns, from mountains to plains, and from mountains to downhill, so that it can adapt to the development of the commodity economy , to better realize rural cities.Judging from the fact that our Longgang has developed in the past two years, the road of rural urbanization we have taken is successful.Urbanization in the early stages of capitalist development was based on forced enclosure of land and the pain of farmers, but in Longgang, farmers happily entered the city amidst the sound of gongs and drums.

"The far-reaching significance of peasants building cities lies in the transformation of a generation of peasants. Through the development of socialist commodity production, the economic foundation on which the consciousness of small peasants depends has been destroyed, enabling them to fundamentally abandon the concept of small peasants and the narrow concept of rural areas." And Tan, behind him, a brand-new peasant city is proudly making vivid footnotes for his views. On the platform of theory, the well-informed economists suddenly discovered that the son of a Wenzhou farmer with only a high school education was able to sit on an equal footing with them.

This conversation was later published in Farmers Xi Bao, and since then, the institutionalization of paid use of land has become a very hot topic. In many materials in Wenzhou, Chen Dingmo is called the first person in China to try to use land with compensation.However, in fact, the system of paid land use was not Chen Dingmo's invention. In 1980, Shenzhen took the lead in leasing land to foreign businessmen in the country in exchange for development funds, which was the first case of paid use of land.However, this move has been debated endlessly in the following years, especially the issue of whether domestic enterprises and individuals can use state-owned land for a fee, which has been turned over like biscuits. Since Shenzhen, this attempt has almost stopped.

It was not until seven years later, at the end of 1987, that Shenzhen took the lead in auctioning state-owned land use rights nationwide.In contrast, in 1984, Longgang handed over state-owned land to farmers for use and development with compensation, which is very conspicuous. At least according to the existing data, it is the first inland town in China to implement the system of paid use of land, and it is even more Symbolically, it opens up to: farmers. In the autumn of 1988, Li Haoran, who went out to study from the fishing village of Longgang, returned to his hometown.Back then, he left Fangyan Old Street barefoot. Now, he has become the most educated person in Longgang: a master's degree student in economics from Fudan University.

At Li Haoran's own request, he was left in Longgang as the deputy mayor in charge of economic work.During three years of tempering, this young man who was passionate about the great changes in his hometown wrote a book "Longgang Development Model--A New Exploration of the Road to Urbanization in China's Rural Areas". Now, when we call him a "Longgang expert" because of this, this famous university with a master's degree in economics waved his hand: "In fact, the real experts are those peasant cadres like Chen Dingmo." He provided us with an interesting detail:

From 1984 to 1997, there were five town committee secretaries and mayors in Longgang, and they were all known locally as "soil theorists".Three of them have published books, two of which are about.Chen Dingmo and the former mayor Li Qitie were both theoretical cadres. The former was a cadre of the theoretical department of the Wenzhou Municipal Party Committee Office, and the latter was the theoretical section chief of the Propaganda Department of the Municipal Party Committee. Long-term theoretical edification and down-to-earth practical exploration have given them courage and ability beyond ordinary people.

From Chen Dingmo, Li Qitie to Li Haoran, we have seen the solid footprints of a group of peasant sons.This seems to be the luck of Longgang, so it has been ambitious and extraordinary since it was born.