Chapter 27 1991 A Laugh in the Sea

The characteristics of the increasingly secular and commercialized era have made China no longer as mysterious and elusive as it used to be.However, in the ideological field, two different voices are still confronting each other.If we only look at the debates in the newspapers, China in 1991 was filled with the smoke of "whether the reform should be surnamed 'she' or 'capital'." But the fact is that the debate is like a turbulent wind on the river, and the substantive economic Change is like a school of fish at the bottom of the water, still moving forward firmly. Over the past three years of macro-control, the overheated economy has stabilized, various economic indicators have dropped significantly, and people have become timid about reforms. Although the central government has proposed the opening of Pudong and reiterated that the policy of the Hainan Special Economic Zone remains unchanged, however, In terms of overall development ideas, officials at all levels are still unclear about the future direction.At this time, influential people need to come out to reawaken everyone's enthusiasm.This task fell to Deng Xiaoping, who had already "completely withdrawn from politics".In the past two years, Deng Xiaoping spent the Spring Festival in Shanghai. From February 15 to March 22, Shanghai's "Liberation Daily" published three articles signed by "Huangfuping" and "Huangfuping" based on his speeches during his stay in Shanghai. Meaning "Comments from the Huangpu River", the authors of the article are Zhou Ruijin, editor-in-chief of "Liberation Daily", Ling He, director of the commentary department, and Shi Zhihong from the Policy Research Office of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee.In his comments, he pointed out that we should continue to emancipate our minds, dare to take risks, make bold reforms, and not be limited by the questioning of surnames 'she' and 'capital'.

As soon as this group of editorials was published, it caused an uproar in the dull public opinion circles. Because it did not indicate the source of ideas, it caused accusations and siege from some people.On April 20, a certain magazine published "Can Reform and Opening-up Don't Ask the Surname 'Community' and Surname 'Capital'?" "An article, said: "If you don't ask the surname 'she' or 'capital', it will inevitably lead the reform and opening up to the road of capitalism and ruin the cause of socialism." "An article, said: "All Chinese who do not want to be double slaves, when advancing on the road of reform, have the responsibility and the right to ask the surname 'she' and 'capital', and always be careful not to deviate from the direction of reform." August In September and September, Beijing newspapers successively published "Ask to ask whether the surname is 'She' or 'Zi'" and "Three Issues in the Current Reform". The reason is simple, because in real life there are indeed two different views on reform, surnamed 'she' and surnamed 'capital'."

Such debates would continue for a year, until Deng Xiaoping's inspection tour in Shenzhen was publicly reported the next year, and then stopped abruptly.Across the board, some daring minds have been eager to get back on their feet.One of the characteristics in the history of China's reform is that the people's practice sometimes goes ahead of the central government's policies. Although all reforms and breakthroughs will be affected and interfered by ideology in stages, they cannot really stop it from moving forward. pace. In May, Li Ruihuan went to Wenzhou for an inspection. In this month, a retired cadre just wrote a letter to Beijing, exposing that all the bosses in Wenzhou were "poisonous", "riding a king of Honda, and wearing a king of A bottoms." , slept on a spring bed, and hugged the king of flowers.” This letter directly led to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China sending an investigation team to Wenzhou for verification and investigation, and Wenzhou, which had just recovered from the rectification of Liushi, was once again in panic.Li Ruihuan, who is quite reform-minded, certainly knows the enormous pressure Wenzhou cadres are under. When local officials introduced the "shareholding cooperative" enterprise to him, they carefully argued that this is a "new type" of collective economy, which is different from the private economy. There are "essential differences".Li Ruihuan's attitude at the time made the local officials put down half of their worries.

In the economic field, the debate about "surname society and capital" is reflected in the proportion of public-owned economy and private economy. Some people are worried that the rapid growth of the latter will change the nature of a socialist country.This year, township enterprises have achieved iconic results. The total output value of township enterprises across the country has exceeded the trillion yuan mark, and the number of employed employees has also exceeded 100 million, reaching 106.2 million. In the recent period, the weakness shown by state-owned enterprises in the market competition is really disappointing. On January 12, the "China Business Times" published a news article: There is a serious backlog of small daily-use commodities such as socks and gloves in Beijing. There are hundreds of such state-owned small and medium-sized enterprises in Dongcheng District. Enterprises have more sales opportunities, so they take the initiative to arrange them to enter the market, and use administrative means to let them occupy the best booths, but the result is counterproductive. Only 17 of the hundreds of backlog manufacturers came to register and apply, and finally only six Seven families set up stalls in the market.What the reporter saw at Beijing's largest comprehensive market in Hepingli was that "there is a clear distinction between state-run and individual stalls. They were peddling and holding samples to compare pictures, attracting most of the customers lively. In the biting cold wind, the individual stalls still went out at dawn and closed at dusk, while the state-run salesmen followed the steps. The 8-hour working day is implemented, and if the business hours are to be extended, bonuses and overtime pay will be involved, which will affect the whole body." The sales volume of these state-run stalls is less than a quarter of that of private stalls, and they are quickly eliminated from the market.Finally, the reporter said helplessly, “Although state-owned enterprises are similar to individuals in hardware such as venues, products, and circulation links, it is difficult to achieve the sameness in terms of interest mechanisms and market mechanisms.” It shows the passivity and embarrassment of state-owned enterprises in a fully competitive field.

The reform of state-owned enterprises at this time no longer has the high-spirited and high-spirited spirit of "one reform and one package will live" in the mid-to-late 1980s. More often, it has a tragic and helpless atmosphere.At the National Two Sessions, a representative from Beijing said, "We feel like we have a big stone on our hearts, and this stone is a large and medium-sized state-owned enterprise." Since 1984, various reform measures have been innovated every year, from profit to tax, From the contracting system, the separation of government and enterprises, to the optimization of the combination, the joint-stock system, and the leasing system, prescriptions have been issued one after another, but few have achieved results.In recent years, even after many "tilts", "protections" and a record-breaking influx of credit resources, the performance of state-owned enterprises still makes it difficult for people to relax: production recovery is slow, profitability has declined, and losses have doubled.A commentator from Xinhua News Agency said in a commentary, "Everyone knows that if large and medium-sized enterprises fail to recover, there is no hope of China's economic success in the next ten years." It is Jiang Yiwei, an economist from Sichuan. He has always opposed the practice of "birdcage economy". He believes that the state should abandon the paranoid inclination towards state-owned enterprises, and treat different ownership economies equally with greater tolerance and broad vision. As a state-owned enterprise, his point of view is that "taking any medicine is better than not taking medicine, just live without it".Another point of view of Jiang Yiwei is the "black box" theory. He believes: "The government can manage enterprises from the outside, but don't put your hands in it. Taking a step back, it can't be a 'black box', at least it should be a 'glass box' '". "People's Daily" reporter Ling Zhijun wrote after returning from the interview: "I quite read this statement, but I can't figure out the meaning."

Jiang Yiwei's point of view not only confuses Ling Zhijun, but also cannot be widely recognized.In fact, everyone's despair of state-owned enterprises was not formed in one day, but after more than 20 years of painful rescue and repetition.Just as Ling Zhijun was puzzled: "In the past few years, countless prescriptions have been prescribed to state-owned enterprises. Every time you take a dose, everyone will say 'alive'. I don't know how many times they have 'alive' until now. Set your mind to it." Look at it again, but find that it is still 'not alive'. Could it be that if we take these medicines again in the future, it will really be effective?"

In May, another very interesting event happened, that is, the news media collected debts for Shanghai Baosteel, the steel company with the largest investment after the reform and opening up.According to reports, in the past few years, this most modern steel base in China has been plagued by triangular debts, which have accumulated to more than 2 billion yuan, accounting for 1/3 of the current capital, and are on the verge of unsustainable situation.The State Planning Commission, the National Debt Clearance Office, and the Shanghai Municipal Government all came forward to coordinate the settlement of Baosteel's debts, but the effect was still ineffective. In desperation, they had to resort to the last resort: the main large debtors (a total of A list of 113 state-owned manufacturing enterprises and distribution companies) was published in the China Business Times.In the following months, under the media's questioning and urging one by one, the big debtors began to pay off their debts one after another.A Times reporter named Zhang Wenxue also went to Changchun No. 1 Automobile Factory, which owed Baosteel 44 million yuan, prompting the factory to pay back 8 million yuan.The fact that the media played the role of debt collection is really a black humorous incident, which also shows from the side that the relevant functional departments are quite weak in the regulation and management of state-owned enterprises.

The incident of Liu Senlin's resignation in Langfang City, Hebei Province showed another embarrassment in the governance of state-owned enterprises. In 1985, 25-year-old Liu Senlin started a chemical cleaning company affiliated with the Langfang Agricultural Industry and Commerce Corporation. He borrowed 50,000 yuan from the Agricultural Industry and Commerce Corporation with his family property as collateral to start the business. Six years later, the company continued to grow and its assets reached 10.4 million yuan. , with more than 300 employees.According to the agreement, Liu could get 1.5 million yuan in contracting remuneration in 1990, but Nonggongshang refused to honor it on the grounds of illegal policies.As a result, the relationship between Liu Senlin and his "mother-in-law" deteriorated rapidly, and Liu submitted his resignation, declaring that he would start a private company with key employees.This incident was reported by the media, which attracted widespread attention, and lively discussions started around "should Liu Senlin leave or not".The final solution to the turmoil was that under the mediation of the Langfang Municipal Government, Liu Senlin's company broke away from the affiliation with the industry, agriculture and businessmen, and formally affiliated with another "mother-in-law" - the Municipal Light and Chemical Bureau. Only then did the matter settle down.This turmoil shows that as enterprises improve their autonomy, their conflicts with competent authorities will become increasingly prominent and difficult to resolve.

There are various indications that the state-owned enterprises in the traditional sense have already faded away in the increasingly fierce market environment. The governance and rectification and market depression in the past two years have wiped out the little bit of aggressiveness.According to the data provided by the Ministry of Agriculture, in 1990, rural collective enterprises realized profits of 26.53 billion yuan, surpassing the 24.6 billion yuan of state-owned enterprises for the first time.Farmer entrepreneur Lu Guanqiu used a jingle to express the confidence of township and village enterprises in competing with state-owned enterprises - "It's good for a tiger to come out of the mountain, but a monkey will still jump."He even predicted during the two sessions in Beijing that by 2000, township enterprises would surpass state-owned enterprises in terms of output value and profit, and would play the role of "big brother" in the national economy.Of course, this is just a personal rhetoric of a peasant entrepreneur, but no one in the academic circles across the country discussed it as soon as it came out.The country has begun to rethink the revitalization strategy of state-owned enterprises. It seems impossible for every state-owned enterprise to gain vitality. Therefore, in addition to continuing to do everything possible to work hard on government support and system loosening, a more sensible approach seems to be: shrink the front , Let those "addicts" who really can't help them die on their own.

On August 15, the "Economic Daily", which is discussing how to invigorate state-owned enterprises every day, published a commentary by commentator Zhan Guoshu, "A Few Enterprises Can't "Die", Most Enterprises Can't "Live", the article said, "Industrial structure The reason why the adjustment is difficult is that a small number of our enterprises (especially the state-owned enterprises) cannot die. When the storm comes, everyone crawls on the ground. After the storm passes, they all stand up. The industry is still the same industry, and the structure is still the same. It’s not that we don’t want some companies to live, but that the objective environment does not allow these companies to live.” The publication of this article immediately aroused widespread attention, and many people felt the harbinger of policy adjustments. The "Economic Daily" was now affiliated to the State Council system, and many of its views represented the official attitude.In the next few months, the "Economic Daily" selected Sichuan as a model, and launched a round of "dead and alive" continuous reports. Very harsh point of view.

In fact, killing those state-owned enterprises that cannot survive is not only a matter of conceptual liberation, but also many practical difficulties, the most important of which is the aftermath of laid-off workers.For many years, workers in state-owned enterprises have received ownership education, regard the factory as their home, and take pride in being a working class. They have never been mentally prepared for layoffs and have the ability to re-employ. Work, its "worker status" can even be hereditary.If these companies are to die, it will definitely cause strong social unrest.Since April 1990, Shenzhen took the lead in selling state-owned enterprises to foreign investors.By 1991, Shenzhen had sold the property rights of more than 40 state-owned enterprises, with a transaction value of 190 million yuan.The observation of the media is: "In the transfer of property rights, the most difficult thing to deal with is the transfer of employees. The new owners often don't want the employees of the original company and want to recruit new workers, causing the original employees to lose their jobs. The relevant departments of Shenzhen are trying to solve this problem. .” Sichuan's main method of "euthanasia" for extremely poor enterprises is to allow state-owned enterprises that are doing well to merge those loss-making peers. At the same time, the government gives more preferential policies and support to the former.The seamless steel pipe factory in Chengdu merged six loss-making factories. The factory director told reporters, "Mergers are corporate actions, but they are definitely not voluntary behaviors of enterprises." Will eat those rotten apples.In order to merge a steel factory, the steel pipe factory negotiated with the government for 15 months.This experience was promoted in the next few years, and many places formed large-scale state-owned enterprise groups formed through mergers. They often obtained "indicators" for listing and financing, and enjoyed special preferential treatment in terms of finance and taxation. .In this process, there seem to be not many "strong" enterprises like steel pipe factories. Most of the mergers are the embodiment of the government's will. On November 25, 1991, the production of Shanghai brand cars was announced to be discontinued. So far, the two major automobile brands after the founding of the People’s Republic of China——Hongqi brand cars and Shanghai brand cars have both disappeared.After hearing the news, many workers rushed to Anting from the urban area, vying to take a photo with the last Shanghai brand car.Shanghai brand sedans began mass production in 1963. At the beginning of the reform and opening up, it was a commodity exclusively controlled by the state. Only cadres above the county and regiment level could ride it, and neither ordinary people nor private companies had the right to buy it. After 1983, automobile factories, which were increasingly in crisis of survival, began to sell cars privately to the public, each priced at 25,000 yuan.An old man in the factory recalled: "Every time I sell a car, I am terrified, worried, afraid of making any political mistakes." While Shanghai Car was shyly hovering on the edge of the market, German Volkswagen’s investment in China increased year by year. The annual output of its Santana sedan was 60,000 units, which surpassed the total output of Shanghai brand sedan in the past 28 years. It has become the number one car brand in the Chinese market. In August, the American "Business Weekly" commented, "In 1990, Shanghai Volkswagen's after-tax profit exceeded Volkswagen's global profit target in one fell swoop. One of the reasons is that only under the conditions of a state-owned economy like China, an ordinary The Volkswagen Santana can only be sold for RMB 178,000, which is almost six times the world average price of this product.” Obviously, the astonishing profit margin is an important reason why China finally decided to give up the Shanghai brand car.Since the establishment of Shanghai Volkswagen in 1985, the original Shanghai Automobile Factory has survived in name only. Out of the 2,900 employees in the factory, 1,600 business backbones have all gone to the new joint venture factory. The Shanghai brand car lingered for several years under the situation of being abandoned, and finally could not support it.In May 1991, the relevant state departments decided to scrap 1.7 million old cars manufactured before 1974 in the next four years. It is a huge benefit, but it is a pity that those old state-owned factories have no chance to share the "cake". The South China Morning Post quoted an official from the Ministry of Materials as saying: "The government will provide financial help to agencies and enterprises to replace old vehicles with new ones, mainly produced in joint venture factories between China and the US, Japan, Germany and France. " The disappearance of Shanghai brand cars is a symbolic event.Under the double impact of multinational corporations and emerging private enterprises, the old state-owned enterprise brands that were once extremely popular have withered one after another, and an era has finally faded its last ray of light reluctantly. The "life-and-death discussion" about state-owned enterprises actually means that a capital feast that will last for more than ten years has quietly begun.The division, reorganization and sale of state-owned assets that are in trouble or on the edge of the market will become an important way of wealth accumulation and distribution of reform results.If, in 1988, "capital", the evil term once regarded as a scourge, had returned, then this year, it has exuded more and more charming golden brilliance, and those who first recognized it will become one by one. The new favorite of fortune.What is surprising is that quite a few of these people got their "first pot of gold" from the huge but seemingly rigid state-owned capital, the "big gold mountain". This year, Mou Zhong, who has always believed in his business genius, finally proved his "genius". After leaving his hometown, he has been hunting in Shenzhen, Beijing and Hainan. His Nande company has done various trades, from selling steel to wholesale wool.He has always liked to be unconstrained, and never missed any "big scene" where he could show up. In 1989, he was invited to participate in the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. This was the first time that a Chinese entrepreneur participated in this well-known unofficial forum. forum.Prices in Davos are so expensive that Mou Zhi dared not eat food in restaurants, so he ran to the alleys every day to find the cheapest pies.The conference lasted for half a month, and after staying for four days, he couldn't take it anymore and had to go back to his country. He was told when he was about to check out that as an invited guest, his board and lodging were all covered by the forum. Not long after returning from Davos, he met a man from Henan on the train from Wanxian to Beijing. From the latter, Mou Zhong learned that the former Soviet Union, which was facing disintegration, was going to sell a batch of Tu-154 aircraft, but no buyers could be found. .So, whimsical, he felt that this was a business worth taking risks.South Germany has neither foreign trade rights nor aviation operation rights, nor does it have enough cash. It is simply impossible to make an aircraft trade.However, Mou Zhong decided to give it a try.He inquired about the news that Sichuan Airlines, which had just started flying a year ago, was going to buy planes, so he went to negotiate. Sichuan Airlines agreed to buy Soviet planes. Then, Mou Zhongzhi organized canned food and leather clothes from local state-owned enterprises in Sichuan. Waiting for a large backlog of goods, ready to use barter to reach this business.Mou was very able to grasp people's minds. He chose the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing as the place to receive officials from the Ministry of Aviation Industry of the Soviet Union. Where Chinese leaders meet, the Soviet comrades, who have always been supreme, are of course immediately in awe.Under Mou Zhongqi's empty hands, this "impossible business" actually became a reality. In the middle of 1991, Süd, Sichuan Airlines and the Soviet Union reached an agreement, and the Chinese side exchanged 500 wagons worth 400 million yuan for daily necessities to purchase four Soviet Tu-154 aircraft.After the trade was reported by the media, Mou Zhongzhong immediately became a hot figure in the country. He claimed to have made 80 million to 100 million from it.In fact, Mou's operation has been wandering on the edge of the policy. In July 2000, Sichuan Airlines auctioned off a Tu-154 aircraft it purchased that year, under the name of "smuggled aircraft." "Canned food for airplanes" made Mou Zhongzhi famous overnight, and made him believe in his "Karate Theory". He said to the visiting reporters: "The economic laws of the past have become very ridiculous. It is lagging behind in the west, and it is even more unfeasible in China. We need to establish new rules of the game for a smart and civilized economy. Some people say that I am karate. I think karate is a high degree of use of intangible assets, especially wisdom, and this is exactly what I think of China. A century-long contribution to the economic world." In the next ten years, Mou Zhong put his theory into action again and again, and he planned a lot of "grand plans" that sounded scary, including Blast the Himalayas into a hole 50 kilometers wide and more than 2,000 meters deep, and bring the warm and humid air from the Indian Ocean into the arid northwestern region of China, turning it into a rainfall area.Throughout the 1990s, Mou Zhongzhong has been the focus of the media. He has won many titles such as "China's Top Ten Private Entrepreneurs", "China's Reform Figure", "China's Top Ten Industrialists" and so on; In 1994, the US magazine "Forbes" included Mou Qizhong in the annual list of the world's richest people, ranking fourth in mainland China; in the same year, China's A folk magazine named "Fortune" named him "China's No. 1 private entrepreneur" and "the first super rich man in the mainland". Entrepreneur dubbed "China's richest man". The success of Mou Qiqi's venture around 1991 was not a coincidence.After 13 years of reform, the planning system is on the verge of gradually disintegrating due to domestic and foreign difficulties. The backlog of goods caused by the lack of market development ability is still the biggest problem that plagues many state-owned enterprises. Provides a huge operating space.Obtaining benefits in the circulation link through innovative methods has become a tried and tested method for these adventurers to get rich.However, due to the lack of standardized capital tools and game rules, these business activities are often very legendary and weird, and full of various uncertainties. If the story of Mou Zhongzhong's "canned food for airplanes" was popular from the very beginning, then, almost at the same time, another person's capital operations appeared to be much more low-key. In fact, this Anhui native, who even had a mysterious name, It may be the first Chinese entrepreneur who has truly mastered the rules of the modern capital game. Many years later, people still don't know much about Yang Rong's life experience. It is said that his original name was Yang Yong, and he graduated from Southwestern University of Finance and Economics with a doctorate in sex economics.The reporter who interviewed him described: "Yang Rong is a man of unconstrained thinking. When you sit with him, you are always led by him. It is difficult to grasp your own rhythm. Compared with other entrepreneurs, he seems more Be aggressive. If Yang Rong only has 200,000 yuan on him, and he will pay it all back tomorrow, but he can treat you to a meal of 100,000 yuan today, and he looks as usual." Yang Rong once recited Shakespeare to others A famous saying: "The ups and downs of the world are inherently wave-like. If people can take advantage of the climax and go straight ahead, they will surely achieve success and fame. If they can't seize the opportunity, they will spend their whole lives on their feet and achieve nothing." In the next ten years, And he did. In 1989, appreciated by Xu Wentong, a well-known financial educator and party secretary of the China Institute of Finance, Yang Rong went to Hong Kong to establish Huabo Finance Company. The initial investor was Hainan Huayin, which Xu Wentong was the chairman of. Living in Hong Kong and caring about the mainland, Yang Rong is well aware that the capital reform of state-owned enterprises will bring huge profit space.Shenyang Jinbei Automobile is the first large-scale state-owned enterprise in Northeast China to try shareholding system reform. In 1988, it issued 100 million yuan of stocks at home and abroad. It took a year but received little response. The company knew that it once posted a notice in the compound of the State Economic Reform Commission Selling stocks, I only sold 27,000 yuan in a whole day.At this time, Yang Rong came to negotiate. On July 22, 1991, Yang Rong bought 40% of Jinbei Auto for US$12 million. 51%, becoming the absolute controlling party of the company.For this purpose, Yang Rong set up a project company in Bermuda, a small island in the Pacific Ocean - Brilliance China Automobile Holdings Co., Ltd., which is 100% controlled by Huabo.At this time, Yang Rong also quietly completed the capital transformation of Huabo. Its shareholding structure was changed to Yang Rong accounting for 70%, another natural person accounting for 30%, and the legal representative was still Yang Rong.According to the "21st Century Business Herald" in 2003, there are files showing that Yang Rong planned Brilliance's acquisition of Shenyang Jinbei, and all the cash he invested came from Hainan Huayin controlled by Xu Wentong.Yang Rong himself claimed in an interview with Phoenix TV in 2003 that part of the capital he invested in Jinbei was borrowed from his brother Yang Zi, and the other part was obtained from stock trading in Shanghai. After completing this series of long-sleeved capital portfolios, Yang Rong, who is talented and broad-minded, began to plan to list on the New York Stock Exchange in the United States.At that time, China had not established the China Securities Regulatory Commission, and all the operations of Yang Rong had no precedent.In order to allow listed companies to have a more legal and reasonable identity, Yang Rong planned to set up the non-profit "China Financial Education Fund". Home, with a registered capital of US$2.1 million, of which US$2 million was paid by Brilliance Holdings.In this way, Yang Rong put on a prominent "red hat" with many monopolistic state-owned capitals in Beijing, which allowed this capital tycoon to benefit from the first but not the latter. In October 1992, "Brilliance China Automobile" was successfully listed in New York, raising US$72 million.This is the first overseas listing of a Chinese company.For the NYSE, it was also the first stock from a socialist country to be listed.It was a sensation in the U.S. stock market that year. Yang Rong has already performed this series of capital operations around 1991 very skillfully - using a small amount of funds to control state-owned enterprises with good capital quality but temporarily in trouble, setting up "shell companies" in tax-free paradise, and using the concept of "Chinese shares" Cash out when listed overseas.Compared with Mou Zhong, who likes to act in a high-profile way, his subtlety, harmony and international characteristics are even worse.The common feature of the two is that they coincidentally discovered opportunities in the process of weakening the unplanned system, and both tried to use their own thunderbolt methods to extract chestnuts from the fire and seize wealth.For a long period of time in the future, this will become the place where countless business wizards rise and fall. Just when Mou Zhong, Yang Rong and others started to overwhelm the rivers and seas, there were also incidents of cross-ownership mergers in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, where the concept of reform was quite advanced.Hangzhou Wahaha Children's Food Factory, founded by Zong Qinghou three years ago, has now become the largest children's nutrient solution enterprise in China. As a district-level school-run factory, Wahaha has been living in a three-story street workshop with no room for expansion. In November, under the coordination of the Hangzhou Municipal Government, Zong Qinghou merged the fourth largest canned food company in the country, Hangzhou Canned Foods Factory, which was already on the verge of bankruptcy. In the East China media, this news was called "small fish eat big". After the merger, Zong Qinghou quickly purchased the production line and withdrew from the children's drink Wahaha Fruit Milk. In just 100 days, the cannery resumed normal production and turned losses into profits. In Weifang, Shandong, a young mayor who just took office went further. The 35-year-old mayor at the time was named Chen Guang. At the beginning of the year, he was transferred from the secretary of the Weifang Youth League Committee to be the mayor of Zhucheng, a county-level city under the jurisdiction of Weifang City.The first survey after taking office made his hands and feet numb. Of all the 150 state-owned enterprises with independent accounting under the municipal administration, 103 of them suffered open or hidden losses.The reason is that "the property right relationship of the enterprise is not clear, and the interest relationship is not direct".Chen Guang found a sentence in the newly released central document that "some small state-owned enterprises can be leased or sold to collectives or individuals." From this, he decided to sell all these enterprises. The first company selected as a pilot was Zhucheng Electric Machinery Factory with total assets of 2.7 million yuan and 277 employees.The initial reform plan put forward by the municipal government was that the state should hold 51% of the shares, and the employees would buy out 49%. , More than 20 middle-level cadres contributed 20,000 yuan each, and grape employees contributed 6,000 yuan each.This restructuring has been going on for more than a year. At the inauguration meeting of the new company, Chen Guang said: "After ten years of reform, the company is still in the arms of the government. Starting today, the relationship between the two companies has changed. If you register, I will register; if you make money, I will collect taxes; if you get rich, I will be happy; , Bankruptcy and other seven forms, the city's 272 state-owned or collective enterprises above townships and townships were sold to individuals, and Chen Guang was nicknamed "Chen Selling Light" for this reason. The audacity of "Chen Selling Guang" naturally drew some people's attacks.Zhu Rongji, the vice premier of the State Council who is in charge of economic work, sent a joint investigation team headed by Hong Hu, the deputy director of the State Economic Reform Commission, to Zhucheng to investigate. The final conclusion was that the exploration of county-owned enterprises faced great obstacles and difficulties. It is commendable that the city has made achievements under such circumstances, and it has created experience for "freeing up small state-owned enterprises".Chen Guang was later transferred to the deputy secretary and executive deputy commissioner of the Shandong Heze Prefectural Committee in 1997.There is another state-owned enterprise suffering the most losses, and 90% of the industrial enterprises above the county level are in losses.Chen Guang is still a school of "good fortune boy" approach, sell all the companies that can be sold, and "give" the companies with advantages that everyone is willing to buy. In 2002, Heze City reduced its losses to 12% at the cost of a sharp drop in the number of state-owned enterprises.As a result, Chen Guang got a new nickname "Commissioner Sanguang" - "Chen Guang, Chen Maiguang, Chen Songguang". In the history of enterprises, Chen Guang is known as the "first official" in the reform of the property rights system of state-owned enterprises.The reform of state-owned enterprises since the early 1980s was still focused on improving the relationship between government departments and enterprises. From decentralization reform to contracting system, local governments and operators have tried countless reform models and methods, but The most deadly and sensitive reform of the property rights system has never been touched, and the property rights relationship of enterprises is still unclear.In Chen Guang's words, "workers are still in charge of their own affairs but not masters, the factory manager has the power not to implement it, and the enterprise is not responsible for profits and losses."Until around 1991, under the circumstance that all kinds of plans were ineffective and the government was unable to fully bear the burden, local small and medium-sized state-owned enterprises were finally abandoned one after another. At this time, private private enterprises also had the ability and demand for mergers and acquisitions.What Chen Guang did in Zhucheng was not unique in China at that time, and it was only because his "selling out" approach was so shocking that it attracted so much attention. In the second year after Chen Guang made Zhucheng into "chaos", an Indonesian Chinese named Huang Hongnian will come to China. He will take the province of "the second richest man in Indonesia" from the big pot of state-owned enterprise restructuring. Take a big bowl. Around 1991, the global and even China's new technology industries were on the eve of a sudden change. At that time, there was a sense of unease floating in Silicon Valley: Japanese companies accounted for 43% of the US portable computer market, and portable computers were the fastest growing sector of the computer hardware industry.Much to the despair of Silicon Valley, Japan already controls the world's production of DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory). In February, Professor Charles Fuguson of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology conducted an experiment that discouraged Americans. He opened a Compaq portable computer, which revealed a Japanese-made display and power management system. and miniaturization techniques.From the emptiness inside the hardware, Fuguson expressed great concern about the strategic fragility of American computer companies. Also in July of this year, Andrew S. Ripport and S. Halliway published "Computer Companies That Don't Produce Computers" in the "Harvard Business Review". Asserted, "this weakening of competitiveness is uncertain, but this kind of fear should not be there."And then they made a prediction that would almost prove true a decade later: "By the year 2000, the most successful computer companies will no longer be those that make computers, but those that buy computers, and those leaders will Take advantage of low-cost, high-performance hardware to create and deliver new applications." They pointedly pointed out that the United States' reduction in production share "is good news for many top computer companies-if they forget the past and reorient their technology, production and marketing strategies to meet the new reality. The United States The strategic goal of a computer company should not be to manufacture computers, but to create permanent value in computers." 瑞普波特和哈利维所提出的观念，影响了美国IT产业的走向，他们所提出的三个新的投资点最终造成了3家最成功的美国电脑公司：软件开发--微软；系统整合--IBM；营销--戴尔。1991年就是这样一个具有分水岭意义的年份，有远见者重新发现了世界。 也是在这一年的某个年份，美国德州仪器（TI）主动找到台塑的“台湾经营之神”王永庆，洽谈合作开发半导体事宜。当时的王永庆如日中天，他拒绝了德州仪器的项目提议，后者只好转而与宏碁合作，施振荣抓住了这次机遇，迅速组建德耆半导体公司。1995年，在长子王文洋的极力说服下，王永庆才勉强同意创办南亚科技，生产半导体上游原料硅晶圆，后来南亚科技成为台塑的重要产业支柱，王文洋遗憾地说，台塑进入半导体晚了六年。这六年成就了下一代台湾商业精英：施振荣和宏碁、郭台铭和鸿海科技。 跟全球性的产业演变相呼应的是，那些率先在市场厂成长起来的中国大陆公司也第一次面临了全球化竞争的压力。 在当时的计算机市场上，联想无疑是最耀眼的明星，它成了中国公司“走向世界”的典范。柳传志后来算账说：“1990年前后，联想以3.39万元的价格向内地市场出售386型电脑，去掉进口商的折扣、关税和营销成本，还有24%的纯利润。”谁都算得出这个行业的暴力性，颇有远见的柳以“走向世界”为名，去香港办贸易公司，然后再甩掉合作方AST公司，推出自主的联想微机返销内陆市场，自然是赚到手软。 然而，到1991年春天，情形突然大变，国际计算机公司集体降价，全球微机芯片价格一日三变，以进口组装为核心力的联想自然受到最大的冲击，公司仓库里的芯片存货价格竟跌去70%。联想副总裁李勤回忆说，当时，IT业上游原材料价格和产品的市场价格一天一变，而联想的财务结账周期需要15~30天，而且数据还不准确。这就意味着这个月的经营状况与产品、物料的库存数量要下个月才能知道，经营和决策只能凭借管理者的感觉来把握。李勤说：“我们是在'瞎管'公司。”1998年前后，联想引进ERP管理系统，情况才得到根本改变。 在此前不久的国内报纸上，记者们发现，“45岁的柳传志看上去似乎显得很疲倦”。而到这时，他已经急如热汤中的青蛙，在短短3个月里，香港联想亏损5000多万元，柳传志飞到香港亲自督战，他断然决定，不顾任何公众影响，把组装生产线从香港撤回深圳，将香港联想的100多工人全部裁掉，同时，大规模缩减公司的行政和市场开支。另外，重拾代理业务，替跨国品牌在国内销售打印机、绘图仪和扫描仪等等，多管齐下，总算到年底熬过难关。连月操劳的柳传志把联想带出了泥潭，却在身体上被击溃，某日正在说笑之间，他突然头昏目眩，一头栽倒，醒来时已经躺在医院，医生宣布，他患上了严重的美尼尔症。 联想在这次黑色风暴中的表现，可以看做是中国新型公司冲击全球市场的第一次挫败。此后将近10年的时间里，柳传志一再宣布“中国市场是最大的国际市场”，直到2005年，已非昔日可比的联想在争议声中收购了IBM的PC事业部。 如果说，柳传志所遭遇的黑色夏天，是一起发生在家门口的国际商战，那么，在更广泛的欧洲和美国市场上，针对中国商品的战争也已经拉开了序幕。正如《经济学人》在1979年就已经评论到的，价格低廉而制作略显粗劣的中国商品将展现出它强大的竞争能力，这个预言在1991年前后变成了事实。 1月21日，欧共体（1933年11月正式易名为欧盟）在历经两年的调查后，宣布对中国的小屏幕彩电征收临时的反倾销税。根据欧共体的数据，1985年，欧洲从中国进口小屏幕彩电5.5万台，到1988年就猛增到125万台，占去了16.9%的市场份额，为了与低廉的中国货竞争，欧共体各国厂家不得不削价30%，由此，欧共体委员会认定中国彩电倾销，需要征收15%—20%的反倾销税。这一消息的宣布，对于刚刚在规模化制造上尝到甜头的中国企业来说无疑是当头一棒。 在美国，华盛顿一直在争论是否应该延长中国的最惠国待遇。到这一年的7月，中国对美国的贸易顺差已经攀升至90亿美元，仅次于日本，成为第二大贸易顺差国。《商业周刊》披露说，美国海关组织了300名报关代理人、贸易专家正在进行一项涉及空前广泛的调查，牵涉到了20多家与美国进行贸易的中国公司。纽约的美国检查办公室正在准备对这些中国公司提出多达100项的指控，包括贸易欺诈和洗钱。海关调查中心指控中国在货运物品的价值上欺骗了美国政府，一些中国还漏报了一些在美国市场的销售数据。涉案产品包括一些布料和成衣。《商业周刊》认为，“有一点是确定的：那就是海关官方一直将枪口瞄准中国的纺织业，这是中国的第二大出口收入部门。”据杨仕辉的研究，从1979年到1989年，国外对中国的反倾销数为65起，最低为1979年、1980年、1981年和1997年的2起，最高是1988年的11起；从1990年到1998年，反倾销数为275起，最低为1990年和1995年的19起，最高为1994年的42起。 另一个值得记录的事实是，就在欧美对中国相继展开反倾销的同时——这是欧美第一次联手对中国展开大规模的反倾销，跨国公司在中国的倾销性行为则加快了步伐。以感光材料行业为例，美国柯达和日本富士公司在中国市场上采取了廉价倾销的策略，富士彩卷在日本国内市场售价为每卷600~800日元，在欧洲市场为每卷6~8美元，但出口到中国市场的到岸价为人民币7.15元，仅为日本国内售价的13%。在其低价策略的冲击下，中国本土的感光材料企业日渐微缩，“四大国营胶卷企业”中的上海申光公司破产，公元、福达公司开工率不足5%，在20世纪90年代中期相继被柯达公司控股合资，行业最大企业河北乐凯胶片公司的市场占有率也逐年下降，一直在盈亏边缘徘徊。在其他行业如新兴建材、洗涤用品、食品饮料等，国内企业都因跨国公司的低价竞争而逐渐丧失了市场。 尽管越来越多的外国公司开始进入中国，用《纽约时报》的说法，“在北京开始办事处的计算机公司简直就是全球计算机产业的名录”，但是中国还觉得它们的速度太慢，那些有远见的地方官员已经认识到，要推动本地区的经济成长，靠迟钝和体制僵硬的国营企业是不太可能的，靠刚刚成长起来的民营企业则规模太小，不解渴。于是，引进外资，尤其是跨国公司的投资，是最快捷的一条道路。5月，天津市宣布开设“保税区”，很多地方设立“经济开发区”，对外资企业实行“三免两减半”的优惠政策。在所有的区域中，珠江三角洲仍然是最耀眼的一颗明珠。 《商业周刊》用羡慕的笔触写道： "年轻繁荣的深圳几乎可以与香港媲美。本地的商人们带着他们的移动电话和寻呼机来去匆匆。深圳的人口已经从1980年的5万发展到了今天的170万。成千上万的人从中国其他地区蜂拥而至，寻找优厚的工作机会。深圳的工业产值已经从1100万美元飙升至38亿美元，其中80%是出口，而且仍在以每年40%的速度增长。麦当劳在这里开出了中国第一家分店，很多人在这里用港币而不是人民币购买巨无霸。 "广东省省会广州，火车站的马路对面竖着巨大的广告牌，上面不是毛主席语录，而是海飞丝洗发水，真维斯牛仔和七喜饮料的广告。广州的自由大道上，塞满了巴士、出租车和摩托车。而商店里是可以随意购买的派克笔、索尼CD播放机和芭比娃娃。从去年开始，新上岗的雅芳小姐带着化妆品开始挨家挨户地推销产品——这是1949年之后，中国首次出现直销。 “每天傍晚收录机、万宝路香烟等从香港运到广州海岸。它们合法吗？也许不，然而根本每人在意。每个月，上百辆高档汽车被偷运抵广州。其中最受欢迎的是：梅赛德斯-奔驰，宝马和丰田。” 《商业周刊》的描述让人看到了正在恢复自信和商业活力的、忙乱而骚动的中国，正如记者在文章的最后所说的：“广东是一个范例，中国的其它地方也将慢慢改变。它不得不变，因为每个人都想过上高水平的生活。美国（或者随便什么人）可以加速，也可以减缓这个过程，但是，阻止不了。”过不了不久，那个在过去十多年里一直掌控中国改革航标的老人也来到了这里，他将再次让改革的篝火熊熊燃烧起来。