Chapter 14 Chapter Four: How the Balance Tilts——1 The Strange Loop

We have so many innocent peasant brothers who have been ruthlessly deprived of their lives in order to "reduce the burden". However, the burden of peasants is still repeatedly banned in various places, and vicious cases involving peasant burdens occur from time to time, and they are endless. Why? What exactly is this for? The problem of the burden on Chinese farmers has obviously entered a vicious circle. It should be said that the party and the people's government have made many efforts to reduce the burden on farmers.When we started this investigation, we discovered that the notices issued by the Party Central Committee and the State Council, the regulations promulgated, the decisions made, and the circulars issued not only have a clear-cut banner, but also many of the wordings are very strict.Although the central government's attitude is so firm, and the red-headed documents issued one after another, it still cannot solve the problem of farmers' burdens that are common in various places;

For this reason, we are baffled.In fact, as early as 1985, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued the "Notice on Stopping Arbitrary Payments and Charges to Farmers"; in February 1990, the State Council issued the "Notice on Effectively Reducing Farmers' Burden"; the same year In September, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council jointly made the "Decision on Resolutely Stopping Arbitrary Fees, Fines and Various Apportionments".However, despite orders, the problem of farmers' burden is still on the rise.Some data show that by 1991, the per capita net income of farmers across the country had only increased by 9.5 percent over the previous year, while the per capita "village withdrawal" and "township overall planning" of farmers had increased by 16 percent over the same period. Point 7: The rural labor force's voluntary labor and labor accumulation workers have increased by 33.7% compared with the previous year!

On December 17, 1991, Premier Li Peng signed Order No. 92 of the State Council, clearly promulgating the "Regulations on Farmers' Expenses and Labor Management" with legal effect.The "Regulations" made a lot of hard and fast regulations.However, with little success. The "Ding Zuoming tragedy" that shocked the central government happened one year after the "Regulations" were promulgated. A young rural youth in his prime was beaten to death at the township police station just because he reported the unbearable burden to the county party committee. , issued two urgent notices with harsh words in a row, and announced that thirty-seven projects involving farmers' burdens would be cancelled, two items would be suspended, seven items needed to be revised, and fourteen items involving mandatory, apportionment, and ride-hailing charges should be resolutely corrected. Items, and at the same time abolished 43 items of standard upgrading activities.Shortly thereafter, the central government forwarded the "Opinions of the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Supervision, the Ministry of Finance, the State Planning Commission, and the Legislative Affairs Bureau of the State Council on the Current Situation of Reducing Farmers' Burdens and Future Work", reiterating and "making three chapters": stop all violations of regulations and Unrealistic fund-raising and apportionment projects; the approval of all new charging items is suspended, and all standard upgrading activities that require farmers to pay money, goods, and work are prohibited; the central government's "Notice on the Review and Handling of Projects Involving Farmers' Burden" has been expressly cancelled. No locality or department has the right to resume the project, and the State Council stipulates that the retention and overall planning shall not exceed 5% of the per capita net income of farmers in the previous year.

The strange thing is that these "red-headed documents" from China's top decision-making level have been issued one after another, but the burden on farmers has not been relieved. After carefully reading these supposedly most authoritative documents, we noticed that although these policy documents are very specific, they are not a cure for the root cause, because most of them focus on the screening of many allocation projects, so we decided to Every project that is suspended will inevitably affect the specific interests of some government departments. These departments will soon change their appearance and create some newer charging items that are not explicitly prohibited.Even in the case of explicit prohibition, these departments can provide new basis for the resumption of implementation of the project through their own policy documents, or draft speeches by leaders representing the interests of the department.Some of them don't even need to "work around" at all, they just turn a deaf ear and refuse to implement them.

As for those harshly worded "red-headed documents", although the contents of "not allowed" or "strictly prohibited" are clearly stated, they are mostly principles or spirits.This kind of thing that is neither a rigid constraint, nor a legal provision, cannot be defined and cannot be operated, and it is tantamount to saying nothing.Therefore, those who decided to cancel were not canceled; those who decided to correct were not corrected; those who decided to suspend were not suspended, but more, worse, and more absurd apportionment projects appeared one after another than before.Therefore, the restriction and governance of the "three chaos" in the countryside have become "cutting leeks" or "shaving beards".

We believe that this situation is by no means unique to Anhui province. Li Changping, Secretary of the Party Committee of Qipan Township, Jianli County, Hubei Province, who wrote tearfully to the leadership of the State Council, said: "The central government clearly knows that although the problem occurs in the township, the root cause is in it, so why not investigate the root cause? Regardless of the cause What is it, anyway, the central government does not pursue it; if it does not pursue it, local officials will become more and more courageous, institutions and personnel will expand year by year, and the burden on farmers will become heavier every year. For some people, the central policy, It becomes a deaf ear—a display."

In 1994, the burden on farmers was already very severe. The central government implemented the reform of the national tax and local tax sharing system across the country. Due to the centralization of finance and economics, local governments encountered unprecedented difficulties in budgetary finances.Various expenditures in rural areas, including compulsory education, family planning, special care and militia training, have been thrown to the township level government.The grassroots received the policy: "No payment for excess income, no compensation for excess expenditure, and excess income and expenditure." This forced and at the same time induced county and township governments in various places to rely on appropriating agricultural surplus and exploiting farmers to maintain their operations.

The burden on farmers has become heavier and heavier like a snowball. According to statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture, the two agricultural taxes (agricultural tax and agricultural special product tax) in 1995 increased by 19.9% ​​compared with the previous year, and the "three mentions and five unified" fees levied on farmers also increased compared with the previous year. It has increased by 48.3%, while the various social burdens such as administrative fees, fines, and fund-raising apportionment have increased by 52.22% compared with the previous year.This year, the burden on farmers in one-third of the country's provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions exceeded the "maximum limit" of five percent set by the state.

This is obviously a conservative statistic. Many folk slang expressions express the resentment and helplessness of farmers: "Seven hands, eight hands, all reach out to the peasants." "You collect and I collect others, farmers are in a hurry; you raise and I raise others, farmers are most worried." "To urge food and money to urge lives, to prevent fire and theft, and to prevent cadres." A more widely spread jingle is almost sung by farmers: "Blowing bullshit, talking big eggs, the village is confused with the township, the township is confused with the county, all the way to the State Council; the State Council, issue documents, read from layer to layer, just convey Not honored."

The "White Temple Incident" in Linquan County, Anhui Province took place against this background. In 1996, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council formulated the most famous "No. 13 Document", which is: "Decision on Doing a Good Job in Reducing Farmers' Burdens".The decision clearly states that "where serious incidents and vicious cases of death and injury are caused by increasing the burden on farmers, the main and directly responsible persons in charge of townships and villages shall be held accountable; Relevant regulations hold the main leaders of the party and government at the local and county levels accountable, so as to learn lessons; if serious incidents and vicious cases of death and wounding occur continuously, the main party and government leaders of provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government must make written inspections to the Party Central Committee and the State Council; Those who conceal cases, suppress cases, report without investigation, or retaliate against whistleblowers shall be dealt with strictly once they are discovered. We must speed up the legislative work on the supervision and management of farmers’ burdens.”

The document requires party committees and governments at all levels to conscientiously implement the thirteen decisions. Monthly time will determine the content to meet with the broad masses of farmers, and repeated publicity, so that it is well known to every household." In order to check the implementation of the central government's policies and measures for reducing burdens and to urge all localities to do a better job in this work, the State Council also dispatched representatives from the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Supervision, the Ministry of Finance, the State Planning Commission, the Legislative Affairs Bureau of the State Council and relevant news organizations to Henan, On-site inspections in Hunan, Hubei, Anhui, and Shanxi provinces. Its strength and the number of participants are unprecedented. However, it is also incredible that in this year, the burden on Chinese farmers is heavier than any other year in history. China's reform began in the rural areas of Anhui. That earth-shattering great reform has trained a group of cadres who are familiar with rural work and dare to tell the truth. Wu Zhaoren, who served as a leader in Anhui Nongkou for 17 years, is an old party member with deep feelings for farmers.When he was interviewed by us, he said with a heavy heart: "The central government has a 'No. 13 Document'. In fact, the Anhui Provincial Party Committee had a more stringent document at that time, that is, the No. 2 Document of 1997, which clarified It is stipulated that if a village's "retention and overall planning" expenses exceed 5% of the national per capita net income, the secretary of the county (city) party committee must write a written report to the provincial party committee and the provincial government. However, the documents belong to the documents, and we have not seen a single The county (city) secretary and the county (city) mayor wrote inspections; even if major cases occurred, they were all ghostwritten by the secretary, and the party committee and the government stamped it, saying that it was "collective responsibility", but in fact no one took responsibility, let alone No one is likely to learn from it." Words such as "three orders and five orders", "orders are not allowed, and prohibitions are not stopped", these words have been seen in various documents and newspapers in recent years, and the speakers are angry and the listeners are contemptuous.However, Wu Zhaoren thought: "I always feel that it's not necessarily the case that such things are weird from below. I'm afraid the main reason has to be found from above. Why do you have to make repeated orders? Leading agencies must have prestige, and they must establish their own authority. What they say must count. It must be done, and anyone who does not implement it must be questioned, and never procrastinate. If the people below are banned, they must be banned first, just issue orders, do not supervise and inspect, or investigate and not deal with, and the punishment is not strict, so what Can you stop the upper and lower effects?" Lu Zixiu, who walked through the vortex of the reform of the household contract responsibility system in the late 1970s, has now retired from the post of deputy director of the Provincial People's Congress, but he has not stopped for a day. Thinking about work.It can be said that in Anhui, and even in the whole country, he is an expert on rural issues.On a hot morning in June 2001, we interviewed him at his home.Although he is now in his seventies, when it comes to working in the countryside, he still looks a little excited like a young man. He told us about a meeting that still haunts him.It was a province-wide report meeting on burden reduction work held in Fuyang by the Anhui Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial Government.When reporting on the implementation of the burden reduction work, several municipal party committee secretaries talked about their difficulties one after another. Although these difficulties were not without reason, Lu Zixiu couldn't listen to them.Because of decades of experience in rural work, he has long been used to seeing problems from the perspective of farmers.Even though those prefectural and city secretaries knew him very well, and some of them had a good relationship, he still blushed on the spot. Since the meeting was held in Fuyang, he first attacked Wang Huaizhong, secretary of the Fuyang Municipal Party Committee. He didn't care about the other party's face, and called him by name: "You, Wang Huaizhong, are only responsible to the provincial party committee, not to the peasants! You don't care about the actual situation of the peasants, you engage in those fancy 'image projects', and put on airs. "Big Cattle Raising County", the cattle are only raised on both sides of the road for show, and the rented cattle will be collected for viewing at the opening site. Haven't you pitted the farmers enough?" Then he directly asked Zhang Chunsheng, Secretary of the Chuzhou Municipal Party Committee: "What is the standard for you, Zhang Chunsheng, to measure cadres? Random collection, random punishment, random distribution, and finally forcing people to death, can such cadres still be used? You, but this kind of cadre If you move to another place, you can still become an official in another place!" Then he questioned Fang Yiben, secretary of the Bengbu Municipal Party Committee: "Your Fang Yiben's Huaiyuan County has continued to petition, and now it can be called the 'big petitioning county in Anhui Province'. Could it be that all the faults are on the farmers, and you have no problem at all." ?” Then he turned the topic to Hu Jifeng, Secretary of the Chaohu Prefectural Committee: "You, Hu Jifeng, can't build the road if you don't pay the peasants' pockets? That road is spent by the country, how can you ask the common people to spend it? If you don't have money, open the road. Broken belly, who told you to open it? Don’t you just want to make 'political achievements' for yourself?" After pointing out his name and surname, he sighed to the princes from all walks of life: "Many of our cadres only look at the buildings, and don't know who made the contribution; they only look at the road as straight as a line, and don't know who will pay the money." What!' Our peasants have just had a better life, and everyone regards them as "Tang Monk Meat"! The peasants are too miserable, and anyone can bully them! The "big dry contract" we engaged in back then caused a sensation all over the country, and also It has affected the whole country, and it can be summed up in three sentences: "Pay enough to the state, keep enough to the collective, and the rest belongs to the farmers themselves." But now, the benefits brought to farmers by the "big contract" are gradually increasing. They were all quietly taken away by governments at all levels, and now it is "If you don't pay enough for the country, you don't keep enough for the collective, and there is nothing left for you!"" As he spoke, he burst into tears: "I didn't expect our cadres to be so unfamiliar with farmers today, they don't pay attention to farmers, and there are too few cadres who make friends with farmers. I suggest that everyone here can come to 'empathy' Put yourself in the peasants' shoes and think about it, if the "three chaos" continues, can the peasants stand it?" Lu Zixiu's words were like a hammer hitting an anvil, and the sound shook everyone's hearts. The several prefecture and city secretaries who were named were surprised because of the accident. At this time, the secretary of the Lu'an Prefectural Party Committee was quite lucky, and said lightly: "We haven't had any trouble with the issue of farmers' burden." It's fine if he didn't say that, but Lu Zixiu couldn't help but get angry again.He still didn't give the other party a little face: "Your farmers' burden problem, I have a pile of letters from the masses here! The farmers just planted the fruit trees, and your village and town cadres are forced to come to collect special product taxes. Is this true?" The secretary of the Lu'an Prefectural Party Committee looked very embarrassed. There was no sound at the venue. In fact, normal inner-party criticism and self-criticism have always been a "magic weapon" for us to overcome all difficulties and overcome our own shortcomings and mistakes. Once upon a time, it gradually became popular outside our party constitution and constitution, and in official careers. An unspoken "rule of the game".One of the rules is not to be too serious about everything, at least not to make things difficult for yourself, and to leave enough room for what you say, and you even regard serious telling lies as a sign of maturity as an official.Therefore, Lu Zixiu's quick words made many people feel abrupt. During the adjournment, a deputy director of the Provincial Communications Department intentionally stayed last. When he walked up to Lu Zixiu, he suddenly grabbed Lu Zixiu's hand and said with tears in his eyes, "Everyone says that Director Lu is a good person, but you don't like me. Knowing that you are so good!" After the meeting, Fang Zhaoxiang, the deputy secretary of the Provincial Party Committee who presided over the meeting, went to Lu Zixiu's room and said repeatedly, "Well done, well done!" During the meal, Lu Rongjing, secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, also came over and praised Lu Zixiu: "You speak well, you speak well, you need to 'empathize'!" Lu Zixiu said angrily: "What a fart! Why didn't you say these things at the meeting? I was willing to be your 'beater' once!" As for Lu Zixiu's outspoken character, Wen Jiabao, who was the director of the General Office of the Central Committee, had "learned" it before.At that time, Lu Zixiu was the secretary of the Chu County Prefectural Committee. One day Wen Jiabao came to Chu for inspection. When Lu Zixiu received him, he asked straight to the point: "Director Wen, do you want to see the real thing or the 'bright spot'?" Wen Jiabao laughed when he heard it, and said humorously, "Then I'll take a look." At that time, Lu Zixiu led Wen Jiabao to look at both the "bright spots" and the "dark side". He not only summed up the successful experience of the reform and opening up in Chuxian area, but also analyzed the problems that still exist in his heart. worry. In 1996, Lu Zixiu participated in a national poverty alleviation and development work meeting. Among many representatives, Wen Jiabao recognized Lu Zixiu at a glance.He walked up to Lu Zixiu and asked, "What do you think is the main problem in agriculture now?" Lu Zixiu didn't play around, he said: "The style of the cadres is a problem. Of course, this includes me. No matter how good the policy is, it won't work if no one implements it. Many cadres now say that the officials are too big, and the car is too small." , running too much on the road, too far away from the masses'!" They talked very speculatively that day. When Wen Jiabao knew that the local area was conducting investigations on "three rural" issues, he expressed great enthusiasm and spoke with personality. He said: "In the past, Mao Zedong said that 'the serious problem is to educate the peasants'. Now, in my view, the serious problem is the interests of the peasants. If the interests of the peasants are not paid enough attention, it will be difficult for rural society to develop, and agricultural production will be difficult. If it is unsustainable, the country's development and long-term stability will become empty talk." He also said: "The reason why hundreds of millions of peasants followed our party in the revolution was because they realized that our party was for their interests and led them to stand up for liberation. If we don't care about their actual interests today, we will instead Let them feel overwhelmed, what kind of mentality will they have? More than a thousand years ago, Tang Taizong once said that "water can carry a boat, and it can also overturn it". This water is talking about Chinese farmers! Tang Taizong Li Shimin knows the importance of peasants. No one in the past dynasties did not know the importance of peasants. But once he took power, it is difficult to say that he can no longer represent the peasants. He always exploits the peasants and even suppresses them. Taking history as a mirror, I think the Chinese Communists We are also facing this serious issue.”