Rebirth: I am in Jin-Cha-Ji

Socialist reform is not simply the nationalization of everything.

It's not that simple.

If you simply nationalize someone else's property, will they be happy? Will they join you in the revolution? Socialist reform is a very complex and meticulous undertaking. Different assets require different treatment.

Including these rural credit cooperatives, the government can't just manage them however it wants. Without clear rules, chaos reigns. This is the problem with credit cooperatives.

How do you establish a county-level credit cooperative? Once established, how are management rights determined?

"There's another problem. Currently, the funds of rural credit cooperatives across the country are limited. If we invest in establishing county and township credit cooperatives, it will dilute the already limited funds of rural credit cooperatives."

Director Cao laid out all the problems.

Rural credit cooperatives are currently developing reasonably well. The People's Bank of China originally intended to establish certain rules and regulations to allow them to develop independently. The People's Bank of China never considered establishing county-level credit cooperatives.

But the Ministry of Rural Work now needs funds to flow into the countryside.

Therefore, rural credit cooperatives must definitely undergo reforms in the direction required by the Ministry of Rural Affairs. Wei Hongjun stated, "Credit cooperatives must establish county-level branches, and scattered credit cooperative funds must be consolidated. As for how to do this, Lao Zhou, as Comrade Cao Juru just mentioned, the total equity capital of rural credit cooperatives is 3.4 million yuan. To smoothly channel rural credit cooperative funds into rural areas, the People's Bank of China must take the lead. Rural credit cooperatives have a limited overall equity capital, so the Ministry of Finance and the People's Bank of China should provide support by contributing a portion of the equity capital. This is how county-level credit cooperatives can be established."

Wei Hongjun is determined to establish a county-level credit cooperative.

Mutual aid groups and primary cooperatives are now ubiquitous in rural China, and even advanced cooperatives are now common in North China, Northeast China, Southeast China, and Guangdong. Primary cooperatives are developing smoothly in central and southern China, and many areas will gradually transition to advanced cooperatives within a few years.

Under these circumstances, how to channel credit cooperative funds into rural areas requires coordination by county-level credit cooperatives, as rural industrial and commercial development exhibits distinct regional characteristics.

Zhou Bin, along with Finance Minister Rong Zihe and People's Bank of China Governor Cao Juru, discussed the issue of injecting capital into rural credit cooperatives. Once the Ministry of Finance and the People's Bank of China inject capital into rural credit cooperatives, they will no longer be purely farmer-run credit cooperatives. Instead, they will be financial institutions with state ownership and direct capital injections from the Ministry of Finance and the People's Bank of China.

At this time, Deng Zhihui spoke up, "I've just discussed this with Comrades Lai Ruoyu, Zhao Dezun, Luo Weilin, Zhang Tixue, and Chen Tao. To kick-start rural industrial and commercial development, we don't need all of the rural credit cooperatives' funds. About a quarter of their current deposits will suffice. We should start with a few hundred million yuan to kick-start rural industrial and commercial development. Once we have a solid foundation and experience, we can then flow more funds into the countryside."

Deng Zhihui also works in rural areas.

I also agreed with Zhou Bin's statement that the functions of rural credit cooperatives would not be easily changed. So, after discussing with Lai Ruoyu, Zhao Dezun, and others, I came up with a new idea. We didn't need all the funds of the rural credit cooperatives, just about a quarter, or about 600 to 700 million yuan.

After hearing the Ministry of Rural Affairs' statement, Zhou Bin said, "We need to go back and discuss this further. However, the Ministry of Rural Affairs' development of rural industry and commerce is a major issue for rural development, and we will definitely cooperate fully."

The reform of rural credit cooperatives is a major undertaking, and a plan cannot be produced in one meeting or one conference.

After exchanging opinions at the meeting, everyone went back to refine their plans. After several rounds of consultations, which took about five or six days, Wei Hongjun, Deng Zhihui, and Zhou Bin came up with the final reform plan. The final decision was to conduct a major overhaul and merger of rural credit cooperatives nationwide. The current 20-plus rural credit cooperatives would be reduced to approximately 6. At the same time, county-level credit cooperatives would be established across the country.

Because of concerns about management instability after the establishment of county-level credit cooperatives, most county-level credit cooperatives are not established through capital contributions from individual rural credit cooperatives. Instead, they are directly established by merging various rural credit cooperatives.

First, merge to form a county-level credit cooperative. Then, the county-level credit cooperative will establish township credit cooperatives in each township. In this way, the county-level credit cooperative will become the legitimate parent organization of the township credit cooperatives. This will complete a new transformation and integrate the resources of a county's rural credit cooperatives.

But that alone is not enough.

After the establishment of county-level credit cooperatives, management and supervisory rights remained a major issue. This was due to the large number of shareholders and the complex ownership structure. Consequently, they became financial institutions with wealth but lacked the necessary strength.

How to resist the demands of local governments at that time.

We all came from old China. Back then, when the warlords of old China were plundering the local areas, they established their own banks and used them as their own ATMs.

Wei Hongjun and Zhou Bin cannot turn the integrated credit cooperatives into ATMs for local governments.

Therefore, after discussions with the Ministry of Finance and the People's Bank of China, Zhou Bin decided that the two would jointly contribute 3.4 million yuan to the restructuring of rural credit cooperatives nationwide. Currently, the share capital of rural credit cooperatives nationwide is million yuan. Many well-performing rural credit cooperatives have inflated assets, and their share capital should be increased. However, for simplicity's sake, some newly acquired assets will not be included in this restructuring. Furthermore, some credit cooperatives are struggling, and their share capital will be liquidated and dissolved.

Therefore, the Ministry of Finance and the People's Bank of China will put out 100 million yuan, and their shareholding will be nearly 30%.

At the same time, in order to increase financial strength, the credit cooperatives were reorganized this time, allowing some rural production cooperatives to invest in new shares in the name of production cooperatives. To put it bluntly, this was all to pool rural funds.

These things are very complicated.

This includes the establishment of county-level credit cooperatives, which become grassroots financial institutions, and the resulting changes in regulations and rules. However, these are matters that fall under the purview of the Ministry of Finance and the People's Bank of China.

Wei Hongjun and Deng Zhihui want credit cooperatives to support the development of rural industry and commerce, and they will not interfere with the specific restructuring of credit cooperatives. The Rural Affairs Department's focus remains on the development of rural industry and commerce.

Therefore, after reaching an agreement with the Ministry of Finance and the People's Bank of China, Wei Hongjun convened a small-scale meeting to deploy the next steps.

Chapter 956 Changes

"Next, we should identify several counties with relatively good natural conditions and cooperatives to promote the development of agricultural and sideline product processing. I suggest starting with oil mills."

Zhou Bin and his team are formulating a reform plan for the credit cooperative, while Wei Hongjun also needs to formulate how to develop rural industry and commerce next.

After the meeting started, Luo Weilin spoke.

Luo Weilin discussed the issue of rural industrial and commercial development with staff from the Policy Research Office of the Ministry of Rural Affairs for a long time. Their job was to provide advice to Wei Hongjun, Deng Zhihui and others.

"Find some production cooperatives with abundant oil crops and start building oil pressing plants. The oil pressing industry is currently the most suitable industry for rural industry and commerce."

Then Luo Weilin gave everyone a detailed introduction to the situation.

This includes the current demand for edible oil in rural areas and its price. While rural demand for edible oil is high, oil mills are currently few and primarily located in cities. The procurement, storage, and transportation of oilseed crops, coupled with the sale of oil mills to supply and marketing cooperatives, creates high costs and significant waste. The national supply and marketing cooperatives control edible oil production and distribute it nationwide, resulting in inefficiencies. This has severely impacted the development of the national oil milling industry.

Being able to press oil locally and consume it locally is a great thing for the national oil pressing industry.

The utilization rate of oil crops can be increased, rural residents' incomes can be raised, and oil prices can be lowered. Therefore, the Policy Research Office believes that the first step in rural agricultural and sideline product processing can be to start with the oil pressing industry.

Luo Weilin’s series of plans are very good.

This included how much money to invest, how to connect with a factory producing oil press machinery and equipment, and how to set up the oil press. In every respect, Luo Weilin's plan was excellent. However, after listening to Luo Weilin's report, Wei Hongjun shook his head and said, "Your plan is excellent, but the basic guiding principles are flawed. For the development of rural industry and commerce, we need to formulate policies, establish connections, and guide the countryside, but we shouldn't directly intervene. Therefore, the plan needs some adjustments."

Luo Weilin meant to create a few model pilot projects first.

Then, based on the pilot results, we will promote it abroad. However, this is a government-led initiative, which determines which agricultural and sideline product processing industries will be developed in which areas based on the characteristics of the different production cooperatives.

The benefits of doing this are obvious.

Some areas with abundant clay soils could be used to establish brick factories. Other areas with abundant oil crops could be used to establish oil presses. Both of these methods utilize local materials, reducing transportation and significantly saving costs. Furthermore, with government support, it's much easier to collaborate with credit unions and machinery manufacturers.

But this is not what Wei Hongjun wants.

This is because it is easy for local governments to directly intervene in the affairs of production cooperatives and directly manage social enterprises, which is detrimental to the vitality of social enterprises.

Although there are many advantages in the initial stage, there will be many disadvantages in the future.

"Comrade Wei Hongjun is right." Deng Zhihui nodded.

Dao said: "For the development of rural industry and commerce, the subjective initiative of the cadres and masses of the production cooperatives is more important than the inherent conditions. Only when the subjective initiative of the cadres and masses of the rural production cooperatives is mobilized can rural industry and commerce flourish. If their subjective initiative cannot be mobilized, and the grassroots government simply determines the cooperative where the factory is located based on the inherent conditions, then such production cooperatives will be much more passive. They will only consider following the government's baton, and it will be difficult to mobilize their subjective initiative. At the same time, the government's designation of production cooperatives will dampen the enthusiasm of other production cooperatives."

People are the most important.

If people can exert their subjective initiative, then even if their innate conditions are somewhat insufficient, they can still find a way out. However, once people's subjective initiative is insufficient, then even the best innate conditions will be wasted.

Wei Hongjun and Deng Zhihui have worked together in perfect harmony over the past few years.

Wei Hongjun just chatted and said a few words of opposition, but Deng Zhihui understood what Wei Hongjun meant and agreed with Wei Hongjun's idea very much.

"What we need to do is formulate policies and publicize them to rural production cooperatives. At the same time, we should create equal opportunities for production cooperatives, credit cooperatives, and various machinery factories. As for which production cooperatives want to develop processing industries, we let them choose for themselves."

Wei Hongjun emphasized it again.

Then several people continued to discuss which provinces to start with.

Just like the free market for agricultural and sideline products, the development of rural industry and commerce cannot be blindly promoted nationwide all at once. China is so vast, and conditions vary greatly from place to place. It's a taboo to roll out anything all at once.

We still need to proceed step by step and gradually promote national policies.

Just as Wei Hongjun was debating which provinces to choose, a telegram arrived from the Central Committee, requesting that Wei Hongjun and Deng Zhihui return to Beijing to attend an enlarged meeting of the Central Political Bureau. Wei Hongjun calculated the time: it had been about twenty days since the debate on the trade union issue had begun within the Central Committee.

Now this has resulted.

Although Wei Hongjun was in Wuhan, he was still well aware of what was happening in Beijing. Even if he wasn't deliberately trying to find out about what was going on in Beijing, Wei Hongjun had plenty of information channels and knew what was going on there. Furthermore, as a member of the Politburo, many central government documents would be passed to him.

The dispute that had begun in Shanghai intensified at the Central Committee. Comrades Xiuyang and Gao Gang were refusing to give in. First, Gao Gang criticized the All-China Federation of Trade Unions at a Secretariat meeting, and then Comrade Xiuyang criticized Gao Gang.

The two then engaged in a direct argument at an enlarged meeting of the Secretariat, and again at a subsequent meeting of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions. As the argument became public, more and more cadres became involved.

Comrade Xiuyang's opinion was supported by Peng Zhen, Vice Chairman and Secretary-General of the National People's Congress, Li Lisan, Chairman of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, and Lin Feng, Secretary-General of the State Council. Liu Huafu and Liao Guangao, officials from the Central Policy Research Office, also weighed in.

Of course, there were many cadres who supported Comrade Gao Gang's opinion. There was Politburo member Rao Shushi, the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government, and many cadres from the Northeast Bureau who also supported Gao Gang's opinion.

The arguments are getting bigger and bigger, and the differences are becoming more and more serious.

Fortunately, although other central leaders were in Beijing, many of them stayed out of the debate. This included the Commander-in-Chief, the Premier, Chen Yun, and Marshal Nie. They were all minding their own business and stayed out of the debate. If they had gotten involved, the situation would have been extremely serious.

So this time it was mainly a debate between Comrade Xiuyang and Comrade Gao Gang.

Comrade Xiuyang, however, was once a representative cadre in the White Areas, having led both the Northern and Central China Bureaus, and was a key leader of the Central Committee for many years. Gao Gang was one of the founders of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia base area and a former secretary of the Northeast Bureau. He was transferred to the Central Committee and led the Secretariat for several years.

It can be said that both of them have great influence within the party.

There were also a large number of cadres who supported their political ideas, both at the central and local levels. As more and more cadres were involved, the disagreements became increasingly serious. The Chairman made a statement and stepped in to quell the debate. The Chairman generally supported Gao Gang's opinions.

He argues that trade union work cannot be separated from Party leadership. Once this happens, "syndicalism" will emerge. He also argues that there is no fundamental conflict between factory interests and worker interests. Even if there are some internal conflicts, they are considered internal conflicts among the people. Trade unions should adapt to these changes.

In fact, regarding the issue of trade unions, none of the central factions have been able to resolve the fundamental contradictions.

Because the central government's role in the trade unions is inherently contradictory. It assigns two tasks to the unions: safeguarding workers' interests and mobilizing them for production. In other words, the unions must both align themselves with the factory's interests and mobilize workers to fulfill production targets. They must also align themselves with the workers and safeguard their interests. This balancing act of safeguarding both the factory's interests and the workers' interests creates a contradiction within the unions' very mission.

How should we understand the contradiction between factory interests and workers' interests?

Of course, with the Chairman's statement supporting Gao Gang, the situation quickly began to change. First, Chen Boda, the Chairman's political secretary and a member of the Central Committee, publicly criticized the work of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions at an enlarged meeting of the Secretariat. Then, the Premier subtly stated that the Federation of Trade Unions had failed to adapt to the new conditions of socialist transformation. Two speakers criticized Li Lisan, Chairman of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, for prioritizing distribution over production in their approach to the nature and mission of trade unions. He focused solely on issues like workers' wages, benefits, and labor insurance, while neglecting the most crucial production tasks of the current stage. Regarding the relationship between trade unions and the Party, he committed the syndicalist error of separating trade unions from the Party and denying the fundamental principle that "trade unions must obey the Party." Following the Premier and Chen Boda's statements, the central government's position became increasingly clear.

The Central Committee was now convening a Politburo meeting to reach a final conclusion on this matter. Wei Hongjun and Deng Zhihui returned to Beijing and quickly attended the enlarged Politburo meeting.

In just three short months.

But the situation in Beijing has changed a lot.

Wei Hongjun could clearly sense the change within the Central Committee. Everyone's expressions were serious, and there wasn't much small talk. Wei Hongjun could understand this. After all, after the founding of New China, there had been disputes and even struggles within the Party.

But none of them were as good as this time.

Because this time it was a dispute between two members of the Politburo Standing Committee.

Currently, there are only seven members of the Politburo Standing Committee in the country, cadres within the Party who directly formulate national policy. Any debate among them is not simply a debate; it's a debate about the political line.

With the founding of the People's Republic of China, the New Democratic Revolution entered the socialist revolution, and disagreements began to emerge among China's leaders over how to build socialism. While there had been disagreements and debates before, they were limited in scope and impact. This time, however, the debate became almost public, even involving many newspapers and involving numerous cadres. The situation was completely different.

At the start of the Politburo meeting, the Premier and Gao Gang both criticized the work of the Federation of Trade Unions. Then Comrade Xiuyang made a self-criticism, admitting that he had made subjective errors on the issue of trade unions.

With Comrade Xiuyang's self-examination, the matter was finally concluded.

The Political Bureau decided at the meeting to form the All-China Federation of Trade Unions' Party Leadership Group Executive Committee, consisting of the Premier, Peng Zhen, Li Fuchun, Li Lisan, and Xiang Ming. Li Fuchun would preside over the committee's daily work and adjust the ACFTU's leadership structure. Li Lisan was dismissed from his leadership position at the ACFTU, and Xiang Ming was appointed Chairman and Party Secretary of the ACFTU.

Although only the leadership positions of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions were adjusted, the subsequent impact was far-reaching.

Chapter 957

After the expanded Politburo meeting ended, Wei Hongjun returned to his office and did not communicate much with others.

At this point, caution is advised, and Wei Hongjun needs to calm down and consider what to do next. This time, Comrade Xiuyang and Comrade Gao Gang engaged in a public debate, which ultimately ended with Gao Gang's resounding victory. Of course, the biggest problem wasn't Gao Gang's resounding victory, but the significant political blow Comrade Xiuyang suffered.

After the Seventh National Congress, Comrade Xiuyang first suffered setbacks on the issue of land reform, then on land issues, urban issues, rural production cooperatives, and even the issue of rich peasant party members, and subsequently engaged in disputes with central and local cadres. At the time, Comrade Xiuyang was a senior central leader handling the day-to-day work of the Central Committee.

Therefore, Comrade Xiuyang has enough say on these issues.

But every time he gave instructions on these issues, the cadres below would give him