On June 18, 1997, the central government announced a long-awaited decision to divide Chongqing City, which is under the jurisdiction of Sichuan Province, into a new municipality. In other words, Chongqing will be independent from Sichuan Province and placed under the central gove

On June 18, 1997, the central government announced a long-awaited decision to divide Chongqing City, which is under the jurisdiction of Sichuan Province, into a new municipality . In other words, Chongqing will be independent from Sichuan Province and placed under the central government.

The person behind this decision was Deng Xiaoping, the great chief architect of reform and opening up.

So based on the historical conditions at that time, how could Deng Xiaoping be so far-sighted and speculate that separating Sichuan and Chongqing would be more conducive to the development of the two places? What is the reason for him to do this?

Picture | Celebration

The historical development process of Chongqing

Let’s start with the historical development of Chongqing . Although the provincial capital of Sichuan is Chengdu, historically, Chongqing’s development level is no worse than Chengdu.

Since ancient times, Chongqing has had unique geographical conditions. Chongqing at that time was a land of hills and valleys, fully covered by virgin forests, and had a warm and humid climate. Such conditions were very suitable for human survival.

In 1985, the discovery of Longgupo in Wushan County by the Chinese scientific expedition team strongly proved that there were human activities in Chongqing 2 million years ago. It is one of the few places in my country that took the lead in producing human civilization. area.

We all know that the abbreviation of Chongqing Municipality is Chongqing, and the origin of this word can be traced back to the period of Emperor Sui Wen. In the first year of the founding of the Emperor, the Jialing River was still called Chongqing . Because the Chongqing River surrounded the city, Chuzhou was changed to Chongqing , so the current abbreviation of Chongqing came into being.

Picture丨Chongqing

And the word Chongqing has a history of 800 years. In the first year of Chongning, Song Huizong changed Yuzhou to Gongzhou.

In the 16th year of Chunxi of the Song Dynasty, Southern Song DynastyGuangzongZhao Dun was first granted the title of Prince Gong in Gongzhou in the first month. In February, he accepted the inner Zen and became the emperor. He boasted of "double happiness", so Gongzhou was upgraded to Chongqing government is where Chongqing comes from.

After that, Chongqing has repeatedly received national attention as an important political center and military powerhouse in our country.

In 1911, the Alliance established the Shu military government in Chongqing. After the Revolution of 1911, in 1921, the Commercial Port Supervision Office was established in Chongqing. In 1922, it was changed to the Municipal Office. In 1926, it was changed to the Chongqing Commercial Port Governor's Office. The following year, it was changed to the City Hall.

Picture丨Gongzhou

In 1929, Liu Xiang changed the urban area of ​​Ba County into a city, Chongqing was established as a city, and the city hall was changed into the municipal government. After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, the National Government moved from Nanjing to Chongqing, and designated Chongqing as the "wartime capital" in November 1937.

On May 5, 1939, the National Government issued an order to upgrade Chongqing to a municipality directly under the Central Government. Chongqing was liberated on November 30, 1949 and became the residence of the Southwest Military and Political Commission.

In March 1953, Chongqing was changed to a municipality directly under the Central Government. In July 1954, Chongqing City was merged into Sichuan Province and became a municipality under the jurisdiction of Sichuan Province. It can be seen that Chongqing has always been an important development center in Sichuan Province.

So why did Deng Xiaoping propose to separate Chongqing from Sichuan for development? Wouldn’t it be impossible to promote the development of Chongqing if Chongqing belongs to Sichuan?

Picture丨The idea of ​​

sprouting in Sichuan and Chongqing

It is not difficult to explain, because in the early days of reform and opening up, our country's great policymakers discovered some problems that existed in the Chongqing area at that time.

In 1978, the idea of ​​reform and opening up was proposed. If you want to truly implement it, you must conduct some on-site inspections to test the feasibility of this idea. Therefore, Deng Xiaoping visited the areas involved one by one.

Deng Xiaoping came to Sichuan for inspection in 1980. After careful inspection and close thinking, Deng Xiaoping came up with an idea, that is, separating Chongqing from Sichuan and developing independently would be more conducive to the respective development of the two places.

This is not the first time that this idea has been proposed. The issue of whether Chongqing and Sichuan should be separated has been considered and decided as early as modern China.

Picture丨Deng Xiaoping once left Sichuan when he was inspecting

Chongqing during the Anti-Japanese War. At that time, because some people were spreading rumors that the National Government was going to move the capital to Kunming, Yunnan, Chongqing was regarded as a companion capital and was temporarily separated from Sichuan.

This is first of all to crush this rumor, and secondly to express our country's determination to fight Japan to the end. But this separation did not last long. After the liberation of the country in 1949, Chongqing was returned to the jurisdiction of Sichuan Province.

Perhaps the previous attempts to separate Chongqing did have merit. Before Deng Xiaoping proposed it, someone had already proposed the idea of ​​separating Chongqing from Sichuan. However, due to various reasons, it could not be realized.

This time after Deng Xiaoping went south to inspect, he proposed this plan again because he believed it was necessary to make Chongqing independent. So what were the reasons that made Deng Xiaoping insist on this idea so firmly?

Picture | Sichuan and Chongqing

Theoretical basis

First of all, Deng Xiaoping considered the focus of the economic development of the southwest region at that time , that is, the issue of which city to choose to drive the economic development of the southwest region is the most appropriate.

The southwest region was not developed at that time. The terrain was mostly rugged mountains and intricate waterways, which greatly affected the local people's transportation problems. Therefore, most cities in the southwest region have not been able to achieve interconnection and their economic development is extremely backward.

But Chongqing is different. Contrary to other regions, Chongqing can be said to have unique advantages in water transportation. Because Chongqing’s waterways are very developed, it is the waterway intersection center of three provinces.

The waterway passing through Chongqing could not only take local people to the most developed economic center in the east of my country at that time, but also connect the west of my country and carry out some resource exchanges. Therefore, Chongqing’s geographical conditions provide extremely convenient conditions for its economic development.

Picture | Chongqing

In fact, Chongqing is also the city with the best economic development in southwest China.

In addition, Chongqing also has its own advantages in terms of military industry. During the war, Chongqing was set up as a military center many times, and many powerful military industrial enterprises were established, which further improved Chongqing's comprehensive competitiveness.

These three advantages of industry, economy and culture have brought unlimited potential to Chongqing. This is why during the period of reform and opening up, Deng Xiaoping first focused on Chongqing for the development of the southwest region.

Some people may ask: If this is the case, wouldn’t it be good to invest heavily in Chongqing as an important economic development area? Why must Chongqing be separated from Sichuan?

Picture丨Deng Xiaoping

This brings us to the political needs that are indispensable for Chongqing to develop.

Above we talked about the excellent economic advantages . If there is no corresponding political status and resources to give Chongqing a better opportunity to develop, the resistance to its development will still be great.

Because, even though Chongqing has various development advantages, if it is still under the jurisdiction of Sichuan Province, then Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province, will definitely restrict the development of Chongqing.

At that time, Sichuan Province had always been experiencing serious differentiation due to complex geographical reasons. It can be said that Chengdu and Chongqing are both the administrative centers of Sichuan Province, but the provincial capital is Chengdu after all. Therefore, no matter how good the conditions are, Chongqing does not have more room for development.

Picture丨Deng Xiaoping

According to statistics, before this idea was proposed, the population of the entire Sichuan Province was about 80 million, and Chongqing alone accounted for 30 million. This is an extremely uneven ratio. At that time, Chongqing City accounted for less than 1/4 of Sichuan Province's area.

Therefore, in order to activate the economic development potential of Chongqing's population and better provide policy assistance, only by improving Chongqing's economic status and political status can we give it better development.

If the first two reasons are due to practical considerations of Deng Xiaoping's idea, then the next most important reason is due to policy needs, that is-the construction issue of the Three Gorges Project.

Around 1980, the cause of reform and opening up was booming. As my country's economy continued to recover, corresponding problems gradually emerged, that is, the problem of electricity consumption.

Picture丨Why Sichuan and Chongqing were separated

At that time, our country was in urgent need of a large amount of electricity, but the existing power supply level was very lagging . Not only was the power generated small, but the quality was not high, and the problem of intermittent power supply often occurred during the process of putting it into use. , plaguing many large and small factories in our country.

If this problem is not solved, our country's economy will not be able to take off.

It was based on this practical need that in 1985, Deng Xiaoping fed back this issue to Li Peng, the then Premier of the State Council. Li Peng said that the Three Gorges Plan being planned can be well solved, but the question is, how can we quickly promote the implementation of the Three Gorges Plan?

You must know that the Three Gorges Plan at that time was not a plan that could be achieved. It was a major problem with many problems that have not yet been solved.

Picture丨Three Gorges Dam

This includes the immigration issues after the development of Three Gorges, and whether it should be named after the Three Gorges Special Zone.

Let’s talk about the first question first. The two gorges in the Three Gorges Project are both in Chongqing. If the construction of the Three Gorges Dam is to be started, then the water from the Three Gorges will inevitably rush into the eastern area of ​​Chongqing. But if immigration is not carried out , and will cause heavy losses to the population and economy.

But after all, immigration is a big project . Therefore, the Party Central Committee has considered it for a long time, but still failed to come up with the best plan.

First of all, there are large populations involved in immigration. According to statistics at that time, this number has reached 1.13 million people. It is not an easy task for local people to leave their original homes and the culture that has continued from ancient times to the present.

Picture丨Schematic diagram of the submerged range

But in 1985, the Three Gorges area covered an area of ​​only more than 80,000 square kilometers.

It is obviously impossible to allow the Three Gorges region to digest all these immigrants, because doing so will cause overcrowding in the Three Gorges region, which will inevitably lead to serious livelihood problems.

Therefore, we must fundamentally avoid the occurrence of this phenomenon and find a city that takes the lead. This city must have a high level of economic development and population digestion capacity, and it must also conform to the central government's strategic layout.

After much deliberation, only Chongqing can meet this condition. At the same time, there are indeed many benefits to building the Three Gorges Dam.

Picture丨Chongqing

First of all, the materials on both sides of the Yangtze River are very rich, and the economy is also developed enough. If the Three Gorges Dam is built, our country will first be able to solve the shipping problem that has always caused insufficient connections in the southwest region, and make transportation connections throughout the southwest region closer.

Through the construction of the Three Gorges Project, cultural exchanges in surrounding areas can also be made more convenient, promote the regional flow of population and drive economic development.

Secondly, and the most important reason, the completion of the Three Gorges Dam can provide our country with much-needed electricity.

The use of electric energy allows us to significantly reduce the environmental pollution caused by the use of coal resources, which not only solves urgent needs, but also greatly improves the quality and speed of my country's economic development.

Picture丨Three Gorges Dam

After weighing these pros and cons, Deng Xiaoping solemnly said to Li Peng: "The actual benefits brought to our country by the construction of the Three Gorges Project are far from immeasurable. We cannot just judge it negatively, but please Comrades from the Party Central Committee and the State Council would do well to study it carefully. ”

The solution to the second problem is related to the separation of Chongqing.

The origin of the name Three Gorges Special Economic Zone comes from Li Peng, Vice Premier of the State Council, who first proposed the name in the "Report on Carrying out Preparations for the Three Gorges Project" submitted to the Party Central Committee in March 1984.

But even in our opinion, this name is slightly inappropriate, because another focus of reform and opening up is to establish special economic zones in our country, And if the area involved in the Three Gorges Project is called the Three Gorges Special Economic Zone, it will be very Easily confused with special economic zones.

Picture丨Three Gorges Region

Therefore, some people have suggested that it is better to call the Three Gorges Region "Three Gorges Administrative Region" or "Three Gorges Province". However, the central government has been discussing the name issue for more than a year, but has not been able to make a final decision.

Until Deng Xiaoping made a proposal: That is, we can consider dividing Sichuan into a province and a municipality. One of the two has Chongqing as the central city, and the other has Chengdu as the central city, and they can develop independently.

The advantage of this is not only to facilitate the jurisdiction of the Three Gorges area , but also based on our definition of municipalities, municipalities and provinces, autonomous regions and special administrative regions are at the same level.

is directly under the jurisdiction of the Central People's Government. The mayors of municipalities are at the same level as the Beijing municipal government and are served by members of the central government.

Picture丨Chongqing in the 1980s

If Chongqing was treated as an independent municipality, it would not only avoid the problem of overlapping political work between regions, but also take advantage of the policy advantages of municipalities directly under the central jurisdiction to vigorously attract policy support to develop Chongqing. economy.

Deng Xiaoping’s idea was highly endorsed by Li Peng.

Because if we follow Deng Xiaoping’s method, will not only solve the problem of insufficient development in Chongqing that existed before.

After Sichuan and Chongqing are separated, the Yangtze Three Gorges area can also be managed separately. Naturally, there is no need to consider whether to establish a Three Gorges administrative area.

Picture丨Deng Xiaoping inspected

After Li Peng returned to Beijing, he immediately conveyed Deng Xiaoping’s thoughts to the central government.

The central government also believes that it is not appropriate to establish a "Three Gorges Administrative Region" or "Three Gorges Province" specifically for the Three Gorges Project.

Because this must involve some other provinces, and separate some cities from other provinces to Three Gorges Province, this will naturally cause great difficulties in the management of other provinces.

Therefore, the central government gave up the idea of ​​establishing the Three Gorges Special Economic Zone, and issued a notice on May 8, 1986, "On changing the preparatory establishment of the Three Gorges Province into the Three Gorges Regional Economic Opening Office."

Picture丨Deng Xiaoping

put into practice

But for Deng Xiaoping’s proposal to separate Chongqing from Sichuan, after all, it is also a major project in many areas. Therefore, the central government did not make a decision quickly, but conducted several years of discussion. and research .

Finally, at the National People's Congress in 1997, the proposal to establish Chongqing as a municipality was approved.

On June 18, 1997, Wanxian, Fuling, Qianjiang were included in Chongqing, and Chongqing officially became a new municipality , managing the political, economic, cultural and immigration issues of the Three Gorges Project.

Sure enough, after the establishment of the municipality, the progress of the Three Gorges work has been very smooth. Thanks to the special municipal management, even the most troublesome immigration tasks are carried out in an orderly manner.

Picture丨Chongqing

From this point of view, Deng Xiaoping’s decision-making was really far-sighted.

However, even after the separation of Chongqing and Sichuan, Deng Xiaoping still had one last concern: That is, the population base of both Sichuan and Chongqing was too large. He is worried that even after separation, the problems of overpopulation, too large a place and slow economic development will still not be solved.

But facts have proven that Deng Xiaoping’s worries no longer seem to be a problem after the establishment of the Chongqing municipality.

Because when Chongqing was divided into municipalities, more than 40 administrative districts and counties were also removed from the original administrative districts and counties in Sichuan.

Picture丨Chongqing

This means that the number of people and areas directly managed by Sichuan Province have been greatly reduced. has greatly reduced the governance pressure of the Sichuan Provincial Government. The

number is the strongest evidence. Looking back at Sichuan's economic development history, we will find that Sichuan's economic development has improved significantly since 1997. The annual economic output value jumped from 0.3 trillion yuan to 4.9 trillion yuan in 2022, a 16-fold increase.

In addition, after being established as a municipality directly under the Central Government, Chongqing's economic development level has also achieved a qualitative leap.

Due to the direct leadership of the central government, Chongqing has unprecedented policy advantages and has successfully led the economic development of the southwest region.

Picture丨Chongqing

According to statistics, Chongqing’s urbanization rate in 1997 was 29.5%. But by 2007, within ten years, it had reached 48%. Not to mention , Chongqing’s GDP has doubled several times.

Under the influence of reform and opening up, Chongqing has also attracted a lot of foreign investment. This time, foreign-funded enterprises not only opened factories in coastal areas, but also came to China's inland-Chongqing.

This has profoundly affected our country’s economic structure.

As high-rise buildings rise from the ground, we can truly see the potential of China's economic development.

Picture丨Chongqing

In today's era when we have fully enjoyed the dividends brought by reform and opening up, looking back on the past and Deng Xiaoping's decision-making, we still can't help but lament the greatness of Comrade Deng Xiaoping.

Facts have proved that whether it is reform and opening up or the establishment of Chongqing municipality, Deng Xiaoping's proposal is really brilliant! Our country's current level of development is inseparable from the leadership of great figures like Deng Xiaoping!

hereby pays tribute to the great Communist Party of China! Salute to the great China!