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In 2015, the China Philanthropy Research Institute released last year’s list of China’s top 100 donations. People were shocked to find that former Premier Zhu Rongji was on the list again. From 2013 to 2014, he personally donated a total of 40 million yuan.
After retiring from his leadership position, Zhu Rongji has been writing books. His books such as "Zhu Rongji Answers Questions from Journalists" and "Records of Zhu Rongji's Shanghai Speech" were well received as soon as they were released. Millions of copies were sold within a few months of publication.
The donations he made were his accumulated royalties.
The objects of his donation are those poor children in the mountains who have no schooling. The purpose of these donations is to improve their learning environment and living conditions.
After the news was released on the Internet, netizens generally praised Zhu Rongji ravely, with comments such as "the people's good prime minister" and "a breeze in his sleeves and a righteousness in his body" filling the screen.
So, what did Premier Zhu Rongji do during his term in office?
Born in the revolutionary era
Zhu Rongji was born in Heping Village, Changsha City, Hunan Province in 1928. The world was not peaceful when he was born. Before he was born, the Kuomintang launched the "Maritime Incident" in Changsha on May 21, 1927.
Kuomintang officer Xu Kexiang mobilized the 33rd Independent Regiment to launch attacks on the Provincial Farmers Association and other institutions, killing more than a thousand revolutionary masses and Communist Party members. The entire Changsha and even Hunan were shrouded in white terror.
Not long after Zhu Rongji was born, the Red Army attacked Changsha twice and achieved certain results. After that, Chairman Mao established the Jinggangshan base area, and Changsha once became the center of the tug-of-war between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party.
The Zhu family can be considered a standard poor family in Heping Village. The family has always been struggling with food and clothing. His father died when Zhu Rongji was just born, so he has never tasted father's love since he was born in this world.
But even so, Zhu Rongji did not blame others. He worked hard to grow up under the pull of his mother, but it was a pity that the good times did not last long. When Zhu Rongji was nine years old, his mother also died of illness.
The loss of his parents one after another was undoubtedly a thunderous misfortune for a nine-year-old child. However, fortunately, with the help of village elders Zhu Xuefang and others, the young Zhu Rongji was able to survive in the era of war and chaos.
In November 1938, when Zhu Rongji was ten years old, Japanese aircraft bombed Changsha, and the provinces downstream of the Yangtze River were successively occupied by the Japanese army.
Chiang Kai-shek telegraphed the Kuomintang officers defending Changsha. If Changsha fell, they must burn the entire city and leave no brick or tile for the Japanese army. I hope they will be prepared.
Late at night on November 12, Xu Kun, the leader of the Second Guard Regiment responsible for arson, received wrong news and mistakenly believed that the Japanese army had arrived at Changsha Xinhe. Therefore, arson teams prepared in various places in Changsha City were quickly dispatched, carrying kerosene and other flammable materials, and sprayed them on houses and shops.
In an instant, beacon smoke rose everywhere, and the entire Changsha became a hell on earth. The fire that burned the entire city lasted for a full seventy-two hours, burning for three consecutive days, and the number of casualties reached more than 3,000.
Eighty percent of the houses in Changsha City were burned down. Later generations called this fire the "Wenxi Fire".
At that time, Zhu Rongji did not know that such a tragic tragedy would occur in Changsha City, which was only a few kilometers away from him.
's tragic life experience did not make Zhu Rongji depressed, but instead shaped his precocious, hard-working, calm and serious character.
In 1941, Zhu Rongji was admitted to Changsha Guangyi Middle School, a private school that was second to none in Changsha.
To this day, the archives kept by Guangyi Middle School still record Zhu Rongji’s excellent results at that time, ranking first in three of the first five semesters.
After graduating from a high school in xiang in 1947, Zhu Rongji was admitted to the Department of Electrical Engineering of Tsinghua University with the first place in Hunan Province. In 1949, he joined the Communist Party of China and became a party member.
Due to his excellent grades, with an average score of above 80, Zhu Rongji received a scholarship as soon as he entered the school. At that time, the subjects in the Department of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering were the most difficult in Tsinghua University, but Zhu Rongji was able to do it with ease and was one of the "top business leaders" in his class.
In addition to studying, Zhu Rongji also loved singing. He once served as a fan in the Tsinghua Peking Opera Troupe, where he met his future wife, Lao An, who graduated from the 58th class of Tsinghua's Department of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering.
In Tsinghua, Zhu Rongji not only gained knowledge and love, he also enhanced his abilities and established his beliefs here.
In 1999, U.S. Secretary of State Albright visited China. When faced with this American who regarded himself as a "defender of human rights," Zhu Rongji said to her: "I have participated in the movement to fight for and protect human rights much earlier than you."
The movement Zhu Rongji mentioned happened when he was attending Tsinghua University.
Upward Youth
In April 1948, the Nanjing Kuomintang government launched a civil war , which led to soaring prices and poor people's livelihoods in various places.
Faced with this situation, Peking schools launched the "April Student Movement" storm of "anti-hunger and anti-persecution". Teachers, students and employees of Tsinghua University and other institutions went on strike for half a month.
At that time, in order to protect the safety of Tsinghua University, students formed a "school protection picket team", and Zhu Rongji was one of the team members at that time. He, Guo Daohui and others held sticks and took turns on duty at night to protect the campus.
In October 1950, the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea started. After hearing the news, Zhu Rongji took the initiative to sign up to join the army. He was the first person to sign up in the Party branch of the Department of Electrical Engineering at that time.
Unfortunately, the party organization later did not approve his request to join the army. After considering the work needs, in 1951, Zhu Rongji was recommended as the chairman of the student union.
After becoming the chairman, Zhu Rongji not only had to command and activate the huge "student union machine", but also held all-student meetings in the auditorium at any time to deliver a speech on the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea.
He mobilized and organized his classmates to actively participate in various parades to support the bloody Tsinghua Volunteer Army soldiers. He also brought together the school committee and the Youth League of Tsinghua University, and jointly formulated the "School-wide Patriotic Convention"
Many years later, in When Zhu Rongji was secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee, when someone praised him for his eloquence and strong organizational skills, Zhu Rongji recalled: "These were all honed when I was the president of the student union at Tsinghua University."
In 1951, Zhu Rongji graduated from Tsinghua with honors. After graduation, he first worked in the Planning Department of the Ministry of Industry of the Northeast People's Government, and then went to work at the State Planning Commission.
From 1970 to 1975, Zhu Rongji worked on the farm of the State Planning Commission, where he planted wheat, rice, cotton, and small rice, raised pigs, herded cattle and sheep, and even worked as a cook.
After 1975, Zhu Rongji returned to Beijing and was later assigned to work in the Electric Power Communications Engineering Company of the Ministry of Petrochemicals.
Zhu Rongji led a team of apprentices there. They started training by climbing electric poles and grew until they were able to install high-voltage lines with more than 200,000 volts and substations with more than 100,000 volts. This experience gave Zhu Rongji a great feeling and also allowed him to accumulate some experience in grassroots work.
In 1978, on the eve of the Third Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Zhu Rongji was restored to his party membership and position, and since 1983 he has served as deputy secretary of the Party Leadership Group of the State Economic Commission.
In 1987, Zhu Rongji was appointed to Shanghai. When he was about to be elected as the mayor of Shanghai, he said this to the city's National People's Congress deputies:
"If I am elected mayor, I am determined to make the next municipal government an efficient and clean government that serves the people wholeheartedly.""
Zhu Rongji and Deng Xiaoping
At that time, the focus of China's economic reform was shifting from rural to urban areas. The transition of the economic system was at a critical period. China's largest The test faced by the industrial city of Shanghai was particularly arduous and complex. The test faced by Zhu Rongji was also the biggest in his political career.
At that time, Shanghai was the largest city in the People's Republic of China, with a population of more than 12 million, but financial resources. Government revenue is not rising year by year, but falling every year.
In 1985, fiscal revenue was 18.1 billion yuan. By 1986, it was 500 million yuan less, and by 1987, it was 1.1 billion yuan less.
In addition, several major events also occurred in Shanghai at that time, including the hepatitis pandemic and the ferry stampede that caused heavy casualties.
Moreover, the urban area of Shanghai at that time was not as prosperous as it is now, and it was very poor. It is a common phenomenon that the city is dirty and messy. People in Shanghai are also in a tight financial position. It is also true that the economic level is not as good as that of the surrounding cities of Wuxi, Zhejiang and Wenzhou.
Mayor of Shanghai
In the book "Pudong Epic", its author He Jianming once told such a thing:
He said that he once heard a Kunshan person say that masters in Shanghai like to eat hairy crabs from Yangcheng Lake, so he negotiated terms with them when recruiting masters from Shanghai. If you come to work in my factory every Sunday, I will guarantee that every day I will give you a decent salary every month, plus twenty Yangcheng Lake hairy crabs .
The masters in Shanghai were very happy to go to the countryside on Sundays to make extra money, because he only had to work four days a month, plus he brought back twenty hairy crabs, but his income was about three times what he earned working in the factory. A master like this was considered a rich man in Shanghai at that time.
But these are only superficial situations. What really made Shanghai people feel the crisis was that they had always been The in-demand Shanghai brands have gradually become slow-selling products, such as "White Rabbit" toffee , "Shanghai Brand" watches, "Butterfly Brand" sewing machines , and even "Guangming Brand" popsicles and so on.
What’s even worse is that the very popular Shanghai clothing at that time was gradually replaced by dresses from Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and other places. These dresses were diverse and cheap, fancy and beautiful, but people’s evaluation of Shanghai products was outdated, ugly, and expensive.
No one wants Shanghai products, and people don’t buy Shanghai products. This is It was an embarrassing thing that Shanghainese had never encountered at that time.
It was under this severe situation that Zhu Rongji became the mayor of Shanghai, shouldering the heavy responsibility of revitalizing Shanghai.
After taking office, the first thing Zhu Rongji did was to understand the financial situation of the entire Shanghai city. He left Beijing in the morning and rushed to the Finance Bureau alone in the afternoon to "turn over" the financial accounts face to face with the director.
After learning about finance, Zhu Rongji proposed The first sentence of "Advocate hard work and do practical things".
He first focused on the people's livelihood. At that time, hepatitis A was prevalent in Shanghai, prices were soaring, and citizen cadres were depressed. Faced with this situation, after in-depth investigation, Zhu Rongji proposed the " vegetable basket project ", which would make the people eat well and cheaply as a breakthrough in the work at that time.
To this end, he specially sent people to Beijing, Tianjin and other places to investigate and learn from experience, formulated an overall plan for the purchase and sales reform system and the production of non-staple food, and promoted the reform of production, supply and marketing.
After several years of hard work, Shanghai’s “vegetable basket” varieties have gradually become richer, and prices have gradually stabilized.
In addition, Zhu Rongji also gave full play to the style of "three things for new officials to take office". He paid close attention to the work style of cadres and emphasized the need to implement mass supervision, starting with the director.
At that time, Zhu Rongji's management cadres focused on both ends, bureau-level cadres at the top, and government administrative departments that had the closest contact with the people, such as police stations, industrial and commercial bureaus, , and tax bureaus.
At that time, the trend of "taking advantage of connections and sending cigarettes to foreigners" was very serious. Zhu Rongji's way to deal with this phenomenon was to directly disclose the agency's service system and accept the supervision of the masses, and write down the service procedures, what to do, and what to do in an open and honest manner.
Just like this, under the supervision of the people of the city, the work style of Shanghai government agencies at that time changed. For a while, everyone applauded and work efficiency was greatly improved.
In 1988, Zhu Rongji first proposed "building a modern Shanghai and developing the Pudong area" and participated in an international special conference on "Developing Pudong" after May Day.
A total of more than 140 Chinese and foreign experts participated in this meeting. Zhu Rongji, who was the mayor of Shanghai at the time, sat next to Jiang Zemin, secretary of the Municipal Party Committee, and listened carefully to the opinions of these experts.
Afterwards, he and "Old Shanghai" Jing Shuping agreed to launch the "International Entrepreneur Consultation Conference" mechanism. This "borrowing brain" mechanism played an irreplaceable key role in the future development of Pudong and even Shanghai.
During Zhu Rongji’s tenure, he vigorously promoted the construction of urban infrastructure centered on transportation.
In the face of difficulties such as capital construction, he proposed that he must be willing to give up, cut down a number of unnecessary building projects, and worked hard to obtain preferential loans from international organizations such as the World Bank and some other developed countries, making breakthrough progress in the renovation of Shanghai Hongqiao Airport, Metro Line 1, and Nanpu Bridge.
The traffic situation in Shanghai has also been greatly improved under his promotion.
As mentioned before, there are also certain problems with housing in urban Shanghai. After vigorously promoting the reform of the housing system, Zhu Rongji visited shantytowns and old cities many times, and many times witnessed scenes of several generations crowded into one room.
He understands that housing difficulties are actually one of the most difficult livelihood issues facing Shanghai residents.
Faced with this situation, Zhu Rongji was determined to change this difficulty. He went to Hong Kong, Singapore and other places. After on-site inspections, he proposed that Shanghai should take the road of jointly building houses by enterprises, individuals and the country.
He was the first in the country to propose the housing provident fund system, and set a target for Shanghai to complete five million square meters of housing construction a year.
Zhu Rongji believes that the reconstruction of the old city must break away from the old path of the past, and cannot blindly demolish it on the spot. It must establish the consciousness of "advance into the Dabie Mountains and fight to the outside."
Zhu Rongji's reform ideas ultimately laid a solid foundation for Shanghai's strengthening of housing security, and also provided a substantial reserve force for the reform of housing commercialization. It also provided valuable experience for the reform of the country's housing system.
During the period when Zhu Rongji was in charge of Shanghai, he withstood the criticism of "surnamed society and capital" at that time, relied on the masses to stabilize Shanghai, boldly promoted Shanghai's reform and opening up , and opened up a new situation in Shanghai's reform!
In 1991, Zhu Rongji left Shanghai, a place he had worked for for more than 1,200 days, and went to Beijing to serve as Vice Premier of the State Council.
In June 1993, Zhu Rongji concurrently served as the president of the People's Bank of China, and at the same time once again encountered new challenges.
At that time, with Comrade Deng Xiaoping's southern tour and the introduction of the " market economy ", the economy across the country was like boiling water.
In this year, the State Council's investment budget was an unprecedented 800 billion yuan, but the actual investment amount reached 1.1829 billion yuan. In the 119 economic development zones approved by the central government, 500 companies opened every day.
At that time, there was a shortage of 50,000 freight trains, fuel prices had increased by 69%, and food prices had increased by 43%. Inflation was in danger.
Faced with such an economic balloon that could burst at any time, Zhu Rongji first proposed the concept of economic overheating. With the support of Deng Xiaoping, he quickly presided over the formulation of a plan. Within 20 days, he jointly issued the 16 rectification measures that shocked the country in conjunction with the State Council and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.
After serving concurrently as bank president, Zhu Rongji quickly took action and strictly ordered the heads of subordinate banks to recover all loans and lending funds within 40 days. Those who could not be recovered would be severely punished and the presidents would be dismissed.
Under an iron fist, the currency faucet was quickly closed, repeated construction projects came to an abrupt end, and the entire stock market was also given a dose of "antipyretic medicine"
At the same time, after recovering the funds, Zhu Rongji faced rising grain prices and decisively released 40 billion kilograms of national grain reserves twice from 1993 to 1994, driving down grain prices.
After the bank recovered the loan, he raised grain prices three times to encourage farmers to grow grain.
From 1993 to 1996, after three years of economic rectification and governance, Zhu Rongji finally alleviated the overheating of the economy and achieved a "soft landing" for the national economy.
Afterwards, Professor Yuan Gangshuan of Tsinghua University once commented on this regulation:
"Although there are some local problems such as the food problem that has not been dealt with well and the reform of state-owned enterprises that has not kept pace, how can we rate it highly as a whole?" It’s no exaggeration!”
In 2003, the 74-year-old Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji gave his last work report at the opening ceremony of the 10th National People’s Congress. After the meeting, foreign reporters asked him what aspect of him he hoped the Chinese people would remember most after leaving office.
Faced with this problem, Zhu Rongji responded with a smile:
"I only hope that after I leave office, the people can still say that he is an upright official, not a corrupt official, then I will be very satisfied. If they can still evaluate me for doing something practical, then I will really thank God."
