China’s aim to make everyone rich

Press, 15 November 1984, Page 13

China’s aim to make everyone rich

By

KEN COATES

The Governor of Gansu, Mr Chen Guangyi (pronounced “Chun Gwongyee”), who headed his province’s recent goodwill mission visit to Christchurch, is one of his country’s new breed of leaders.

University trained in metallurgical designing and technical management, he is a youthful-looking 51. He was elected Governor only a year and a half ago. But for all the political power he exercises, in the lives of the 20 million people living in Gansu, the remote north-western region larger in area than France, Mr Chen rides a bicycle to work. A car is available for the Governor’s official business, but he does not own a car. Nor do hundreds of other top administrators like him throughout China. They may not have minded too much in the past, in view of the gigantic development tasks ahead. But now they are being surpassed in lifestyle by peasant families benefiting from the country’s new laws which allow — indeed encourage — personal profit to boost agricultural and other production. True, there are opportunities for foreign travel, and Mr Chen was travelling around New Zealand making important contacts and negotiating advantageous deals. But back home, he says: “There are now many rich peasants in Gansu.” He volunteers the information that they own cars and trucks, and earn more money than he does as Governor.

It is a sensitive issue in China, and one New Zealander who visits there often says it is being remarked on by officials all over the country. I joined Mr Chen at his invitation for coffee after lunch at his Christchurch hotel. Gone is the ill-fitting “Mao” jacket with military collar and baggy trousers which seemed to reduce the highest of Chinese officials, outwardly at least, to grey uniformity. Governor Chen wore a welltailored business sufe Western in eft. His dark, contracting tie was

flecked with just a few deftlyplaced tiny white diamond shapes. Also, he wore sleek dark socks and elegant black shoes.

His slim wrist watch could have come from Switzerland or Japan, and was edged with gold. No doubt it was made in the same China that now produces Pierre Cardin fashions under licence.

Already Mr Chen has travelled to Japan and next year will visit Oklahoma. He made it clear that “junketing” around the world is not his style — he is too busy at home to have much’fime to go abroad. He emphasi&s the friendship

between Christchurch and Gansu. The framework for the Chinese in this vast, under-developed area is to gain expertise in agriculture, forestry, and pasture management from New Zealand. But the Governor is more direct. He makes it clear that his priority is to make all the people of Gansu rich as quickly as possible. He is exceedingtopleasant, alert, outgoing, at ease a social situa-

tions, and keenly aware of the significance of his mission. In formal talks “the steel is there” too, as one New Zealand business negotiator remarked. It was thoroughly appreciated before he set foot in New Zealand that his rank is equal to that of a New Zealand Minister. So a Minister greeted him on arrival, a V.I.P. aircraft was laid on, and th&party was accompanied by Clinese-

speaking Dr James Kember from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Wellington. Mr Chen had already met the Mayor of Christchurch, Sir Hamish Hay, when the city goodwill mission visited Gansu earlier this year and signed the protocol establishing friendly relations. The vice-director of the province’s animal husbandry bureau, Mr Shen Weixuan, accompanied the mission, to take further negotiations for demonstration farms proposed in Shandan in the north and Minshan in the south using New Zealand expertise. Gansu province has the autonomy to enter into technical and trade deals with other countries. The Governor is not a politician in the Western sense. Sparse biographical notes state he was deputy director of the provincial planning commission, and that he became a deputy secretary in the party machine. He says that for anyone to become Governor, he has to be a member of the Provincial People’s Congress, which elected him. In China, he explains, it was not people who express a wish to attain such high office who are usually elected. He gave the impression that such blatant position-seeking could have the reverse effect. Modestly, he implies that a Governor is virtually the same as other men, except for the responsibility he bears. And he is responsible for the whole province — “economic, agricultural, scientific, and educational.” I did not attempt to traverse the relative power exercised by the Communist Party chief in Gansu, Mr Li Dengyin, chairman of the provincial people’s congress standing committee, or of the party secretary, Mr Li Ziqi. Some observers suggest power sharing could be among a triumvirate, but Mr Chen says a governor is elected for two four-year terms and is responsible to the provincial, people’s congress. >

If a Governor was found not to be carrying out his duties competently, he could be dismissed, or he could resign. But this unthinkable eventuality, he indicates, seldom happens. Mr Chen says anyone could visit his office and ask questions, but when he visits districts of the province, “I can solve issues immediately during inspections.” He spends about three months of the year touring the regions of Gansu’s 451,000 square kilometres, which include part of the ancient Silk Road. Sometimes he walks around when making an inspection. “This does not draw so much attention so I can more easily see what is the truth.”

The Governor is provided with a residence — usually in China this is a villa within a compound of government buildings. Gansu is a frontier province with substantial mineral resources but with large areas. of arid and unproductive land. Stopping erosion, developing pasture and stocking it, are priorities. The province is also keen to launch a series of people-to-people exchanges with Christchurch, and the Governor, says tourists from New Zealand are welcome. The capital, Lanzhou, opened to visitors from the outside world in 1978, has just completed a new 360bed hotel, making a total of four hotels for tourists. “Christchurch people could come to visit Gansu in our winter, as there is snow on our mountains, too,” he says. What is the future of Gansu? As one would expect of a man keenly attuned to the central Government’s plans for development (he is a provincial deputy to the National People’s Congress), Governor Chen speaks of the' positive - effect of China’s open-door policy and economic reforms recently announced by the party congress.

He has the confidence of a man who firmly believes in the future for which he is working.