UP AND OUT OF POVERTY is a compilation of Xi Jinping's major works from 1988 to 1990 when he was Secretary of the CPC Ningde Prefectural Committee, Fujian Province.The book on poverty relief comprises 29 speeches and articles. The following is an excerpt from UP AND OUT OF POVERTY, published by FOREIGN LANGUAGES PRESS in 2016.
September 1988
Each song, each tune, has a theme. When people hear the familiar theme, they know which song or tune it is. The theme is the subject of the song, as well as its soul. There is a theme, too, in the various aspects of work in a place: socialist economic development. Once, on an inspection of a township in Ningde, I saw that the local government office's walls were hung with numerous award banners for achieving "Excellence" and being "Number One" in many areas of work. Unfortunately, however, none of them had anything to do with economic development. Here it is worth asking: Can we say that there was a theme? I think not! Hanging up so many award banners without one for economic development was not very impressive. To put it more politely, it reflected working hard without performing a true service. Working without setting priorities and sticking to the fundamentals is simply tinkering.
To sing in unison, a choir must focus on the theme and the rhythm. The same is true of economic work. If every entity only stresses the importance of its own work, each following its own score and singing a different tune, the performance will inevitably fail. So, we must advocate an "economic chorus."
Such a chorus must have a conductor. The conductor at the local level is the local Party committee and government. Modern society has entered an era of large economies and mass production. Attention must be paid to all aspects of planning, research, production, transportation, sales, and service. The failure of any aspect will result in the interruption of economic activity; a weak link will become a bottleneck in development, affecting normal activity. The work of the various departments and units participating in the "chorus" is quite complex, with different instruments and voices. "The big strings plang-planged like swift-falling rain; the little strings went buzz-buzz like gentle whispers"(1 See Bai Juyi, "Song of the Lute." A Tang Dynasty poet, Bai Juyi (772-846) was from Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, and later moved to Xiagui (north of modern Weinan, Shaanxi Province). His most celebrated poems include "Song of Lasting Pain," "The Old Charcoal Seller," and "Song of the Lute." [Source of English translation: Bai Juyi, "Song of the Lute," in Po Chii-i: Selected Poems, trans. Burton Watson (New York: Columbia University Press, 2000), 79.- Tr.]); nevertheless, they must follow the conducting of the Party and the government. We must all sing together, focusing on the theme of economic work. No matter whether the chorus is "classical" or "pop," as long as there is a theme and a rhythm, it has an artistic appeal. Otherwise, with the Party committee singing one tune, the people's congress singing another, the people's political consultative conference singing a different tune, and the government singing yet another, there can be nothing but cacophony(2 See Qiu Chi, "Letter to Chen Bozhi." A native of Wucheng, Wuxing Prefecture (modern Huzhou, Zhejiang), Qiu Chi (464-508) was a writer from the Southern Dang Dynasty. He composed one of the finest examples of parallel prose from that time, "Letter to Chen Bozhi," in order to persuade the general Chen Bozhi to leave the state of Wei and return to the state of Dang.), and this place will certainly not sing its song well.
An "economic chorus" requires coordination and cooperation. It will not do to have a theme only but not work together or, even worse, engage in internal friction and discord. We must mobilize enthusiasm in each department and every aspect. Since it is a chorus, all departments must consciously cooperate and take the initiative to coordinate. This is not a simple "1 + 1 = 2" formula; what we want is "1 + 1 > 2," which is often called the benefit of integration. Let's compare it to a soccer match. In high-level world soccer competition today, focusing only on personal skills and individual footwork is no longer the prevailing trend. Scoring relies mainly on the organic cooperation of the players, and coordination is now an important aspect of tactical awareness on the soccer field. A famous soccer commentator said with regard to Argentina's painful loss in the 12th World Cup final: "As a star player, Maradona focused only on the individual and not the collective. The individualistic style of the Argentine star ultimately resulted in their loss of this World Cup championship." Soccer fans often criticize some players for "dribbling too much" because they dislike it when players show off their own skills, which damages organic cooperation and misses opportunities to score. In local economic work, all departments at different levels — upper and lower, related and unrelated — must form an integrated whole. Each department has relative independence but is part of the whole, and cannot be separate from the whole or cut off relations with other departments. "To see (only) one hair of a thoroughbred horse is not to know its shape; to see (only) one color of a painting is not to know its beauty."(3 See Shi Jiao, the Shizi. A Legalist from the Warring States period, Shi Jiao (c. 390-330 BC) is believed to have been a teacher to the statesman Shang Yang. Shi Jiao advocated establishing a legal system upon which to rule the land. His book, the Shizi, was banned and eventually disappeared as a result of the Han Dynasty practice of "venerating only Confucian arts." People from later generations, including the Tang Dynasty's Wei Zheng and the Qing Dynasty's Zhang Zongshun, worked to reconstruct the text. [Source of English translation: Shi Jiao, "Fragments," in Shizi: China's First Syncretist, trans. Paul Fischer (New York: Columbia University Press, 2012), 166.- Tr.]) Any department acting as a "lone wolf" is working against the integrated strategy. Every official should be aware that, if you have a place in the chorus, you have a duty to cooperate.
For the economic chorus to have strong artistic value, it must adhere to choral discipline as well as to technique. Each department and every individual must therefore be conscious of the overall strategy. With the same goal, concerted efforts, and a unified voice, we will produce a melodious, resonant, and beautiful song.
