Right path to power

"Secretary, Zhou Huayu has filed an appeal with the Intermediate People's Court."

Lin Xiao frowned: "As expected. However, he still can't escape the punishment of the law. The appeal only delayed things for a few days."

Qu Ningbo said with some helplessness, "The outcome of the second instance is hard to control. I'm afraid the intermediate court will change the verdict and reduce his criminal responsibility, which will make things much more complicated."

Lin Xiao paused for a moment: "The evidence is conclusive; there's absolutely no way to overturn the verdict. I don't think the Intermediate Court would dare to make a rash judgment. I will report this matter to Secretary Su of the Municipal Political and Legal Committee and ask him to pay close attention to it. This case concerns judicial fairness. If Zhou Huayu doesn't receive the punishment he deserves, it will have an extremely negative impact. If other business owners follow suit, how can the industrial park be managed?"

After Qu Ningbo left, Lin Xiao immediately called Su Anji, explained the details of Zhou Huayu's case, and emphasized the importance of a fair trial for Zhou Huayu.

"Secretary Su, I need to trouble you to keep an eye on this matter."

"Xiao Lin, it seems this matter has escalated quite a bit. I just received a notice that Huang Chunning, the vice chairman of the Provincial People's Congress Standing Committee in charge of legal affairs, supervision, and justice, will be coming to conduct research in a couple of days. He's a veteran leader who came from Quanzhou City, and although he's retired, he still has considerable influence."

There was a hint of helplessness in Su Anji's tone.

"What a coincidence? Could it be that they came here specifically for this case?" Lin Xiao asked, somewhat puzzled.

It turns out that Cai Zili was once Huang Chunning's secretary, and his former boss Huang Chunning did indeed play a significant role in his rise to the position of executive vice mayor.

However, Huang Chunning has retired to the Provincial People's Congress, so his influence is relatively weak.

Therefore, his visit this time may simply be to support Tsai Tzu-li.

"Then...Director Huang won't directly interfere with our specific work, will he?"

Although it is not yet clear whether Huang Chunning's visit was specifically aimed at Zhou Huayu, it is certainly not without reason.

Su Anji smiled wryly: "After all, they are veteran comrades, and they have repeatedly emphasized that we should not interfere with judicial work. Of course, if the Intermediate People's Court hears and renders a judgment during this period, we can't really say anything."

After hanging up the phone, Lin Xiao felt a little depressed.

Why is such a normal case getting entangled with multiple forces?

Shouldn't we deeply consider the consequences of abusing power for personal gain within the system?

Lin Xiao sat at her desk for a while, then took out her phone and made a call.

District Chief Yang Songfeng quickly learned of Huang Chunning's visit to conduct research, and a hint of hidden joy flashed across his eyes.

In his view, after Zhou Huayu appealed, the case had completely entered the jurisdiction of the Intermediate People's Court and was no longer under the control of Zhenxing District.

As a leader who came down from the Provincial People's Congress and a veteran leader who came from the whole prefecture, Huang Chunning will certainly be given full respect by the city.

Even if it's just a routine investigation or a casual inquiry, the Intermediate People's Court will adjust the scale accordingly, thus resulting in a lighter sentence in the second instance.

This would both dampen Lin Xiao's momentum and disrupt his pace in establishing authority and setting new rules for revitalization.

These may seem to lack substance, but they already represent a chance of winning.

On the other hand, Qu Ningbo, the secretary of the Political and Legal Affairs Commission, felt depressed and powerless after learning the news.

It can be said that, apart from the frontline investigators, no one is more familiar with this case than him.

In his view, a case with such clear facts and solid evidence should have been settled.

However, things get complicated once provincial leaders get involved.

At the grassroots level, the competition is based on legal principles and evidence, while at the upper levels, it is easy to let personal feelings and considerations get mixed up.

Although the case is unlikely to be completely overturned, there is indeed room for a reduction in the sentence.

Therefore, considering the layers of supervision he had overseen, the final judgment might be compromised, which inevitably frustrated Qu Ningbo.

Other leaders in the district were quietly watching the case unfold. They all understood that Lin Xiao was not just keeping an eye on one case, but also using it to overturn the old, lax rules of Zhenxing District and establish new rules that required strict adherence to duties.

The reason why Yang Songfeng and his group of old forces secretly borrowed their strength and obstructed them at every level was not simply to fight for pride or save face, but to disrupt Lin Xiao's strong momentum and prevent him from completely controlling the discourse power of the entire district.

The sudden visit and research by the former leaders of the Provincial People's Congress is quite sensitive and seems to be extremely unfavorable to Lin Xiao.

Because of this, many people were genuinely worried for Lin Xiao.

However, for Lin Xiao, everything was as usual.

Two days later, Lin Xiao chaired a special meeting to promote investment attraction across the region.

At the meeting, he first combined the feedback from Vice Mayor Bi Fupeng's previous investigation, pointed out the problems of lagging investment promotion progress and significant gaps in tasks in Zhenxing District, and made it clear that practical and feasible measures must be taken to completely reverse the passive situation.

I believe that work can be carried out in the following three areas:

First, we solidified the responsibility for investment promotion. District-level leaders took the lead in assuming annual investment promotion targets, cascading pressure down through the ranks. My personally assigned investment promotion target of 1 billion yuan was made public throughout the entire process, subject to public scrutiny. The targets of all members of the district party committee and government leadership were uniformly publicized; the targets of the people's congress and political consultative conference leadership were internally assessed and not publicly disclosed. All units in the district were linked to investment promotion performance evaluations, ensuring everyone had responsibility and pressure at every level.

Second, we need to comprehensively update our investment attraction policies. The current investment attraction terms are based on outdated standards from three years ago and are no longer adequate for the current investment landscape. They must be upgraded. We can consider strengthening incentives in areas such as tax rebates for businesses, support for headquarters relocation, and employment subsidies to enhance our competitiveness in attracting investment.

Third, we must vigorously improve the business environment. Departments such as public security, urban management, taxation, market supervision, and fire protection must transform their functions and work style, providing more services and less intervention, eliminating arbitrary inspections and extortion, and genuinely helping businesses solve problems.

I believe that as long as we put in enough effort in these areas, we will definitely be able to change the current backward situation. Of course, the purpose of today's meeting is to unify our thinking, clarify our direction, and come up with detailed rules...

After some discussion and research, under Lin Xiao's leadership, the meeting finalized three items:

I. Readjust the preferential policies for investment attraction across the district. Increase the rewards for local tax rebates to enterprises, and provide subsidies and support to foreign enterprises registering and settling in the district, as well as for recruitment and employment, thus comprehensively upgrading investment benefits.

II. Establish a special performance evaluation and reward system for investment promotion. Based on the quality and scale of projects implemented, the top three will be selected, and the meritorious teams and individuals will be rewarded. Furthermore, these teams will be given priority in performance evaluations, performance bonuses, and promotion recommendations. Projects on paper will be strictly prohibited; all decisions will be based on actual implementation.

III. Establish a district-wide working group to optimize the economic development environment. Lin Xiao will personally serve as the group leader, with the District Party Committee Office taking the lead, relevant functional departments working together to provide regular services to enterprises, rectify irregularities in the business environment, and continuously improve the investment environment.

After the meeting, the District Party Committee Office immediately compiled and summarized the investment promotion targets for district-level leaders.

The new policy immediately caused an uproar throughout the district, sparking continuous discussions.

"No one can probably match someone who can single-handedly handle a target of 1 billion yuan."

"It seems they're really getting serious. With the leadership team taking the lead in setting targets and showing progress, who would dare to slack off?"

"In the past, it was all about individual efforts, which was chaotic and disorganized. Now that everyone is involved, the situation is completely different."

"The key is that the rewards are substantial. As long as you achieve results, you will receive both honor and tangible benefits, which can indeed motivate everyone."

In fact, these are just idle chatter from people who don't have any performance targets.

Some of the leaders who received the assignments were indeed full of enthusiasm, after all, they saw an opportunity to break through the promotion bottleneck; while many others were secretly uneasy, and the pressure increased sharply, because they could no longer easily take advantage of the situation as before.

Good performance is rewarded, while poor performance is subject to accountability; it's clearly not just a formality.

Soon, this brand-new investment attraction mechanism was communicated to the city.

However, the city leaders' reaction was much more subdued.

As the saying goes, it's normal to issue a policy every three minutes, but it's extraordinary to achieve results in three minutes. Therefore, the key is to look at the results; otherwise, it's all for nothing.

However, at the city-wide conference on improving work style, Party Secretary Wang Yuanze specifically commended Zhenxing District. He clearly affirmed that Zhenxing District's approach of having its leaders take the lead in accepting tasks and making them public, and of working together to attract investment, was very courageous and worthy of emulation by all districts and counties in the city.

Of course, Lin Xiao's move was both to put pressure on him and to put himself in the open.

From now on, everyone will see whether we succeed or fail.