Rebirth: I am in Jin-Cha-Ji

The establishment of the State Planning Commission is closely linked to the planned economy and Soviet aid. Historically, the Central Government established the State Planning Commission in late 1952, and this was inseparable from Soviet aid. Without the Soviet collaboration, the Central Government would not have established the State Planning Commission so quickly. Furthermore, the State Planning Commission, once established, operated alongside the State Council, with the same rank. This coincided with the "Five Horses Entering Beijing" era.

As the "first mover", Gao Gang served as the Chairman (Director) of the State Planning Commission.

Initially, the State Planning Commission was responsible for formulating plans. However, after the transfer of important ministries from the State Council, the State Planning Commission became the most powerful department under the Central People's Government, overwhelming the State Council. Many people even said that the State Council at the time was only responsible for foreign affairs and had no influence on domestic economic development.

But the Planning Commission established this time was different.

The Planning Commission established this time was not the State Planning Commission of the Central People's Government in the past, but the Planning Commission of the State Council of the Central People's Government. In other words, the Planning Commission established this time was subordinate to the State Council, one level lower than the previous Planning Commission.

The Central Committee appointed Chen Yun as director of the Planning Commission, Wei Hongjun and Li Fuchun as deputy directors, Bo Shuchun, Zhou Bin, Peng Dehua, Xi Zhongxun, Deng Xixian, Rao Shushi, Deng Zhihui, Tan Zhenlin and Xue Muqiao as members of the Planning Commission, and Xue Muqiao as secretary-general of the Planning Commission.

Chen Yun served as the Party Secretary of the State Planning Commission, and Wei Hongjun served as the Deputy Party Secretary.

In reality, the Planning Commission and the Finance and Economics Committee overlapped in many areas. Therefore, the Deputy Director of the Finance and Economics Committee, along with key leaders from the local Central Bureaus, comprised the Planning Commission's membership. Cadres from the local Central Bureaus served as members in name only. This position allowed the Planning Commission to coordinate with the local Central Bureaus and regional governments. The primary work of the Planning Commission remained the responsibility of the Qianbu (thousand officials) within the Finance and Economics Committee.

After the State Planning Commission was established, the Central Finance and Economic Planning Bureau was transferred from the Finance and Economics Committee to form the National Bureau of Statistics of the Central People's Government. From an internal agency under the Finance and Economics Committee, it became a department under the State Planning Commission.

Xue Muqiao, Secretary-General of the State Planning Commission, serves as Director of the National Bureau of Statistics.

Then some ministries and commissions of the State Council began to reform.

These reforms were all aimed at aligning with Soviet-backed industrial development. The first to undergo reform was the Ministry of Heavy Industry. Currently, the Ministry of Heavy Industry is a large ministry, overseeing nearly all major industrial sectors. It includes the Iron and Steel Industry Bureau, the Nonferrous Metals Industry Bureau, the Machinery Industry Bureau, the Shipbuilding Industry Bureau, the Chemical Industry Bureau, and the General Administration of Ordnance.

This time, the cooperation with the Soviet Union involved the Ministry of Heavy Industry and the Ministry of Fuel Industry in the most projects in industrial construction.

The central government needs to connect with the Soviet side.

The Ministry of Heavy Industry, managing so many important departments, was unrealistic for it to coordinate with Soviet aid projects. Therefore, the central government decided to split the Ministry of Heavy Industry into three ministries: the Ministry of Heavy Industry, the First Ministry of Machine Building, and the Second Ministry of Machine Building.

The Ministry of Heavy Industry administered the Iron and Steel Industry Bureau, the Nonferrous Metals Industry Bureau, and the Chemical Industry Bureau. The First Ministry of Machine Building Industry administered the Machinery Industry Bureau, the Shipbuilding Industry Bureau, and an additional Aviation Industry Bureau. The Second Ministry of Machine Building Industry administered the General Administration of Ordnance, which roughly corresponded to the later General Armaments Department of the People's Liberation Army. Its primary responsibility was the defense industry.

Li Fuchun no longer served as Minister of Heavy Industry. Chen Yu, Secretary of the Liaoning Provincial Party Committee and Deputy Director of the Northeast Industrial Committee, was transferred to the central government to serve as Minister of Heavy Industry. Huang Jing served as Minister of the First Ministry of Machine Building Industry. Zhao Lu, Director of the General Logistics Department of the Central Military Commission, concurrently served as Minister of the Second Ministry of Machine Building Industry.

The Ministry of Heavy Industry also became the first department to be split off from the State Council.

Then there is the Ministry of Fuel Industry.

Among the Soviet-aided projects, the coal and power industries accounted for the largest share. Almost one-third of the projects were related to these industries, either directly investing in coal mines and power plants or establishing factories producing mining machinery and power generation equipment.

Therefore, the Central Committee decided to separate the Coal Industry Bureau from the Ministry of Fuel Industry and establish a separate Ministry of Coal Industry. Xu Daben was appointed Minister of the Ministry of Coal Industry, and Comrade Zhong Gong, a member of the Southwest Bureau and Second Secretary of the Chongqing Municipal Party Committee, was transferred from the Southwest Bureau to serve as Vice Minister of the Ministry of Coal Industry.

Everyone only knows about "Five Horses Entering the Capital".

In fact, even before the "Five Horses Entering Beijing," the central government had already transferred a large number of cadres from local central bureaus and regional governments to the central government. The scale of central ministries and commissions was also growing, and the number of cadres required was also increasing.

With the establishment of the State Planning Commission, Wei Hongjun's work became increasingly busy.

Therefore, Wei Hongjun no longer served as the Minister of the Ministry of Fuel Industry. Lin Dafeng, the Minister of Industry of the Northeast People's Government and Director of the Industrial Committee, was transferred to the central government and began to serve as the Minister of the Ministry of Fuel Industry.

Lin Dafeng caught a good opportunity.

Wei Hongjun and his men arrived in Sheng County just as they were establishing an anti-Japanese base there. This was because he had worked in Yan Xishan's army as a soldier, a gun tester at the Taiyuan Arsenal, and a labor activist at the Taiyuan Arsenal.

I am quite familiar with the Arsenal.

Therefore, after arriving in Sheng County, he was responsible for establishing a military factory and building the military industrial system of the Eighth Column from scratch.

Later, he caught up with the Eighth Route Army's rapid development, successively conquering Xuanhua and Zhangjiakou. Among the Eighth Route Army cadres, he was one of the first to begin working with large cities and heavy industry. Lin Dafeng was responsible for taking over and managing the heavy industry in Xuanhua.

The arsenal of the Eighth Column eventually became a military factory comparable to the arsenal of the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region.

Here he worked with university teachers and students to learn more about industry and industrial management. Later, the Northeast Bureau was short of cadres, especially factory management cadres, so Lin Dafeng took a group of Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei industrial cadres to the Northeast.

He took over a large number of factories in Shenyang, Anshan, Fushun and other places, and witnessed industries that were larger in scale and more technologically powerful than those in Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei.

Quickly took on the leading role in the Northeast.

It can be said that among the cadres of the Communist Party of China, there are very few who have caught such good opportunities as he has.

Lin Dafeng also became an important industrial cadre for the Northeast Bureau and the Northeast People's Government. This time, the State Council transferred local cadres, successively transferring Chen Yu and Lin Dafeng, two heavyweight industrial cadres from the Northeast, along with the previously transferred Li Fuchun, in order to help the central government understand the Northeast industry and to further control it.

The reason why Wei Hongjun was no longer the Minister of the Ministry of Fuel Industry was not only because he was the Deputy Director of the State Planning Commission and the Deputy Secretary of the Party Group, but also because the National Planning Commission was further expanded.

The Personnel Bureau of the State Council, the Finance and Economics Committee of the State Council, the Culture and Education Committee of the State Council, the Personnel Bureau (Personnel Department) of the Political and Legal Committee of the State Council, and the Cadre Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Central People's Government were all abolished and incorporated into the National Establishment Committee of the State Council.

The National Planning Committee was also separated from the Finance and Economics Committee and became an independent committee under the State Council. In addition to the original four committees, the State Council now had six committees, including the Planning Committee and the Planning Committee.

Departmental power increased significantly.

The National Organization Committee is responsible for the unified management of all departments of the Party Central Committee, the Central People's Government, the State Council, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the courts, the procuratorates, the military regions, the troops, the democratic parties, the people's organizations and public institutions. In short, as long as they are departments that rely on the government for their financial support, their organizational establishment work is under the management of the National Organization Committee.

The Organization Department manages the Ministry of Finance, and the National Organization Committee manages the organization.

For example, if the establishment committee of a certain agency of the State Council sets a staffing limit of ten people, then these ten people are on the payroll. If they add a few more staff members, then those are temporary workers without a payroll.

There is also the issue of setting salaries for these institutions.

The central government's expansion of the National Staffing Commission is intended to prepare for the next phase of nationwide salary regulation. Currently, approximately 1000 million people are supported by the government, and a planned economy requires control over these resources, so salaries must be clearly defined. In peacetime, or once various institutions have stabilized, the power of this staffing commission will decline rapidly.

But now that the national organization is in chaos, the power of this department has become very great.

The central government has decided to establish compilation committees at both provincial and municipal levels.

In preparation for the next phase of the nationwide regularization of the staffing system for local Party, government, military, academic, and enterprise organizations, Wei Hongjun will continue to serve as Director of the National Staffing Committee, with Zhang Dingcheng and An Ziwen serving as Deputy Directors. Yang Xiufeng, formerly Vice Chairman of the North China People's Government and Chairman of the Hebei Provincial People's Government, will serve as Secretary-General.

Then the State Council added a ministry, the Ministry of Geology. The Soviet Union was mainly interested in rare minerals in China and wanted to import them on a large scale from China.

So the Soviet Union was even willing to send exploration teams to help China explore various mines.

Of course, China cannot fall behind.

Therefore, the Ministry of Geology was quickly established, and the famous geographer Li Siguang served as the Minister of Geology.

This round of institutional and cadre adjustments from the central government to the local governments was extremely complex and took considerable time. It wasn't until October that the central and local government adjustments were completed. Of course, although the State Planning Commission was established, it was still far from a planned economy.

This is the first step.

Chen Yun, Wei Hongjun, Li Fuchun and others have been listening to lectures given by Soviet advisers during this period.

Soon Chen Yun convened a joint meeting of the Finance and Economics Committee, the National Compilation Committee, and the Planning Committee.

"Accurate statistics are more important than anything else."

Chapter 783 Statistical Problems

Xue Muqiao, Secretary General of the Planning Commission, spoke.

Xue Muqiao was a well-known economist within the Communist Party of China. Back then, he used Border Region currency in Shandong to defeat the counterfeit Japanese currency. This led to the fact that not only in Shandong, but even in the Japanese-held areas north of the Yangtze River, people began using Border Region currency.

Xue Muqiao also wrote many articles.

They are all about economics, finance and currency.

Unique insights.

Even Wei Hongjun had read articles written by Xue Muqiao, especially those on currency, which were read by all central leaders.

This time, Xue Muqiao was transferred from Shandong to the central government to serve as Secretary-General of the State Planning Commission. Although the State Planning Commission had been established, it was still too early for China to implement the First Five-Year Plan. China did not yet have the necessary infrastructure to do so. The establishment of the State Planning Commission was primarily to develop industrial projects to be undertaken with Soviet aid and to prepare for the First Five-Year Plan.

The cadres of the State Planning Commission need to learn how to make plans from Soviet advisers.

These days, leaders like Wei Hongjun are also learning from Soviet advisers about what data to use and how to formulate economic plans.

"The most important point about a planned economy is that we must have accurate data, that is, accurate statistics. Only on the basis of accurate statistics can we make the most appropriate plan. Therefore, the first and most important task of the Planning Commission is statistical work."

Statistics is very important.

Statistics are the foundation of all decision-making. Since the Chairman became a core member of the Party, the investigation and research he has consistently emphasized has become the Party's most important priority. Statistical work is investigation and research.

Therefore, Xue Muqiao served as the director of the Central Bureau of Statistics this time.

"And our statistical work has already skipped the most important first step. With the support and help of the Soviet Union, we no longer need to figure out what specific data to collect. The Soviet Union already has very successful experience in this regard."

This is why we say that the Soviet Union's assistance to China in the early years of liberation was unique and that the construction of New China could not have been separated from the Soviet Union.

Soviet consultants directly assisted the Finance and Economics Committee, the Planning Commission, and the National Compilation Committee in developing the necessary tables. A highly detailed table explained to each Chinese department how to create the tables and how to summarize the required data from them.

These are things that Chinese cadres have never encountered before.

If it weren't for the help of the Soviet Union, China would not even be able to find the door in ten or eight years if it had only relied on its own exploration.

But with the help of the Soviet Union, China was not only able to directly obtain statistical tables from the Soviet Union, but also learned how to compile the tables.

Compared with various machines and equipment, this kind of thing that many people ignore is actually the most important thing. If there is no one to teach you step by step, it will take a long time for China to understand it.

However, after Xue Muqiao finished speaking, Chen Yu, who had just been appointed Minister of Heavy Industry, frowned and said, "Statistical work is easy to say, but it is very difficult to do. Although we have the support and help of the Soviet Union and have ready-made statistical tables, the tables that the Soviet consultants helped us develop are very good and detailed. But precisely because they are too detailed and too good, they are not suitable for China today. Many of the things in the tables are not necessarily fully understood by our senior cadres in the party, and most of the cadres at the lower levels probably can't understand them either. If we distribute such tables, we will never get the results we want.

Chen Yu raised objections.

The statistical table prepared with the help of Soviet consultants is indeed a very detailed table.

According to the Soviet consultants, using this kind of table would make the statistics clear at a glance. Actually, the table provided by the Soviet consultants was really good, covering every aspect, and it was an eye-opener for the country bumpkins in the State Council.

Unfortunately, the Soviet advisers forgot that this is China.

The CCP is said to be a country ruled by the peasants. Although this is an insult made by the CCP’s enemies, it actually makes a lot of sense in many aspects.

CCP cadres, aside from a small number of high school graduates, possessed a comprehensive background. Many, like Wei Hongjun, only learned to read after joining the army. Many of those who rose to high positions earned their stripes on the battlefield. They were heroes on the battlefield, but once they arrived in the countryside, they faced a vast amount of learning. Many, despite years of military service, had studied in the military, but only to the point of literacy.

But they have qualifications and contributions, so you can't not use them, so they were all cadres after the founding of New China.

Their knowledge is truly limited. Those reports are difficult even for many current high-ranking CCP officials. Even more so for many grassroots cadres with low education and limited knowledge. If such reports were handed down, the lower-level officials probably wouldn't know how to fill them out.

"I've also read and studied that report, and discussed it with Soviet advisers. I think it does have many problems."

Li Fuchun spoke up, supporting Chen Yu's idea. He said, "That form was used by the Soviet Union, but our situation is vastly different from that of the Soviet Union. Our cadres' education and knowledge are far inferior to those of their Soviet counterparts. This also includes government staff, whose skills are completely different. Forms that Soviet governments and departments at all levels could easily complete, many of our cadres can't understand or fill out. Such forms are useless."

But it was precisely because the Soviet Union had this kind of detailed tabular data that it was able to formulate economic plans. If we didn’t have detailed statistical data, our economic plans would also be problematic.”

Xue Muqiao is very enthusiastic about China's planned economy.

But he knew that a planned economy was not easy to run.

Chen Yun saw that everyone was discussing things very heatedly, but Wei Hongjun was just listening quietly without expressing any opinions. So he asked, "Comrade Hongjun, what are your thoughts?"

Everyone looked at Wei Hongjun.

Wei Hongjun now has more and more say.

Wei Hongjun's primary focus during this period was land reform, with constant meetings with local Central Committee officials. This was all about completing the initial stages of land reform by the end of the year. Starting in 1949, Soviet industrial aid to China continued to flow in. Before this could happen, rural land reform had to be completed.

However, now that the Planning Commission has been established and the National Organization Committee has been expanded, Wei Hongjun must shift his attention to the Planning Commission and the Organization Committee.

Therefore, Wei Hongjun handed over the specific work of land reform across the country to Li Shaocheng.

Li Shaocheng's main problem is that his rank is too low.

Many of the people currently in charge of land reform in the local regions are members or alternate members of the Central Committee. Although Li Shaocheng is the top candidate for future Minister of Agriculture, his rank is still too low compared to them.