Rebirth: I am in Jin-Cha-Ji

Therefore, it is necessary to develop light industry that can improve people's living standards. But how to develop light industry?

In the report Wei Hongjun wrote to the Central Committee, he proposed three methods.

One is loans, borrowing from abroad. Another is investment, obtaining overseas investment. The last is processing with supplied materials. Wei Hongjun highlights the Soviet Union and Hong Kong here. Wei Hongjun writes extensively about Hong Kong in particular.

At present, the contradiction between population and land in southern China is very serious.

One reason southern rural areas aren't particularly enthusiastic about mutual aid groups and cooperatives is that they have a large population and limited land. Mutual aid groups and cooperatives aren't as appealing as they are in northern regions. However, Wei Hongjun believes that precisely because there are more people and less land, mutual aid groups and cooperatives are more suitable, or even more important, to develop in these areas.

Hong Kong's manufacturing industry is just beginning to develop.

They can secure numerous orders. If they can collaborate with Hong Kong merchants, Guangdong's mutual aid groups and cooperatives could develop a completely different model. These groups and cooperatives could gradually become small, factory-like production units, collaborating with Hong Kong merchants. Of course, this collaborative model requires further communication and exploration.

Wei Hongjun even put forward a hypothesis.

The Ministry of Foreign Trade currently has numerous import and export trading companies in Hong Kong, Macau, and Southeast Asia. These companies can effectively act as middlemen. They source orders, starting with the simplest items. They then purchase raw materials, ship them to China, process them there, and finally sell them to the trading companies.

Anyway, Wei Hongjun’s meaning is very simple.

We must allow light industry to obtain funding and develop. Only when light industry develops can we gradually improve the lives of the people and allow them to experience the benefits of New China.

The chairman didn't say anything at the time.

Just say you'll tell me after you've finished reading it.

I didn't expect that the Chairman would send so many people to Guangdong to investigate the affairs of overseas Chinese for this matter. If you want to cooperate with Hong Kong businessmen or Nanyang businessmen, you must communicate closely with overseas Chinese.

879 Overseas Chinese Trust and Investment Company

“How’s the research going during this period?”

Focusing on the development of heavy industry and neglecting the development of light industry is, to put it bluntly, a funding issue.

The central government has no money.

If the central government had enough money, there would be no difficulty. Since there is no money, the light industry sector needs to find funds on its own.

Zhuang Xiquan said: "Regarding the issue of obtaining loans and investments from overseas funds, our Overseas Chinese Affairs Committee has communicated with overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia through various channels. Many overseas Chinese are willing to participate in national development and support it in the form of loans and investments. However, this time when we went south to Guangdong and communicated with them face to face, we found that many of them were concerned about the security of their funds.

“What? Worried we might confiscate their funds?”

"Yes."

Zhuang Xiquan nodded and said, "The overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia have always supported the Kuomintang since the time of Premier Sun. So during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, when Mr. Chen (Chen Jiageng) organized everyone to donate money, it was all in support of the Chongqing government. Later, Mr. Chen wanted to donate some money to Yan'an, but many overseas Chinese were unwilling to do so, as they had deep orthodox ideas. The Kuomintang's propaganda agencies in Southeast Asia have been constantly demonizing New China, especially the rumors about 'communism and sharing wives' that have spread widely. Therefore, many of them are very afraid of us and dare not contact us, let alone lend us money or invest."

Overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia are not close to New China, they support Taiwan more.

Because many of them believed that Taiwan was Sun Yat-sen's legitimate successor government. This included the Zhuang Xiquan family. Although Zhuang Xiquan supported New China and worked tirelessly for its development, in fact, the Zhuang Xiquan family, with the exception of Zhuang Xiquan, all supported Taiwan. Because the Zhuang Xiquan family was very famous in the Malacca region, many people followed the Zhuang Xiquan family and were hostile to New China. Historically, it was Zhuang Xiquan's constant efforts to connect his family with New China that gradually brought the Zhuang Xiquan family closer to New China.

Wei Hongjun looked at Mao Zemin and said, "Old Zhou, haven't you explained our policies to them?"

The Central Committee made a decision on the issue of overseas Chinese funding shortly after the founding of the People's Republic of China. This decision was made at a meeting of the Finance and Economics Committee chaired by Chen Yun, with Wei Hongjun and Mao Zemin both directly participating.

At that time, the Finance and Economics Committee issued a regulation prohibiting the confiscation of overseas Chinese property, especially factories. The legitimate businesses of overseas Chinese in New China must be protected. Mao Zemin whispered, "We divided up the farmland of overseas Chinese during the land reform."

"oh--"

Wei Hongjun nodded.

So that's what happened. Why did Yeh Shua and Fang Fang make such slow progress during land reform, hoping for a "peaceful land reform"? It was actually because of the large number of overseas Chinese in Guangdong. They were worried that land reform would affect the relationship between the new government and the overseas Chinese.

Their concerns weren't entirely unfounded. However, compared to the land reform revolution, which aimed to completely transform the countryside and overthrow the feudal land system, other contradictions had to take a back seat. Therefore, Luo Qirong took the lead.

Later, Chen Tao came to preside over the land reform and treated the farmland of overseas Chinese equally. He just took care of the overseas Chinese who left their hometowns to make money, unlike those landlords and bullies.

Therefore, as long as the overseas Chinese and their families were honest and decent, they would not be classified as landlords when classifying their status. Only those landlords and bullies with blood on their hands would be physically eliminated.

During this process, there was definitely an impact on overseas Chinese.

Wei Hongjun said, "This issue can be discussed openly and candidly with overseas Chinese. Land reform was a great revolution that completely overturned the feudal land system and established a new land system where 'land to the tiller' prevails.' Land is a vital means of production in rural areas, and our policy is that these means must be publicly owned. We socialists oppose the privatization of the means of production and must ensure their complete public ownership. However, this is limited to the means of production; in New China, we will not publicly own the means of subsistence. We will protect legitimate personal property and everyone's ownership of the means of subsistence. We must give them confidence. Furthermore, we will use next year's Eighth National Congress and the National People's Congress to formulate clear policies to protect the assets and investments of overseas Chinese. This will instill greater trust in them."

Communism is a "disaster" to those whose families have a little money. They are very afraid of it.

They are afraid that their property will be confiscated.

They must be persuaded and their concerns dispelled.

"In fact, we can tell them more. New China has been established for three years. We even went to war with Britain and the United States on the Korean Peninsula. But even so, we did not confiscate British and American assets in mainland China. We will not do such things as arbitrarily confiscating other people's assets. This can reassure our overseas Chinese friends."

China still has a lot of foreign assets.

What the new China confiscated were imperialist assets. These included property held in China by imperialist governments or various imperialist institutions during the colonial period, as well as assets held by foreign businessmen in collaboration with the Kuomintang government. As for the assets of Western businessmen, the new China did not confiscate them. The measures taken by the new China regarding foreign businesses were: first, no more approvals would be granted for the establishment of new foreign-invested companies, and then, the privileges and control these foreign-invested companies enjoyed in China would be eliminated, leaving them to conduct business in an honest and orderly manner. As for how these foreign-invested companies would be handled in the future, the central government currently has no comprehensive plan.

Of course, New China also banned one thing, which is that imperialism is not allowed to operate cultural undertakings in China.

Therefore, the assets of Western businessmen in mainland China are currently huge.

At the end of 1947, before the Second Session of the Seventh Central Committee, the Central Committee conducted a rough survey of foreign-invested enterprises. At the time, there were approximately 1700 foreign-invested enterprises in China, with a total investment of US$8.6 million. British-owned enterprises were the largest, with 299, followed by American-owned enterprises, with 212.

However, with the founding of the People's Republic of China, some foreign-funded enterprises began to withdraw from China. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, a more accurate statistics of foreign-funded enterprises in mainland China was conducted, and it was found that there were still 1192 foreign-funded enterprises in China, with assets exceeding US$12 billion and 12.6 employees.

After the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, with the implementation of the US-UK embargo on China, foreign-invested enterprises in China faced an increasingly difficult situation. Many of these companies were trading companies, conducting business between China and Europe and the United States. The current embargo on China has directly hit these trading companies. However, despite the difficulties, there are currently over 700 foreign-invested enterprises in China. British-owned enterprises still make up the majority, and they have not withdrawn en masse. There are currently 246 of them, with assets of approximately US$4.6 million. The largest number of companies have withdrawn are American-owned enterprises, with only about 30 remaining, out of a total of over 200.

"Yeah, I forgot about that."

Mao Zemin slapped his forehead.

He said: "We have already been at war with British and American imperialism, and they have imposed a blockade on us. But even so, we haven't even confiscated the imperialist companies, so why would we target our compatriots' companies? Why didn't we discuss this at the previous overseas Chinese meeting?"

Zhuang Xiquan also nodded.

I only focused on the issue of land reform and didn't think about anything else.

The Central Committee had indeed made the right choice in assigning Wei Hongjun to take charge of this matter. They had immediately identified the core issue.

Liao Chengzhi said, "Comrade Wei Hongjun, besides some grievances about land reform, they also want to know what model they would use if they were to take out a loan or invest. How would we repay the money? Or what is the difference between a loan and an investment? After all, after the founding of New China, the main focus was on state-owned enterprises, with more restrictions on private enterprises. How can these state-owned enterprises cooperate with overseas Chinese?"

"Loans, as the name suggests, are borrowed money. We just pay it back according to the interest rate we agreed on, just like we would a loan to a bank."

“How to ensure the security of loans.”

"This is a problem. Overseas Chinese currently do not trust our New China and are somewhat skeptical of us. We need to give them some guarantees so that they can lend us money with confidence." Wei Hongjun nodded.

What Liao Chengzhi asked was actually the concerns of overseas Chinese.

The Sino-Soviet loan was a loan between two countries. It was backed by state credit. But overseas Chinese didn't really trust the new China, and they didn't have the same power as the Soviet Union. If the Chinese government reneged and confiscated their money, what would happen to the loan?

Can I get it back?

Wei Hongjun thought for a moment and said, "Old Zhou, I think your Ministry of Foreign Trade needs to consider this aspect of the guarantee. You must provide sufficient guarantees to the overseas Chinese. If there are any problems with their funds, we must have a compensation mechanism to give them confidence. Only then will they be able to lend us money without hesitation."

"I'll discuss this with the comrades at the Ministry of Foreign Trade when I get back."

Mao Zemin nodded.

Mao Zemin immediately thought of some solutions.

The Ministry of Foreign Trade currently has several small banks in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia, primarily focused on overseas Chinese remittances. Overseas Chinese send money to China through these banks. To reassure these overseas Chinese, these banks will issue letters of credit.

Mao Zemin immediately wrote down his thoughts. Often, inspiration comes in flashes and must be recorded. Otherwise, if you forget about it after the meeting, it will be difficult to find inspiration again.

Wei Hongjun continued, "As for investment, it's simple. Let them invest in our factory and get a stake. They won't be involved in our operations at this stage, but they can receive dividends every year, based on their shareholding ratio. As for whether they can participate in operations in the future, that's not certain."

These are not something Wei Hongjun came up with out of thin air.

This is precisely what New China has done historically. By 1963, when statistics were compiled, overseas Chinese loans and investments had already exceeded $1955 million. New China actually began accepting loans and investments from overseas Chinese in . Within eight years, over $ million flowed into China.

It can be seen that attracting loans and investments from overseas Chinese is a very effective method.

The total cost of importing machinery and equipment for Chinese factories in the 156 Soviet-aided projects was just over $ million. The greatest benefit of the Soviet-aided projects to China wasn't these machines and equipment, but the vast amount of industrial technology. It was the technologies that Soviet experts taught China, along with the patents they transferred, that were truly priceless, worth billions of dollars.

Historically, China owed the Soviet Union a significant amount of money, primarily in the form of arms loans. After the Korean War, the Chinese Air Force had over 300 aircraft, all purchased from the Soviet Union. One can imagine how much arms China purchased from the Soviet Union during the Korean War. The actual loans for Project 156 were far less than many imagine.

We can imagine from this perspective how much $100 million is worth in this era and how much machinery and equipment it can buy.

But this is not the full strength of overseas Chinese.

If we can truly attract large-scale overseas Chinese capital, it would not be impossible to generate $300 million to $400 million within ten years. China could import heavy industrial infrastructure from the Soviet Union and Eastern European socialist countries, and also attract overseas Chinese capital to develop light industry.

Light industry is different from heavy industry.

If you invest 100 million yuan in heavy industry, for a country like China, you won't see any significant impact. But if you invest 100 million yuan in light industry, you'll see immediate results. "At this stage, our country doesn't have direct investment channels."

Mao Zemin spoke.

When the People's Republic of China was founded, many economic policies were contradictory or imperfect.

Since the Second Session of the Seventh Central Committee, the Central Committee has prioritized the work of overseas Chinese and expressed its hope that they will support domestic economic development. Consequently, the Central Committee has repeatedly stated its commitment to protecting the security of overseas Chinese assets. However, there is currently no clear policy on how this will be ensured.

This is also the reason why the Chairman specifically asked Wei Hongjun to investigate this matter. After all, the loans and investments from overseas Chinese are mainly directed towards light industry. Wei Hongjun said: "There are two channels. One is that we need to establish a trade channel in Hong Kong to normalize and simplify trade between the mainland and Hong Kong. As long as we open up a trade channel with Hong Kong, the influx of overseas Chinese funds will be much simpler. However, this requires negotiations with the British. It's not that there is no opportunity. The British have already sent us messages several times. The British Labour Party is currently in a critical situation in the UK and is eager to resolve the prisoner issue. Therefore, we can negotiate with the UK in this regard."

"On the other hand, we can set up an Overseas Chinese Trust and Investment Company. We can allow overseas Chinese to invest in domestic factories through this company."

Wei Hongjun then spoke in detail about how to establish an Overseas Chinese Trust and Investment Company, how to ensure the safety of an Overseas Chinese Trust and Investment Company, etc. The first Overseas Chinese Trust and Investment Company in history was established in 1955.

These are all ways that New China has effectively utilized overseas Chinese investment, and Wei Hongjun certainly wanted to learn from them.

At this stage, with no major opening up in policy, if one wants to use overseas Chinese funds, one must learn from how New China did it. Mao Zemin, Liao Chengzhi, and Zhuang Xiquan all nodded repeatedly.

They had been struggling with some issues, but when Wei Hongjun came to them, he even had a plan for how to proceed. This surprised them, and at the same time, they were deeply impressed. With Wei Hongjun's series of plans, the following matters became much easier.

In the next few days, Wei Hongjun and they met with many overseas Chinese.

From his conversations with them, Wei Hongjun understood why the Overseas Chinese Trust and Investment Company was established in the People's Republic of China. This was because the popular image of overseas Chinese was that of wealthy businessmen like Chen Jiageng and Zhuang Xiquan.

But that's not the case.

Most overseas Chinese run small businesses, like self-employed individuals, or work hard to earn money. They are not as wealthy as overseas Chinese businessmen, so the funds they can send back to China are limited.

Knowing this, the People's Republic of China established the Overseas Chinese Trust and Investment Company to pool these small funds. While each individual held a small amount, the sheer number of overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia meant the combined sums were staggering. These overseas Chinese were concerned about the safety of their funds, so Wei Hongjun assured them that the central government would introduce policies to protect overseas Chinese assets.

Wei Hongjun also stated that although overseas Chinese investors only receive dry shares and dividends and cannot participate in the company's operations, these dividends will be long-lasting and will continue to flow as long as the factory survives bankruptcy.

Wei Hongjun also discussed export issues with these overseas Chinese.

How much use can one person's efforts bring? Each of these overseas Chinese has the opportunity to become a salesperson for the new China. Even if they only set up a small import and export trading company, Wei Hongjun will pay attention to it.

Because all these trading companies together will boost China's exports. It doesn't matter if the orders are small.

As long as China can make money, that's enough. If Guangdong can develop small businesses, primarily cooperatives, and collaborate with these overseas Chinese, it will drive the development of Guangdong's rural areas. Rural development will bring wealth to the rural areas, which will then be able to afford to purchase heavy industrial products. This will provide a market for heavy industrial products, allowing the industry to gradually recover and eliminate the need for financial support.

Therefore, Wei Hongjun would never underestimate the opinions of any overseas Chinese.

Wei Hongjun had a very good conversation with the overseas Chinese.

Many people expressed their willingness to invest in the economic development of New China. However, they were helpless because they had no channels and no government guarantees. While Wei Hongjun was conducting research, he received a call from Beijing.

Comrade Ren Peiguo has passed away.