Rebirth: I am in Jin-Cha-Ji

"President."

Both of them were very excited.

They hadn't heard the announcement that the Chairman would stop in Handan. They hadn't expected the Chairman to actually stop there and listen to their report. Of course, while they were excited, they were also very nervous.

After all, the two of them were not prepared at all.

I don’t know what the chairman wants to ask.

"Chairman, they are Comrade Wang Fawu, First Secretary of the Handan Prefectural Committee, and Comrade Zhang Qiuping, Commissioner of the Handan Special Administrative Region."

The Chairman saw that the two men were a little nervous, so he smiled and said, "What's wrong? Take a good look at me. I'm not a man-eating tiger. Come, sit down. Where are you two comrades from?"

"Chairman, I am from Qinghe, Xingtai."

Wang Fawu answered first. Yang Shangkun, standing nearby, introduced Wang Fawu to the Chairman, saying, "Comrade Wang Fawu served as a confidential secretary in the General Office of the Central Committee during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. He handled confidential documents for Comrades Xiu Yang, Ren Peiguo, Li Fuchun, and Peng Dehua."

"Cadres who come out of the General Office of the Central Committee must have a good understanding of central policies. They must grasp the policies well when doing their work."

"Yes, Chairman."

After Wang Fawu answered, Zhang Qiuping replied, "Chairman, I am from Sheng County, Shanxi Province."

"Sheng County? Comrade Red Army, there are some of your fellow villagers here."

When the Chairman heard Zhang Qiuping say he was from Sheng County, he immediately joked with Wei Hongjun next to him. Sheng County was a famous anti-Japanese base area, and everyone in and outside the Party knew of its fame. How many central government officials and generals had emerged from the Sheng County Anti-Japanese Base Area?

Wei Hongjun immediately said, "Chairman, Comrade Zhang Qiuping and I are acquainted. When our troops were dispersed and entered Sheng County to establish a base, the first rural anti-Japanese base was in Zhangjia Village in Sheng County. Comrade Zhang Qiuping is from Zhangjia Village. At that time, we established the Sheng County Anti-Japanese Base, but there was no progress in women's work. Comrade Li Shiping recommended Comrade Zhang Qiuping to us, believing that Comrade Zhang Qiuping could lead women's work well. So I asked her to come out and serve as the director of the Sheng County Women's Rescue Association. The vigorous development of women's work in Sheng County is all due to Comrade Zhang Qiuping's contribution."

"So there's such a connection. So you're old comrades?"

"Yes."

Wei Hongjun smiled and extended his hand, saying, "Comrade Zhang Qiuping, long time no see."

"Vice Premier Wei, long time no see."

The two hadn't seen each other for years. Ever since Wei Hongjun led his troops into Northeast China at the end of the Anti-Japanese War, they hadn't seen Zhang Qiuping again. Later, Wei Hongjun carried out land reform, fought the war, handled the work of the North China Bureau, and was eventually transferred to the central government. Wei Hongjun's impression of Zhang Qiuping was that she had been working in the women's affairs department, starting as director of the Sheng County Women's Rescue Association. So, Wei Hongjun had no idea she was actually serving as a commissioner in the Handan Special District.

Zhang Qiuping was still very happy to see Wei Hongjun.

After all, the two are really old comrades.

It was because Wei Hongjun led her to join the revolutionary team that she was able to go from a widow to participating in China's magnificent history and becoming a member of the revolutionary team of New China. Therefore, Zhang Qiuping is grateful to Wei Hongjun.

Wang Fawu next to him was quite surprised.

Wang Fawu only knew that his partner, Zhang Qiuping, was a cadre from Sheng County, and suspected that she had some connection to Wei Hongjun and his colleagues in the Ji-Re-Cha Military Region. He had no idea that the two of them were so close.

The chairman nodded.

These chairmen were not very surprised.

Because Wei Hongjun had been involved in the Jin-Cha-Ji Revolution and eventually rose to the position of Secretary of the North China Bureau, it was common for cadres familiar with Wei Hongjun to work in various parts of North China. However, after hearing what Wei Hongjun said, the Chairman became quite interested in Zhang Qiuping.

So she smiled and said, "Comrade Zhang Qiuping, you used to work in women's affairs. How come you're a commissioner now?"

Zhang Qiuping was still very nervous when she saw the Chairman asking her questions.

However, Zhang Qiuping was originally a hot-tempered person. If she hadn't been like that, she wouldn't have been able to support her brother-in-law and sister-in-law as a widow. Therefore, she suppressed her nervousness and said, "Chairman, I was originally from the countryside. Later, I worked in women's work and went to the countryside more often. I think the reason why there is a male-dominated and female-inferior mentality, in addition to thousands of years of feudal oppression, is that men are the backbone of the family. Men earn money, and women can only take care of the children and do housework at home. The economic base determines the superstructure. In a family, if women can't earn money, they naturally lack the right to speak. So I believe that women must go out and work to earn money on their own before they can confidently say that men and women are equal. After that, I switched from women's work to local work."

"Well, that's well said."

The Chairman was very satisfied with Zhang Qiuping's idea.

This is the key point of the work.

Xiao Wei raised her voice and emphasized, "Women's liberation must be political. This is a prerequisite. But women's liberation must never rely on the mercy of men. As the Internationale sang well, there is no savior, and we cannot rely on gods. We must rely on ourselves. Women's true liberation must be reflected in economic equality with men. They must participate in productive labor and have their own economic income. This is the foundation. Only with this foundation can we talk about political liberation and ultimately achieve complete women's liberation."

Hearing the Chairman's praise, Zhang Qiuping's face turned red with excitement.

"After the Marriage Law was promulgated, how has its implementation been?"

Zhang Qiuping's face darkened.

"We're one of the old revolutionary bases. Marriage laws have been implemented since the Anti-Japanese War, ensuring equality between men and women, so the overall situation is relatively optimistic. However, there are still some rural areas that don't adhere to the legal age requirements. Furthermore, these villages don't require marriage certificates; simply having a wedding is considered a marriage. Our agency conducted a survey, and found that two out of ten rural marriages involve men and women marrying under the legal age."

The Marriage Law stipulates that women must be 18 years old, which fully takes into account women’s physical conditions.

"Chairman, we didn't do our job well."

The chairman waved his hand.

"Nothing can be accomplished overnight. Two out of ten are under the legal age, but that means eight out of ten are of legal age, which is progress. China has been oppressed by feudal rule for two thousand years. It's easy to abolish the visible feudal system, but it's very difficult to break the feudal mentality in people's minds. This can't be changed overnight. Two out of ten is already much better than I expected. Do you have any suggestions?"

"Chairman, we believe the root of this problem stems from gender inequality. We plan to establish some female role models and conduct district-wide publicity. This will allow all women to participate in political activities and production labor with equal dignity and respect to men. Only by further achieving gender equality can we eliminate this phenomenon."

"well said."

The Chairman has become more and more appreciative of the female cadre Zhang Qiuping.

Therefore, he praised: "When we deal with things, we can't just deal with everything we see. This will only treat the symptoms and not the root cause. You have grasped the essence behind the phenomenon and are ready to solve the problem from the root. This is the correct working mindset. Only when women comrades can participate in productive labor like men and bring economic income to their small families like men can true gender equality be achieved. However, it should be noted that since gender equality is the goal, women's work cannot be discriminated against. We must implement "equal pay for equal work" for men and women (Chairman first proposed equal pay for equal work for men and women in 1953)."

"Yes."

"If both men and women participate in productive labor, what will happen to the children at home?" Wei Hongjun asked.

Zhang Qiuping said, "This was a problem at first. Later, some villages organized women to run field nurseries, having them look after babies in the fields. They also received work points. Later, most villages followed their example and began to designate a few women to look after the children."

“Yes, that’s the purpose of mutual aid groups and cooperatives.”

The Chairman was in high spirits and said, "A cooperative is a production cooperative. Its purpose is to divide labor and cooperate, unleash everyone's strength, and complete production tasks. Everyone is born different, and cooperatives arrange different tasks according to different situations. In the past, dozens of people were needed to look after children, but now just a few can. This will free up dozens of women comrades, allowing them to participate in production labor and improve production efficiency. This is how changes in production relations drive the development of productivity."

Division of labor and cooperation are important aspects of the modern industrial revolution.

In addition to the development of machinery and equipment, the improvement of production efficiency is due to the development of division of labor and cooperation.

"Men are strong and primarily do the heavy physical work in the cooperative. Women are less strong but more meticulous and dexterous. We should leverage these strengths and let them do the delicate work. Look at those textile factories; the majority of workers are women, because they are more efficient than men in this type of work. So, equality between men and women and their participation in production labor doesn't mean women must do the same work as men. Rather, it means leveraging the strengths of both sexes and fostering a division of labor and cooperation."

Wei Hongjun added.

We must acknowledge innate differences. Men and women have different physical structures and specialize in different things. To insist that gender equality means men and women doing the same work is a mechanistic understanding of gender equality.

"Comrade Hongjun is right. We must understand what a cooperative is. A cooperative is not a government department that takes care of everything, but rather an adjustment of production relations to improve rural productivity. A cooperative is a production unit formed to leverage the strengths of each party. The most important issues here are division of labor, cooperation, and distribution. We cannot understand cooperatives or gender equality in a mechanical way."

The chairman paused and said, "What is the current situation of the mutual aid groups and cooperatives in Handan?"

"Chairman, there are currently 7497 advanced cooperatives in the prefecture, accounting for 37% of the total number of farmers in the prefecture. There are 12234 primary cooperatives, accounting for 52% of the total number of farmers in the prefecture. The rest are still in the process of converting mutual aid groups into primary cooperatives."

Since issues concerning cooperatives are the work of government departments, the person who answered them was Zhang Qiuping, the commissioner of the Handan Special District.

Zhang Qiuping made up these data off the cuff.

Obviously they are very familiar with each other.

The Chairman was very pleased with Zhang Qiuping's work attitude. This temporary stop in Handan meant the Handan cadres were completely unprepared. This, in turn, allowed us to see Zhang Qiuping and her colleagues' usual work style.

"Tell me about the biggest problems you encounter when running a cooperative. What are the differences between primary and advanced cooperatives? After the cooperatives were established, did rural areas develop in a positive direction? Did rural grain production increase or decrease? What problems do cooperatives need to solve?"

These are what the Chairman wants to know.

Zhang Qiuping said, "Chairman, the biggest problems when the cooperative was established came from two aspects. One was the issue of oxen and farm tools. After the land reform, everyone was allocated land, oxen, farm tools, and so on. Because the land reform was primarily targeted at landlords and rich peasants, many middle peasants already had farm tools. However, the cooperative required the nationalization of the means of production, which meant that oxen, farm tools, and the like had to be nationalized as well. However, this was very difficult to implement. After all, many middle peasants had purchased their own farm tools, and they naturally did not want them nationalized. Some of our cadres were anxious at the time and forcefully promoted the cooperative, which resulted in a number of conflicts. Later, the Land Reform Working Committee and the Ministry of Agriculture issued a notice detailing the definition of a primary cooperative. Comrade Chen Tao, then Director of the Hebei Agricultural Department, went to the countryside to correct the situation one by one, and only then did the unrest subsided. In the end, the cooperative decided to purchase individually owned oxen and farm tools at market price. Since the cooperative was short of money when it was established, it would repay the money annually."

"Another issue was that the cooperative was formed by absorbing various mutual aid groups. At the time, some mutual aid groups had accumulated some assets after several years of production. Some cadres were too impatient and confiscated all the accumulated property of the mutual aid groups, turning it into cooperative assets. This caused quite a bit of trouble at the time. Later, after rectification was carried out, the assets of the former mutual aid groups were returned to their members. The cooperative also purchased the means of production from the mutual aid groups at the appropriate price."

The Chairman listened carefully to Zhang Qiuping's words.

Hearing this, he said, "This is a good correction. We cannot confiscate the assets of mutual aid groups and individuals in the name of cooperatives. This is wrong. Our revolution is to overthrow the feudal land system, not to deprive many farmers of the assets accumulated through hard work. So we must pay attention to this aspect."

"Yes."

"Comrade Zhang Qiuping, continue."

905 Cooperative Advantages and Disadvantages 2

"There's not much practical difference in the operation of primary and advanced cooperatives. Primary cooperatives are simply more concerned with farmers' feelings and individual ownership of means of production. Therefore, propaganda doesn't mention public or collectivized means of production. Individual means of production are purchased. Advanced cooperatives, on the other hand, are established once primary cooperatives have established a certain foundation, members are accustomed to this cooperative model, and their debts on means of production have been fully repaid. Finally, they become fully public and collectivized."

"How many years does it usually take for a primary cooperative to transform into an advanced cooperative?"

"At the primary cooperative stage, rural means of production must be nationalized and collectivized before they can advance to advanced cooperatives. In Handan, most cooperatives need two to three years, and some even more than three years, to make the transition from primary to advanced cooperatives. After this year, approximately 32% of primary cooperatives will become advanced cooperatives. According to the plans of the Handan Prefectural Party Committee and the Handan Special Administrative Region, it will take approximately seven to ten years for all farmers to become members of advanced cooperatives."

“How effective is the cooperative?”

This is what the Chairman wants to know.

Adjusting production relations promotes the development of productive forces. However, if these adjustments are inconsistent with the development of productive forces, problems will arise. Many current opponents of cooperatives argue that the Soviet Union did not follow the same agricultural path as China. Without large-scale tractors, the development of cooperatives has no future.

So the chairman also wants to hear the report.

"Chairman, let me take our Jinglian Cooperative as an example. This is the largest cooperative in Handan.

The cooperative, which includes 73 households and 541 people, originally had approximately 1200 mu (approximately 700 acres) of arable land, of which approximately 1100 mu was dry land. The annual grain production was barely enough to avoid starvation. However, since the establishment of the cooperative, members have been able to dig ditches and canals during the off-season to transform the village's arable land. Within two years, they have expanded over 1600 mu (approximately 900 acres) of paddy fields, and irrigating the dry land has become much easier. The village now boasts 87 mu (approximately 134 acres) of paddy fields and 96 mu (approximately 147 acres) of dry land. Taking all the arable land into account, summer grain yields have increased from jin (approximately catties) per mu to jin (approximately catties) per mu, and autumn grain yields have increased from jin (approximately catties) per mu to jin (approximately catties) per mu.

Zhang Qiuping gave the chairman a detailed introduction to the various changes that had taken place in the countryside after the establishment of the cooperative.

It's actually very obvious.

Especially in the early days of the cooperative, many rural areas took advantage of the slack season to dig ditches and canals, and at the same time built roads to improve transportation conditions.

With these changes, food production is slowly increasing.

Water resources are crucial for growing crops. In the absence of a chemical fertilizer industry, improved seeds and water conservancy facilities played a crucial role. In the early days of cooperatives, water conservancy projects were a key component of increasing the amount of arable land. Many areas previously difficult to irrigate were transformed into prime farmland through water conservancy projects.

"Jinglian Village plans to dig a reservoir in the village next. Handan has many rivers, and many cooperatives are now planning to follow Jinglian Village's example, diverting water from these rivers to create fertile farmland."

The chairman nodded repeatedly as he listened to the reports.

Yes, this is the correct way to operate a cooperative. Division of labor and cooperation: what individual households can't accomplish, only cooperatives can accomplish. For example, digging ditches and canals can only be accomplished collectively.

"Comrade Zhang Qiuping, digging a reservoir is a technical job. We can't dig a reservoir blindly. We should find technical personnel to determine the location of the reservoir and determine the construction plan."

Wei Hongjun interrupted.

Zhang Qiuping nodded and said, "We will keep in touch with the water conservancy technicians."

"What was the situation with public grain and commercial grain last year?"

This is what the Chairman wants to hear.

"Last year, Jinglian Village produced over 70 kilograms of wheat and corn. We handed in over 98000 kilograms of grain to the government, sold 26.4 kilograms of commercial grain, and kept around 34 kilograms of grain."

"Public grain and commercial grain account for half of the output."

"Yes. Last year, the commercial grain production quota was quite heavy. Previously, our public grain production ratio was around 14% of the total output, and there wasn't a clear regulation for commercial grain production. However, the average was around 10% to 15%. However, due to the heavy production quota last year, the commercial grain ratio increased in some areas with higher grain production. For example, in Jinglian Village, the commercial grain ratio exceeded 30%."

The Chairman also saw when Chen Yun, Bo Shuchun and Mao Zemin implemented the unified purchase and marketing policy.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the country fought wars while developing industry. By 1951, 2.5 million people were consuming commercial grain. Of course, this doesn't mean that all these people needed to be supported by the state, but rather that they all needed to purchase commercial grain from the market. Government employees, the military, and factory workers all needed to be supplied with commercial grain by the state, but some towns and cities also needed to purchase commercial grain while still maintaining their own crops.