China Emerging_ 1978-2008 - Xiao-bo , Wu [32]
July 26, 1996, Wang Jun-xia wins the championship in the 5,000-meter final at the Atlanta Olympics. May 13, 2004, Wang Jun-xia next to her photograph at the Atlanta Olympics.
In 1996, China applies to host the Olympics and unexpectedly fails. The photograph shows the disappointment on the faces of the Chairman of the Sports Commission, Rong Gao-tang, and the host of the BTV program, as they hear the news.
On May 10, 1997, Beijing released the price of grains and edible oils. A salesperson at a grain store in the Chaoyang District of Beijing writes off the last batch of grain coupons.
A testimony to the shortage of resources and materials in the planned economic era: grain coupons, meat coupons, cloth coupons, coal coupons, and so on.
A family reunion in 1994.
Beijing’s hutongs (alleys) disappear as the city is redeveloped. The old buildings on Shenlu Street are in the process of being demolished outside Chaoyangmen, December 16, 1994.
On November 14, the Third Plenum of the Fourteenth Central Committee of the Communist Party passed a resolution called “Decision regarding questions concerned with establishing a socialist market economic system.” That month’s issue of the The Economist noted: “Competition is spreading in all economic spheres in China. One factor is the expansion of foreign investment and foreign trade; another is that the authority to make economic decisions is being pushed down to lower levels, leading to a rivalry among provinces that is amazingly similar to the economic reality of the federal system in the United States.”
Zhu Rong-ji arrived in Beijing to assume duties as vice premier in 1991. Recommended for the post by Deng Xiaoping, he was specifically put in charge of the economy. Zhu had formerly served as Shanghai’s secretary of the municipal CPC committee and so was highly experienced in economic management. For the next twelve years, he was to be in charge of guiding China’s economic reforms as they progressed. His appointment signified that a new era of a strong authority at the helm had arrived.
An expert in enforcement, Zhu Rong-ji’s first action as a way of establishing his command was to clean up “triangular debts.” For many years, partly due to the failure of “releasing prices” and the consequent tightening of fiscal policies, enterprises had been loaning funds to one another. Professional courses on how to obtain loans were common in many areas. While one state-owned enterprise waited to be paid for products it might have sold, or for loans it might have made, it was unable in turn to pay its own debts and bills. This resulted in a massive debt gridlock. By 1991, such triangular debts had reached a level of RMB 300 billion, of which 80% were owed by more than eight hundred large state-owned enterprises. In order to clean up the triangular debts, Zhu Rong-ji first visited the three northeastern provinces —Liaoning, Jilin, and Heilongjiang—where problems were most intractable. He personally took charge and went on site to sort out the issues. He proposed various measures to resolve the problems including an infusion of capital to untie the linked debts, paying off debts with overstocked goods, structural adjustments, putting a stranglehold on the source of any loaned funds, and delinking the chain of debt.
Within twenty-six days, by ruling over a series of tough measures, he had cleared up RMB 12.5 billion worth of debts, and the northeastern issues were basically resolved. In the following half of the year, Zhu Rong-ji set time limits on clearing out the remaining debts. He ordered compliance, and regional officials no longer had any place to hide. By May 1992, a total of 4,283 fixed asset projects had been cleared up. Each RMB 1 input from the central coffers had
A small city in the mid-1990s, showing crowds