news

한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina

"This revolution was forced." "If you dare to plant, I dare to dig, and I will never leave corn stalks." "Upload the data, up the data."

Interface News reporter | Zhai Ruimin
Jiemian News Editor | Liu Haichuan

On August 14, 2024, the Tianjin No. 2 Intermediate People's Court opened a trial on the suspected bribery case of Sun Zhigang, former vice chairman of the Finance and Economics Committee of the 13th National People's Congress and former secretary of the Guizhou Provincial Party Committee. Sun Zhigang was accused of taking bribes of more than 813 million yuan, and he pleaded guilty and repented in court.

Sun Zhigang accused of taking bribes of over 800 million

As the first former provincial party secretary to be dismissed after the 20th National Congress, Sun Zhigang's corruption and alienation deserves deep thought. In particular, during the five years when Sun Zhigang led the economic and social development of Guizhou Province, his work style and direction were controversial. His attempt to "eliminate" corn with the efforts of the entire province was impressive. In just three years, Sun Zhigang's "profound industrial revolution to revitalize the rural economy" came to nothing.

In October 2015, Sun Zhigang was appointed as the deputy secretary of the Guizhou Provincial Party Committee, and later became the deputy governor and acting governor. In January of the following year, he was elected governor, and his journey as the governor of Guizhou officially began.

After taking office, Sun Zhigang publicly stated, "From now on, as a member of the Guizhou people, I will fully integrate into Guizhou, serve Guizhou, and contribute to Guizhou."

At that time, Sun Zhigang was already 62 years old, which is the age when a ministerial-level official is about to retire, but he was reused instead. This was interpreted by the outside world as the upper echelons breaking the employment conventions and "recruiting talents regardless of their background."

Then, he began to work on the "corn revolution". In fact, before 2018, the country had already appropriately reduced the corn planting area through market guidance and financial subsidies. In 2015, the former Ministry of Agriculture issued the "Guiding Opinions on the Adjustment of Corn Structure in the "Sickle Bend" Region", proposing to strive to stabilize the corn planting area in the "Sickle Bend" region at 100 million mu by 2020, a reduction of more than 50 million mu from the current level.

The official propaganda in Guizhou at that time was that corn was an inefficient crop, and farmers could only earn about 600 yuan per mu of corn, while if they switched to other high-value cash crops such as vegetables, fruits and medicinal herbs, they could earn thousands or even tens of thousands of yuan per mu. In addition, some research institutions said that growing corn could easily lead to soil erosion, which would endanger the bottom line of Guizhou's ecological development.

In fact, Guizhou farmers have a 400-year tradition of growing corn. Historical data show that corn cultivation in Guizhou Province began in the early Qing Dynasty, and the planting area expanded rapidly during the Qianlong period. By the Republic of China, it had become the main food crop in the province.

"Guizhou has many mountains, which are suitable for growing corn. Farmers are willing to grow corn themselves. It's not that they value the benefits, because they also need to eat it. They can be self-sufficient by growing some corn at home and feeding pigs and chickens." An expert from a corn research unit in Guizhou Province told Jiemian News that the official propaganda says that the output value of corn is low because it is not linked to the breeding industry. The significance of being linked is not reflected by the general output value. However, at that time, people only saw the disadvantages of corn planting under the propaganda of administrative orders, and ignored its irreplaceable role as food in production and life.

In 2018, there were still 2.8 million rural poor people in Guizhou Province. Reducing the corn planting area and developing high-efficiency cash crops are also regarded by the government as an objective need to innovate agricultural production and management methods and carry out industrial poverty alleviation. Sun Zhigang once wrote in the magazine "Qiushi" that the traditional small peasant economy has seriously restricted the development of rural areas and the progress of poverty alleviation.

However, the gentle guidance on reducing corn planting area seems to have little effect. According to Guizhou Daily, in 2017, the Guizhou Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial Government made special arrangements for reducing corn planting area, but only 375,700 mu was reduced in one year.

Half a year after Sun Zhigang took over as provincial party secretary, on January 24, 2018, the General Office of the Guizhou Provincial People's Government issued the "Notice on Winning the Battle of Strategic Adjustment of Planting Industry Structure" (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice"), which emphasized that all dryland basic farmland should be planted with cash crops and the traditional habit of planting corn should be completely changed.

The "Notice" issued by the General Office of the Guizhou Provincial People's Government at that time was declared invalid two years later

The policy of Guizhou Province requires that all localities should reduce corn planting and promote the layout of alternative crop planting in accordance with the idea of ​​"cultivated land below 15 degrees should be mainly converted to vegetable, edible fungi, herbal Chinese medicinal materials and other high-yield crops; cultivated land with slopes of 15-25 degrees should be mainly converted to vegetable, woody Chinese medicinal materials, tea, high-quality fruits, etc.; all sloping dry land above 25 degrees should be converted back to forest and grassland, and the forest returned should be mainly economic fruit forest, and the forest economy should be vigorously developed"

On March 8, 2018, the Guizhou delegation to the First Session of the 13th National People's Congress held an open day. Sun Zhigang said on the spot that promoting agricultural supply-side structural reform and adjusting the rural industrial structure are urgent, arduous and complex, and it will be difficult to achieve without extraordinary measures. Therefore, "a profound industrial revolution is needed to revitalize the rural economy."

"This revolution was 'forced'. The self-sufficient peasant economy and the traditional inefficient and extensive development mode are difficult to adapt to the needs of the modern market economy. We have been committed to adjusting the rural economic structure, but the results have been minimal and progress has been slow." In August 2019, Sun Zhigang said at a press conference of the State Council Information Office.

At the end of March 2018, at the second meeting of the Standing Committee of the 12th Guizhou Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, relevant officials emphasized that reducing the corn planting area is a strategic arrangement made by the Guizhou Provincial Party Committee based on the overall situation. Reducing the corn planting area from 11 million mu to 6 million mu in 2018 is a strategic task that must be completed in the province.

A vigorous campaign to reduce corn planting has been launched across Guizhou Province.

In order to promote this profound industrial revolution to revitalize the rural economy, Sun Zhigang decided to further promote the "five-step working method" he had previously created in Guizhou Province: policy design, work deployment, cadre training, supervision and inspection, and accountability. He believes that these five steps are closely linked and form a closed loop, providing execution guarantees for this expected reform.

The above-mentioned "Notice" also proposed that the Provincial Agricultural Committee take the lead in supervising and evaluating the strategic adjustment of the planting industry structure, and report or interview those who have a lax style, engage in fraud, work poorly or make slow progress.

Pressure is transmitted downwards, and many districts, counties, cities and prefectures in Guizhou Province have formulated strategic goals and implementation plans for the battle to adjust the structure of rural planting. For example, Guiyang City proposed to reduce the planting area of ​​inefficient corn by 620,000 mu, involving 204,672 households in 575 villages. By the end of 2018, the city's inefficient corn planting will be fully adjusted to characteristic high-efficiency cash crops; by the end of 2019, the city's areas dominated by grain corn planting will be fully adjusted to characteristic high-efficiency cash crop areas.

A professional from the agricultural sector in Guiyang City told Interface News that agricultural structural adjustment could have increased farmers' income, such as how much money could be earned per acre of land by planting new crops, and it would have also helped in poverty alleviation. However, government departments over-exerted their efforts in implementation, and the impact of policy changes on agricultural production was too great. In some places, there were even cases of grassroots staff pulling up corn seedlings and fighting with farmers.

"People have always had the habit of growing corn, but suddenly they are not allowed to do so. Many people don't understand and can't figure it out." A person in charge of the management department of a large agricultural county in Guizhou Province told Interface News.

"There are many voices of opposition. Everyone thinks this practice is not appropriate. Farmers have been growing corn for generations, and it is not something that can be changed just by saying so. However, these opinions are expressed in private, and we cannot go against our superiors," said the above-mentioned professional from Guiyang's agricultural department.

The controversial incident gradually attracted attention from the outside world. "If you dare to plant, I dare to remove, and I will never leave corn stalks. To get out of poverty and be happy, don't plant corn." In March 2018, a slogan posted in a village in Shangsi Town, Dushan County, Guizhou Province went viral on the Internet. In response, Shangsi Town said that the village did not fully understand the policy and the slogan had been removed.

Other media reported that Zhouxi Village in Kaili City issued a "Notice on Adjusting Corn Planting Structure", which prohibits planting corn in multiple places in the village. If reported or punished, the cooperative medical subsidy for three years will be exempted. Subsequently, the Zhouxi Town Government urgently explained that because the Zhouxi Village Party Branch and Village Committee had not filed a record with the town government, the notice it issued was stopped.

In the face of the chaos, on April 3, 2018, the Office of the Guizhou Provincial Agricultural Committee issued an "Emergency Notice on Further Strengthening the Propaganda and Guidance Work on Reducing and Adjusting Corn Planting" to correct the situation. It stated that reducing corn planting does not mean not planting corn, but planting good and high-quality corn. It is not allowed to simply and crudely "cut across the board", especially for the corn that farmers have already planted, it is strictly forbidden to roughly eradicate it, and resolutely prevent the legitimate rights and interests of the masses from being damaged due to inadequate work and causing mass incidents.

Not all grassroots governments ignore reality and obey orders blindly. A corn planting expert in Guizhou Province who requested anonymity said that during the corn planting ban period, some places implemented controls on the sale of corn seeds from the source. The superiors required that corn seeds should not appear on the market, which put a lot of pressure on the agricultural department, that is, they had to supervise the sale of seeds but could not violate administrative laws. Some places would find ways to relax the requirements, and smart places would make some adjustments to emphasize that "low-efficiency corn cannot be planted (implying that high-value-added corn varieties can still be planted)".

Li Zaiyong, the former vice governor of Guizhou Province who was dismissed before Sun Zhigang, is a negative example of pursuing "political achievement projects". During his tenure in Liupanshui City, he pushed for the adjustment of the agricultural industrial structure and proposed to build a 1 million mu sea buckthorn industry. Li Zaiyong later said in a special anti-corruption film by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection that the main reason for requiring large-scale planting was to make it look good, hoping that the leaders could see the industry everywhere when they were in the car.

Li Zaiyong was just sentenced to suspended death penalty. Pictured is the court trial scene

According to the above-mentioned professional from the Guiyang Municipal Agricultural Department, in order to ban corn planting, Li Zaiyong would use a telescope to check roadsides, mountain valleys and other areas. Under pressure from him, the local agricultural department privately proposed not to plant corn near highways, "Don't let the roadsides be an eyesore, give farmers subsidies to plant other crops, and don't worry about the mountains."

Reducing the corn planting area seems to have a great effect. In June 2018, the Guizhou Provincial Agricultural Committee released statistics showing that as of now, Guizhou Province has reduced the corn planting area by more than 7.92 million mu. At the same time, it has formed alternative crops to plant vegetables of 1.73 million mu, tea of ​​more than 370,000 mu, edible fungi of more than 50,000 mu, Chinese medicinal materials of more than 920,000 mu, fruits of more than 1.7 million mu, and other crops of more than 3.13 million mu (1.2 million mu of forage).

In March 2019, Sun Zhigang stated at the National People's Congress that Guizhou's rural industrial revolution achieved remarkable results in 2018, reducing the planting area of ​​inefficient corn by 7.85 million mu and adding 6.67 million mu of high-efficiency economic crops.

Regarding these data, local people in Guizhou who were interviewed by Interface News clarified that this is not the real situation, and that it is just “data coming up, data going up.”

"In fact, the reduction was not that much. It was mainly because it needed to be shown in the data. There was nothing we could do about it. At that time, many districts and counties reported that (corn planting) was cleared, but in fact it certainly could not be cleared. The land contract right itself belongs to the farmers. If he wants to plant it himself, no matter how much work is done on a household basis, it cannot be cleared to zero." The person in charge of the management department of the above-mentioned large agricultural county told Interface News that the province's corn planting area has definitely decreased in the past few years, but it is not as much as advertised above. It is impossible for it to be reduced by tens of thousands of acres every year.

Public data shows that after the campaign-style reduction in 2018, by 2019, although some cities and counties are still setting annual reduction targets, the Guizhou provincial level has gradually reduced its voice on corn planting. Jiemian News checked the government work report at the Guizhou Provincial Two Sessions and found that except for the mention of "changing the tradition of growing corn" in 2018, corn was not mentioned in the 2019 and 2020 government work reports when deploying work arrangements. The focus was on optimizing the planting structure and vigorously developing agricultural specialty industries.

Sun Zhigang also admitted that the work of reducing corn planting area is controversial, but he is still defending his work. In January 2020, when he attended the joint group meeting of the 3rd Session of the 12th Guizhou Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, he talked about that in 2018, Guizhou Province proposed to adjust the agricultural structure and used "reducing corn" as a breakthrough point, which caused a lot of controversy. He also said, "Looking at the 'autumn accounts', 7 million mu was reduced in 2018, and each mu brought in 3,000 yuan or even tens of thousands of yuan in income. In 2019, everyone's thoughts were unified, and we have adjusted more than 10 million mu so far."

In May 2020, Sun Zhigang said in an exclusive interview with People's Daily Online that driven by the rural industrial revolution, Guizhou's agricultural industry added value growth rate ranked among the top in the country for two consecutive years in 2018 and 2019, and the planting scale of edible fungi, passion fruit, and chives in Guizhou Province also jumped to the forefront of the country. "The practice in the past two years has fully proved that the rural industrial revolution is in line with the decision-making and deployment of the Party Central Committee, the requirements of the new development concept, and the actual situation of Guizhou Province." He emphasized.

"In fact, it was the year he retired as the provincial party secretary (2020), some cities and prefectures reported the problems to the State Council. At that time, there were rumors in the official circles that the State Council would send an investigation team to Guizhou. Under pressure, Sun Zhigang had to relax the requirements and no longer emphasize the rigid assessment of local officials." The above-mentioned Guiyang Municipal Agriculture Department professional who is close to the decision-making level introduced.

The source said that in order to reduce the corn planting area, Sun Zhigang had repeatedly stressed, "I have no other way but to remove the officials." After alerting the State Council, Sun Zhigang said that since the farmers did not understand the work, they should slowly accept it. "He said these words to save himself, that is, to give up the forced corn revolution."

In November 2020, Sun Zhigang was removed from his post as secretary of the Guizhou Provincial Party Committee. In August 2023, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervisory Commission officially announced that Sun Zhigang had been removed from office.

On May 20, 2024, the Guizhou Provincial Leading Group for Promoting Reform through the Case of Sun Zhigang's Serious Violations of Discipline and Laws held a meeting to emphasize that Sun Zhigang's pernicious influence and adverse effects must be eradicated. On May 27, Guizhou Province held a warning education conference to emphasize that leading cadres at all levels must deeply learn the lessons of the misplaced concept of political achievements, fully and accurately implement the new development concept, and firmly establish a concept of political achievements that benefit the people.

The development of Guizhou's corn industry quickly returned to normal. In October 2023, Xinhua News Agency quoted data from the Guizhou Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, reporting that the corn planting area in Guizhou Province had reached 10.091 million mu that year.

"Now the country attaches great importance to food security. The provincial government and agricultural authorities attach great importance to the corn industry. Farmers' planting demand has basically recovered. The current corn area is still a little less than before the reduction. This year it can reach a little more than 10 million mu. In the future it should be able to return to the previous planting area." According to the expert from the above-mentioned corn research unit, in the future the corn planting area in Guizhou Province is even expected to develop to 18-20 million mu.

"The chaos in the past few years did not have much impact on the development of the corn industry. The reduction was only in numbers, and the actual planting area of ​​farmers still existed relatively, so the subsequent recovery was also very fast." An agricultural expert in Guizhou Province said, "Corn is indeed a rigid demand for farmers. There will be no situation of unsalable crops. Farmers can consume it for their own living. As long as the production level can ensure a good harvest, the back-end risks will definitely be relatively small."

"After Sun Zhigang stepped down, there was no further reduction in corn production after 2021. We knew at the time that it would be planted again. If the people were not allowed to farm, what would they plant if not grain? Whether farming is profitable or not, the people will ultimately have to decide for themselves," said the person in charge of the management department of a large agricultural county mentioned above.