Thirty Years of Turbulence - Chinese Enterprises

作者：admin  点击次数：21  发布时间：2025-06-10

Yuan Geng turned Shekou into the most prominent testing ground in China at that time, and he put all his professional life on it without any intention of retreating. There are literature records that Ren Zhongyi, the then Secretary of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee, mobilized Yuan Geng several times to serve as the Mayor of Shenzhen, but he firmly refused. Yuan Geng, who has already passed the retirement threshold of 60 years old, clearly wants to achieve all his ideals in Shekou.

Yuan Geng is very good at using rapid economic growth to gain support from the central government, and in this regard, he can be said to have a deep understanding of China's officialdom. In 1982, he had someone make a large signboard and plant it at the entrance of the industrial zone management committee, with the words "Time is money, efficiency is life." This slogan caused widespread controversy at the beginning. In 1984, when Deng Xiaoping inspected Shekou, Yuan Geng cunningly attacked Deng Xiaoping and his troops while accompanying the report. He asked himself in a self questioning and self answering tone, "I don't know if this slogan is taboo or not? We don't know if the risks we take are correct. We don't ask Comrade Xiaoping to make a statement on the spot, we only ask for permission to continue practicing and experimenting." It is said that when Yuan Geng said this, Deng Xiaoping and the people present laughed. Afterwards, this slogan became popular throughout the country and became the most famous classic quote of the reform at that time.