Editor's note
Born from the past and the present, the future is bred. This year marks the 45th anniversary of the establishment of China Merchants Shekou, and after 45 years of wind and rain, spring and autumn, China Merchants Shekou has responded to the situation, dared to be the first in the world, led the trend in the wave of reform and opening up, and wrote a brilliant answer sheet on the road of high-quality development. To this end, we have specially set up a column of "That Year and Today", at the critical moment of inheriting the past and the future, recalling the past and learning from the past.
April 23, 2024 is the 107th anniversary of the birth of Comrade Yuan Geng, former executive vice chairman of China Merchants Group and former director of the Management Committee of Shekou Industrial Zone.
He is the soul of China Merchants Shekou Industrial Zone
The main promoter of the "second venture" of China Merchants in the past century
China's reform and opening up is symbolic
One of the forerunners and explorers
Founder of the "Shekou Model" in the experimental field of reform and opening up
"Pioneer of Reform" and "The Most Beautiful Struggler"
……
He is Yuan Geng
Yuan Geng, formerly known as Ouyang Rushan, was born on April 23, 1917 in Shuibei Village, Dapeng District, Bao'an County, Guangdong Province (now Buxin Community, Dapeng New District, Shenzhen) in a seafarer family.
△ Yuan Geng's former residence
This hot-blooded young man who walked out of Shenzhen, through the smoke of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the artillery fire of the War of Liberation, from military intelligence to national diplomacy, from the hidden front to the outpost of reform, in various historical periods, he loyally dedicated himself to the cause of the party and the country with superhuman wisdom, outstanding courage and brave spirit, and wrote a pure life. In particular, since the Third Plenary Session of the 11 th CPC Central Committee, China has made positive explorations and outstanding contributions to China's reform and opening up.
△ Yuan Geng in different periods
Yuan Geng wrote his legendary life with ups and downs with his commanding struggle, and also painted the responsibility and responsibility of a revolutionary and reformer, becoming a "pioneer of reform" and "the most beautiful struggler".
In the years of beacon fire, the pen was thrown from Rong
At the age of 14, Yuan Geng was admitted to Guangya No. 1 Middle School in Guangdong Province with the 8th place in the entrance examination.
In 1936, Yuan Geng was admitted to the fourth branch of the Whampoa Military Academy at the age of 19. After the "77 Incident", the military academy was disheartened, and Yuan Geng was disappointed with the current situation and returned to his hometown angrily. After returning to his hometown, Yuan Geng was invited to substitute teach at his alma mater, Dapeng Xinmin Primary School, and actively participated in anti-Japanese propaganda activities. Soon after, he joined the anti-Japanese self-defense brigade in his hometown of Dapeng.
△ The predecessor of the Guangzhou branch of the Central Military Academy where Yuan Geng studied
During the war years, the young Yuan Geng was determined to save the country. In 1939, Yuan Geng joined the Communist Party of China. It was also in this year that he joined the Dongjiang Column of the Guangdong anti-Japanese guerrillas. Two years later, under the noses of the Japanese, Yuan Geng and his comrades-in-arms rescued more than 800 patriotic democrats who had been arrested by the Japanese army due to the fall of Hong Kong, including He Xiangning, Liu Yazi, Hu Die and other elites from all walks of life.
△ Yuan Geng's Hong Kong and Kowloon Brigade of the Dongjiang Column was searched by the Japanese army when he was rescuing patriotic democrats
In the later period of the Anti-Japanese War, Yuan Geng was responsible for two major discoveries in the intelligence system: first, the fortifications built by the Japanese army along the coast of Shantou and Dongshan Island were discovered and mapped. Second, the most elite Bolei units of the Japanese army were found in Guangzhou and Dongguan. Based on intelligence, the Allies eventually abandoned their plan to fight the Japanese head-on and ended the war by dropping two atomic bombs on Japanese soil.
Special front, guarding security
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Yuan Geng, as an intelligence and artillery adviser, went to Vietnam in April 1950 to help the war.
In 1955, Premier Zhou Enlai went to Jakarta to attend the Bandung Conference, and Yuan Geng, as the consul of the Chinese Consulate General in Jakarta, assumed the important responsibility of ensuring the security of the Chinese delegation to the Bandung Conference and successfully completed the task.
△ Yuan Geng's work photo at the Consulate General in Jakarta, Indonesia in 1955
In 1963, after Yuan Geng became the deputy director of the First Bureau of the Central Investigation Department, he led a team to crack the "Xiangjiang Case" and annihilated the Kuomintang spy organization that attempted to assassinate President Liu Shaoqi who was preparing to visit Cambodia.
Lao Ji Fu Fang, founded the "test tube"
In September 1978, with the approval of the State Council, the Party Group of the Ministry of Communications of the Communist Party of China decided to send Yuan Geng, then the head of the Foreign Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of Communications, to preside over the work of China Merchants in Hong Kong, and in October of that year, he served as the executive vice chairman of China Merchants.
△ Yuan Geng when he was the executive vice chairman of China Merchants in 1978
Yuan Geng was 61 years old at the time, and he was already "ship to the dock and car to the station" ready to return to his hometown, but he did not hesitate to obey the organization's decision.
After arriving in Hong Kong, the vigorous and resolute Yuan Geng actively investigated and drafted a "Request for Instructions on the Issue of Making Full Use of the Hong Kong Merchants Bureau" to the Party Central Committee and the State Council in the name of the party group of the Ministry of Communications, boldly putting forward the development policy of "basing on Hong Kong and Macao, relying on the domestic market, facing overseas, diversified operations, combining business and commerce, and combining industry and commerce". Subsequently, Yuan Geng inspected everywhere and selected Shekou, Shenzhen, which was still barren at that time, as the base for China Merchants to develop industry and establish factories.
△In 1978, the leadership team of China Merchants Bureau was discussing problems
△In 1978, Yuan Geng inspected Shekou Bay
Yuan Geng said: "I hope that people will see Shekou as a test tube, a test tube that injects beneficial economic factors from outside to reform the traditional economic system." ”
At the beginning of 1979, after the request for the construction of Shekou Industrial Zone was approved by the central government, Shekou, the first "test tube" in China to reform, open up and rise, began to take the lead in experimenting under the leadership of Yuan Geng, carrying out pioneering and innovative and arduous entrepreneurship.
In July 1979, the sound of cannons from the opening of mountains and reclamation woke up the sleeping Shekou, which was the first shot of China's reform and opening up. Since the establishment of Shekou Industrial Zone, under the leadership of Yuan Geng, it has continuously broken the ideological shackles, emancipated the mind, boldly practiced, put forward a series of new concepts that are compatible with the market economy, carried out a series of new changes in the system and mechanism, and adopted a series of new measures to promote economic and social development.
△ In 1979, the "first shot of reform and opening up" exploded in Shekou Industrial Zone
△ The gate of Shekou Industrial Zone
In particular, in 1981, Yuan Geng put forward the slogan of "time is money, efficiency is life", which brought a strong impact to the conservative and rigid old thinking, and made people gradually realize that in order to develop, we must emancipate our minds, seek truth from facts, overcome habitual thinking that does not conform to reality, and break the subjective bias that restricts development.
△ Yuan Geng's slogan of "time is money, efficiency is life".
△ In 1992, a placard was erected on the streets of Shekou, Shenzhen, which reads "Empty talk misleads the country and hard work prospers the country".
Thanks to his unremitting efforts, the Shekou Industrial Zone quickly developed, and various reform measures set the stage for the whole country. Shekou under Yuan Geng's administration created 24 national firsts at that time: the first in the country to implement open recruitment of talents, the first to implement project bidding, the first to carry out the reform of the distribution system, the first to realize the commercialization of housing, the first to establish a social security system, the first to build the first open port run by enterprises, and the first joint-stock company.
△ In 1979, the construction site of Wuwan Shun'an Wharf in Shekou Industrial Zone
Yuan Geng also presided over the establishment of the China Merchants Cadre Training Center in Shekou, introducing, absorbing, and digesting advanced foreign management ideas and skills, and taking "cultivating people who deal with the world" as the "school motto", and cultivating a large number of talents who have made a career in reform and opening up.
△ Yuan Geng delivered a speech at the opening ceremony of the first training course for enterprise management cadres in Shekou Industrial Zone
△ Yuan Geng gave a lecture to the trainees of the cadre management training course
In March 1993, Yuan Geng retired from the post of executive vice chairman of China Merchants. During his years at the helm of China Merchants, the assets of China Merchants increased by nearly 117 times, from RMB 48 million to RMB 5.6 billion, and a century-old enterprise was revitalized, creating the second glory in the history of China Merchants.
In the early morning of January 31, 2016, Yuan Geng died of illness in Shenzhen at the age of 99. The Si people are gone, but the spirit lives on. Today, we commemorate it for a better inheritance.
There is no more Yuan Geng in the world, and the reform is still ongoing
On the day of Yuan Geng's death, people from all walks of life came to Shekou to express their condolences, and Shenzhen residents spontaneously lit candles at Shekou Sea World to remember Yuan Geng. People cherish the memory of Yuan Geng's will to dare to fight, pioneer and innovate in his life, and admire his spirit of working hard and dedicating himself to the cause of the country's reform and opening up.
"There is no more Yuan Geng in the world, and the reform is still ongoing." Yuan Geng's courage and spirit of exploration and innovation to break the old system and seek a new way out are still shining, and continue to inspire and guide people to open up, struggle and move forward.
Go forward, don't look back
On April 23 this year, the 107th anniversary of Mr. Yuan Geng's birth, many volunteers and community residents spontaneously came to the bronze statue of Yuan Geng at the Sea World Culture and Art Center to offer flowers and pay tribute to the old man Yuan Geng. Yuan Geng on the statue is tall, his eyes are blazing, and he strides forward, conveying the spirit of the times of "go forward, don't look back" to future generations.
△ Bronze statue of Yuan Geng of Shenzhen Shekou Sea World Culture and Art Center
△ Shekou residents lay flowers in front of the bronze statue of Yuan Geng
In the past years, it is the older generation of Shekou people represented by Yuan Geng who dared to be the first, bravely shouldered heavy burdens and worked hard to open up with deep feelings for their family and country, creating a passionate Shekou "test tube", which laid a solid foundation for us to build a world-class enterprise today.
△ Faucet Today
In 2024, China Merchants Shekou will celebrate its 45th anniversary. After 45 years, we will continue the spirit of Shekou and move forward with Shekou, with a strong sense of responsibility and mission, and move forward steadfastly!