Explorations in Social Systems Engineering: The Life of an Intellectual in China (1925 to the Present) 981153389X, 9789811533891

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Huijiong Wang

Explorations in Social Systems Engineering The Life of an Intellectual in China (1925 to the Present)

Explorations in Social Systems Engineering

Huijiong Wang

Explorations in Social Systems Engineering The Life of an Intellectual in China (1925 to the Present)

123

Huijiong Wang Academic Committee Development Research Center of the State Council Beijing, China

ISBN 978-981-15-3389-1 ISBN 978-981-15-3390-7 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-3390-7

(eBook)

© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore

Foreword

This book tells the remarkable life story of an enormously talented intellectual against the backdrop of the turbulent history of China since 1925. For readers of its author’s Introduction to Social Systems Engineering (published in 2018 and co-authored with Shantong Li), it will be of much interest as an explanation of the long mental and practical journey from which that great work emerged. For all readers, it will be of much interest as an account of how the impressive development of one individual interacted with the—eventually—impressive development of a vast country with an ancient civilisation. The story starts in Shanghai, where an initially prosperous traditional Chinese family living in a foreign enclave is about to be hit by a series of terrible shocks— Great Depression, Japanese invasion, Second World War, and civil war. Yet through ingenuity, adaptability and hard work, combined with innate ability, the author manages to get an excellent education and an excellent first job as an electrical engineer in a power company. Thirty years in China’s most advanced city are followed by twenty years in Yunnan, one of its least developed provinces. The personal challenges of a lower standard of living for the author and his family, and the professional challenges of expanding the province’s electricity network, are compounded by the political upheavals of the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution. Fortunately, the need for the author’s engineering skills to keep Yunnan’s lights on saves him from the worst excesses of those upheavals. Amazingly, he also begins to think and write more broadly about systems engineering, eventually producing a major book in 1980. Even more amazingly, in the new dawn of progress for China led by Deng Xiaoping, he decides at the age of 55 to transform himself into a social scientist and moves to a job at the centre of Chinese policy-making in Beijing. He teaches himself economics and absorbs knowledge from the unprecedented freedom to interact with foreign researchers and international organisations, as well as learning from a major project to design a development strategy for Shanxi province. This is followed by work on China’s development to the year 2000, new technology, industrial strategy, and integrated development. v

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These elements of the author’s new career continue for more than three decades: involvement in many important Chinese policy research projects in a wide range of fields and interaction with people and institutions around the world. But despite all these other demands on his time, he again begins to think and write even more broadly, extending his earlier work on systems engineering to encompass society as a whole. This original and important line of scholarship culminates, at the age of 93, in his 2018 book on social systems engineering. I had the good luck to meet Prof. Wang in the early 1980s, when I too was deeply engaged—as a World Bank staff member—in a study of China’s development prospects over the next two decades, with which he and his colleagues gave us a lot of help. I have had the benefit of his friendship and—alas intermittently—the pleasure of his company ever since. Despite our many conversations, this book was still a revelation to me. I knew very little—and was fascinated to learn more—about his life and work in the half-century before we met. I had also not realised the full number and range of the activities in which he has been involved since we first met. I knew that his interests and expertise spanned the world, but had not realised that they extended to lunar exploration! I was impressed, too, by the style in which the book is written. The narrative in all its chapters is organised in a scientific framework, distinguishing the influence on his life of changes in the macrosystem, exosystem, mesosystem and microsystem. Woven into the narrative, however, are countless personal observations, including candid discussion of his approach to overcoming various setbacks and affectionate glimpses into his family life, enhanced by nice pictures. There is thus much in this unusual book for readers to learn from, be inspired by, and enjoy. January 2020

Adrian Wood Professor Emeritus of International Development University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

Preface

This book forms a companion volume of Introduction to Social Systems Engineering (Wang H. J. & Li S. T.) published by Springer in April 2018. I feel social systems engineering is such a complex and emerging discipline that acceptance of its basic principles and contents is relatively difficult. Then I sent a Chinese book proposal to China office of Springer in early this year. That book was a book with the nature of my biography but was written by other people based upon my Chinese oral presentation. Thanks to the local editor, she accepted my book proposal and changed the name of the book into: Exploration in Social Systems Engineering—The Life of an Intellectual of China (1925 to the Present). I am very satisfied with this theme and it is exactly I wish to write in this new book. The theme of this book combines two elements, the first: the process of exploration of social systems engineering; the second, I was one of the intellectuals lived in a relatively longer life. I may see and know more than other intellectuals. Furthermore, I have a unique personal working experience compared to other intellectuals, I had worked in both Chinese engineering field and policy consultative service field. I had seen so many tremendous changes of the world, large or small. For example the two world wars in the twentieth century, the Sino-Japanese War, the Civil War of China, the first Great Depression since 1929, the second economic crisis in 2008. I always wondered about the basic nature of human beings. The Chinese Scholar Xunzi said “It was bad.” But the scholar Mencius said “It was good”. But both had the same conclusion “Education is crucial.” To express further in contemporary words, the behavior and the nature of mankind is nurtured, rather than natured. Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model’s macrosystem, exosystem, mesosystem and microsystem have an important influence on the action and behavior of human beings. My initial technical background was electrical engineering. But I had published two volumes of Chinese version “An Introduction to System Engineering” around 1980, after 30 years of service in Chinese power industry. After that, I had a unique opportunity to take part in the national open examination of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. I passed the examination, and became a senior social researcher and was allocated by the Chinese government to vii

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the Technical Economic Research Center of the State Council, a reform measure to provide policy consultative service for the government. Later, it was emerged with other research institutes to form Development Research Center of the State Council. I worked in this center around 30 years, which gives me a very good opportunity for the exploration of social systems engineering. I valued highly the works and learning in the center from 1980 to 2009. But I am also confident on Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model to describe the environmental context of human development. If effort can be done by designing and shaping environment, the micro-, the meso-, the exo- and the macrosystem which effect the development of the human being, these are the basic areas of study and application of social systems engineering, possibly, a better society can be formed in a long term if it has wider recognition and application. That’s the basic reason of my exploration of social systems engineering. This book contains 10 chapters. The contents of chapters from Chaps. 3 to 9 are works and learning. They are enormous accumulated raw materials in these periods. All of them have been subjected to detailed scientific synthesis and analysis. The shaping process of intermediary products and final product is shown clearly in Chap. 10 of this book. I expect sincerely this book Explorations in Social Systems Engineering—The Life of an Intellectual of China (1925 to the Present) can achieve its purpose, i.e., to raise the interest of the readers to the study of social systems engineering in spite of its wider scope of study and to be intellectual of China. I have the same feeling, expectation and psychology, which are common to all intellectuals. If we do something with purpose, we do expect the purpose can be achieved!! I also expect this book may share some events or experience that are unique to a Chinese intellectual who are 94 years this year. I also expect this book may share the spirit of determinism throughout one’s life to explore something that may have benefits to the prosperity of the mankind, even if it is in the nano scale. Finally, I shall thank my close friends, Robert W. Gutkin and Michael X. Ye; my daughters Wang Qi and Wang Ping; and my assistants, Guo Jingning (Secretary), Chen Jiachuan (Doctoral Student) and Wen Jing (Doctoral Student). They had assisted greatly in the publication of this book. Beijing, China

Huijiong Wang

Contents

1

Childhood, Adolescence and My Family (1925–1943) . . . . . . . . . 1.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2 The Macro-environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2.1 Influence of Macro-environment on the Development of Personality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2.2 Influence of Japanese Invasion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2.3 Influence of the Great Depression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.3 The Exosystem Areas of Concession of Foreign Governments in Shanghai . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.4 The Microsystem—The Unique Aspects of My Family . . . . . 1.4.1 My Father . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.4.2 My Mother . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.4.3 My Childhood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.5 School Life—Primary School and My First Year of Junior Middle School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.5.1 Life and Learning at the Primary School . . . . . . . . . 1.5.2 Life in the First Year of Junior Middle School . . . . . 1.6 Life in Zhou Zhuang—A Unique Period . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.6.1 General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.6.2 A Brief Description of Zhou Zhuang—Past and Present . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.6.3 My Daily Life at Zhou Zhuang . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.6.4 Learning and Japanese Occupation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.6.5 My Return to Shanghai . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.7 Life in the Middle School in Shanghai (Li Da Academy) . . . 1.7.1 Macro-, Meso- and Micro-environment . . . . . . . . . . 1.7.2 Life in Li Da Academy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.7.3 Dissolution of Li Da Academy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Life at Shi Cheng Middle School and Challenges of Various Examinations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.8.1 Beginning a Life of Independence . . . . . . 1.8.2 Life at Shi Cheng Middle School . . . . . . 1.8.3 University Entrance Examinations . . . . . . 1.9 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Life and Learning as a University Student and an Apprentice Engineer (1943–1951) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2 Life and Learning at Shanghai Jiao Tong University . . . . . . 2.2.1 Shanghai Jiao Tong University . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2.2 My Life and Learning in My Freshman and Sophomore Years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2.3 Formal Student of Shanghai Jiao Tong University in Senior Year . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.3 Graduation and Job Seeking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.3.1 Graduation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.3.2 Job Seeking and Landing an Apprentice Engineer at Shanghai Power Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.4 Life and Learning at SPC—General Training at SPC (1947.9–1949.4) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.4.1 Learning at SPC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.4.2 General Training at SPC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.4.3 Life as an Apprentice Engineer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.5 Life and Learning at SPC—Generation Department (1949.5–1950.3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.5.1 Learning in the Generation Department . . . . . . . . . 2.5.2 Life in the Generation Department . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.6 Life and Specialization Training at SPC—Engineering Department (1950.4–1951.8) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.6.1 Specialization Assigned . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.6.2 General Training in the Engineering Department . . 2.6.3 Specialization in Engineering Department (1950.9–1951.8) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.7 Life and Health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.7.1 A Stable Life But Health Breakdown . . . . . . . . . . 2.7.2 Analysis of Health Breakdown and Practice and Exercise for Recovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.8 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Works and Life in Engineering Design at Shanghai and Yunnan Province (1951–1969) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.2 Assistant Engineer at SPC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.2.1 Work in the Engineering Department and Bureau of Power Supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.2.2 Reorganization of SPC and Transfer of My Work 3.3 Work and Life in Engineering Department of East China Naval Headquarter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.3.1 Work at the Engineering Department . . . . . . . . . . 3.3.2 Plan and Design of Electric System of a Ship Building Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.3.3 Design of Electricity Supply and Utilization System for a Naval Base . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.3.4 Impact of Exosystem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.3.5 Marriage and Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.3.6 Work and Life Since 1955 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.3.7 Transferred Back to Electric Power Industry . . . . 3.3.8 Farewell Shanghai, Heading to Kunming . . . . . . . 3.3.9 Initial Period in Kunming Hydropower Design Institute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.3.10 Chief Design Engineer of Yangzonghai Thermal Power Plant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.3.11 Deputy Director of the Second Design Office . . . . 3.3.12 Chief Engineer of Design Department of Bureau of Electricity, Yunnan Province (BEYP) . . . . . . . 3.3.13 My Life During the Cultural Revolution . . . . . . . 3.4 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Work, Learning, Life and Publication During the Period in the Bureau of Electricity Yunnan Province (BEYP) (1970–1980) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.2 Change of Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.2.1 Stages of China’s Cultural Revolution . . . . . . . 4.2.2 Important Historical Events-Chinese 11th CPC Central Committee Third Plenary Session . . . . 4.3 Work in the BEYP (1970–1977) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.3.1 Work in the BEYP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.3.2 Selected Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.4 Deputy Chief Engineer of BEYP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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4.4.1 4.4.2

Routine Work at BEYP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Non-routine Work Between BEYP and Other Institutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.4.3 Major Difficulty with Parts and Accessories of Domestic Made Equipment Before 1980 . . . . . . . 4.4.4 Importance of Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.5 Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.5.1 Some Basic Principles of My Learning in This Period . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.5.2 Participate the First Chief Engineers’ Power Grid Research Class Organized by Ministry of Electric Power Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.6 Family Life and Personal Life in the Period of 1970–1980 . . 4.6.1 Family Life in This Period . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.6.2 Personal Life and Social Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.7 Writing and Publishing Introduction of Systems Engineering (Chinese Version) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.7.1 Writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.7.2 Publishing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.7.3 Impact of the Publication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.8 Translations of Selected Parts of Introduction of Systems Engineering (Chinese Version) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.8.1 Translation of Preface of Introduction of Systems Engineering (Chinese Version) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.8.2 Translation of Postscript of Introduction of Systems Engineering (Chinese Version, Volume II) . . . . . . . . 4.8.3 Comparison of Contents of the First Western Book Systems Engineering: An Introduction to the Design of Large-Scale System and My Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.9 Became Researcher of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) Through National Examination . . . . . . . . . 4.9.1 National Examination by Chinese Academy of Social Sciences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.9.2 Relocation to Beijing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.9.3 Initial Period in Chinese Academy of Social Sciences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.10 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Period of Transition from Engineering to Social Science (1980–1983) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.2 Change of Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.3 Transition via Knowledge Acquisition from International Organization—Short Term UNIDO Consultant . . . . . . . . . 5.3.1 Participating in the Joint Research of UNITAD Project Between UNIDO and Chinese Academy of Social Science (CASS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.3.2 Brief Description of UNIDO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.3.3 Our Work at UNIDO—Working on UNITAD Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.3.4 Personal Learning Plan at UNIDO and Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.3.5 Collection of Valuable Information and References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.3.6 Establishing Social Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.3.7 Life in Vienna and Beyond . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.4 Transfer to Technical Economic Research Center of the State Council . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.4.1 Abstract of Official Document Concerning Establishment of TERC of the State Council . . . . 5.4.2 Establishing TERC and My Work at Its Inception (1982) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.5 Transition via Practice with China’s Domestic Project—Comprehensive Planning of Shanxi Energy and Heavy Chemical Base . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.5.1 Background of the Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.5.2 Preparation Before Formal Project Launch . . . . . . 5.5.3 Organizing Expert Consultation Meeting on Pipeline Coal Transportation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.5.4 TERC’s First Expert Consultative Conference on the Development of Coal Energy Base of Shansi Province in July 1981 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.5.5 Project Launch—Comprehensive Planning of Energy and Heavy Chemical Base of Shanxi Province . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.5.6 My Role as a Chief Consultant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.5.7 Completion of the Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.6 Approval of TERC Leadership by the Central Committee . 5.7 Seminar on Economic Evaluation of Construction and Reconstruction Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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5.7.1

Seminar on Economic Evaluation of Construction and Reconstruction of Projects, October 20–24, 1983 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.7.2 Post-seminar Impact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.8 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

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Work, Learning, and Life Prior to Joining Development Research Center of the State Council (1983–1990) . . . . . . . . . . 6.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.2 Organizational Changes and Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.2.1 Environment and Organizational Change . . . . . . . . 6.2.2 Organization in the Period of TERC . . . . . . . . . . . 6.2.3 Organization in the Period of RCETSD . . . . . . . . . 6.3 China Toward the Year 2000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.3.1 Initiation of the Study and Period of Preparation . . 6.3.2 Launch of the Project and the Process of Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.3.3 Completion of the Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.4 Impact of Study of China Toward the Year 2000 . . . . . . . . 6.4.1 Influence on the Reform of Chinese Planning System from Both Central and Provincial Level . . . 6.4.2 Impact on the Research of Academic Field . . . . . . 6.4.3 Opening the Channel to Cooperate with the World Bank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.5 New Technology Revolution and China’s Countermeasure Research (1983.10–1984.5) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.5.1 Origin of the Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.5.2 Organization and Process of the Project . . . . . . . . . 6.5.3 The Result . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.6 Industrial Policies Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.6.1 Origin of the Project and Stages of the Project . . . . 6.6.2 The First Stage of Industrial Policy Studies (April 1986–July 1987) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.6.3 Second Stage of the Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.6.4 Third Stage of Work (January 1989–May 1989) . . 6.6.5 Final Stage of Work (June 1989–January 1991) . . . 6.7 Integrated Economic Development Policies and Planning . . 6.7.1 Project Launch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.7.2 Project Themes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.7.3 Project Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.8 International Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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6.8.1

Participation of Seminar of New Technology and Development by UNESCO on 4th–7th December, 1984 in Paris . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.8.2 Participation of Collaborative Research Project of UNU (United Nations University) . . . . . . . . . . 6.8.3 Speaking at the Opening Session of International Conference “Euro Prospective” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.8.4 Other International Conferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.9 Life–Major Family Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.10 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

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Work and Activities as a Member of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and Vice President for DRC’s Academic Committee (1990–2000) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.1.1 Reasons of Delayed Retirement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.1.2 The Macrosystem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.1.3 The Exosystem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.2 The Conference of “China and the World in 1990s” . . . . . . . 7.2.1 Origin of This Conference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.2.2 My Role as Chief of Secretariat of the International Conference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.2.3 The Conference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.2.4 Works and Activities Post the Conference . . . . . . . . 7.3 Member of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.3.1 Participation of the Eighth CPPCC National Committee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.3.2 Participation of the Ninth CPPCC National Committee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.4 Participation of National Policy Consultation Working Conference in 1990 and Met CCCCP and Central Government Leaders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.5 Participation of the Ministerial Conference of Industry Organized by UNIDO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.5.1 The First Phase of the Conference Global Forum on Industry: Perspective for 2000 and Beyond . . . . . 7.5.2 The Second Phase: Meeting of Ministers of Asia and the Pacific (19–20 Oct.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.6 Releasing Industrial Development Global Report 1996 on Behalf of UNIDO and Establishing New Vision of Industrial Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Release of Industrial Development Global Report 1996 on Behalf of UNIDO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.6.2 Participation of Asia-Pacific Regional Forum on Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.7 Supporting the Implementation of UNDP Project (PR/91/144) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.7.1 Origin of the Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.7.2 Requesting Assistance from Central Agency and Organization of the Leading Group and Expert Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.7.3 Process of the Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.7.4 The Final Outputs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.8 Participation of the Symposium on States, Markets and Social Progress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.8.1 Background of the Symposium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.8.2 Symposium Jointly Organized by Related Chinese Governmental Agencies and U.N. Agencies . . . . . . 7.8.3 Report of the Symposium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.9 Activities with the U.N. Center for Regional Development (UNCRD) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.9.1 UNU and UNCRD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.9.2 Activities with UNCRD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.9.3 Chair the Retirement Commemorative Meeting for the Former UNCRD Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.10 Collaboration with Economic and Social Commission of Asia and the Pacific Region (ESCAP) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.10.1 Establishing the Relationship with ESCAP . . . . . . . 7.10.2 Participating the Project of Social Security for the Poor in the Asia Pacific Region . . . . . . . . . 7.10.3 Attending the Expert Meeting on Strengthening Asia-Pacific Regional Economic Cooperation for the 21st Century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.11 Serve as International Consultant to Kazakhstan 2030 Strategic Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.11.1 Origin of the New Responsibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.11.2 Participate the Consultation on the Draft of Strategic Plan 2030 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.11.3 Completion of the Kazakhstan 2030 Strategic Plan . 7.12 Family Life—Children and Grandchildren . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.13 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Exploring Social Systems Engineering Through Collaboration with Various International Organizations (1990–2000) . . . . . . . . 8.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.2 Assist the World Bank Researcher in the Study “Analysis of the Reasons for the Rapid Growth of China’s Coastal Regions” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.2.1 General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.2.2 My Role . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.2.3 Experience Gained from the World Bank Project . . . 8.2.4 Research Paper of the Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.3 Participation of the Project Institutional and Policy Priorities for Industrial Technology Development—Formal Emergence of My Concept on “Methodology of Social Systems Engineering” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.3.1 General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.3.2 The World Bank Roles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.3.3 The Chinese Version of the Country Report . . . . . . . 8.4 Assistance from the World Bank to Improve Policy Research Capacity Through Its Soft Loans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.4.1 General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.4.2 International Seminar on Quantitative Analysis Using World Bank Soft Loans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.4.3 International Conference of Macro-economic Modelling of China Hosted by DRC Supported by Soft Loans of the World Bank and UNDP Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.4.4 International Seminar on Market Economy and Legal System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.4.5 Participation of the Global Knowledge Conference in 1997-Knowledge for Development in the Information Age Co-hosted by the World Bank and the Government of Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.5 Cooperation with Development Center of OECD and Also Became Consultant of Development Center of OECD . . . . . . 8.5.1 General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.5.2 Cooperation with the Development Center of OECD on Development of DRC-CGE Model . . . 8.5.3 Cooperation with OECD Expert Madison . . . . . . . . 8.5.4 Became Consultant of Development Center of OECD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.6 Cooperation with Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Learn from ADB Standard Procedure of National Economy Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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8.6.1 8.6.2 8.6.3

General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Asian Economic Outlook Workshop Programme Apply Grant for the Project “Research on the Prototype CGE Model of China’s Economy” . . . 8.6.4 Participate in ADB Assistance Project “Regional Industrialization and Development Policy Planning” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.7 Participate the Study of “Rebuilding New Global Order” Supported by Sasakawa Peace Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . 8.7.1 Origin of the Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.7.2 Organization of the Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.7.3 Process of the Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.7.4 My Lunch Speech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.7.5 The Final Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.8 Trip to Brazil to Speak at the Vargas Foundation Conference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.8.1 Preliminary Information Prior to Brazil Trip . . . 8.8.2 Travel Arrangement by Vargas Foundation . . . . 8.8.3 The Conference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.8.4 Trip to Brasilia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.9 The Boao Forum for Asia and Other International Engagements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.10 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

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Work and Activities Before My Formal Retirement (2000–2009) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.2 Participated the Project “Research on Industrial Policy for Sustainable Development” from 2001–2003 . . . . . . . . 9.3 Undertook the Project “Yantian International Development and Railway Freight” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.3.1 Origin of the Event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.3.2 Desk Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.3.3 Field Survey and Completion of My Sub-report . . 9.3.4 Leisure at Hong Kong SA During Our Work for Yantian International Container Terminal Co., Ltd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.3.5 Consultant of Yantian International Container Terminal Co., Ltd. from 2006–2008 . . . . . . . . . . 9.4 Consultant of Project “Research of Main Functional Regions of China” Entrusted by the NDRC . . . . . . . . . . .

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9.4.1

Evolution of Chinese Practice of Planning Since 1981 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.4.2 The New Concept of Regional Development . . . . . 9.4.3 Process of the Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.5 Participated “International Seminar of New Economy and Development” Jointly Sponsored by China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the UNDP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.6 Participated “Lunar Exploration Project” Organized by the Office of the National Leading Group . . . . . . . . . . . 9.7 Participated the “Annual Conference of China Association for Management of Technology” (CAMOT) Organized by Professor Li Hua . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.8 Assisted Organizations Affiliated with UN to Launch Their Annual Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.8.1 My Impression of UN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.8.2 Launch Human Development Report 2005 on Behalf of UNDP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.8.3 Assisted UNESCAP to Launch Their “Flagship” Publication Economic and Social Survey of Asia and Pacific . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.9 Participated the “Applying Knowledge for Development: A Policy Forum in Brazil, China and India” Jointly Hosted by the World Bank and Canadian Government . . . . . . . . . . 9.10 Served as National Consultant on the Mid-Term Review of the United Nations Development Assistance Framework . 9.11 Participated the “Preparatory Meetings for the World Summit” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.12 Attended the “Macroeconomics of Poverty Reduction Project Organizing Meeting” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.13 Participated the “International Symposium on Computable General Equilibrium Models 2012-Urbanization and Sustainable Development” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.14 Other Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.15 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Exploration of Social Systems Engineering and My Recent Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.2 Process of Exploration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.2.1 Start from the Exploration of Policy Science 10.2.2 Publication of Technical Progress of Firms: Policy/Institution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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10.2.3 New Industrial Revolution and Information Highway . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.2.4 Integrated Study of China’s Development and Reform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.2.5 Integrated Study of China’s Development and Reform (Chinese Version) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.2.6 Writing and Publishing the Book “Methodology of Social Systems Engineering” (Chinese Version) . 10.2.7 Writing and Publication of Introduction to Social Systems Engineering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.3 Some Thoughts in Exploration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.4 Relationship of Academic Principles to Exploration . . . . . . 10.5 My Life After Retirement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371

Chapter 1

Childhood, Adolescence and My Family (1925–1943)

1.1 Introduction I was born in 1925 in China’s Shanghai International Settlement1 when China was a very poor semi-feudal and semi-colonial society. I am now 94 years old and have witnessed many social changes since then, especially the significant social changes in China since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1949. I have both worked and lived in the PRC for nearly 70 years. Although the period of my childhood and adolescence accounted for only 25% of my life, it has influenced my personal development. In Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) Ecological Model (or simply the model) of human development which is shown in Fig. 1.1a he depicts the process of human development as being shaped by the interaction between individual and his or her environment. In Fig. 1.1a, he has classified the environment in four hierarchical levels, the macrosystem, exosystem, mesosystem and microsystem. But this model has the weakness in lacking the personal workplaces and social network in exosystem. Therefore, I have revised it into Fig. 1.1b to better adapt to my situation. A large part of my life has been deeply affected by my work. However, when I was a child, my personal development was affected more by my family. During my childhood and adolescence, I experienced the same macro environment surrounding many Chinese families at that time, a weak and poor nation invaded by its neighboring country and bullied by foreign powers, the great depression (1929–1939), and the coexistence of Chinese and western cultures in the concessions. While rich people in the Shanghai International Settlement enjoyed great luxury, many people lived in extreme poverty. All these phenomena influenced the formation of my personality and my view of the world.

1 British Concession and American Concession in Shanghai was combined in 1863 and was renamed

as Shanghai International Settlement in 1899. © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 H. Wang, Explorations in Social Systems Engineering, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-3390-7_1

1

2

1 Childhood, Adolescence and My Family (1925–1943)

Fig. 1.1 a Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model. b Ecological model to describe environmental context of human development (Derived from Wang and Li (2018))

1.2 The Macro-environment 1.2.1 Influence of Macro-environment on the Development of Personality The macro-environment of one’s birth and growth have significant impact on the development of a person. For example, the birth and growth of an individual in a developed country will differ from that of someone in a developing country. It is similarly evident that the birth and growth of a person from rural area will be different from those in urban areas. The influences of macro-environment are abundant and their influences on different people are not the same. Here, I will limit my discussion on the three influences that were significant to me. Furthermore, I believe it is necessary to set a boundary between the macro-environment and myself in the upcoming discussion. The boundary is my country and the outside world, while the word ‘macro-environment’ refers to both the natural and social environment.

1.2.2 Influence of Japanese Invasion The Japanese invasion of China was the major macro-environment in China during my childhood and adolescence. The Japanese military forces occupied the Northeastern provinces on September 18, 1931. Although I was only a six-year-old child at that time, I was affected by the public opinion of my surroundings. I knew it’s a national shame of China, although the Northeastern provinces were far from me and as a child, I had no direct sense regarding their locality. The Japanese invasion

1.2 The Macro-environment

3

of Shanghai on January 28, 1932 impacted me directly and deeply. The Japanese military forces bombed the Commercial Press of China, one of the largest publishing companies of China at that time. Many burning papers floated in the wind over the sky of the International Settlement area where my family lived. In the very beginning, I did not know what those papers were, instead I was told by my elders about the heroic battle fought by 19th Route Army headed by Jiang Guangnai and Cai Tingkai with their inferior weapons against the Japanese invaders equipped with modern air force and advanced weapons in Northern part of Shanghai. The Japanese army later occupied the Northern region and continued its invasion of Shanghai on August 13, 1937. The anti-Japanese war lasted for eight years. Most of the Chinese intellectuals then were deeply patriotic to their country, and many attributed the weakness of China at that time to its significant lagging in science and technology when compared with Japan and other developed countries. Therefore, to save China through advancing science and technology was a major thought of mine during my childhood and adolescence. Of course, my thinking was naïve. In the recorded history of mankind, war and peace are the norms of human history rather than the exception. Furthermore, while science and technology have their share of contribution to the wealth of a nation, their development and appropriate application are constrained by many other factors, for example, institutions, regulations, education, quality of the people, etc. This is a complex subject in need of in-depth discussion beyond this book.

1.2.3 Influence of the Great Depression When I was a child, I did not know the meaning of Great Depression. But it affected the life of my family greatly, as well as the formation of my personal character to a certain extent. I had a unique family during my childhood and adolescence. My father engaged in an export business related to feathers, pig bristle, etc. The Great Depression lasted for 10 years and greatly affected my father’s export business. My family became poor in 1931, and because my father could no longer afford to support a large household living in Shanghai, some of my family members had to move back to my father’s hometown of Zhou Zhuang in Jiangsu Province. My father built a new house there prior to the Great Depression. My mother and sister moved to Zhou Zhuang in 1932. This was a big change in my family, necessitated by changes in the macro-environment.

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1.3 The Exosystem Areas of Concession of Foreign Governments in Shanghai Due to the semi-colonial state of China at the time, there were several concessions with foreign governments in Shanghai. The Shanghai International Settlement was governed by the United Kingdom, the French Concession was in south Shanghai, while the Japanese Concession occupied the northern part of Shanghai. Every concession followed the rules and standards set by its governing country. For example, the applied voltage in homes was 110 V A.C. in the French Concession, while it was 220 V A.C. in the International Settlement. Because the United Kingdom was the superpower before World War I, its influence in the International Settlement was the greatest at that time. In these foreign concessions built to assimilate to that of the governing countries, both Western Culture and Chinese Culture co-existed. In the International Settlement, English was taught starting at the third grade, English textbooks, such as college algebra and physics, were adopted in the senior middle schools. Learning English at a young age was an advantage to me is it laid the foundation for me to study engineering in college and later advance my learning in other areas including social systems engineering. Back then, there were many newspapers circulating in Shanghai, and the environment was relatively open for free expression and exchange of ideas and learning. Overall, the macro-environment of Shanghai during my childhood and adolescence was favorable and provided a good foundation for learning. Of course, there were exceptions, for example, the manager of Shanghai Newspaper (Shenbao), Mr. Shi Liangcai, was assassinated by secret agents of the Kuomintang in 1934, and many dark and negative aspects did exist as described in the non-fiction novel titled Shanghai: The Paradise of Gold Diggers (English version).

1.4 The Microsystem—The Unique Aspects of My Family 1.4.1 My Father My father, Wang Pusheng, was born in a poor family in Zhou Zhuang. He was sent to a temple to become a monk as a child. But being courageous and clever, he left the temple to go to Shanghai to make a living. My father did not have much education, but he bought a popular book titled Master English in 100 Days. This book had English words on one side of the page, and Chinese words approximating the English pronunciation on the other. Although the pronunciations in the book were not exact, spoken slowly, they were understood by foreigners. My father’s technique for doing business with foreigners was to memorize the book so he could communicate. He was diligent and shrewd and accumulated his wealth by launching an export business using the brand of Wang Puji. I was too young to remember very much about my father. However, based upon the writings of my second sister Wang

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Bingchi, during my father’s most prosperous period, our family employed a rickshaw driver, an accountant and several maids. My father also provided accommodations and food for relatives, including my aunt and an older cousin and his family. My father also donated generously to charities. Figure 1.2 is a scanned photo of my father. However, my father was born and raised in the feudal society, as a result, he had four wives. His first wife had two daughters, and I called them my first and second sisters. My own mother, known as Wang Yanshi, was his second wife and bore two children, myself and my blood sister Wang Huiying whom I called the third sister. My father’s other two wives had no children. My father was very conservative in his views about female education, it was a traditional view in Chinese feudal society that education for a girl was not important. My second sister used her own savings to study in a normal school after the failure of my father’s business. One of the most important lessons given by my father was his emphasis on personal effort and self-reliance. I was deeply influenced by his talks at dinner table during Fig. 1.2 Scanned photo of my father Wang Pusheng

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which he would explain how he succeeded through his own efforts. One must toil with utmost effort in order to achieve a better life. During my father’s heydays, my aunt advised him on numerous occasions to buy rural land near his native town, as an asset and safeguard for me. But my father did not follow her advice, and instead answered with an old Chinese proverb “Children and grandchildren have their own blessings, do not be horses and cattle for the children and grandchildren.” I am very thankful that father did not follow the advice of my aunt, otherwise I might have been classified into the landlord class during the establishment of the PRC. Such a classification would have dramatically changed my destiny.

1.4.2 My Mother My mother, Yan Manyun (her maiden name), was known as Wang Yanshi following the old Chinese tradition to carry the husband’s family name before her own. She was not educated like most women of her time. But she was loving and devoted to her husband and her children. She believed in Buddhism and taught me many values especially the respect for life, nature, honesty, the property of others, and a clear mind. She believed that to be contended one should count on one’s blessings and never asks too much from life. Indeed, all her life, she gave instead of took. Due to the downturn in my father’s business, she was forced to move back to my father’s hometown in Zhou Zhuang and leave me to the care of my fourth mother who was the only wife permitted to stay with my father in Shanghai. However, she doted on me whenever she had the opportunity. Later, she moved into my household when I started my own family in the 50s. She cared for me, my children, and my family until her death in 1974 bestowing her love to all around her. How I miss her and her selfless love!

1.4.3 My Childhood 1. My life before seven years of age. As the only son of my family in the Chinese society, I enjoyed a great life, a life full of love, attention and special care in my surroundings. Everyone in the family catered to my needs and wants. And if I did something wrong, I was not to punished or scolded. I remember that once I threw a lit match in my mother’s bed, and the match caused a fire and burned the bed. However, as the only son I was not disciplined by my mother. Generally, my blood sister and my mother accompanied me in evenings, while the wife of my father’s cousin who was living with us, accompanied me during the day. She brought me to and from the kindergarten daily, which was relatively far away. She had a son named Cheng Jieruo who was ten years older than me. Based upon Chinese practice of generation’s relations of relatives, he had to call

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me ‘uncle’, but he did this unwillingly due to his sense of self-respect. He called me ‘small uncle’ when he was forced by his parents. He and his parents lived in our home, and he occupied his time by drawing picture books. He was diligent and made every effort to improve himself. He also became an intellectual later in life. I will discuss him in Chap. 4 of this book. I was very much loved by my father. He took me to the theater quite often to see Peking operas. We had the luxury of front row seats. Peking operas are not only a unique art of China, but every opera contained some historical stories of China. My father patiently told me the story of the performance, and explained the characters involved in the story, including whether they were good or bad. He told me quite often when we were watching the operas that “you should be a good person with good moral and behavior”, and “don’t be a bad person with corrupt moral and behavior.” Because of the many times that I accompanied my father to see Peking operas before aged seven, I learned some Chinese history with basic aspects of morality. 2. My childhood after seven years of age. Beginning at age eight, my happy and serene childhood changed dramatically, and not for the better. In order to save living expenses in Shanghai after the failure of his export business, my father sent my mother and my sister to live in the newly built house in Zhou Zhuang. My family in Shanghai moved to a small rented house, which had three occupants, my father, his fourth wife and me. My father’s fourth wife was not bad in general, but it was impossible for her to love a child of not her own. I lost the love and tender care from my own mother and sister at a time when I needed them most. When I was sick, I often yearned for their tender love and companionship, but they simply could not be with me. My father still took me to listen in Pingtan, which was an art of storytelling and ballad singing in Suzhou dialect with simple Chinese musical instruments. The stories told were generally love stories between gifted scholars and beauties. There was another form of storytelling called Pinghua, these stories were loosely related to Chinese history, such as the Romance of the Three Kingdom and the rise of Ming Dynasty, etc. The cost of such entertainment was much cheaper than going to Peking operas. Also, it further broadened my knowledge of Chinese history and the variety in performance of Chinese art. My father was relatively strict with me and did not allow me to play with other children in our neighborhood for fear that I might pick up bad behaviors. Also, I had to devote myself to read Chinese historical novels, both formal and informal, during my spare time. Although I could not afford to buy many books, there were many small business owners renting books and novels. I must have read more than several hundred Chinese historical novels during this period. Unfortunately, most of those books were not available in current Chinese market. In addition, I recited Chinese classical literature from my textbooks. From these efforts, I established a good foundation for writing Chinese essays. The teacher of my primary school could not believe that I wrote my compositions as the level and complexity of my writing seemed to be beyond my age.

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1.5 School Life—Primary School and My First Year of Junior Middle School 1.5.1 Life and Learning at the Primary School By the time when I was in later part of primary school, my father’s export business had a small recovery, which provided him with a relatively stable income. However, my father could not recover his lost wealth. Our family moved to a new rented house on Shan Haiguan Road in Shanghai. I studied and graduated from Jin Ye Primary School. The school was established by people working in the financial sector, and therefore, its quality in terms of education and resources was very high. The school also offered extracurricular activities, such as showing western movies appropriate for children, for example, Peter Pan by Shirley Temple and comedies by Charlie Chaplin. Such exposure to western art and culture opened a new window for me. My reading of several hundred books of Chinese historical novels during my primary school, provided me with a better understanding of humankind. I concur with the 20th Century historian R. G. Collingwood that ‘The value of history is that it teaches us what man has done and thus what man is’. “We cannot hope to understand our lives without it.” (Dunne 2016, p. 12) and am convinced that history is an important discipline to be mastered by people working for social systems engineering or policy science.

1.5.2 Life in the First Year of Junior Middle School 1. Relatively free from family constraints. After my primary school, my second sister Wang Bingchi suggested to my father that it was better for me to study in a boarding school so I could develop some capability of self-sufficiency. By then, my second sister had completed her study in the normal school and became a teacher in a primary school. She was the best educated person in our home at that time. And she helped me select schools and assisted me during my adolescence. My father followed her suggestion, and after I passed the entrance examination, I entered Yang Jing Secondary School located at Pudong, on the eastern part of the Huangpu River. Although the Pudong New Area became very developed after 1990, it was a rural area when I went to school there. Yang Jing Secondary School, established in 1930, was one of the earliest four Municipal Secondary Schools of Shanghai, and one of the earliest public schools at Pudong. The school had high quality teachers, and some of its part time teachers were well-known people. For example, one of the music teachers was a well-known composer, Chen Gexin. I became one of the best students in his class after a half year of study. The transportation choices were limited at the time. I had to take a rickshaw to the crossing point of the Huangpu River by ferry and then take another rickshaw

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on the other side of the River to get to the school. Despite this inconvenience, I was free from many of the family constraints while attending the school. I learned to play table tennis with my classmates and later became the top player in my class. 2. Learning new concepts and culture. Payments to the school included a “miscellaneous item”. Because business at Pudong was underdeveloped, the school had appointed one of the town bookstores to provide students with miscellaneous items related to learning. Students of Yang Jing Secondary School could go to that bookstore and take anything without payment, if the total costs were within the coverage of the “miscellaneous item” on the School’s bill. The bookstore provided the sale of selected works by eminent authors, for example, Lu Xun, Guo Moruo, Shen Congwen, Yu Dafu, Ba Jin, and others. They were both forerunners and followers of the “New Cultural Movement”.2 I took many of those books from the bookstore and read them earnestly. They introduced me to a new world of contemporary Chinese literature and new wonderland of concepts and thoughts: freedom, democracy, all men are created equal, free love, and antifeudal society. All these concepts were very attractive to me within the context of the macro-environment of China and the unique situation of my family.

1.6 Life in Zhou Zhuang—A Unique Period 1.6.1 General During the summer vacation after the first year of my junior middle school, my own mother came to Shanghai to take me back to Zhou Zhuang with her. The plan was to let me live with her during my summer vacation and send me back to Shanghai to study after the summer. I was so happy to have a chance to live with my own mother and sister, but due to the breakout of the anti-Japanese invasion war at Shanghai on August 13, 1937, transportation between Shanghai and Zhou Zhuang was disrupted, and I had to stay in Zhou Zhuang, my father’s native town for nearly one year.

1.6.2 A Brief Description of Zhou Zhuang—Past and Present 1. Zhou Zhuang in the past. Zhou Zhuang was an old water city surrounded by lakes and rivers with a history about 900 years and was accessible only by a boat or 2 There were New Cultural Movement of China in the period 1915–1923, Which was led by scholars

who had received Western education (It was called new mode of education by that time, such as Hu Shi, Chen Duxiu, Lu Xun, Qian Tongxuan and Li Dazhao. The major theme of this movement were anti-tradition, anti-Confucian and anti-classical style.

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a ship. When I went back to this town with my mother in 1937, we had to go to Kunshan County (it was also underdeveloped at that time, but later became Kunshan Municipality and currently has a strong manufacturing sector) by train and then transferred to a boat to get to this town. The town at that time had only two main streets with various small shops. 2. Zhou Zhuang at present. Zhou Zhuang nowadays is a famous place for tourism. Its fortune came from the two bridges in town, the Shide Bridge and Youg’an Bridge which were built during the Wanli Reign of Ming Dynasty. These two bridges are crossed and connected (Fig. 1.3). In 1984, an artist Chen Yifei, a US expatriate, put them on an oil painting named “Memory of Hometown”. It was exhibited in the gallery of Armand Hammer who visited China in November 1984 and gave the painting to Deng Xiaoping as a gift. The Double Bridge of Zhou Zhuang achieved instant fame afterwards. A highway was later built between Shanghai and Zhou Zhuang to facilitate its booming tourism. The government built a magnificent boat named Zhou Zhuang Fang (Boat) which was used as venue of informal meeting of 2001 APEC (Fig. 1.4). This boat is 49.71 m long and 15.68 m wide. The main architecture of the boat is the conference hall with an overall area of 244 m2 , capable of holding a meeting with over 100 people. This boat was decorated with mahogany window panels and flying caves representing the typical architectural style of Southern Yangtze region.

Fig. 1.3 Photo of double bridge, Zhou Zhuang. Source Tourist map of Zhou Zhuang

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Fig. 1.4 Photo of Zhou Zhuang Fang. Source Tourist map of Zhou Zhuang

1.6.3 My Daily Life at Zhou Zhuang 1. The happiest period of my childhood. Living in Zhou Zhuang was the happiest period of my childhood. I regained the love and care from my own mother and sister, which I had longed for so many years. They let me do anything my heart desired. I grew flowers, fished in the river in front of our house and enjoyed readings during the day. Zhou Zhuang was underdeveloped at that time, there was no electricity, and kerosene lamps were used for illumination. Sometimes I followed my sister to her friend’s home located at the North Sea,3 and I played there. I also went to the field together with my classmates or went to famous scenic spots such as the Quanfu Temple, which was built in the Song Dynasty. The temple was old and shabby at that time, but it was rebuilt by the government in recent years and is now a popular tourist site. Figure 1.5 shows a photo of the rebuilt Quanfu Temple. 2. The local tea drinking culture. Some of people living in Zhou Zhuang were landlords and they leased out farmland to farmers in nearby villages. The landlords had time for leisure, but no place for entertainment in town. To entertain themselves, local people established a “tea drinking” culture during which families would invite several neighbors or friends to gather for tea and chat. Candies, melon seeds or peanuts bought from shops and homemade pickles were provided. This chat and drink could last for several hours, generally in the afternoon. Soon, other neighbors would reciprocate similar activities. No great events were discussed during this leisure time, instead, it was for self-entertainment. 3 Zhou

Zhuang Town was surrounded by lakes and rivers. In the past, Zhou Zhuang’s people called the lake in the north, the North Sea and the lake in the south, the South Sea.

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Fig. 1.5 Photo of Quanfu Temple (rebuilt). Source Tourist map of Zhou Zhuang

1.6.4 Learning and Japanese Occupation 1. My learning. My mother attached great importance to my learning. My arrival to Zhou Zhuang in summer also coincided with the summer vacation of several local students who studied in universities at Suzhou city. A few of them grouped together and held learning class located in a temple at the South Sea. My mother obtained permission for me to join this learning class in the morning. This class taught only two subjects, English and Chinese. Because I studied at a primary school in Shanghai, I became the best student in the class. This illustrates the difference of quality in education between Shanghai and other places in China. The phenomenon of unbalanced regional development is still prevalent at present. This learning class ended near the end of the summer season. Due to the Sino-Japanese war and the occupation of cities in the downstream area of Yangtze River, those local students who studied in universities in Suzhou could not return to their schools. Some universities or colleges in Suzhou relocated to the Shanghai International Settlement at that time. Some of the students regrouped and held a single learning class with mix of subjects which were taught in the second and third year of the junior middle schools. For example, in addition to English, algebra, geometry and chemistry were taught. This single learning class was launched in later part of 1937 and lasted until 1938. My mother obtained permission for me to study in this single learning class which contained about 30 students and some were junior middle school students4 at Wujiang City. I was still the best student in the English course, but I could not compete with some local junior middle school students in algebra and geometry. However, I eventually caught up with them. This experience provided a foundation for my 4 Zhou

Zhuang Town was underdeveloped, it had only primary school at that time. Local wealthy families had to send their younger generation to study in the middle schools at Wujiang City.

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transition in learning to become nearly continuously the best student in my later part of schooling. 2. The Japanese occupation. The Japanese army occupied a significant part of China by this time, but the Japanese soldiers only came to Zhou Zhuang once during my stay there. This could attribute to the transportation difficulty to get to the town and the limited number of Japanese military forces in China, they simply could not control every corner of the large occupied area. I could not remember the exact time when the Japanese came to town, it could have been in 1938. News that the Japanese were coming circulated in town the day before their arrival, but I did not know where the news came from. By the time the Japanese arrived, nearly all the females of the town were hidden in nearby villages. My sister hid with her friends in a village, and my mother also hid somewhere, although she thought that I could be safe to stay at home as a boy. The Japanese soldiers came to town the next day, and one Japanese soldier came to my home and took my telescope which was a present from my father.

1.6.5 My Return to Shanghai Although I very much enjoyed the love and care of my own mother and sister, I worried about my future. I thought I should seek formal study in the secondary school in Shanghai. I sent letters to my father several times asking when I could return, but his answers were generally negative, saying that it was not safe to return. I knew my fourth mother was reluctant for me to return. My own mother also worried about my future, and therefore she entrusted me to the owner of a sailing ship which transported rice to Shanghai. I lived on the ship for several days, passed the security check of the Japanese soldiers in several key locations, and finally arrived in Shanghai in June 1938.

1.7 Life in the Middle School in Shanghai (Li Da Academy) 1.7.1 Macro-, Meso- and Micro-environment Based on Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model, there were significant changes in the macro-, meso- and micro-environment during my years of study from 1938 to 1943, which had impact on my behavior. 1. The macro-environment. The Sino-Japanese war was continuous during this time. Although China lost a large part of its territory, due to the limited number of Japanese armies to control the large occupied territory, Japan had to rely upon

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local traitors to support its control. Wang Jingwei became the head of Japanesecontrolled regime in Nanjing in 1940 and assisted the Japanese army with the control of the occupied area of Eastern China. But the New Fourth Army of the Communist Party of China was also active in this region. In addition, World War II happened in this period (1939–1945). Two alliances were formed in WWII with the Axis alliance of Germany, Italy and Japan and the Allies alliance included the U.K., U.S.A., France, former Soviet Union, China, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, etc. The Sino-Japanese War became part of WWII in its later period. 2. The meso-environment. The students in the primary school were too young to be involved in politics at that time, but the situation was different for students in the middle schools or universities. I studied in two middle schools, Li Da Academy and Shi Cheng Middle School. Party politics had its influence in Li Da Academy, but not in Shi Cheng Middle School. This will be described later in this chapter. 3. The micro-environment. By this time, my father’s export business of feathers and pig bristles had improved, somewhat. However, my father suffered from a stroke. Although he survived, he was paralyzed and could not go to work again. Our family’s livelihood was supported by Yang Fuquan, who was a former employee in my father’s export firm. He supported our family generously and continuously up to the day when my father died in 1941.

1.7.2 Life in Li Da Academy 1. General. My second sister suggested to my father that I should enter Li Da Academy. She was the only intellectual in our family, and therefore, my father followed her advice. Li Da Academy was established by Mr. Kuang Husheng, one of the forerunners of the “May Fourth Movement”, along with several famous people of the Kai Ming Bookstore. It was originally set up in 1925 in Jianwan located in northern part of Shanghai but was relocated to Park Road (Huanghe Road currently) due to the Japanese invasion of Shanghai on August 13, 1937. The Chinese name Li Da had its meaning derived from the Analects of Confucius “Help others while striving to be successful oneself; to achieve what one desires and to attain what other desires”. Mr. Kuang Husheng and the other famous scholars advocated that the theme of education was to “influence the personality through education.” Several eminent scholars were retained as teachers of this Academy, such as Zhu Guangqian, Feng Ziheng, Ye Shengtao, Zhou Yutong, etc. 2. Learning at Li Da Academy. The physical condition of Li Da Academy was poor. The Academy rented several rooms at Park Road to be classrooms. There was no open air space for exercise due to limited available space. Students of this school had to take turns with half of students studying in the morning and half in the afternoon. Despite these physical limitations, the quality of all the teachers was excellent.

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I studied very diligently at this school, because I studied in the classroom only for half day, so I did review and homework in the other half. I recited textbooks not only in Chinese and English, but nearly all other subjects such as chemistry, geography, etc. Some of the subjects I studied at the Academy, I had already learned during my stay in Zhou Zhuang. Efforts led to good result! I became the best student of all subjects. This Academy exempted me from all school charges and fees. In fact, this exemption continued during my entire study in Li Da Academy. I was often praised by nearly all the teachers and I was respected by all my classmates regardless of my family conditions, whether we were rich or poor. This environment was heartwarming and enabled me to establish self-confidence which my family could not provide at that time. This became one of the turning points in my life. 5. Competitors among my classmates. Some students were competitors of mine in class, for example Shi Jizhi, who also studied very diligently and was praised by teachers and respected by our classmates. Both of us were often asked by our English teacher Mr. Liu Zhigen to go to the front of the classroom and perform English conversation for our classmates. Shi Jizhi’s test scores were the closest to mine, but there was no jealousy between us. We lived close to each other on the same street and traveled together to and from school. Shi Jizhi introduced me to western movies. We both loved to see musical and literary films. For example, we both saw The Great Waltz, which was a 1938 American biographical film based loosely on the life of Johann Strauss II. But it was shown in China in 1939 or even in 1940 in third class cinema. I could still remember the song sang by Milliza Korjus, who played a famous opera soprano in the film. We saw the film David Copperfield, based on the novel by Charles Dickens. Shi Jizhi introduced the name of the youngster Freddie Bartholomew to me. Later, I became interested in good western films. I introduced Shi Jizhi to Peking opera. We went together to see Peking operas several times. He became interested in Peking operas later in his life. 7. Involved in foreign classics. In the meantime, a relatively wealthy neighbor of my home bought a packet of Chinese translations of famous literature from abroad. He let me borrow the packet. As with my reading of new Chinese literature during the period of first year in the junior middle school at Pudong, this packet of translations opened a new world of western literature to me. I began to learn about Shakespeare, Balzac, Hugo, and Alexandre Dumas. I read the Iliad and Odyssey by Homer. This greatly broadened my knowledge of western literature, as well as Greek classics. 8. My study in Li Da Academy at a turbulent time. The start of the war in Europe that led to WWII was generally believed to be September 1, 1939 when Germany invaded Poland. The United Kingdom and France declared war on Germany two days later. In the later part of 1940, both the UK and German embassies in China showed different propaganda movies of the war. They allowed free access for all. Shi Jizhi and I went together to see these movies at both embassies. Because of my Chinese writing skills, I wrote an essay expressing my feeling regarding

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these movies. I sent my essay to an evening newspaper sponsored by an American company, and it published my essay. I remember the last sentence of my essay was “Victory shall be on the side of justice and equity!” 9. Party politics among Li Da Academy students. Students in Li Da Academy were involved in politics one way or the other. One classmate named Sun Yuren was not seen in the classroom in 1939, it was said among classmates that he had gone to join the New Fourth Army led by the Communist Party. He returned suddenly by the end of 1940. It was the time after the Wannan Incident. Shi Jizhi and I knew that he lived on campus, because his father was also a teacher at the school. We saw him, chatted, and then asked, “Where have you been during the past few years?” He replied, “I went home for farming”. We did not believe his answer. On the way home, we talked about Sun’s story and concluded that he did not tell us the truth. We were both too innocent then to know the real-world politics and that if he told us the truth, it would jeopardize his safety. Sun Yuren was a native of Wuxi County (currently, Wuxi Municipality). When I was the member of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference in 1990s, I participated in one of its delegations to visit Wuxi Municipality. I found Sun Yuren’s name on the list as a section chief of Science and Technological Commission of Wuxi Municipality. I asked someone at the reception to contact him for me. Unfortunately, we could not meet due to the short stay of our delegation. Otherwise, we would have caught up and discussed many interesting events from the past. Some of my schoolmates posted a newspaper named Newspaper of Translation on the wall at our school. This Newspaper was sponsored by the Chinese Communist Party. It highly praised the book Red Star over China written by Edgar Snow. Mr. Tao Zailiang, the president of Li Da Academy then, saw the Newspaper on the wall and advised that such newspaper should not be posted in school. However, he did not use administrative means to prohibit the action or sanction these students, and this newspaper remained on the wall.

1.7.3 Dissolution of Li Da Academy 1. Death of my father. My father died in late 1941. Mr. Yang Fuquan provided all the funeral expenses and stopped supporting the family as he felt that his responsibility ended with my father’s death. This was a new situation for me and my fourth mother. 2. Dissolution of Li Da Academy. The Japanese military force attacked the US Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and with near-simultaneous offensives against Hong Kong, Malaya, Thailand, the Philippines and other places. These attacks led the U.S., U.K., China, Australia, etc., to formally declare war on Japan. The Pacific War broke out. The Japanese army entered the International Settlement in early 1942, students of Li Da Academy came together and voiced as a group

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that: “We could not study anymore, the school should be dissolved.” The school administrators did not know what the future would be and agreed to dissolve the school immediately. 3. Entry into Shi Cheng Middle School. After the dissolution of Li Da Academy, I stayed at home for nearly one month, and found not much changes occurred in the International Settlement with the arrival of Japanese army it was more symbolic than substance. Due to the limited number of Japanese military forces, and Japan’s increased number of opposing countries in the Allies, the Japanese had to rely on the puppet government of Wang Jingwei to control the territory on their behalf. Therefore, Shanghai appeared to be as normal as it was before the occupation. Shi Jizhi and I went to the home of Tan Guanying, the teacher of our physics course. We both regretted that the decision to dissolve Li Da Academy was made too hastily. Mr. Tan also taught also in Shi Cheng Middle School and he promised to get us into that school.

1.8 Life at Shi Cheng Middle School and Challenges of Various Examinations 1.8.1 Beginning a Life of Independence After the death of my father, our family lost the financial support from Yang Fuquan, but my fourth mother controlled my father’s assets remained in Shanghai. One day, she told me that she could not afford to have me living with her. My second sister Wang Bingchi asked her friend Mrs. Fan to find a part-time job for me. Mrs. Fan introduced me to two families to be apart-time tutor for their children. The last name of those two families were Pan and Xu, respectively. Pan’s family provided me with lunch, while Xu’s family provided me with supper and accommodations. I left home and began to live independently. I became a successful tutor in a short period of time. Because I had read many Chinese historical novels, I generally told a Chinese story in the very beginning of my lesson, and then tutored the children on the subjects they earned at school and answered their questions. The children generally listened to my talks patiently, especially the student of Pan’s family. My student Pan Lianchang became the best student in his school later. Because Shi Cheng Middle School was a fee-based school, I needed to find financial resources to support my study. Fortunately, there were several institutional grants at Shanghai at that time. I passed the examination for one of the grants and entered Shi Cheng Middle School to continue my learning. My best friend Shi Jizhi did not go to that school, his family moved to the French Concession. In addition, his family had difficulty in getting remittance from his father working in Chongqing, the

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temporary capital of the Kuomintang government at that time. The two best friends had to part due to circumstances beyond our control.

1.8.2 Life at Shi Cheng Middle School 1. General. Shi Cheng Middle School was a private school in Shanghai. It had a better schoolhouse than Li Da Academy. It even had a small schoolyard for open air activities, but it was a common practice then that no physical education class was provided in middle schools in Shanghai. The teachers were every good and some of them had taught at Li Da Academy, such as the teachers of English and physics. The teacher in charge of my class was Mr. Bao Yuke (It was said that he was the author of Shanghai: The Paradise of Gold Diggers). After he reviewed my first Chinese composition, he discharged the monitor elected by students, and appointed me to be the class monitor. It was spread among my classmates that I was the best student at the former Li Da Academy. My test scores for nearly all courses ranked first in the class, except for Japanese. As stated earlier, there was nearly no change in the daily life of ordinary people in the International Settlement when Shanghai was ruled by the puppet government. But it was announced that Japanese should be taught in the middle school. A Japanese course was set in the spring semester of the third grade. I took this course reluctantly and failed to pass the first exam. Then, with some added effort, I passed the final exam. Nowadays, I sometimes regret that I had not put more efforts to study Japanese at that time; otherwise, I would have had another foreign language proficiency in addition to English. It was relatively easy for Chinese intellectuals who understood English to master Japanese (especially reading) compared to learning other foreign languages. Because Japanese writings use many Chinese characters (although a small part of them may be of different meaning with the original Chinese characters), there are also a fair number of “so called foreign languages in Japanese” words written in Japanese letters. If one knows the pronunciation of the letters, one can easily get the original English words. If one also knows some basic grammar of Japanese, he/she can read Japanese books (especially, publications of science and technology) and understand the basic content in general. During the Cultural Revolution, when I worked in Kunming Iron and Steel Plant at Anning County, I read several Japanese journals related to systems engineering based on my limited Japanese learned in the middle school. English textbooks were used, such as college algebra and world history. The teachers taught those courses in Chinese, but they required the students to review those English textbooks by themselves. Course exams were in Chinese. The English course taught English composition, and students were required to write compositions twice a month. Therefore, students who graduated from senior middle schools at that time possessed certain capacities in English reading and writing.

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2. New friends. Because I was respected by my classmates, many wanted to make friends with me. One of my classmates invited me to a swimming pool and paid for my swimming lessons. I learned easy swimming strokes. Another friend was Wen Dingxun, we often played in some parks in Shanghai. He was knowledgeable about universities in Shanghai and talked to me often about his plan to take the entrance examination for the Shanghai Jiao Tong University. I was grateful that he shared some general information about the University with me. Due to my family background, I was ignorant about universities in Shanghai. Although my second sister was a teacher at the primary school and had assisted me in choosing a good middle school, she had no knowledge of universities in Shanghai. Another close friend of mine was Huang Zhegang. We played together during holidays. Because I had to tutor my student at night and review my own course materials in my spare time, he would come to me in the classroom to chat, so he became one of my new close friends. In 1980, I saw him again in Shanghai Jiao Tong University where he was a full-time professor and I was a part-time professor. 3. Graduation ceremony. The school held a large-scale graduation ceremony for its graduates of the senior middle school. It was held in the school auditorium with all students. The president and some of the teachers gave speeches. Because I was the monitor of the graduating class, I also gave a speech. This was the first time I gave a speech in public, which I considered as a kind of training for me.

1.8.3 University Entrance Examinations 1. Precondition of my further study. Ideas for my further study were limited at that time. Because neither I nor my family had knowledge or information about universities in Shanghai, there was no discussions about any university at all, except one-time discussion on Pheasant University (a Shanghai Dialect which referred to those universities with the purpose of making money only). The university would accept anyone who paid tuition and would give a certification of graduation for all who attended. My view was that I could go to any engineering universities or colleges except the Pheasant University. However, I needed to find financial resources to pay the tuition for my further study. I was confident that I could pass any university entrance examinations. I read newspapers every day to look for news related to institutional grants. 2. Passing one institutional grant examination but abandoned it. I passed the examination for one institutional grant and went to meet the responsible people for this grant. The original grant announcement promised to provide grant aid to study at Nantong College in its textile engineering department. However, my request for study was refused, and instead, the grant-aid was promised only for Shanghai University. I was asked to visit that university but found it was supported by the puppet government. All students of that university wore the black

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uniform to support the puppet government. I refused to enter that university after the visit. Since it seemed that this institutional grant was provided by the puppet government at Nanjing, I decided to abandon it. 3. University entrance examinations. In order to have a choice of universities if I could obtain a grant somewhere, I took and passed the entrance examination of East China University (currently the East China University of Science and Technology). Then, I followed my friend Wen Dingxun to register in the entrance examination of electrical engineering department of Shanghai Jiao Tong University. After the entrance examination, we both were disappointed, there were too many exam questions and problems which were hard especially those related to mathematics and physics. We both thought that we would fail the exam. Several days later, Wen Dingxun went to the university to check the results and found both of our names were on the acceptance list. This was well beyond our expectations. We later learned that this was the practice for the entrance exam of Shanghai Jiao Tong University. It gave many questions in the exam on purpose, so that no students could answer them completely. The university determined the standard of scores for acceptance after a review of all entrance exam papers. Different requirements were set for different colleges at the university, for example, minimum score of 30 for its management college, and minimum score of 35 for its science and engineering college. Even in the engineering college, the acceptance score was different for its three departments, mechanical, electrical and civil. Of course, I was thrilled and determined to enter the Shanghai Jiao Tong University. 4. Passing the examination for Shuen grant. An industrialist and the owner of two textile plants contributed large sum of money to the Shuen Grant to support 50 university entrants up to their graduation. The grant provided for each person was generous including tuition, book fees and living allowances. He entrusted newspaper “News” to be responsible for the examination and decision of qualified students. Due to the generous terms of the grant, many people applied for the grant. The examination was divided into two parts: a written test and an oral exam. After the written test, I went to the room for the oral test. The person responsible for the oral test was Nanan, the chief editor of News. He asked me several questions related to Chinese history and ancient Chinese literature. I saw him nodding several times with apparent satisfaction during my response to his questions and thought I had a great chance to succeed. Several days later, News published the list of names of 50 individuals qualified to receive the Shuen grant. I was ranked number 3 on the acceptance list. And my schoolmates at Shanghai Jiao Tong University accounted for 16% of the names on the list.

1.9 Summary

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1.9 Summary Social systems engineering emphasizes the importance of behavior science, the underpinning of Parsons Core concept of ‘action’ of social system. This chapter began with a revised Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model of human development to adapt to my specific environment in which I was raised, educated, and worked. The original model classifies the external environment into four layers: macrosystem, exosystem, mesosystem and microsystem. I modified the exosystem to reflect my training, work, and social network as a long-lived Chinese intellectual. Born in 1925 as the only son in a feudal and polygamous family, I lived in the Shanghai International Settlement during much of my childhood and enjoyed many privileges that money could buy at that time; such as a solid bilingual education in English and Chinese, boarding schools, exposure to theaters and western movies, access to both Chinese and western history and classical literatures, etc. I had loving parents and siblings who would do anything to cater to my needs and wants. I learned from my father about efforts and persistence and from my mother about giving and to be contended with life’s blessings. Growing up in the Shanghai International Settlement where foreign rules dominated and Chinese were considered as 2nd class citizens and during the Japanese occupation, I witnessed the oppression, unfairness and exploitation of foreign forces in China which fostered strong nationalism in me. Like many young people at that time, I was determined to study and advance science and technology to save my country. Through my efforts, I was accepted into Shanghai Jiaotong University to study electrical engineering with a merit scholarship. Life was not always rosy. When my father’s business went sour, my family was forced to separate. After my father’s death, I learned to support myself and my tuition through offering tutoring services for room and board while maintaining my own study at schools. Along the way, I made friends with many. Some, for example, Shi Jizhi, remain life-long friends to this day.

References Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Dunne, V. H. (2016). The history book (Senior Ed.) (p. 12). New York: Dorling Kindersley Ltd. Wang, H. J., & Li, S. T. (2018). Introduction to social systems engineering. Singapore: Springer.

Chapter 2

Life and Learning as a University Student and an Apprentice Engineer (1943–1951)

2.1 Introduction As stated towards the end of Chap. 1, I scored high on the Shuen Grant exam and was admitted by Shanghai Jiao Tong University with a scholarship. I embarked on a new journey of independent life in Shanghai, the biggest metropolis in China, while pursuing college learning and making new friends. This Chapter provides details about the university I attended; my college life, learning, extracurricular activities as a freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior; my job search effort; and my life and career as an apprentice engineer at Shanghai Power Company.

2.2 Life and Learning at Shanghai Jiao Tong University I entered Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 1943 and graduated in 1947. During this period, I experienced a great leap forward in my learning and personal growth which laid a solid foundation for my future career. This section introduces the university and its mesosystem based upon ecological model of Bronfenbrenner (1979); describes my learning and life as a freshman and sophomore; and reflects on my life and learning as a junior and senior.

2.2.1 Shanghai Jiao Tong University 1. Its brief history. Shanghai Jiao Tong University was created in 1896 during the Qing Dynasty, its original name was Nan Yang Public School. Its name was once changed into Jiao Tong University of Ministry of Railway in 1928, which was divided into Shanghai Education Headquarter, Beijing Railway Management College, and Tangshan Civil Engineering College. It was under the jurisdiction © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 H. Wang, Explorations in Social Systems Engineering, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-3390-7_2

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of the Ministry of Education which named it National Jiao Tong University on August 1, 1937. This university went through many changes in its history, and one important event was that it separated its attached middle and primary school to establish private Nanyang Model Primary and Secondary Schools in Shanghai around 1928. 2. Macrosystem under which the university operated. The macrosystem during my study in the first two years at Shanghai Jiao Tong University reflected the general state in the last two years of the World War II internationally and China’s antiJapanese war domestically since July 7, 1937 (Shanghai was under Japanese occupation since 1941). 3. The Exosystem and its impact on the university. Shanghai was under the control of Japanese Army and Wang Jingwei’s1 puppet government. The university campus was occupied by the Japanese troops. The university had to be moved to the former French Concession in rented houses to continue its education. Although the physical condition was poor, the university enjoyed high morale and great enthusiasm from its students and faculty. All professors remained at the university and did not evacuate to Chongqing with the national government during the period of Sino-Japanese war. And the bogus national government at Nanjing had no capacity to influence the tradition and pattern of education of Shanghai Jiao Tong University established in a long historical period. 4. The Exosystem and its influence on daily life of Shanghai people. The exosystem became very detrimental to people of Shanghai due to the occupation of Japanese and the control of pseudo-government at Nanjing. It controlled Western part of Shanghai with secret service, many gambling places and pornographic services. Speculation and all sorts of illicit trading were popular in Shanghai at that time. Common people lived in great hardship. Coarse cereals were provided together with rice. More rice would be purchased from the black market or went to the rural area to purchase directly from the farmers, but there was the danger that the purchased rice could be confiscated when passing the Japanese check points. The Chinese had to bow down to Japanese soldiers, otherwise their face would be slapped hard by the guards.

2.2.2 My Life and Learning in My Freshman and Sophomore Years This was a difficult and unsatisfactory period of my life and learning. To support myself, I had to work as a tutor for two families (Xu and Pan). Therefore, I had limited time to study and review the course materials taught in class. In addition, 1 Wang

Jingwei (1883–1944) was one of the revolutionaries in his early period. He participated in Chinese Revolutionary League led by Sun Yixian in 1905. He was a senior official in the National Government. But he became a traitor in Sino-Japanese war, He established a bogus national government in Nanjing on March 30, 1940. He died in Nagoya, Japan in 1944.

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only Xu’s family provided me with living accommodation, but Pan’s family did not, because the household was managed by two widows who believed it inappropriate to have a young male tutor living in their home. So, I had to commute to Pan’s house to tutor while living in Xu’s home. 1. Juggling life with working and learning. Life was hectic, keeping two tutoring jobs and a full course load. Every day, after completing my classes, I took my supper at Pan’s family and taught two boys there. Then I ran to Xu’s family and taught two boys in the parlor on the ground floor. I could only study my coursework after 9:00 p.m. Then I slept on the sofa in the parlor. Xu’s family accountant also slept in the parlor with a removable bed. Xu’s family maid would arrange a box lunch for me to take to the classroom. I frequently ate lunch while studying my course materials. It was a tough period for common people in Shanghai due to the high price for rice and other necessities. But I was relatively better off in daily food supply because Pan’s family owned two business firms at Nanjing road, the commercial center of Shanghai at that time, and they provided me very good supper every day. The hostess was very generous and always made sure that I had the best food out of her concern for my well-being as a growing adolescent. But my learning outcome was less than satisfactory as I frequently scored average in class exams, which hurt my self-esteem. I had analyzed my situation, and found several causes. 2. Reflection and analysis for self-improvement. To improve my learning outcomes, I embarked on a thorough analysis of my study habit and work constraints. I concluded that I had to overcome two major obstacles to excel in my studies. • Shortage of time. Although I could allocate every possible time to study and maintain an overall average performance, there were many time-consuming miscellaneous tasks, such as putting my lecture notes in order. Although textbooks were assigned in all courses, some professors gave their lectures in English very fast, so it was difficult to keep up in note taking. However, most of the written exam content was based on the lecture notes. I did not have time to arrange my notes in the classroom. Fortunately, the lecture given by Professor Zhang of chemistry was identical for several years. Freshman could ask sophomore, junior or senior schoolmates to borrow their notes. I got such notes from a junior student. In addition, I asked help from Shi Jizhi, my best friend at Li da Academy. He spent his precious time preparing neat transcription of his notes for me, which saved my time and helped my learning. Then I would only need to focus on arranging lecture notes for physics. This experience made me truly appreciate the traditional Chinese phrase: “An inch of time is worth an inch of gold, while an inch of gold cannot buy an inch of time.” This traditional Chinese phrase is equivalent to the Western saying that “time is money.” In fact, I have followed this principle all my life. • Insufficient prior knowledge in math and sciences. My middle school training in mathematics, physics, and chemistry, though not bad, was not comparable with the training provided by Nanyang Modal Middle School and Hu Xin Middle School, the prep schools for Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Students

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of those two schools had a high passing rate in the entrance examination and were better prepared for the courses taught in the freshman and sophomore classes. I could not compete with the classmates graduated from these two middle schools. From this, I learned a lesson that selecting the right middle schools was also important. 3. Participation in the protests during the “puppet student movement”. When Japan announced its intention to surrender on August 15, 1945, great changes of macrosystem and exosystem took place. This was an important historical event cementing total victory in both Europe and Asia for the Allies. It was also the victory of the Chinese government and its people’s anti-Japanese invasion war of eight years. But the happiness of people in Shanghai only lasted a short period. The officials and officers of Kuomintang Government at Chongqing who came to Shanghai to take over the assets of the puppet government at Nanjing were seriously corrupted. They plundered everything that seemed to have value to them such as houses, gold bars, women, automobiles, etc. People of Shanghai used a traditional Chinese phrase “Five sons passed the examination of civil service” to ridicule the behavior of those take-over officials. Valuables loved and robbed by the Kuomintang’s officials all had their names pronounced in Shanghai dialect with the last syllable as “Zi”. For example, house was pronounced as “Fangzi” in Shanghai dialect, its last syllable was like the pronunciation of “son” as “Erzi”. • “Puppet students”. The Kuomintang Government at Chongqing promulgated a document in September 1945 called “Regulation for Investigation of Students Studied beyond Middle School in the Recovery Region”. The document basically meant that all university students studied in regions occupied by the Japanese army were problem students or “puppet students”, and all of them ought to be investigated and undergone the process of “Reform of Thoughts.” Implementation of this document was strongly opposed by all “puppet students”. • Protests by the puppet students. Then the Commission of Shanghai Students’ Movement of Chinese Communist Party organized the students of “puppet schools” to establish Students of National Universities and Colleges Anti-Investigation Federation, this federation included nearly all universities of Shanghai, such as former St. John’s University (formerly attached to the church), former University of Shanghai (also with the background of church), etc. Anti-Investigation demonstrations which I participated were held along major roads of Shanghai, slogans shouted by the students were “People were not puppet!” “Students were not puppet!” These slogans and demonstrations attracted sympathy from all observers. I remembered that one of the foreign newspapers at Shanghai reported the student demonstration and criticized the government’s “narrow minded act.” One day, when former president Chiang Kai-shek came to Shanghai, the student team went to the outside door of his hotel and presented an appeal to him. One official came out and took our appeal.

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• Temporary University Review Classes. The government would not admit that they made a wrong policy. Instead, the Kuomintang government announced: “Four Temporary University Reviewing Classes would be established at Nanjing, Shanghai, Tianjin, and Beijing to accept students studied in former occupied areas of Japanese army. These students would be subject to “investigation of thoughts” for one year. They could acquire the qualification of National Universities if they passed the final examination.” • Afterthought. I knew some communists during the period of protests. They played a dominant role in the organization of the student’s movement. Now as I write these events which happened more than seventy years ago, I cannot emphasize enough the significance of policy making and policy decision. Every policy is intended for specific goals with targeted groups. The policy makers must have basic knowledge of the targeted group. In fact, most university students were patriotic to their mother country and had high expectations of their national government. But Kuomintang government’s wrong policy had treated all students equivalent to traitors. Such ridiculous policy had the serious negative impact which pushed majority of students towards the left, i.e. biased towards the Communist Party of China. This impact was to manifest at Shanghai Jiao Tong University one year later. 4. Life in the Temporary University Review Class Period. The Temporary University Reviewing Class was set up at the original address of Shanghai Jiao Tong University. It was located at Xujiahui, the western part of Shanghai at that time. But its location, occupied by the Japanese army since later 1941, was now hosting Jiao Tong University from Chongqing which moved back to Shanghai. Students of Temporary University had to live at the big house, which was formerly a gymnasium and used as horse gallery during Japanese occupation, while students from Chongqing Jiao Tong University lived in the formal students’ dormitory. The university began to provide normal logistic function for the students, such as canteen and laundry service. Because Jiao Tong University was a public school at that time, tuition fee was low. Only ten yuan per semester. Living accommodation was free and cost of food provided by canteen was also low. The financial support I received from Shuen Grant could satisfy my daily need. To improve my learning outcomes from the past two years, I made up my mind to move into the big house and devoted myself to learning. I left Xu’s family about half year earlier due to bad micro-environment. The host engaged in speculative business, the eldest boy whom I had taught had got into bad habits which forced me to leave Xu’s family and moved to live in the attic of another family which was a relative of Pan’s family. I went to Pan’s family requesting resignation. My student Pan Lianchang who had a very good relationship with me tried to keep me and cried sorrowfully. His mother and his elder brother wanted to keep me as his tutor and suggested that I teach only in my summer and winter vacation time. They would deposit some money in their business firm at Nanjing road, I could draw interest monthly from this deposit to support my daily expense. In later period, Pan Lianchang became

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the best student in his school and passed the entrance examination of Tsinghua University, and was sent to study in former USSR and returned to work in the Ministry of Petroleum. We became good friends in the later part of our life. 5. Learning in the Temporary University Review Class Period. Although the students studied at former Shanghai Jiao Tong University were classified as students of Temporary University politically, it was a process to save the face of the government for its wrong policy. Both students of Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Chongqing Jiao Tong University studied in the same classroom and taught by the same professors. In junior year, the electrical engineering department was divided into two branches: power and communication. I chose power while my classmate of the middle school Wen Dingxun chose communication. Students of Temporary University had two additional courses: one was politics, focused on the reform of thoughts and the other was physical education class. But the teachers of these two classes were not serious at all. The teacher of politics was a retired officer, he understood fully the emotion of anti-investigation of the students, his course only met once a week. He chatted with students related to general national events, and sometimes he even complained of the unreasonable military system of Kuomintang government. No classes of physical education were held for two semesters. But one day, in June 1946, the teacher of physical education came to school and asked the students of Temporary University to pass the examination of his course. He requested the student to shoot the basketball into the hoop ten times. If one basketball was put into the hoop, it was equivalent to ten points. All students passed this final examination. When I lived in the big house of Jiao Tong University, most students there were not local. The big house accommodated around 40 beds. Each bed had a bed curtain. Some students in the big house made a small table for me to read inside my bed curtain. During the daytime, I could review and recite those courses taught in a vacant classroom, and I could continue my review in my bed after dinner. Eventually, I overcame the two obstacles of time shortage and prior knowledge. Now, living in school and not working to support myself, I had plenty of time to devote to my studies. My knowledge of mathematics and physics learned from my middle school and in the period of freshman and sophomore was good enough for me to compete in the examination of all courses taught in junior year. Through my diligence, I again became the best student commanding top score of all courses. The students of Chongqing Jiao Tong University outnumbered (nearly double) the students of former Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Secretary Liu of Professor Zhong Zhaolin office, who was the chief of department of electric engineering complemented my performance and told me that “your score is the best since the establishment of electrical engineering department.” 6. Life during vacation time. My life in the summer and winter vacations was busy. I had to fulfill my promise to be tutor of Pan’s family. In addition, Pan’s family introduced me to be tutors of several families of their relatives. I referred some of my classmates or schoolmates to work as tutors too when they needed the financial support.

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2.2.3 Formal Student of Shanghai Jiao Tong University in Senior Year After one-year learning in the Temporary University, all students were admitted as formal students of Shanghai Jiao Tong University. The features of my learning and daily life were described in the following. 1. Life as a senior. As a formal student of the university, I could live in the formal students’ dormitory Zhi Xin2 West House. Students in the senior cohort included four groups: former students of Chongqing Jiao Tong University; former Shanghai Jiao Tong University (Post Temporary University); former National Central University (Post Temporary University) and former Da Tong University. Major courses taught in the Power sector of electric engineering included alternating current machine, transmission, power plant equipment, steam power plant. Communication engineering was also taught for students specialized in power sector. Professor Mao Qishuang (who had been consultant of former Shanghai Telephone Company) was responsible to teach this course. There was also an elective course operational calculus taught by Professor Zhang Zhongjun. 2. Became the class monitor (president). This was the practice of former Shanghai Jiao Tong University that the student with the highest score would serve as the class president/monitor. However, the students of former Chongqing Jiao Tong University had the dominant share of student number and they wanted their own student to be the class monitor. The students of underground communist had played coordinated effort to elect me to be the class president/monitor because of my outstanding performance and good character. In the previous section on the protest of puppet student movement, I mentioned that it was organized by the Chinese Communist Party. Through that movement, I made a new friend Wu Zengliang. He came to me quite often. I guessed that he ought to be a communist. After we knew each other more than one year, he admitted that he was a communist. When he approached me to join the party, I told him that I nearly had no knowledge of Marxism, and I did not know the principle and organization of the Chinese Communist Party, although I was disappointed very much about the regime of Kuomintang government due to its serious corruption in Shanghai post the victory of Sino Japanese war and its attitude of non-resistance policy toward the Japanese invasion of China since 1931. I told him I preferred to wait and see the victory of civil war by the Chinese Communist Party. I should devote myself to be a good engineer to serve my country. In the later period, I knew that Wu Zengliang was a highly influential communist in Shanghai students’ movement.3 He was also born in 1925 and had been General Secretary of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, member of Student Movement Committee of Shanghai Municipality 2 Zhi

Xin is the name of Zhu Zhixin (1885–1920), who had joined the United League of China (1905–1912) in 1905. This League is the predecessor of the Kuomintang. The students’ dormitory with his name is in memory for him. 3 I don’t know the fact that the movement was organized by the Chinese Communist Party by that time, I knew this only in later period.

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of the Communist Party of China. It seemed that many student movements led by student association in my senior year were backed by his guidance. He had been Vice Chairman of People’s Political Consultative Conference of Shanghai Municipality from April 1988 to February 1993. 3. Participation of student movement led by the Student Association. One unique feature during my study at the university was that I participated actively in the student movement. Although underground communists existed in Li Da Academy, described in Chap. 1, I was too young to be involved in politics at that time. But the underground communists had a strategy to enlist the support of best students to be followers and supporters of them. Shanghai Jiao Tong University established Students Association during my senior year. Zhou Shouchang was elected to be president of Students’ Association. Zhou was a senior student of chemical science. He had the highest score in the entrance examination of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and ranked number one in the award of Shuen Grant. Two other students with award of Shuen Grant were elected to be members of Students’ Association, Ding Yangyan, and senior student of mechanical engineering, and Hu Yin, senior student of civil engineering. It was the culture and custom of that time that good students with high score of examination would be respected by the schoolmates and possessed high calling power regardless of his or her family background, rich or poor. But Zhou Shouchang was not a communist when he was elected as the president at that time. My close friend Wu Zengliang would not come to classroom in general. But he would come to the classroom when I called to strike and raise protest in response to the calling of Students Association. There were many protests in that period, only two of them are described • Calling for more government financial support in higher education. The Students’ Association called for the students to go to Nanjing to appeal the National Government to give more financial resources in supporting the education of Shanghai Jiao Tong University. I participated in the movement with some of my classmates. But the mayor of Shanghai Municipality, Wu Guozhen, ordered a stop to the railway transportation from Shanghai to Nanjing. A senior student of mechanical engineering Fu Jiabang located and drove the steam locomotive by himself, and all students took the train. When the train arrived at the first station, An Ting, Mayor Wu Guozhen came to An Ting and asked the local department of railway to dismantle the tracks so that the train could not move forward, then he asked student representatives to meet him. Zhou Shouchang and some members of Students’ Association went to the meeting. All students waited in the train, and it was well past the midnight. After an hour or so, the student representatives announced that the problem was solved, we could return to school. Then all participants went back to school. There was a saying in later period, “Mayor Wu Guozhen highly appreciated the capability of Zhou Shouchang4 in negotiation and said, ‘Zhou ought to be a communist, 4 I knew from a professor of Tsinghua University that Zhou Shouchang had been office administrator

of her university in early 1950s. He had been classified to be rightist in Anti-Rightist Movement

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if I arrest him, I shall talk with him for several days.’” This event illustrated the capacity of Zhou Shouchang and the calling power of Students’ Association. • Encounter with the local police chief and his men. One night, class monitors of all classes of the university met with some members of the Students’ Association in a classroom to discuss the arrangement of an Anti-Civil War protest. The chief of Xujiahui District Police Bureau came to the campus with a group of policemen to arrest the students in meeting. We blocked the door with desks and chairs. The chief of the police bureau tried to break the door with an axe. When the students living in dorms learned the news, many of them came to the building where the classroom was located and formed a circle around the policemen. The number of students significantly outnumbered the policemen, and the police chief had to stop his action and retreated from our school together with his men. • More about the Student Association. Due to the calling power and influence of Students’ Association, the secret service agency of Kuomintang government determined to arrest principle members of the Students’ Association and other active students suspected to be communist. One morning, students living in the dorm were told that the secret service agents came to school to arrest the members of Students’ Association. Students rushed outside the school to follow those agents to save the students arrested. Those vicious agents used long thick bamboo (or fir) sticks with needles to beat students who came closer to them. After students learned that no member of Students’ Association had been arrested, they retreated to school. Later, we learned that there were 16 students on the blacklist, and some of them, such as Lei Tianyue and Ding Yangyan were my friends for life. Those 16 students were rescued by the underground communist party with inside information provided by Li Jiagao that the secret service would take actions. Li was a member of Students Association but was not a communist at that time. He was the son of Li Ximou, the Vice Director of Bureau of Education of Shanghai Municipality. His father had gone to Taipei China. But he stayed and joined the underground communist party in 1947. He worked from the ground up since the establishment of PRC and became the Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Ninth Shanghai People’s Congress, Honorary Dean of School of Management Shanghai Jiao Tong University; Chairman of Shanghai Society of Systems Engineering. He also established China Europe International Business School. He died in 1998 in Shanghai. Below Fig. 2.1 was a photo taken with him in 1992 at Huangguoshu Waterfall in Guizhou Province. The Students’ Association became inactive after this heavy blow. New members had to be elected. My classmate Zhao Rongqian who was also a close friend of Wu Zengliang told me that Wu intended to elect me to be a member, but Zhao told Wu that my family (my mother) depended solely on me for support. Then Wu and other underground communists developed a new list of members to be elected. And it took some and was sent to department of computer to teach. But he had taught the course of computer very well. His so called ‘rightist’ had been redressed. He died around 2000.

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Fig. 2.1 Photo of Li Jiagao (right) and I (left)

time for the new Students Association to be active. Therefore, a short period of calm of the Students’ Movement prevailed on campus. 4. Learning in senior year. Although there were many social activities in my senior year, I still devoted all available time to study and review the course materials taught in the classroom. I routinely reviewed and memorized lecture content via repeated practice as the Chinese phrase “skill derived from practice” advocated. As a result, I could summarize 6-month lectures into an integrated whole with key concepts and process that can be learned within several hours and reviewed for examinations. I developed a strong capability through my more than 4 years of tutoring experiences with several families. This was consistent with a traditional Chinese phrase: “Teach and learn are mutual and complementary to each other.” Several classmates asked me to help them study for exams as I was always well prepared for every exam. I shared my brief course summaries with them so they could prepare for final examination. Although Shanghai Jiao Tong University was famous for its education system, it focused on the fundamental training important to all types of engineering, i.e. mathematics, physics and chemistry. All lectures were given and examined in English, because most books of science and technology were published in English. The university also offered a course of second foreign language, i.e. German. Professors’ teaching styles varied significantly. Some professors lectured in English very quickly without giving students time to digest or ask questions.

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It took time to arrange the notes and review them several times, to link various parts organically. While Professor Zhong Zhaolin, the chief of department of engineering, and Professor Mao Qishuang, the consultant of Shanghai Telephone Company, both had real world experiences in their profession, were able to demonstrate how theories were practiced in real world and link the principle and theory step by step to the performance of equipment and process of design and operation of the system. I liked their teaching method very much. 5. My perception on education. I perceive learning in school is only one aspect of human life. Learning in school should provide the students with basic skills, such as reading, writing, arithmetic and a general knowledge of their physical, social and economic environment. But in an emerging information society, there are explosive expansion of information and knowledge. Some knowledge learned at schools may become outdated very quickly. Therefore, lifelong learning is a must. The education system should also be focused on teaching students how to learn, so that they can be adaptable to a changing future. Education is an important theme to be studied in sociology. Much can be discussed in this theme. Before the establishment of modern education system, China established a Teacher-Student system. A paper with the theme “Discussion of Teachers” had been written by a great writer Han Yu5 of Tang Dynasty, I quoted a few sentences from his paper to conclude this section. “The roles of a teacher are transfer of basic principles, transmission of knowledge and skill and provision of solution for puzzlements.”

2.3 Graduation and Job Seeking 2.3.1 Graduation I graduated in June 1947, the spring semester, along with other seniors. The ceremony of graduation was simple, a photo was taken with major professors and the entire graduation class of the semester (both Power and Communication disciplines). This photo dated 72 years ago is shown in Fig. 2.2. People seated were professors, and their names are shown in Table 2.1.

5 Han Yu (788–824) He was the greatest writer among eight great writers of Tang and Song Dynasty.

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Fig. 2.2 Photo of graduation ceremony of electrical engineering department in summer 1947

Table 2.1 Name of Professors (First row in the photo from left to right)

Name

Remarks

1

Wang Shi

2

Zhang Zhongjun

3

Chen Hu

4

Zhong Zhaolin

Department Chief

5

Gao Huairong

Wife of Huang Xirong

6

Huang Xirong

7

Wang Zhizhuo

2.3.2 Job Seeking and Landing an Apprentice Engineer at Shanghai Power Company The graduating class of 1947 faced difficulty at the job market because China was in the middle of second civil war (August 1945–September1949) between the Kuomintang government and Chinese Command Party with more destructions than constructions. The job opportunities were much less than a normal situation. But the National Resource Commission of the Kuomintang government still sent their staffs to National Universities to recruit employees. Per recommendation by the chief of electrical engineering department, I was asked to meet the recruiter of National

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Resource Commission. I passed his interview and was given a job at Xiangtan Electric Machinery Factory of Hunan Province which was attached to National Resource Commission. However, after I passed the final test of former Shanghai Power Company (SPC) and got a job offer, I ceded the National Resource Commission job to my classmate Zhang Ruijiong. In order to safeguard my job position without competition with my classmates of power sector, I participated in the employment examination of Bureau of Shanghai Telecommunication, and my name was on the list of acceptance. In fact, quite a few graduates of power sector in 1947 were waiting for the SPC examination for its apprentice engineer program. SPC was an electric power company at Shanghai formerly owned by U.K., later it was sold to Ebasco Services which was a United States-based designer and constructor of energy infrastructure. SPC announced that its apprentice engineer program would recruit 12 people in electric engineering and 12 people in mechanical engineering, through national open examination. The apprentices would receive three years of general training rotating through all departments in the company, and one year’s training in specialization. The job of SPC was my first choice not because it was a company owned by foreigners and offered a higher income than other options, but mainly for its comprehensive training program which would expand my professional capacity to a broad scale and improve my future competitiveness. The SPC examination for prospective apprentice engineer was divided into two stages: the first stage was a written test. 24 people of electrical engineering and 24 people of mechanical engineering passed the exam. Then, the 24 persons of electrical engineering were informed to visit one of the major substations of this company. After the visit, the second stage of the examination, an oral test, was implemented in the headquarter office at Nanjing Road. There were two groups of staffs of SPC responsible for the oral test. One of its manager Li Deqing was with one group. 24 people must respond to questions raised by members of two test groups. I received many technical questions in the first group related to the equipment installed in the substations that I had visited in previous day. I was very disappointed about my performance in the oral test of the first group. I did better in the oral test with the second group. Most questions raised were related to daily life. The rejection rate was 50%. I passed the SPC examination and became an apprentice engineer for four years. Among 12 people accepted in electrical engineering, graduates from Shanghai Jiao Tong University comprised of 50%. Among the other six people, three had working experience as lecturers in the university (two from Zhe Jiang University, one from National Central University).

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2.4 Life and Learning at SPC—General Training at SPC (1947.9–1949.4) 2.4.1 Learning at SPC Although the apprentice engineer was a paid position, an agreement was signed between every apprentice and the company that SPC was under no obligation to provide employment after the training completed. The company would not assign apprentices any responsibilities either during their training. Power system engineering was a complex system with many components. Generally, it included four sub-systems—generation, transmission, distribution and utilization. The knowledge learned during my training was different from what I learned in the university. The former was learning through practice and process, while the later was learning the basic theories related to the principle of design and operation of the four sub-system and the components involved in each subsystem. For example, the apprentice engineer of electrical engineering were required by the distribution department head to submit a report every month. This report should include what the apprentice had learned in the month and describe all the processes in detail. Generally, the apprentice engineer went together with the workers by lorry. If the workers installed an overhead transformer on two poles, every step should be described. If the workers worked in maintenance of an oil circuit breaker in a substation, the process of dismantling should be described, and a schematic diagram of various parts should be drawn. I learned engineering drawing in the university but had never practiced drawing schematic diagrams before. I spent around two days to practice and improve my skill of schematic drawing during a scheduled maintenance of a D.C. generator that provided service for the tram.

2.4.2 General Training at SPC General training in SPC of electrical engineer included its distribution department, metering department, consumer’s engineering department, engineering department and generation department. I was specializing in the engineering department in my final year of apprentice engineer. Learning at generation department will be described in Sect. 2.6. A general description of learning in the former three departments will be described. 1. Rotation at the Distribution Department. Generation system was concentrated at certain points while the distribution system was widely spread. The headquarters of distribution department was divided into several divisions: operation, maintenance and underground. Transmission and distribution lines had two types: overhead and underground. There were three categories of voltage used by SPC by that time, 23,000, 6600 and 380/220 V in international settlement area. There

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were three district centers, Eastern, Central and Western. The district engineer was responsible for the extension and maintenance of overhead lines and operation of substation (open and close of circuit breakers of circuits) within his district through connection with control engineer. The structure of underground cable was relatively complicated and joining cables required higher skill and procedures. Therefore, a special division was established in the headquarters of distribution department. The operation division was responsible for the operation of the electrical system of SPC. 23,000 V was considered as transmission voltage of SPC by that time. Safety, reliability and continuity of service were principle themes of operation. Engineers of operation division were classified by ranks. Engineers of higher rank were qualified to operate circuits of transmission voltage. Engineers of lower rank were qualified to operate circuits of 6600 and 380/220 V, while engineers of lowest rank were only qualified to operate circuits of 380/220 V. During my training there, I witnessed how an engineer was demoted to a lower rank after mis-operating the circuits. SPC was serious about its service and quality control. There was another story which was related to Professor Zhu Ruijie, who was a professor of steam power plant of former Shanghai Jiao Tong University6 and was the first Chinese engineer employed in the generation department of SPC. There was discrimination against the Chinese engineer at SPC, who was not allowed to operate circuits with certain voltage compared to his foreign counterparts with lower qualification than him. He filed grievance with the chief of the department, quit the job, and went to teach in the university with very low income compared to what he had earned at SPC. He portrayed the spirit of a Chinese intellectual and his story was very popular among his students. There was a section ‘Relay and Testing’ under the operation division, which was responsible for the protection of overload or various faults happened on circuits. Faults happened with underground cables were relatively complicated to detect. Test of fault location was required to locate the exact location of the fault. The principle was based on a Wheatstone bridge device.7 Through measuring the length of point of fault from the testing point, the fault point could be identified. It was generally at the joint of cables. SPC kept a complete record of joints of its underground cables, so the location of fault joint could be identified and repaired, and supply of electricity could be recovered promptly. The operation of the relay and testing was highly technical, and much of the work was not taught in the university. Consequently, I expanded my supplementary readings on its technicality. 2. Rotation at the Meter Department. The basic function of meter department was maintenance and repair of all meters, the majority were household kw-hr meters for measurement of amount of electricity used by households. There were a very many meters in the warehouse. I learned to dismantle several meters made by 6 He

left Shanghai Jiao Tong University due to the event of ‘Puppet School and Puppet Student,’ and taught at Da Tong University. 7 Wheatstone bridge is a device used to measure the electrical resistance of an unknown resistor.

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different countries. The meters made by U.K. were relatively conservative with all components and parts more under rated than their actual capacity, while meters made by Germany and Japan were rated more in line with the actual capacity of the meter. It was also interesting to note the fact that the structure of household kw-hr made by Japan was nearly like that made by Germany. In my later life, I have had academic exchanges with Japanese intellectuals many times. Japan was a latecomer of industrialization compared to Germany. Japan learned seriously science and technology (S&T) from abroad especially from Germany before WWII, and from U.S.A. after WWII. Japan established a strong manufacturing sector which integrated international experience together with Japanese innovation. It becomes a strong competitor to Europe and U.S.A. Today, while the U.S. and China are entangled in a trade war, it is interesting to cite the book Made in America-Regaining the Productive Edge (Dertouzoo et al. 1989) where it states, “The postwar American economic advantage rested on five pillars. First the American market was eight times larger than the next largest market. (p. 20) but “Today it is not quite twice as large as the Japanese market. (p. 23).” The other four pillars include technology, skilled workers, wealth, and having best managers. I shall not discuss these pillars in detail. I quote this book because its contents are still relevant to current global debate on trade and industrial policy. 3. Rotation at the Consumer’s Engineering Department. Training in this department served three purposes; developing a better concept of service through interacting with ordinary household consumers, visiting several types of manufacturing plants to check whether the electric equipment were installed up to standard, and working in the workshop to learn maintenance and repair of electrical equipment rented by consumers • Customer Counter. SPC set up a customer counter at the ground floor of its headquarters in Shanghai. The apprentice engineers would work at the counter to meet ordinary household consumers and gave response to their questions. If the apprentices could not respond, a department staff member would take over. SPC classified its employees into three categories: technical staff (engineer), workers, and clerical staff. Each category had its own ranking system, promotion procedures, and benefit packages. For example, the annual leave for technical staff was three weeks. There was discrimination in pay for employees of the same job but with different races or origin of the country. Because SPC was a U.K. company but was sold to U.S., generally employees of Anglo-Saxon origin were paid the highest, other Europeans were the second, miscellaneous foreigners such as white Russian were the third, and Chinese the fourth rank of pay. Such practice was common in the colonial era. • Industrial Customers. The major customers of SPC were various industrial and public customers, such as a flour mill, paper mill, textile mill, rolling mill, hospital, department store, etc. The engineering department would check the safety of their electrical installation and give advice to improve reliability and

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safety of operation. For example, a hospital needed the service of double feeders and installation of diesel driven electrical plant. The four largest department stores, such as Da Xin, Yong An, Xian Shi and Xin Xin also required double feeder service to ensure reliability, etc. • Repair and Maintenance Workshop. Competition among foreign companies in China market was fierce. The Gas Company marketed gas heaters, while SPC advocated electrical heaters. SPC made electric heaters, its size was like the current washing machines, it had several heaters on the top panel and the lower part was an oven. SPC would lease those electric heaters to customer to increase electricity sales to compete with gas heaters. This workshop was responsible for the maintenance and repair of the electric heaters, water heaters and motors. I noticed the motors repaired had similar issues with that of meters. The motors made by U.K. were larger in size compared with the motors made by Germany or Japan of the same rating. This might be due to the marketing strategy because the sales engineer of U.K. advocated that their product could sustain overload.

2.4.3 Life as an Apprentice Engineer 1. Living accommodation. SPC paid its apprentices but did not provide any living accommodations. I had to live in the school dorm with schoolmates of lower class. In the beginning, I lived with students of civil engineering because we knew each other since our days in the big house in the Temporary University. My roommate was Xu Zhixin who becomes an expert of solid mechanics in later period and taught at Tong Ji University. However, in late 1949, the Kuomintang government closed Shanghai Jiao Tong University and drove away all students living in school dorms. I had to move several times in this period including living in hotels. 2. Hyperinflation during the period of monetary reform by the Kuomintang Government. Due to the civil war between the Kuomintang government and the Chinese communist party, the rapid rise of military expenditure caused hyperinflation pressure. The Kuomintang government determined to issue a new type of money unit ‘the gold yuan’ to replace the old monetary unit in August 18, 1948. They forced the people to go the bank to give up their savings for the new currency. Jiang Jingguo, the son of President Chiang Kai Shek came to Shanghai to supervise the implementation. In the meantime, he held a large-scale conference at the former Horse Racecourse of Shanghai. He called on the masses to crack down on speculation and to prevent prices from rising. One driver of SPC attended the conference and was excited with the new reform and its prospects. But Jiang Jingguo failed to prevent speculation from his relatives due to intervention from the wife of Chiang Kai-shek. He returned to Nanjing in silence. And many shops including restaurants closed to resist the policy to prevent price elevation. Some

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apprentice engineers came from other parts of China had no places to go for dinner because SPC only provided lunch service. Some apprentices had to buy peanuts for supper for several days. I went to Pan’s family for dinner and was spared of the misery. Shortly afterwards, high inflation came back in vengeance with the monetary unit of gold yuan. When we received our wage payment in gold yuan, we had to go to the market to buy silver dollar right away. Any delay in the exchange of the money would result in severe devaluation of the wage payment (one-hour delay = %5 devaluation). I also asked my roommate to buy some golden rings for me to keep the value of my savings. 3. Friends old and new. SPC’s training system created a conducive environment to establish sincere friendship among fellow apprentices. Learning and exchanging information prevailed, as there was no conflict of vested interests among us. I made three close friends then. One was Cheng Benji, graduated from Tsinghua University. He was older than I because he worked before entering SPC. He and his brother worked in turns to support the other towards study. I liked him very much. The other was Tang Zongyan, a classmate of mine from Jiao Tong University, he was from Chong Qing. He joined the Youth Army in anti-Japanese war, in response to the calling by Chiang Kai-shek “One inch of mountains and rivers is equivalent to one inch of blood, hundred thousand of youths will form hundred thousand of soldiers!” Both Cheng and Tang were older than I and they were more mature. They treated me like little brother. Another one was Wu Binglin, who graduated from Shanghai Da Tong University. He was clever and very straight forward. The four of us became close friends. And I was overly rejoiced to be reunited with my best friend Shi Jizhi since my days at the middle school. Shi studied and graduated from the mechanical engineering department of Xiamen University. He was guaranteed by his university to be employed by China Agricultural Machinery Engineering Company through the procedure of an oral test. This organization was attached to UNRRA. We two had not seen each other for over four years. The joy when we met again in Shanghai was beyond any words that could describe.

2.5 Life and Learning at SPC—Generation Department (1949.5–1950.3) 2.5.1 Learning in the Generation Department Learning in the generation department was relatively more relaxed than in the distribution department. There was no request for monthly written report, although it was a very important practice for electrical engineer. Because generation department is

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the core of the electric power system, it had many sub-systems, equipment and components that had not been learned fully in the universities. Learning in the generation department was divided in two stages: 1. Learning and practice in the workshop. It was the perception of the foreigners at that time that the Chinese engineering training was strong in theory, but weak in craftsmanship. The company organized a 6-month training in the workshop for apprentices to practice various operations, such as work of fitter; operation of various machine tools (lathe, planer, drilling machine, milling machine etc.); blacksmith; heat treatment; electric welding, etc. The training covered the complete process of craftwork. Although I did not acquire sufficient skills to compete with a craftsman, I learned the general knowledge of various craftwork and gained a comprehensive grasp of the operating procedures in craftwork. 2. Learning in the generation plant. The generation plant consisted of fuel supply plant, boiler house, turbine house (including electric generators), control room and electricity supply for plant equipment, chemical treatment of feed water, pump house for circulating water, meter and automatic control, etc. SPC at that time had four boiler houses from boiler house 2 to boiler house 5. As the number of the house increased, so did the level of sophistication and modernization of the equipment. Boiler house 5 had the high temperature and high-pressure boiler put into operation, while boiler house 3 had the old type boiler with combustion of fuel on chain grate, and boiler house 4 had boilers burning pulverized fuel. There was only one turbine house with layout of Turbine Generators (TG) from TG4 to TG18 from the front to the end. Like the boiler house, the higher the number of TG, the higher the progress and technological level of the equipment. Turbine 18th was a high-pressure high temperature top-ranking unit. Its exhausted steam was used as input of steam to other TGs of the plant. It improved overall thermal efficiency of the plant. Learning in the generation plant included learning of the operation and maintenance of the major equipment. For example, start up and shut down of boiler and TG was set to meet change of load by night and daytime. Due to the underdevelopment of industry of Shanghai at that time, the lighting load of ordinary household had a fair influence on the daily load curve. I also learned the process of scheduled routine maintenance of important equipment such as various boilers and TG set. I learned to pass several important divisions, such as chemical treatment of feed water to boilers, meter and automatic control division. Boiler in boiler house 5 was subject to automatic control with gas as the medium of control and operation. But I noticed that on the control panel most dials were put on ‘Hand set’ rather than automatic. I suspected that the automatic control system as an unproven new product might not be fully reliable and the setting by hand function can mitigate. It’s also possible that the structure of components of the automatic control system was too complicated to be mastered by the operation and maintenance engineer of SPC at that time. 3. Brief reflection on learning. Learning in the generation department of SPC was like visiting an exhibition of power plant equipment for three decades. It had both

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quite old equipment as well as the newest equipment. The turbine generators in the turbine house came from at least 8 or 10 different manufacturers. This imposed the problem of spare parts. In addition, the operation and maintenance staff must be highly skilled and versatile. During the Cultural Revolution, it was reported on the newspaper that this plant had the highest performance record. I checked this with the chief engineer of the plant when I visited Shanghai in later period, he told me that: “while I am under the investigation, my old workers who knew the routine well continue to function at their best.”

2.5.2 Life in the Generation Department 1. Generation plant. The company designated a tram to carry apprentices to the generation plant. There were several rooms with locker. Every trainee changed his clothes into overall uniform and put the clothes in the locker. The coverall was color coded with blue color for the apprentices and white color for formal engineers. Training in the generation department was quite free. We could go to the boiler and turbine house at any time or return to rest in these rooms provided for us. There were several Ping-Pong tables. The plant cafeteria provided lunch, dinner or afternoon tea. Apprentices could sleep on the Ping-Pong table should the need for night shift arise. 2. Experience of bomb attack on February 6, 1950. Several days before February 6, 1950, when we took the tram to the plant there were gossips on the tram that there might be bomb attack to the generation plant by the Kuomintang government. But it did not happen that day. After getting my lunch on February 6, I walked towards the boiler and turbine houses. When I reached the ground floor of turbine house (installation of condensers and condensate pumps for turbines), I heard a sound of heavy blow nearby and thought it was true that the bomb attack was coming. But I did not think our generation plant was attacked, it might be some other plants nearby. When I continued to walk upstairs, I saw fires nearby and quickly evacuated the building. Later I learned that there were several bomb attacks along the production houses, boiler house and turbine house, but did not hit the targets and only several large pits were formed. Then emergency action was taken, Turbine-Generator 18 was dismantled, stored and protected. There was a temporary shortage of electricity supply for a short period in Shanghai. 3. Settling down to a stable life. After two years work and the normal annual increase of wages for apprentice engineers, I finally had the financial means to rent a small apartment with independent bath and toilet room at Jingan Temple Road. The landlord was a lady by the name Ms. Lu with a 6-year old daughter. She managed my daily life very well, and I paid a package deal for rent, maid service, food, and laundry. I finally settled into a stable and comfy life. 4. Separated with my best friend again. My friend, Lei Tianyue, came to Shanghai to look for experts to work in Dalian. He came to me one day and invited

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me to go to Dalian Institute of Technology to teach. I replied that “I am still in my apprenticeship training, which is a great opportunity for learning. I can go to Dalian after I complete the training.” Together, we went to China Agricultural Machinery Engineering Company to meet Liu Jimin, the Representative of Army. Both Liu and Lei were underground communists formerly. There, my best friend Shi Jizhi, who was an apprentice engineer at China Agricultural Machinery Engineering Company, accepted his invitation and resigned from his job on September 26, 1949. He left behind a comfortable life in Shanghai with higher pay and went to Dalian to serve for the national development. Thus, Shi Jizhi and I were separated from each other once again.

2.6 Life and Specialization Training at SPC—Engineering Department (1950.4–1951.8) 2.6.1 Specialization Assigned Although it’s stated in the previous section that SPC had no obligation to employ its trained apprentice engineers, it was after WWII and some departments of SPC were in shortage of qualified staff. For example, my close friend Cheng Benji who was tall and strong was asked in advance to specialize in the generation department in the boiler house. My other close friend Wu Binglin was asked in advance to specialize in the distribution department to attend to major substations, etc. I was assigned to specialize in the engineering department.

2.6.2 General Training in the Engineering Department There was an education division in the engineering department. It had four staffs (including its division head) responsible for scheduling training for the apprentices. When an apprentice was transferred to a new department, only the department head would meet the apprentice to give him a brief orientation and assign him the training practices in various divisions. After the general training was completed, the department head would fill an evaluation form with 10 criteria, such as attendance, diligence, initiative, attitude, and even appearance, etc. During the period of general training, the department would not assign any specific task to the apprentice based on “No Responsibility” clause in the agreement. Therefore, during the general training, how much an apprentice could learn depended very much upon his initiative and social skill. SPC had a very well-organized filing system in every department. Every department had comprehensive organization charts of the company and the

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department with roles, division responsibilities, section responsibilities, and interrelationship between units clearly defined. The filing system of engineering department also included many projects done by the department engineers. The file content was thorough and even the rough draft of calculation written on paper was included. As apprentices, our major responsibility was to observe how people perform their tasks and what kind of activities went through the department. We could interact with the workers by asking questions.

2.6.3 Specialization in Engineering Department (1950.9–1951.8) 1. Specialization training. Specialization in SPC was not based on personal choice, rather, it’s determined by the need of the company. As stated before, due to the shortage of qualified operators in generation department, several apprentices of electrical engineering were asked in advance to enter a specific specialization. The main difference between the general training versus the specialization training was that the apprentices would assist a formal staff with specific tasks in different divisions of the department. The role of the Engineering Department was to plan and design the extension of transmission and distribution systems of SPC, improve the reliability and continuity of electricity, and simplify the process of maintenance. 2. Exemplary management practices at SPC. The Engineering Department had a budget division to implement the ER (Expenditure Requisition) system of its parent company Ebasco Service. Each department had its right to implement project to improve the performance and adopt new technology under the ER system. ER system defined the scale of the project to be approved at the department and the headquarters, respectively. The budget of annual project expenditure for each department must be summed up and submitted to the parent company for approval. With a history of over 100 years, Ebasco Service had accumulated rich experience in management. By assisting with the project, I observed and learned best management practices firsthand in addition to gaining my professional skills. Below citing the exemplary management practices at SPC that can be emulated by other organizations. • Division of labor properly. The major role of engineering department was to design transmission and distribution system including substations. With a balanced division of labor, the engineers could focus more on the design of alternative schemes, choice of appropriate equipment, layout and control of budget. They needed only to produce draft drawings which would then be perfected by the staffs with lower qualifications at the drawing office.

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• Experiment of new technology. One section working for adoption of new technology was responsible to collect information related to trends of application of new technology to electric system. For example, live working technology on transmission and distribution line had become popular then. So, SPC experimented in washing and cleaning the disc insulator of live line in 1950. Most electric contacts were made by copper at that time, the distribution department experimented with electroplate silver on the copper contacts for its circuited breakers in close coordination with the engineering department. • Effective utilization of scarce resource. The Company provided transport service by offering passenger car for staffs above certain grade. Managers would have individual cars; department heads and other senior staffs would have shared cars. These cars with chauffeurs would take employees to and from work. But in the office hours, all cars were parked in the headquarters. Any staff needed a car for work, just filled a request to the division head for approval, and the transport unit would send car to serve the staff work needs. • Detail minutes for all meetings. Every department head had a secretary. The secretary, generally trained from a university affiliated with church, would keep detailed minutes for every meeting that the department had with issues, discussions, opinions, participants, actions, etc. Copies of the minutes would be distributed to each participant and filed. Responsibility was clearly defined, and actions properly followed in writing. • Reasonable and transparent wage system. Although there were discriminations based on race and country origin, the wage system was transparent. There were two types of wage increases: the annual small increase of wages for all, and bonus for excellent staffs. There were two basic concepts about the former, it was a shared profit for the company and all employees, and it was also a means of stabilization for the employee, the longer the years an employee worked in the company, the higher would be his wages. The latter was only for a few numbers of staffs. With extraordinary performance, the amount of increase was larger, equivalent to promotion of the grade.

2.7 Life and Health 2.7.1 A Stable Life But Health Breakdown During my apprentice years at SPC, my life became stable and improved gradually. I settled down in a nice apartment with my daily needs taken care of by the hostess. But one day, I felt a sudden breakdown of my health as I suffered from unexplained fatigue and had no appetite. SPC provided individual doctor service for its employee, so I went to the doctor’s office and went through a stomach examination, but everything was normal. I then went to a famous neurologist, he replied me frankly “I cannot

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help you for your sickness, you must solve the problem by yourself by maintaining a routine life and learning to relax without thinking too much. You can walk on the streets mindlessly, for example, looking at the poles. Then, after some time, you may be able to recover on your own.” One co-apprentice introduces me to his brother who was studying medicine at Tong Ji University. He told me that this sickness might be caused by stimulus of the diaphragm and asked me to practice deep breath for a period for potential recovery.

2.7.2 Analysis of Health Breakdown and Practice and Exercise for Recovery 1. Cause analysis. Based upon various doctors’ opinions, I perceived that my health breakdown was not caused by physical conditions, but rather by a mental imbalance. I had spent more than 16 years struggling for survival and acquiring skills to serve the country. This objective was somewhat achieved when I became an apprentice engineer at SPC. This mental stimulus that governed me so long had suddenly alleviated, which left a void in my psyche and caused mental imbalanced. The second contributing cause had to do with illusion versus reality. Studying in the school or university was like living in an ivory tower that had shielded one from complex reality of the real world. I am a person with relatively simple mind and simple vision. When I walked out of the ivory tower and immerged in real world, the reality contradicted significantly with my illusion. So, I was extremely disappointed which further intensified the mental imbalance. 2. Practice and exercise to regain health. I read only a few books related to life and health before. Now, I bought more books related to health, personal care, and social relations and studied them with equal zeal as if they were engineering books. I was determined to take proper actions to recover my health based on advice from doctors and from the books. I developed a routine and stuck to it, even to this day. • Living in a strict routine life. I went to bed at 8:30 p.m. and got up at 5:30 a.m. every day, which gave me enough sleeping time to rest and regain vitality for next day. I maintained this routine and never went to theater or parties for entertainment beyond 8:30 p.m. • Practicing deep breath. I practiced deep breath for 20–30 min every day in the morning. After practicing for over 6 months, the breathing automatically changed into deep rhythmic breathing through the belly, as described by Chinese practice of “qigong”. • Drinking enough fluids. I would drink at least seven cups of tea or water per day. • Taking hot bath. Every month or one and half months, I would take a hot bath. I laid my whole body in the hot water for half an hour or more until my entire body perspired with sweat. I let the process last for 10–15 min to detoxicate.

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I perceive this process will promote blood circulation and accelerate body detoxication. • Relaxing mental state. I enjoyed reading and visited parks at my spare time and took the daughter of my hostess to theater to see Beijing opera during weekend. 3. Recovery and lessons learned. After one and half years conditioning, I completely recovered my physical and mental health. Furthermore, I established a healthy lifestyle, i.e. stick with a strict routine, which has benefited me to this day. Philosophically, my mental breakdown in early adulthood was not a bad thing. It made me aware of the weakness of single mindedness in learning certain knowledge. I concentrated my effort to study natural science and engineering in the past, but I nearly had no knowledge of medicine and social relationships. I learned lessons from this experience which has broadened the scope of my knowledge base and enriched my interest in life. I recalled the Le Chatelier Principle that I learned in chemistry course concerning the equilibrium of a system, which stated: “A system in equilibrium remains indefinitely in equilibrium unless external conditions are changed, a change in external condition results a change of the system that tends to restore the original equilibrium.” In chemistry, this principal applies only to the change of external condition to the direction of chemical reaction to restore the state of equilibrium (or “balance” to be understood in general). But in life, I thought, through change of external condition such as relaxation, deep breath, hot bath, adequate sleep, etc., one could restore and maintain equilibrium of one’s mind and body, so they are in perfect balance once again. I think I succeeded in applying this principle to restoring my health. This experience gave me a better understanding of the word “system”.

2.8 Summary In this chapter, I discussed my life and learning as a college engineering student at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and as an apprentice engineer at Shanghai Power Company (SPC). These were my formative years which laid a solid foundation for my future careers in engineering and in social science. 1943 opened the door for me to enter a new and exciting world full of promise. Here I was studying at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, one of the top universities in China and living in Shanghai, a great metropolis. Like a sponge, I soaked myself up in the deep ocean of knowledge. I had to work several tutoring jobs to support myself, and my middle school preparation was not the best for the university rigor. Despite of these hurdles, I managed to work my way up to the top of the class by the senior year and was elected the class president/monitor, an honor traditionally bestowed to the senior student with the best test score. Despite my overwhelming work and

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study schedule, I found time to participate in events and movements organized by the Students Association, to socialize and make friends. I graduated in 1947 and landed a dream job—an apprentice engineer at SPC. At SPC, I learned practical skills and gained field experiences through departmental rotation training. Although the learning in a classroom versus from a workplace differed, they meant to complement each other to enable one to solve real world problems through application and integration. In addition to enhance my engineering skills, working at SPC enabled me to experience best management practices firsthand. I learned that good management would ensures high efficiency, cost reduction, and optimal utilization of human resources and equipment. My success might have come too fast that I was not mentally ready for it. So, I suffered a mental and health breakdown just as I was high on the achievement ladder. I sought counseling, read about body and mind and how to keep them healthy and balanced, I developed a set of routine for sleep, exercise, relaxation and diet, and carried it out persistently. In the end, I fully recovered. And as a side benefit, I have maintained a set routine to this day and still live a healthy and active life at age 95. The moral of this experience is that good health is the foundation for success in life!

References Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Dertouzoo, M. L., Lester. R. K., & Solow, R. M. (1989). Made in America—Regaining the productive age (pp. 20, 23). Cambridge: MIT Press.

Chapter 3

Works and Life in Engineering Design at Shanghai and Yunnan Province (1951–1969)

3.1 Introduction After four years of training as an apprentice engineer, I became certified and began specializing in engineering design in 1951 and worked at this position until 1969. This period coincided with establishment of PRC in 1949, and the Recovery Period of PRC (1950–1952). In 1953, planning for development of China started in preparation and implementation of China’s First Five-Year Plan. Many new projects were constructed in this period to meet the demand of national economic and social development and engineering design was the first step in the construction and completion of projects. Demand of external environment provided a great opportunity for me to sharpen my design skills in many projects, from low level simple projects to high level complex ones. This chapter will describe my work and life in Shanghai Power Company (SPC), Engineering Department of East China Naval Headquarter at Shanghai before 1958, and my work and life in Kunming Hydropower Design Institute and Design Department of Bureau of Electricity, Yunnan Province. Regarding my life during this period, only major work and important events will be presented.

3.2 Assistant Engineer at SPC 3.2.1 Work in the Engineering Department and Bureau of Power Supply 1. Assistant Engineer in the Engineering Department. After four years working as an apprentice engineer, I became a full-time assistant engineer working in Engineering Department at SPC. My first assignment was “Planning of Electricity Supply to Cao Yang New Village” which was a new building complex located at western region of Shanghai for accommodation of workers. This was a welfare © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 H. Wang, Explorations in Social Systems Engineering, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-3390-7_3

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project by the new government of Shanghai Municipality. The design process was relatively simple; estimating the load of each household, summing up the loads and determining the size of main line based upon the geographical layout of houses, and determining the size of transformer through summing the loads with proper consideration of load factor and possible future expansion. One technical issue, which I did not learn in my previous training, was locations for the transformers. But I solved the problem through applying the formulas of finding the center of gravity of substance in physics. I replaced m (mass) by i (load in current) in the formulas and got the value of X and Y in Cartesian coordinate, which was the center of load and the right location for the transformer (Box 3.1).

Box 3.1 Analogy of Analysis of Load Center and Mass Center  mx  =X m

(3.1)

m is the unit of mass x is the distance of m in x coordinate X is the center of gravity of the substance in coordinate.  my  =Y m

(3.2)

m is the unit of mass y is the distance of m in y coordinate Y is the center of gravity of the substance in y coordinate. I had changed m into I and got X and Y which was the location of load center, and which was the best location of transformer.

2. Assistant Senior Electric System Planner. Departmental restructure occurred to follow the organization pattern of the former Soviet model. The original Distribution Department was reorganized to become Bureau of Power Supply, and I was transferred to the Production Technology Section of the bureau. I designed several projects related to expansion of distribution service and after a short while my work success was recognized by a senior engineer Miao Shuyu who was responsible for the overall planning of electrical system. He promoted me to become his assistant and received the approval from the chief engineer. Miao worked in Westinghouse Electric, which was the second largest electric equipment manufacturing company founded in 1886 and next only to General Electric

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in U.S.A. by that time. The large foreign manufacturer had many internal publications which combined advanced theories with real world practice. Miao kept a book Transmission and Distribution Handbook published by Westinghouse and lent me the book. I spent over two months studying the book thoroughly. It helped me greatly when I was charged to manage the operation of the electrical system of Yunnan Province in a later period. The nature of my work was changed from designing of distribution system to planning of overall electric system within its area of franchisee. I learned much practical knowledge as Mr. Miao’s assistant in managing the planning of electrical system. For example, calculating short circuit current to determine the choice of types of circuit breakers and the setting of various protection system. I discussed with Mr. Miao my innovation of the formulas to locate the transformer. He told me that he saw these formulas in a German textbook. Several years later, I found a Chinese translation of a German textbook which contained the formulas that I mistakenly considered as my own innovation. This reminded me that one should never be satisfied with small achievements. The global knowledge base was extensively large through the contributions by many throughout the world over in the long historical period of electrification and power distribution. One must learn continuously throughout one’s life.

3.2.2 Reorganization of SPC and Transfer of My Work 1. Reorganization of SPC. SPC was under military control for a short period of time when it became Shanghai Electric Power Administration affiliated to the Ministry1 of Fuel Industry of the Central Government. The former SPC had a high reserve of qualified technological personnel, the newly established Ministry of Fuel was responsible for the administration of electric power industry. It transferred a group of engineers from former SPC to its organization at Beijing including my three close friends, Wu Binglin, Cheng Benji and Tang Zongyan in 1952. In PRC’s early years, China started its process of industrialization in large scale but was in shortage of various technical personnel. The government requested former SPC to establish a Shanghai Electric Power College with trainees chosen from the best graduates of selected senior middle schools of Shanghai, teachers and professors came from engineers and former apprentice engineers of SPC. Graduates from this college would be recognized by Ministry of Education to be “equivalent to a college degree.” Facts in later period demonstrated that it was an effective policy. Graduates from this college became the backbone of East China’s electric power industry. 2. Job Transfer. I was informed to report to Personnel Department of Shanghai Electric Power Administration under Bureau of Power Supply. The Chief of the 1 There

are several times of reorganizations of line Ministries of the Central Government. This ministry was responsible for administration of electrical power industry in the early part of PRC.

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Personnel Department informed me that I was to be transferred to the Engineering Department of East China Naval Headquarter. Two graduated students, Wang Mingzhi and Chen Bainian, of Shanghai Electric Power College were transferred together with me to be my assistants. This was the first year of China’s First FiveYear Plan. I was glad for this job change as I could do more work to contribute to my country. I accepted this transfer without hesitation and left Shanghai Electric Power Administrate (former SPC) in June 1953.

3.3 Work and Life in Engineering Department of East China Naval Headquarter 3.3.1 Work at the Engineering Department The Engineering Depart was responsible for the design and construction of the naval base and naval air force base. It was divided into the design division and the construction division. There were three sections in the design division; the barracks section, the mechanical and electrical section, and the water supply and sewage disposal section. I and my assistants were assigned to work in mechanical and electrical section. This section only had one person, Peng XX who graduated from Wuhan University and joined the liberation army afterwards. Wang Quan, the Chief of Engineering Department announced at the section meeting that Comrade Peng XX would be responsible for the administrative affairs of the mechanical and electrical section while I would assume more responsibility for the technical affairs. The working environment was not comparable to many newly established design institutions at Shanghai where former Soviet experts of different discipline had provided guidance. Those experts brought with them reference manuals for process and procedures of design, organization and division of labor. In addition, they also brought a whole set of drawings and documents of projects of generation plant, substation and transmission lines for reference. The Engineering Department of Naval Headquarter had only naval experts, but no experts in power industry. No library or references were available. The construction division transferred two experienced workers from Bureau of Power Supply of Nanjing, one specialized in overhead line, and the other specialized in construction of substation.

3.3.2 Plan and Design of Electric System of a Ship Building Industry East China Naval Headquarter had a Department of Ship Building and Repairs. Hudong Shipyard was attached to this department and was in the process of expanding

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its capacity. My department lent my services to the Department of Ship Building and Repairs to assist with the design work. This was my first work ever performed in the naval department. There was a special office for this work located near the Bund. I went to this office and met my classmate Liu Chunkui, who specialized in communication. He was responsible for the design and construction of the electric system of Hudong Shipyard. He had only one reference book in Chinese Design of Electric System for Industrial Enterprise which was translated from a recent Soviet Union publication. I urged him to follow the principles and procedures of that book in his design work. But one practical issue that I did not experience during my apprenticeship in Consumer’s Engineering Department was electric installation in industrial enterprise. This book used a terminology “Plugged in Bus Bar,” for a type of new technology. This design component was not popular in China then, but Liu Chunkui seemed strongly inclined to adapt “Plugged in Bus Bar.” Although I was relatively better trained in power sector than Liu, I had only two years of experience in independent work. With my limited working experience, I approved his idea. With my more than 25 years of working in the power sector of China in later period, I knew it was a wrong decision for that part of design, because there was no supplier of “Plugged in Bus Bar” in China at that time. Therefore, this part of design would be modified in the period of construction. I successfully completed my assignment at the Department of Ship Building and Repairs, which sent a letter of appreciation to the Engineering Department giving high remarks for my performance there. Afterwards, I was given the responsibility to design two complete systems of electricity supply and utilization to a naval base and a naval airport base. The design process and its impact on the formation of concept of systems engineering were similar. Below describes the design process.

3.3.3 Design of Electricity Supply and Utilization System for a Naval Base 1. Background. This naval base was established in an isolated island far away from the Ningbo Municipality, so it could not get its power supply from the electric network of Ningbo. Furthermore, there was no surplus capacity at the Ningbo’s power network. Therefore, independent system of generation, transmission, distribution and utility of electricity must be provided, and we had to design the entire system. This represented a great challenge for me, because the nature of the project was equivalent to a design of minimal electrical system including all subsystems with generation, transmission, distribution and utilization. But I took it as a great opportunity as it would significantly expand my experience and expertise in design work. Indeed, it proved to be a valuable undertaking which helped my later work in Yunnan Province.

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2. General Approach. The general approach to this project was to identify the weakness of our team and identify the priority and major conflict. The technology associated with the transmission, distribution and utilization were relatively simple. Their installations were standardized. The major load of barracks was lighting and plug base for electrical appliance. But electrical appliances were not popular in China at that time, especially the barracks. Therefore, the major design problems at hand were estimation of loads in barracks and small maintenance workshop, determining the size of transmission, distribution line and their routes and transformer size. The priority of the project was designing a generation plant driven by diesel engine. Although I learned electricity generation by steam power plant, I had no experience in diesel power plant. My first plan of action was to buy reference books related to diesel engine driven electrical generation plant and to visit the French Power Company which located in the French Concession of Shanghai to gain concrete concept of diesel engine driven electrical generation plant. 3. Specific Approach-Explorative Method in Complex System Design—Emergence of Preliminary Concept of Systems Engineering. Although diesel engine driven electrical generation plant was relatively simpler than steam power plant, it was still a complex system. What would be included in the design and how to start the work were the major problems that I had to tackle. I again applied some basic knowledge learned about the part of electricity of basic physics, i.e. series and parallel connection of circuits in basic electrical engineering. In basic physics, the resistance could be connected in series or parallel with different final values. I applied the concept of “series” and “parallel” for the decomposition of a complex system, i.e. parallel decomposition and series decomposition. They were defined as follows: • Parallel Decomposition. An overall system can be decomposed into several subsystems based upon their individual function or flow of different types of working medium. • Series Decomposition. Analyzing the sequence of flow of the working medium in each subsystem, the status of components of each subsystem can be obtained. Table 3.1 shows the preliminary approach to the design of a diesel engine driven electric generation plant. 4. Document of the Project Design. “System of Electricity Supply and Utilization to the Naval Base”. Based upon the preliminary approach shown in Table 3.1, I developed documentation for the project design. Below briefly describe the structure of the document for the project: • Systems Diagrams—including six subsystems and their components and parts through series decomposition. • Calculating the Overall Capacity of the Plant—a total of 600 kW with three diesel driven electric generators.

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Table 3.1 Preliminary approach of method of parallel and serial decomposition

Note This table is translation of Table 6.3 (p. 91) of the author’s book, Wang, H. J. (1980). Introduction to Systems Engineering (upper volume) (Chinese version), Wuxi: Shanghai Science and Technology Publisher

• Calculating Each Subsystem and Selecting Components—each subsystem should be matched with others in capacity and quality to meet the overall capacity of the pant. • Electrical System—designing the plant and its transmission and distribution to barracks and maintenance shops. • Layout Diagram—Wang Mingzhi assisted me in the preparation of all diagrams of the parts of this minimal electrical power systems. 5. Experience and Lessons Learned in this Project. The design of this minimal electrical system proved to be a worthy undertaking in my early career, and I learned many valuable lessons. Below briefly present my key insights: • Learned Lessons from the Workers—The foreman responsible for the installation of the generation plant came to me and said that the fuel oil tank for individual diesel engine could not be installed based upon our original design which was to be put underground to save the space above ground. But the underground water would make the tank float. The foreman suggested to add a large concrete base in the underground and fix the tank on the concrete base with screws. This showed the knowledge accumulated by the worker through experience gained in practice in the real world and my knowledge shortage about the effects of underground water. • Learned Lessons from Failure of Equipment Performance—One day, there was a fire in the chimney of the exhaust gas. After checking with the manufacturer of the diesel engine, they acknowledged that their technology was poor. Their discharge nozzle of fuel oil could not meet the standard, therefore there

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was incomplete combustion within the cylinder. Also, the piston ring could not perform its function properly due to low capability of heat treatment. The result was the leakage of some combustible fuel accumulated in the turning point of the exhaust pipe and caused fire eventually. This made me aware of my knowledge gap on the capacity and capability of China manufacturing, which was at their early stage of industrialization. • My Knowledge Gap on Civil Engineering—The site for the generation plant was chosen to be by a hillside. Some explosive work had to be performed to flatten part of the hill. But after the construction of the plant, loose stones from the hill kept tumbling down as the explosive work affected the hillside stability. Afterwards, the engineer from the barracks section decided to use concrete to reinforce the hillside near the plant to solve the problem. From this experience, I recognized my knowledge gap in civil engineering. With the problems I encountered with my design, I learned important lessons and relevant knowledge in civil engineering. Learning from mistakes is the best way to improve oneself!

3.3.4 Impact of Exosystem 1. Unfair Criticism due to then Dominant Ideology. When we were transferred to the East China Naval Headquarter, we were not considered as part of the military, instead were classified as civilian employees. Peng XX, the young army man of the mechanical and electrical section, had biased attitude towards us and always questioned my work. For example, in the design of overhead transmission or distribution line, I had to use available standardized accessories, he questioned whether these accessories, such as the cross arms and insulators could be made in smaller size. These were simple questions that even a college graduate without engineering field experience knew. I informed him the equipment was standardized. Then he reported to the chief of Engineering Department that “Shanghai Power Company was an enterprise of imperialism. Imperialism was backward in thoughts and its technology was conservative.” China relied heavily on the assistance of former Soviet Union during PRC’s early years. At that time, the widespread ideology was that the former Soviet Union was advanced in all areas, while the rest of the world were backward and conservative. Without listening to our side of the story, the chief of Engineering Department expressed his criticism at a large conference by saying, “In places far from Moscow,2 there were debates between engineers of old generation and new generation. And the current debate in the mechanical and electrical section simply reflects the same nature—a debate between advanced and conservative thinking……” His criticism was clearly targeted to me which hurt my self-esteem profoundly. And my two assistants and 2 This

is the name of a popular novel translated from the origin of former Soviet Union.

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two workers came from Nanjing also felt that this criticism was wrong and unfair to me. 2. Other Works. Despite the unfair criticism, I and my assistants continued working steadily in the design of the minimal electrical power system for naval airport base. The transmission, distribution and the utilization were relatively simple due to the small size of the base. But I improved the layout of the generation plant based on the lessons I learned from construction of the previous plant. Afterwards, design of generation plants became my routine work.

3.3.5 Marriage and Family Marriage and family are an integral part of one’s life. And the family is also a subject matter in the study of Social Systems Engineering. In this section, I will present the facts to complete the theme ‘the life of an intellectual of China (1925-present)’. Back then, it was relatively difficult for a Chinese engineering student to find appropriate partner in a marriage as stated in Fig. 2.2 that there was only one female student in my graduating class. Fortunately, my cousin Zhang Shufen introduced me to Ms. Niu Fangming in 1954. Ms. Niu Fangming, born in 1928, was the eldest daughter in her family with four younger brothers and sisters. Her father was a staff at Nanjing Examination Institute during the Republic of China. She was born in Shanghai, then her family moved to Nanjing where her father worked. During the period of anti-Japanese war, Nanjing Examination Institute was moved to Chongqing and her father was relocated there with the family staying behind. She was nine years old at that time and a third-grade student at Primary School affiliated to Central University. Before Japanese occupation of Nanjing, her mother successfully evacuated the family from Nanjing to Shanghai to escape the disaster. As the mature and capable elder daughter, she helped her mother with daily household chores and took care of her younger brothers and sisters. She passed the entrance examination of Suzhou University at Shanghai after graduating from Huizhong Middle School (affiliated to a church) at age nineteen. But due to her family’s difficult financial status, she gave up the opportunity for advanced education and became a teacher of mathematics in Coordination Progress Middle School to help support her mother and the younger siblings. In her spare time, she worked as a private tutor of several well to do families to earn extra income. She gave her income to her mother and supported all her siblings to complete their education from technical schools and launch their respective careers. She then began considering her own marriage after the burden of supporting her family was alleviated. We got to know each other for a short period and decided to get married in 1954, the same year we met. We held engagement and wedding ceremonies in Shanghai. For our small-scale wedding ceremony, we invited my former colleagues of SPC, a few friends and relatives of ours. Professor Zhong Zhaolin and my classmate Jiang

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Zemin came to the wedding. Figure 3.1 shows an image of signatures of guests attending the wedding ceremony. The original signatures were in Chinese. Several people mentioned in this book are denoted. Table 3.2 shows the individuals with names translated in English who are mentioned in various chapters of this book. We have kept our marriage certificate issued by People’s Government of Jingan District on August 28, 1954 (Fig. 3.2). In the photo, red Colored Square is the government seal, three Chinese characters represent the name of chief of Jingan district, Zhang Shaowen. The rest are our names in Chinese and mini-pictures, birth year, etc. This serves as a historical record as the present marriage certificate has changed its format. Our wedding photo is presented in Fig. 3.3 and in Fig. 3.4 our photo in 2014, after 60 years of marriage is portrayed for an interesting and reminiscent comparison. Niu Fangming was transferred to teach at Shanghai Cadre School after our marriage. At the same time, she studied in mathematical department of Secondary School Teacher’s College for Further Education of Shanghai Municipality. Afterwards, she was transferred to teach mathematics at Chengdu Secondary School. In 1955, with the birth of our first son, Wang Li, my happy family was forming.

Fig. 3.1 Scanned image of signatures of guests attending the wedding ceremony

Table 3.2 Names of guests in English Who Are Denoted in Fig. 3.1

➀

Cheng Jieruo

➁

Jiang Zemin

➂

Liu Chunkui

➃

Fu Luhen

➄

Zhao Rongchuna

➅

Zhong Zhaolin

➆

Zhang Shufen

a Note

Zhao Rongchun was younger sister of Zhao Rongqian. She came on behalf of Zhao Rongqian

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Fig. 3.2 Marriage certificate of Wang and Niu

Fig. 3.3 Wedding photo in 1954

3.3.6 Work and Life Since 1955 1. Assessment of My Technical Grade. In the year 1955, China began to implement the Military Ranking System, since we were civilian employees, this system had no impact on me. However, the Engineering Department of East China Naval Headquarter implemented the new wage system and needed to determine my

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Fig. 3.4 Photo of Wang and Niu in 2014

technical grade, so they sent an officer to Shanghai Electric Power Administration (SEPA) (based on former SPC) to get advice. The chief of Personnel Division told the officer that most of the engineers and staffs of former SPC received higher pay than the national standard for similar positions. To ensure fair compensation for its employees while complying with the national standard, SEPA implemented the wage policy which gave staffs pay based on technical grade. The chief suggested that the Engineering Department should not give me a higher grade as it would impact on SEPA’s current staff negatively. Thus, the Engineering Department assigned Level 6 Engineer for my technical grade. With this grade and under the new wage system, my pay was cut by half. One of the two workers transferred from Nanjing openly protested for this unfair treatment on my behalf. He used a big character poster to make comparison of my qualification with an engineer who specialized in installation of lighting equipment in the Barracks’ section but had Level 5 Engineer grade. The unfair assignment of my technical grade and reduced salary adjustment was another blow to my self-esteem. With the reduced income, I could not afford to pay the cost of the house rented. Fu Luhen, a friend of my sister’s, had spare rooms in her house (which became public property in the 50s). With a supporting letter from Engineering Department of East China Naval Headquarter to Shanghai Municipality, I gained permission to move my family to the two spare rooms of Fu’s house with relatively low rent. 2. Life Since 1955. The fourth wife of my father’s came to my new residence and asked to live with us, I agreed. In early 1957, my daughter Wang Qi was born, which brought joy to my growing family. Both my wife and I were busy with our jobs, so my fourth mother managed the household and took care of our son and daughter. Although my salary was reduced by half, with the rent was low we managed to maintain our living standard. Eventually, the Engineering

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Department raised my technical grade to Level 5 Engineer after my colleague’s protest. 3. Work and Learning Since 1955. No more work with further complexity at my department and the design of minimal electric systems became a routine. My assistant Wang Mingzhi was clever and mastered the routine quickly. An officer, a battalion commander, was appointed to be the administrator of Mechanical and Electrical section. Peng XX was criticized at the Department after the chief received feedback from all around. This event prompted my further reflection about my work. I learned the procedures and practices in installing overhead line from SPC. How and where these practices came from, I started to wonder. Since these practices were not taught in universities, I borrowed many books from the Shanghai Library, such as British Standard Specification (BSS) Engineering Economics and Electrical Engineering Economics, to satisfy my intellectual curiosity. I read several publications in Engineering Economics which broadened my view and enhanced my knowledge about the relationship between technology and economy. It also laid a foundation of my understanding about micro-economics. I even prepared a short summary of concepts of present value and annual cost and shared it with my colleagues at the organization.

3.3.7 Transferred Back to Electric Power Industry 1. Letter of Guidance from Headquarter of Naval Forces in Beijing. I received a letter of reply from Headquarter of Naval Forces in Beijing. The content of the letter of reply was roughly as follows: regarding your letter sent by Wang Mingzhi and Chen Ponian to the Headquarter of Naval Forces concerning ‘one does not do what one has learned’,3 this issue was bought to the attention of both Commander Xiao Jin Guang and Political Commissar Su Zhenhua. They were charged to solve the problem via coordination with relevant department. I was surprised with this letter of reply as I did not write any such letter to Beijing. I suspected that Wang Mingzhi and Chen Ponian wrote the letter, and since they were not engineers, they put my name first in the letter. Also, since they were aware that I was unhappy with the environment and was bored with the simple daily routine they surmised that I must desire to return to electric power industry or other more challenging works. At any rate, after receiving the above letter, someone from the Engineering Department came to me and advised me to stay without change. I refused. The Engineering Department then asked an officer to accompany me to the Personnel Department of SEPA. 2. Misunderstanding of a Bureaucrat Blocked My Expected Transfer to SEPA. The chief of Personnel Department received us and told me “you can go and work in 3 This

was a phrase of China.

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Xin Anjiang4 Hydro Power Plant”. I asked him “What’s the relationship between Xin Anjiang Hydro Power Plant and SEPA? He replied: “you are considered a staff of SEPA, but your wage must follow Xin Anjiang system.” I answered: “I will follow in accordance with the provisions of the state.” I thought my answer was clear that I shall follow the regulations of the state. But the bureaucrat perceived that my intent to change job was aimed at recovering my wage of former SPC. But the fact was that several of my previous colleagues at SPC, underground communists before 1949, were now chief of several organizations under SEPA and they invited me to work for them. For example, Zhang Lijin who was apprentice engineer of mechanical engineering of former SPC in 1947, was currently the Director of Wang Ting Steam Power Plant, and Shen Xianglin, my classmate of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, was currently the Director of Central Laboratory. They both expected me to join their units. But my request for transfer was refused by the Personnel Department. 3. Pending Transfer to Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Sciences. Facing the above complicated situation, I wrote a letter to Bao Chengzhi, who was my schoolmate two years ahead of me from Shanghai Jiao Tong University. I learned from the newspaper that he returned from U.S.A. to China and worked in Automation Institute of Chinese Academy of Sciences. He replied and asked me to send him a resume. Bao passed my resume to director of Automation Institute. The director was very interested in my credentials and sent an official letter to the East China Naval Headquarter requesting my transfer to Automation Institute of Chinese Academy of Sciences. I was very happy after learning the news from Bao in a letter. 4. The Anti-Rightist Campaign. In 1957, another political movement, the antirightist campaign started in earnest nationwide. Everywhere, organizations held public meetings and invite people to express their opinions freely about the administration, the party, etc. I, too, was invited to speak at a symposium chaired by Vice Commander in Chief Peng Deqing about my opinion concerning the operations and practices of our organization. The symposium was attended by employees and political commissars from every department within the East China Naval Headquarter. Being young and naïve, I spoke frankly about the following two issues: • The entrance certificate for non-military staffs was named as “Certificate for the Employee”. I stated that while it was fine for private firms to use such a certificate to distinguish employees from the employer, it’s inappropriate for the army and the state-owned enterprise to follow suit. The current practice at the military facility was discriminatory as all of us, military or civilian employees, were equal and we contributed equally to the benefits of the nation. • The party could lead the development of science and technology. But I did not imply that every party member could lead the development of science and 4 Xin

Anjiang Hydro Power Plant was constructed in April 1957. It is located nearly Xin Anjiang town of Hangchow Municipality.

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technology. Then I shared my unhappy experience working in the Engineering Department. I saw the Vice Commander in Chief was nodding showing his approval while I spoke. Nearly all employee participants agreed with what I said. Some of them came to me to show their support and consent during the breaks of the symposium. Two months later, CPC Central Committee promulgated Instructions on Organizing Forces for Counterattack for Rightist Attacks drafted by Mao Zedong. Two young college graduates at the Engineering Department were impacted as they were identified as having rightist mentality and behavior. I knew these young professionals in the past. When I was wrongly criticized by the department chief and when Peng XX’s attacked me, they spoke out expressing their dissatisfaction openly. I never heard them speaking any wrong words against the party and did not consider them as the “rightists” defined by the party document. Therefore, I did not criticize them and kept my mouth shut at open forums to condemn them as I believe that one should always keep the moral bottom line intact. 5. Return to Electrical Power Industry at Last. My assumed transfer was delayed. I took Bao’s letter to see Peng Deqing who was having lunch in a small kitchen where senior officers dined. I met him when he finished his lunch and inquired about me pending transfer. He seemed aware of something and said, “your unit told me that no organization would accept you!” Then I showed him Bao’s letter and told him that the Automation Institute had already sent the transfer request letter to East China Naval Headquarter. He took Bao’s letter and told me to give him time to investigate the matter. The chief of Engineering Department asked me to go to his office the next day. He told me that the Department agreed to transfer me to Kunming Hydropower Design Institute, but not to the Automation Institute. He asked if I would accept the transfer. I replied resolutely I would. Then he suggested that I would be better off to remain at his department. After all, his department was in Shanghai which was much better and more advanced than Kunming. I repeated that I would rather work in Kunming Hydropower Design Institute so I could do more useful work for my country. He was disappointed in my reply but could not stop my transfer because it was supported by Peng Deqing.

3.3.8 Farewell Shanghai, Heading to Kunming 1. Family Arrangement. I returned home and told my wife the dialogue between the chief of the Engineering Department and me. She was supportive of my decision. We discussed the logistics and decided that I should go to Kunming alone to get to know the general environment before moving the family. After all, Kunming was far away from Shanghai and back then, there was no direct train to Kunming and the combined journey of bus and train from Shanghai to Kunming was well

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over a week. Logistically, it was difficult to move my young family with my son just learning to walk and my daughter still nursing to such a faraway place without a good plan and solid preparation. Thus, I proceeded with the travel by myself with a sense of excitement and the spirit of a pioneer to venture into the unknown. 2. Travel to Kunming. Since my birth in 1925 in Shanghai, I never traveled beyond Nanjing. I had no idea how to get to Kunming. After some searching, I learned that there were two ways from Shanghai to Kunming: one was by water way to Chongqing, then transfer via bus to reach Kunming; the other was by railway from Shanghai to Duyun of Guizhou Province, then transfer via bus to Kunming. I decided to go by the water way. I took two boxes of books and one box of clothes and articles for daily use on my journey to Kunming. I read books related to hydro-electric engineering in preparation for my upcoming work. I also wrote a letter to Peng Deqing expressing my gratitude to his assistance in my transfer and I assured him in the letter that I would do my utmost to contribute to the construction of China’s Southwestern Region. The journey from Shanghai to Kunming took me over 10 days. And I was shocked at various sites along the way showing how local people lived. The differences in living standard and living environment were so significant that it was hard for someone like me who was born and brought up in Shanghai metropolis to imagine. Life was tough in Kunming!

3.3.9 Initial Period in Kunming Hydropower Design Institute This was a unique period for me. I worked in Kunming for more than 20 years, but only four years were spent in Kunming Hydropower Design Institute. Due to organizational changes, I spent the rest of my years working in the Bureau of Electricity of Yunnan Province. Furthermore, although I worked in Kunming Design Institute for four years, only one year of work was related to hydropower, and three years of work focused on thermal power plants after I became chief design engineer. This section centers mainly on my work and life in the first year in Kunming Hydropower Design Institute. 1. The Macrosystem. China at that time was in the period of Great Leap Forward and People’ Commune. There was a trend to decentralize some power of planning, management and central agencies to the local level. Below quote from Concise Encyclopedia (1996) by Random House best describes that period. Great Leap Forward changed the economic policy of the People’s Republic of China introduced by Mao Zedong under the Second Five-Year Plan in 1958–62. The aim is to achieve rapid and simultaneous agricultural and industrial growth through the creation of large new Agro-Industrial Communes. The inefficient and poorly allocation of state resources led to the collapse of the strategy by 1960…. (pp. 273–274).

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2. The Exosystem. The exosystem, i.e., the performance of Yunnan Province was not affected much by the macrosystem and the change in agricultural policy was minimal because the province had many minority ethnic groups scattered in the countryside and engaging in farming. During this period, one new thermal power plant was constructed, and one existing thermal plant was expanded to meet the demand of industrial and agricultural growth. And some of the provincial organizations were strengthened through the decentralization of the central government. For example, Yunnan Bureau of Electricity was strengthened with Gao Zhiguo serving as its Director, he was an assistant minister at the Ministry of Electric Power and a standing committee member of the Yunnan Provincial Committee; and the Deputy Director was Zhu Shihui who was an underground communist working in Shanghai Telephone Company (STC) owned by foreign investors before 1949. 3. My Work in the First Year. I arrived and reported to duty at the Kunming Hydropower Design Institute in January 1958, the personnel department assigned me to work in the electrical division led by Zhang Xizai, who was one of my schoolmates in Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and gave me a room in the staffs’ quarter. I went to my room and put the two boxes of books brought from Shanghai on a spare bed. Zhang Xizai came to my room to meet me. He also graduated also from Shanghai Jiao Tong University but was several classes below me. When he saw all my books on the bed were in English, he kindly advised me to throw them away because the English books were outdated. I knew he was influenced by the widespread perception that “only former Soviet Union was most advance.” I learned later that the organizational structure of Kunming Design Institute followed the pattern of former Soviet Union with many people working in the Field Survey Team, and division of specialization with three main divisions for Hydro-energy, Hydraulic Structure, and Mechanics and Electricity, respectively. Hydraulic structure played a dominant role in the design of hydropower plant as it included the design of dam and the housing for hydraulic turbine and electric generators. The chief engineer of design and construction of a hydropower plant frequently specialized in hydraulic structure. The chief engineer was Mr. Lin, the deputy chief was Mr. Deng. Another deputy chief engineer, Zheng Shifen, was responsible for supervising the mechanical and electrical division where most staff were dispersed members from the central government agency through the decentralization process. I accompanied deputy chief engineer Deng on a project trip to Xier Lake, my first project trip in Yunnan Province. Deng knew my English ability and encouraged me to talk directly with the expert invited from Czechoslovakia5 which was one of the advanced countries in Europe before WWII. The expert was responsible for long term electrical system planning of Yunnan Province. I talked to him directly and he briefly explained his ambitious plan to build a huge hydropower plant named Baihetan with a capacity of more than ten million kws in the Jinsha River. For perspective, the total capacity of electric generation of 5 This

country was split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia on 1, January 1993.

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China was no more than four million kws in 1957. It was difficult to imagine that this plan could be materialized within several Five-Year Plans. In addition, it was nearly impossible to get all the equipment needed even with the global supply. Such an ambitious plan might be suggested by the Chinese side due to the zeal from the Great Leap Forward movement. This project was not implemented until recently when the State Planning Commission officially approved it in 2002. Its construction started in 2011, and the first hydraulic turbine with capacity of one million kws was manufactured in January 2019 by China’s Dongfang Electric Machinery Factory. I worked as an ordinary staff in the electric division. Some young colleagues, mindful of my better technical skill and working experience than their current leader, raised their concern about my underrated staff status and they put up big posters led by Wang Chengmu to express their opinion to the leader of Kunming Hydropower Design Institute. As a result, I was reappointed as a deputy of a sub-section within the division, my partner was Zhang Huiduan. To satisfy the mandate set by the guideline of Great Leap Forward, the leader of the institute requested a cost reduction in all engineering projects. To meet the reduced budget quota, the common practice in the electrical division then was simply removing equipment purchase one by one or canceling equipment orders for each project without studying the impact or adjusting a project with reduced equipment. It made me wonder whether such a mandate was rational. I learned later that to push forward the movement of Great Leap Forward, exuberant “Wind of Boasting” was prevalent everywhere in China. 4. My Life in the First Year. My life in Kunming in my first year was miserable as I struggled to adjust to a lifestyle totally different from what I used to. I got food from the limited menu in the canteen of the work unit but could not bear the spicy taste which was a standard in local food in the southwestern region. Occasionally the canteen provided food that was not spicy, people would complain, “What kind of food was this without peppers?” To cope, I frequently washed my food in hot water to reduce the spiciness before eating it. Wang Chengmu had a business trip to Shanghai and visited my home and my family. He saw my comfortable living condition near Huaihai Road, the most prosperous road in the French Concession of Shanghai and asked my wife, “Why Wang Huijiong abandoned such an excellent living condition and went to Kunming to suffer?” Wang Chengmu was also a Shanghai native and missed the lifestyle there. After returning from the trip, he made requests repeatedly to Kunming Hydropower Design Institute asking to return to Shanghai and his wish was granted at last. However, I never regretted my transfer to, and over 20 years of working in, Kunming. If I did not have the experience of working in a poor region like Yunnan back then, I would not be a qualified researcher of policy and development in my later period of life. After working in Kunming for over ten months, I made a request to the Institute to move my family from Shanghai to Kunming so we could be united. My request was approved. My wife lacked experience for such a long-distance travel. Without the knowledge of the backwardness in the region, she decided to move

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the whole family to Kunming. The fourth mother was unwilling to move to the far away region and preferred to return to Zhou Zhuang Town. But my own mother embraced the move to Kunming without any hesitation. Then my courageous wife brought my mother and a pair of young children on the exhausted journey to Kunming. They took the train from Shanghai to Duyun of Guizhou Province. I went to Duyun and met them at the station. It was the beginning of 1959. There were no words to describe the joy and happiness that I felt to be reunited with my family after one year of separation. Then we went to Kunming together. My work unit allocated two north-faced rooms (which were occupied by someone with tuberculosis, and later my 2-year old daughter contracted the disease) for my family. My mother took on the responsible for housework. My wife was assigned the job as a mathematics teacher in a middle school. She had no complaint to me related to the poor living conditions in Kunming compared to Shanghai, occasionally she might say to others jokingly “I was fooled by him to go to Kunming.”

3.3.10 Chief Design Engineer of Yangzonghai Thermal Power Plant This was one of my transitional year in my engineering career and my life. The major project of Kunming Hydropower Design Institute was Yilihe Hydropower Station with a total installed capacity of 321.5 thousand kws. It was a cascade hydropower station with four hydropower stations, they were Maogjiacun Hydropower Station (installed capacity of 16 thousand kws), Shuicaozi Hydropower Station (installed capacity of 17.5 thousand kws), Yanshuigou Hydropower station (144 thousand kws), and Xiao Jiang Hydropower Station (144 thousand kws), respectively. Due to geological defects of the dam’s main reservoir at Maojiacun, this project started its construction in 1956 but only Shuicaozi was put into operation in 1958. The construction of the entire project was completed in December 1972. A severe shortage of electricity in Yunnan Province called for a prompt and urgent remedy. Thus, Yangzonghai Thermal Plant of Yunnan Province was put on the agenda for design and construction to mitigate the shortage. 1. Reorganization of Kunming Hydropower Design Institution. Ning Jian, who was responsible for supervising capital construction in one ministry6 under the Central Government, was transferred from Beijing to Kunming to be the deputy chief of Kunming Hydropower Design Institute. He was born in Yunnan Province and was an underground communist working in the nationalist army as military chief of staff. He knew how to work with intellectuals and acted like a mentor to me. He taught me how to handle senior administrators and helped me in 6 Because

the name of ministry responsible to supervise planning, construction and operation of electric power has changed its name several times. Therefore, I write it this way.

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various situations. Technicians from Central China Design Institute7 were sent to Kunming via decentralization process. They arrived in Kunming during my travel to Duyun to meet my family. Ning appointed Chen Qinzhu, an electrical engineer from Central China Design Institute, to be the Chief Design Engineer of Yangzonghai Thermal Plant. One young technician Dong Wenxiang working in electric section of Zhang Xizai went to Ning Jian’s office and suggested, “We have Wang Huijiong who came from SPC, why not appoint him to be Chief Design Engineer instead of Chen Qinzhu?” Although Ning Jian had no information about me, he was aware that the former SPC was a famous brand in China. Upon returning to Kunming Hydropower Design Institute, I was asked by Ning to meet with him. We had a nice conversation. The next day, he took me to the construction site of Yangzonghai Thermal Plant to meet the director of the plant Zhang Zhinian. When Zhang learned that I was trained and worked in former SPC, he was very pleased. Ning Jian observed our interaction and his attitude towards me. When Zhang asked Ning Jian “who was the Chief Design Engineer of our plant?” Ning Jian replied “of course, it is Engineer Wang.” Several days later, a new division was established in the Kunming Hydropower Design Institute, the thermal division. I was appointed to be division chief. All technicians came from the Central China Design Institute were distributed into different sections based on their respective specialization. All of them were trained from vocational schools and had some experiences in thermal power plant design. I was also appointed as the Chief Design Engineer of Yangzhonghai Thermal Plant together with Chen Qinzhu whom Ning Jian appointed and announced previously. But later, Ning did not ask Chen to get involved in the Yangzonghai project. The Kunming Hydropower Design Institute had two deputy directors, Yu Shaoxian who was responsible for hydropower related administration, and Ning Jian was responsible for relevant thermal power administration. As the Chief Design Engineer for Thermal Power, I reported to him directly and received instructions and guidance from him. 2. Design of Yangzonghai Power Plant. This was a unique design project of thermal power plant. Since some design specifications were preset by others, such as determination of installed capacity, selection of site, choice of major equipment, source of fuel supply, etc., the pending system was imperfect as it was the first thermal power plant designed at a hydropower design institute. Staffs from the central agencies brought with them available drawings related to thermal power plant design. But there was no technical documentation related to Yangzonghai Power Plant. The process of design of a thermal power plant was like that of diesel engine driven generation system, except that a thermal power plant encompassed a lot more systems and subsystems and hundreds more of components. Furthermore, 7 There

were six thermal power design institutes in China administered directly by Central Agency Central China Design Institute is one of them. The other five are East China, North China: Northeast China; Northwest and the Southeast China respectively. I have omitted the words “Design Institute” after the other five to simplify the expression. These six thermal power design institutes administered directly by General Administration of construction of Electric Power.

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I had to deal with civil engineering issues whenever the young technician came from Central China Design Institution asked for my help when facing difficulties. I organized the major work based on each system of the plant. A young technician, Yang Weizhou, assisted me in completing the thermal system diagram based on the standard for a medium pressure and medium temperature thermal power plant. The subsequent major tasks involved choosing various components to be adapted to the thermal system. Yunnan Bureau of Electricity received a letter from Harbin Boiler Plant indicating that their standardized boiler with medium temperature and medium pressure with capacity of 75 tons/h designed based on the standard bituminous coal (to be used at Yangzonghai Thermal Plant) could not be adapted to the lignite of Fengming Cun with its calorific value of 2000 kcal/kg, its combustibility was at 40%, and the water and ash content was around 40% and 20%, respectively. The Bureau passed this letter to Ning Jian, and then to me. I brought technician Tang Yipin to travel with me via air to Harbin. Upon reaching the Harbin Boiler Plant, its chief engineer arranged for us to meet the expert from the former Soviet Union. We discussed the issue for over two days. Finally, we agreed on the modification to make the standardized boiler usable in Yangzonghai Thermal Plant but with a potentially reduced operation capacity. We also discussed the pulverized fuel system to be adopted. While there, I also visited the office of boiler design. The young staffs there informed us frankly that their boiler design simply followed the standard calculations provided by former Soviet Union. These standard calculations included calculations of the circulation of water in boiler, the thermal system of boiler, the pulverized fuel system, etc. After completing all the standard calculations and integrating them in implementations, the boiler design officially concluded. Some of these young staffs never practiced their craft in any thermal power plants. They gave me a copy of Calculation of pulverized fuel system suggested by the Soviet expert. Because I had the experience in the generation plant and some knowledge of how different boilers were operated and maintained, this visit to Harbin Boiler Plant increased my confidence to modify the design of boiler by myself in my next project, Expansion of Pupingcun Power Plant. We went back to Kunming and reported to Ning Jian. He requested me to report to the Bureau of Electricity directly. I made a detailed report with recommendations to Deputy Director Zhu Shihui and Deputy Chief Engineer Sun Xinzhuan. They appreciated my findings, but Zhu was in doubt about the estimate of water content of the coal and stated that, “If the water content was 20%, the coal surface would be wettest.” I then sent the lignite coal of Fengming Cun to Kai Yun Thermal Plant which was one of the 156 key projects constructed with the assistance from the former Soviet Union. The standard coal burned in the boiler was supplied by Xiao Longtan Coal Mine with calorific value above 3000 kcal/kg. However, the boiler was operating normally when burning lignite coal of Fengming Cun. With the coal issue resolved, I pushed forward with the design process and completed the project within two months with all staffs and

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me working (day and night, generally every day we worked up to 10 o’clock midnight) to meet the accelerated project completion expectation prevalent during the Great Leap Forward. As my mentor, Director Ning helped me grow professionally and politically. Back then, everyone was ordered to participate in the party mandated political study for half a day every day. Ning knew the limitation of human energy and capacity, he told me that my team and I working for the Yangzonghai Project would be exempt from the required political study. He wanted us to devote fully to the design work to meet the construction need. He took on the responsibility to obtain the waiver permission from the Party Commission. The Yangzonghai Project was a typical “trilateral engineering”8 effort in the period of Great Leap Forward. During the design process, Technician Lei Rongzhi came to me and asked if it was safe to lay the circulation water pump house on the silty soil as he planned. I checked the bearing capacity of this type of soil from a Civil Engineering Handbook and asked Lei, “How many holes did you drill for the pump house?” He answered, “Only one.” I asked him to drill more holes to house the pump as a single hole could not demonstrate whether the layers of soil or rock under the pump house were uniform or not. He followed my advice accordingly and showed me the new diagram with more holes distributed underneath the housing revealing the uniform formation of the soil structure under the foundation of the pump house. I then confirmed to Lei that his improved pump house design was safe. Lei came to me on another occasion to consult if his design of the steam turbine foundation with two meters deep was enough. I then read the instructions from the book Steam Turbine Operation (I brought it from Shanghai). One sentence caught my attention, “The foundation of the turbine should be several times9 the weight of the turbine only.” Based on my understanding, the deciding factor was the weight and not the depth. Then I asked Lei the weight of the steam turbine and the weight of the foundation he designed. I found the ratio of weight of foundation to weight of steam turban was above the minimum recommended number in the book. So, I confirmed that Lei’s design was correct. I found learning by doing is the best way to expand and deepen one’s knowledge and that is how I extended my knowledge base to other disciplines such as civil and mechanical engineering. Yangzonghai Thermal Plant with its first boiler, turbine driven generator of 12,000 KWs and all Phase I systems and subsystems were put into operation successfully by fall 1959, the electricity shortage was largely alleviated. And then came the constructions of Phase II, Phase III, and Phase IV units. The urgency of shortage of continuously electricity supply of Yunnan Province was relaxed. Yu Shaoxian, the Deputy Chief, who was responsible for the design of 8 When

a design is being developed concurrently with construction activities, it is so called “the trilateral engineering. 9 I cannot remember the figure exactly due to this was happened about 60 years ago. In my memory, the figure was 2.5 times. On the safe side, I write to be “several times.”

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hydropower plant was impressed by the speed of design and construction of the thermal power plant compared to the hydropower plant. Back then, there was nationwide debate concerning suitability of thermal power plant vs. hydropower plant. He also appraised the team of newly established Thermal Division, saying, “This was a great war won by the vocational graduates at Yangzonghai.” 3. Insights Gained from Yangzonghai Thermal Power Plant. Although Kunming was known for its spring-like weather all year round, it’s known to the locals that “winter comes as soon as it rains.” Indeed, my personal experience living in Kunming for more than twenty years could attest to Kunming’s unique feature in weather—it rains frequently in summer which brings down the temperature to the 20 s in summer days. So, the rainy season was the winter season for Yangzonghai Thermal Power Plant! The first set of machinery put into operation in fall functioned without a glitch most of the year. But when the raining season started in May or June, serious operational failures of the plant occurred. I led the team of thermal division to stay at the hostel of the plant and observed the cause of the failure. It was mainly due to the failure of coal supply system. The lignite of Huang Ming Cun decomposed into small pieces in the open-air coal-yard and some coal even mixed with wet earth. The coal clogged in coal crusher and made it inoperable. The coal shard slid on the transporting belt in the fuel supply system, resulting in insufficient feeding of pulverized fuels into the boiler. I noticed the color of the fire was yellow with a temperature around 800 °C which was lower than the norm I learned during my time as an apprentice engineer at SPC. Our team also checked the weak links in our design revealed in the operation. We discussed with and collected feedback from concerned parties such as engineers, technicians and workers several times, and decided to build a large coal shed to cover the coal from raining. We also revised the design to correct the known deficiency. Yangzonghai Thermal Power Plant resumed its normal operation in the autumn season. After the construction of large coal shed, the plant remained its normal operation in the raining season as well. Major lessons learned from the abnormal operation of Yangzonghai Thermal Plant were two: • I had insufficient knowledge of the properties of lignite, I knew its chemical property but was less knowledgeable about its physical property such as its decomposition speed when soaked in water. • Yangzonghai Thermal Power Plant was one of the typical projects of The Trilateral Engineering aimed for speed, a singular emphasis in the period of Great Leap Forward. Seeking short-term gains only could cause long-term system instability. 4. Expansion Design of Pupingcun Power Plant.After completing the design of Yangzonghai Thermal Power Plant, Ning received order from the Bureau of Electricity to design the expansion of Pupingcun Power Plant, which was also one of 156 key projects in China in its First Five-Year Planning period. It was

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constructed with the assistance of Czechoslovakia provided specialists and equipment. In the planned project expansion, the boiler, purchased by the Purchasing Department of the Bureau of Electricity, was to be a medium pressure temperature equipment with 65 tons/h, and coal spreader feeder to the moving grate. This was another project of The Trilateral Engineering in the period of Great Leap Forward. With the experiences gained from the operational failures of Yangzonghai Power Plant and my contact with the manufacturers of boiler and diesel engine, I had some knowledge about the limit of the equipment capability. I suspected that several coal spreader feeders would not result in even distribution of coal on the moving grate, and it might affect the process of combustion. My team and I performed experimental test of the coal spreader feeders, and the results matched my suspicion. As the chief design engineer, I established two principles for the expansion design of Pupinycun Thermal Power Plant: (1) box foundation would be applied to the plant as it was laid on soft soil and (2) the boiler would be modified to burn pulverized coal rather than ordinary coal. The Bureau transferred Zhu Tianguang, a young engineer working in Kaiyuan Power Plant, to my division. Since the major structure of the boiler could not be modified, such as the furnace volume and steel framework, due to manufacturing limitation, I simply adjusted the area of heat absorption components of the boiler such as super heaters, economizers and air preheaters through simple engineering logic of “comparison” which was discussed in Sect. 5.4.6.2 of the book Introduction to Social Systems Engineering. Because we had the data of heat absorption for components of boilers with 75 tons/h produced by Harbin Boiler Plant and boilers of 65 tons/h of Shanghai Boiler Plant, we also put a small area with heat insulating material surrounding the heat absorbing tubes of the furnace volume to improve the combustion process. This simple process through comparison achieved the result of complex calculation of Thermal Calculation of Boiler with 348 steps. When this modified boiler was put into operation, it not only reached its rated capacity, i.e. 65 tons/h, but also surpassed it by 8%. 5. Life in This Period. Although my family reunited and settled in Kunming, living conditions were harsh especially for my little children. Because the rooms allocated to me by the work unit were previously occupied by someone with tuberculosis, and the north-faced rooms did not have sun exposure, my little daughter contracted tuberculosis shortly after moving in. My mother had to take her to hospital nearly every day for treatment because my wife and I were exceptionally busy with our work in this period. My son Wang Li was three, and we enrolled him into kindergarten. During the period of Great Leap Forward, to make parents focus on their work, kindergartens routinely served as boarding schools with once per month day-visit permitted for children to visit home. My little boy Wang Li was accustomed to the excellent living conditions of Shanghai and could only speak Shanghai dialect at the time. The adjustment was paramount for him as a 3-year old. He felt lonely and unhappy at the kindergarten. Sometimes, due to limited number of staffs, children’s needs were not fully accommodated.

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When my little boy was thirsty and could not get the attention of any staff, he would solve the problem on his own by drinking whatever water he could access on the floor. He had a miserable life due to separation from his loving family. The monthly one-day home visit was his only hope of joy which he looked forward to with great anticipation. One Monday, with candies in his pocket, we coerced him to return to kindergarten. My little boy returned to his kindergarten reluctantly after the one-day home visit. He gave some candies to his close friends and kept some under his pillow. But he soon found that all his candies under the pillow were gone. As unhappy as he was, he decided to take actions to escape this unpleasant place and find a way home. One day, he found the back door of the kitchen was open and nobody was around, he quickly sneaked out. But he soon got lost as he was too young to know the right direction. One woman found him wondering on the street and sent him to the nearby police station. Wang Li only knew the home address in Shanghai and told it to the policeman. The policeman had to call every kindergarten in Kunming to inquire as to a missing child and finally at midnight he reached my wife, who was worried to death about her missing son. Wang Li returned home safely. When Wang Li reached the age to enter a primary school, he was so happy to leave the kindergarten. He entered the Kunming Ming Tong Primary School which was one of the best schools in Kunming where most official cadres’ and intellectuals sent their children. Although my family struggled to adapt to the poor living conditions in the beginning, they gradually integrated seamlessly with the locals in Kunming. Due to her teaching position, my wife learned to speak fluent Yunnan dialect. My children also spoke Yunnan dialect like natives. And they became accustomed to the spicy local food. But I and my mother could not master the Yunnan dialect and we almost never acquired the spicy taste. After a near 20-year of separation, my mother finally was able to live with her only son and his family, which was a great happiness to her. She gave me all the love from her heart and cared for me as if I were a baby. Her simple joy was to put the food she prepared on the dining table every day and watch me and the family enjoying it. I felt that was one of my best periods both in my career and my family life. It was an extremely difficult socio-economic period in China due to numerous political movements, serious natural disasters and worsening bilateral relationship between China and former Soviet Union. There were widespread shortage of food supply and consumer goods. Daily food supply was rationed. However, high priced food could be purchased from restaurants on a first-come first- serve basis as the government had a policy to tackle the shortage by offering higher priced items beyond basic ration to whoever could afford. To ensure my dietary nutrition, my wife and my mother took Wang Qi to visit restaurants often for high priced carry-out food. Since each customer was only allowed to buy a limited amount of food, the three of them combined could buy more to bring home. Due to my family’s full support and the government policy of preferential treatment for senior intellectuals, I did not suffer from the shortage and could fully devote all my efforts to work.

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3.3.11 Deputy Director of the Second Design Office Thermal power plants could be designed and constructed in a relatively short period of time, since Yunnan Province had an abundance of energy resource of waterpower. Kunming Hydropower Design Institute decided to restructure to reflect two distinct branches—thermal power and hydropower plant design and construction. Liu Jian, the former director of Office of General Administration of Hydropower Construction in Beijing, was appointed as the Director of Kunming Hydropower Design Institute and Deputy Director of Bureau of Electricity of Yunnan Province (BEYP). The restructuring took place under his directorship. The new structure contained two design offices. The First Design Office was responsible for the design of hydropower plant, and the Second Design Office responsible for the design of thermal power plant. Zhang Xidai was appointed as the Chief of Second Design Office responsible for administrative duties and coordination with the First Design Office. I was appointed as the Deputy Chief of the Second Design Office and the chief design engineer of thermal power plant and chief of thermal division. The deputy chief engineer of BEYP frequently asked me to receive and coordinate activities with delegates from Ministry of Electric Power on behalf of him. Because I had too many concurrent posts and ad hoc assignments, I asked Ning Jian to delegate my post of thermal division. He agreed and proceeded with the implementation in 1961. 1. Preliminary Draft of Methodology of Engineering Design. I became known in the engineering field of Yunnan Province after my good performance and contribution to the electricity supply in Yunnan Province and was invited by the Association of Electric Power of Yunnan Province to make a presentation. In my paper, I summarized my working experiences in various disciplines such as electrical, mechanical, civil engineering; my integration of parallel and serial decomposition; my application of induction and deduction, both occasionally and inevitability, and method of comparison used to modify the structure of boiler in the project of Pupingcun Power Plant. I did not know how to give a proper title to the paper. Even though the majority content of the paper was related to design, I wanted to get the idea across that a designer should not just focus on design to satisfy a specific discipline such as power plant design, chemical plant design, and house design, etc. but should reflect principles universal to all designs regardless of a subject specialty. Thus, I named my paper arbitrarily as Methodology of Engineering Design. One engineer of BEYP responded to my speech “You were not talking about engineering; it seemed you were talking about philosophy.” My initial draft of paper contained about 20,000 words. 2. Design Force was Strengthened. The BEYP began to allocate new college graduates of Xi’an Jiao Tong University to strengthen the design force of thermal power plant, who are shown in Fig. 3.5 (Dai Qingsen, Wu Jinghua, etc. were new college graduates from Xi’an Jiao Tong University).

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Fig. 3.5 Photo pf Kunming Alumni of 66th anniversary celebration of Shanghai Jiao Tong University. From left to right Front Row: 1st Dai Qingsen, 2nd Zhang Xizai, 3rd Zhang Chonghuan, 4th Chen Jimin, 5th Zheng Shifen, 6th Wang Huijiong and Wang Qi, 9th Wu Jinghua Middle Row: 4th Huang Weizu

3. Expansion Design of Kaiyuan Power Plant. In 1960s, I was responsible as the chief design engineer for Kaiyuan Power Plant expansion. This power plant, constructed in early 1950s, was one of the 156 key projects of China, was designed and constructed with expert assistance from former Soviet Union and with the Soviet equipment supply. Because our team had the experience of designing two power plants with the accumulated experience in handling operation failures of the first unit in the raining season, we began to innovate. We added a design of dry coal shed in the expansionary design of the power plant. The General Administration of Construction of Electric Power (GACEP) which was an organization responsible for approving design and guidance of construction of national thermal power plants, asked BEYP to send the Expansionary Design of Kaiyuan Power Plant for their approval. BEYP informed me, and I went to Beijing alone and brought with me the document of preliminary design. I enjoyed traveling to Beijing very much because I had many friends there. My friends from SPC, such as Wu Binglin who worked in the Bureau of Capital Construction, Tang Zongyan who worked in the North China Design Institute, and other friends like Cheng Benji and my former student Pang Lianchang, etc.

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Furthermore, I could buy many new English books in Beijing which were not available in Kunming. I brought my document of design to the Design Office of GACEP, Cheng Benji, the deputy director of the office, organized a group of engineers, electrical, mechanical, and civil experts of sub-system of thermal power plant, such as general layout, fuel supply, ash removal, etc., to listen to my report and ask questions. I gave response to them respectively, especially concerning the unique feature of lignite of Yunnan Province in the raining season. Finally, the Design Office approved our design. In later period, Director Su Li, who oversaw administration of department of design questioned the approval of our design. He organized a special delegation to investigate. This special delegation was led by Li Deqing, the chief engineer of South West Design Institute, and the chief design engineer Yuan Shuogong, who came from North-West Deign Institute. Li Deqing was a member of the group responsible for administering the oral test for the entrance examination of apprentice engineers. He was the left-behind manager of former Shanghai Power Company after foreign managers and all senior foreign staffs left the company when the military took over SPC. His entire family lived in U.S.A., because his father was a big financier in Zhejiang Province. Later he was transferred to serve as the chief engineer of East China Design Institute, and later the chief engineer of South West Design Institute. I also knew Yuan Shuogong who was a student engineer and specialized in the workshop to repair motors and electric heaters of Consumer’s Engineering Department. I brought Zhu Tianguang from thermal division and Feng Zhixian, an expert of hydraulic structure from Kunming Hydropower Design Institute to the meeting. We debated the validity of our design one by one with the members of this special delegation. At the end of this investigation, chief engineer Li Deqing came to my home and we had a nice chat. Li acknowledged that my team members were better than his team members. In later period, when I travelled to Beijing, I went to Wu Binglin’s home in one evening, he said to me “your Design Institute was very strong, it was said that even Li Deqing’s team could not compete with your team.” Director Su Li also appreciated my thorough work and was impressed with my background. Afterwards, we became good friends. 4. Participation of National Seminar of Chief Design Engineers Sponsored by GACEP. From March to May 1963, after the Great Leap Forward, the General Administration of Construction of Electric Power (GACEP) sponsored a seminar in Beijing for chief design engineers, and Zhang Bin, director of the General Administration, proceeded with the seminar preparation. At that time, Beijing Gaojing Power Plant, designed by North China Electric Power Design Institute, had an excellent operation record which was recognized by the Ministry of Electric Power and set as the industry benchmark. Reflecting his experience, Chief Engineer Sun of the GACEP summarized the work of electric power during the three-year period of Great Leap Forward and proposed guidelines on how to build a power plant suitable for China’s current development conditions. The seminar

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also organized field trips for chief design engineers to visit thermal power plants around the country and report their experiences. The team, led by Chief Engineer Sun with participation of country’s chief design engineers of electrical power, visited large power plants in Shanghai, Hangzhou, Northeast China, North China, and Northwest China. On the way, I met Zhou Dahao, a junior schoolmate of mine from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, who was then chief design engineer of the North China Design Institute. After visiting the power plant in Hangzhou, we rented a small boat and rowed around the famous West Lake. Zhou, on a wobbly boat, said emotionally, “It seemed in every political campaign, intellectuals were targeted for criticism. I don’t know if I can pass the next campaign”. It seemed that he foresaw his unfortunate future fate. Indeed, a few years later during the Cultural Revolution, Zhou committed suicide. During the field trip, the team set out from the north in March and ended in the south in May when spring was in full bloom with beautiful flowers everywhere. All chief design engineers were in a great mood and exclaimed, “Peach blossoms following us all the way is a great sign for future prosperity.” Unfortunately, the Cultural Revolution which started nationwide 1966, dampened all enthusiasm for a bright future. Sun, who led the field trip, committed suicide in Kunming Lake in Beijing shortly after the launch of the Cultural Revolution.

3.3.12 Chief Engineer of Design Department of Bureau of Electricity, Yunnan Province (BEYP) In 1963, the nation’s electricity sector underwent a structural change administratively. As a follow-up, the Yunnan Province restructured Yunnan Provincial Bureau of Electric Power Administration which integrated thermal power design, transmission and distribution lines and substations and operation of hydropower plants under its administrative realm. Meanwhile, Kunming Hydropower Design Institute was put under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Electric Power which also oversaw six thermal power design institutes responsible for all large-scale projects. A special design department was set up in the process and I was appointed as the chief engineer of the Design Department of BEYP in June 1963, responsible for planning of electric system, design of thermal power plants, transmission and substation in Yunnan Province. Administratively, the new department, Chen XX, deputy chief engineer of the Bureau, would temporarily serve as director of the Design Department, and Qi X would manage the administrative affairs on behalf of Chen. 1. Organization of the Design Department. In order to strengthen the capability of this new department, BEYP allocated several new college graduates to work in this department. These graduates came from universities in southwest China (Jian Renluan, Yin Fuguo, etc.), Xi’an Jiao Tong University (Huang Huizu, Dai Qingsen, etc.) and Tsinghua University (Chen Taifen), as well as vocational

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schools in Shanghai (Zhang Lijuan, Chen Chengrui, etc.). With the new injection of college graduates, the Design Department was stronger in human resources than Kunming Hydropower Design Institute, which was composed mainly of graduates from vocational schools. This new department had four sections: the thermal section, the transmission line section, the substation section, and the civil engineering section. The leaders of the thermal section were Zhu Tianguang and Yang Weizhou; the substation section leaders were Shen Bingzhang and Wang Keyong (female); and the transmission line section leader was Zeng Zhaoming, who was transferred from the Central South Design Institute in Wuhan. As its chief engineer, I focused on restoring order production, established regulations and procedures consistent with the practice of the six National Thermal Power Design Institutes. I was fully aware of the difficulties of the technical leadership. The design department involved several professional areas, the chief engineer needed to integrate a variety of concepts of different professions and to make compromises where necessary to achieve satisfactory solutions. It was impossible to accommodate every possible professional bias and to please everyone in the work environment. Thus, complaints were common at the department. 2. The Revolutionary Design Movement. My third child, Wang Ping, the youngest daughter, was born in 1964 when a new national campaign was launched. With a theme of “revolutionary design movement,” the campaign called for mobilizing the masses to engage in cost reduction in projects and anti-waste fervor. The design department under Qi X’s administration actively participated in the campaign and made me a target. Qi printed negative messages against me and sent them to the BEYP and the GACEP of the Ministry of Electric Power. Later, the design office organized the site design of the Pupingcun Power Plant, which was responsible by Engineer Zhu from the North China Design Institute, and Qi intervened in the site field. Accompanied by me, Lei Shuxuan, a director from the Bureau of Planning of the Ministry of Electric Power, came for an inspection. BEYP also appointed its staff Huang Zu’en of the Department of Capital Construction to accompany him. Director Lei hoped to speed up the project process and asked me to suggest measures. Director Lei agreed with my suggestions. However, since the field design work was manipulated by Qi, I could not ascertain that my recommendations would be implemented. I shared my concerns with Huang Zu’en privately, and Huang reported to Zhu Shihui, Deputy Director of BEYP about my difficulty in carrying out my work. Zhu was not happy to hear that. 3. Vacation at the Cadre’s Sanatorium of Yunnan Province. To mitigate the conflict, Zhu criticized Qi and arranged for me to spend some time at a cadre sanatorium in Yunnan Province to recuperate from the stress. Only cadres at or above the administrative level of 13 grade were eligible for admission to this sanatorium, and Zhu made special arrangement for me. I temporarily left my job to recuperate in Anning County, 30 km away from Kunming, where the sanatorium was located. I received physical therapy every morning, took hot springs in the afternoon, and walked around the sanatorium after dinner. I was totally relaxed during my first

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month there and did not worry about work. Later, colleagues from the design department came to visit and complained that Qi, who was temporarily in charge, took control of the entire department by replacing most team leaders with people he favored. People told me that they missed the working environment under my management because I never played favoritism. Three months later, when I returned to work, it was already the prelude of the Cultural Revolution.

3.3.13 My Life During the Cultural Revolution The expanded meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee (May 4–16th) promulgated the “Notice of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China” on May 16, 1966 disseminating the circulation drafted under the auspices of Mao Zedong. It criticized the “February Outline” and formulated the “fivemember Committee of the Cultural Revolution” in February 1966. The “May 16th Circulation” officially marked the beginning of the Cultural Revolution. 1. The Initial Period at the Design Department. Chen, one of the deputy directors of BEYP, sent a working group to lead the campaign in the Design Department. This group was led by the director of Capital Construction Department. Upon his arrival at my department, he met me the first day and asked my views on his mission. I told him I did not trust his working group. As a result, a big-character poster targeting at me appeared the next day, labeling me the main supporter of the counter-revolutionaries of the Design Department, while Shen Bingzhang, the section head of the Electrical Engineering, became the head of the counterrevolutionaries because he and his team opposed Qi’s management. Shen and I were isolated and forbidden from participating in the department meetings and review political reports circulated. One day, I met Shen in the toilet, and he comforted me, “Engineer Wang, don’t worry about me. Things will be cleared one day.” Leaders of the BEPY gradually realized the mismanagement by Qi, removed him as the acting director, and appointed Li Bolin to be director of the Design Department. Cultural Revolution from May 1966 to October 1976 was a major political disaster in China which caused tremendous damage to the country and its people. Below, I would like to quote the description from the Millennium Encyclopedia about the nature of the Cultural Revolution: Cultural Revolution (1966–1976). The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution was initiated by Mao Zedong and his wife, Jiang Qing, to purge the Chinese Communist Party of his opponents and correct revolutionary attitudes. Senior party officials were removed from their posts, intellectuals and others suspected of revisionism were victimized and humiliated. A new youth corps, the Red Guards, staged protests, held rallies and violently attacked reactionary ideas. By 1968 China was approaching civil war. The Red Guards were disbanded, and the army restore order.

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After the promulgation of “May 16th Circular”, the working group promptly withdrew from the Design Department. All designated counter revolutionaries were freed, and I continued my role as the chief engineer of the department. 2. Two Rebel Factions. In early 1967, the Kunming rebels were divided into the “823” faction (simply “eight factions”) and the “Artillery Corps” faction (simply “artillery faction”). The “eight factions” refer to the great joint headquarters of the proletarian revolutionary factions in Kunming, and the “artillery faction” refers to the great joint liaisons of the new proletarian revolutionary rebels in Yunnan Province. The two factions, occupied the eastern and western sides of Kunming respectively, fought each other with military apparatus, and the confrontation and conflict intensified as if it were a civil war. 3. My Life and Family in this Period. During the fighting between the two factions in Kunming, military representatives were stationed in the BEYP and the Design Department. A production leading group was set up at the department was managed by Li Bolin and I with Li responsible for the overall operation and I responsible for the production work of technical nature. As the factional fighting continued to intensify and gunfire escalating, life was no longer safe in Kunming and all public facilities including schools were shut down. My son, Wang Li, a 5th grader, was unable to attend school and receive classroom instructions. Instead, the school organized students to work as physical laborers in an idiosyncratic campaign to create agricultural land by filling Dianchi Lake with earth. My daughter, Wang Qi, a 3rd grader, was also enlisted in various political activities and physical labor as her school was closed for education but other political activities continued which expected all students to participate. To seek safety and escape the unrest, my mother returned to Shanghai with our youngest daughter Wang Ping at the end of 1967. In 1968, as things were getting from bad to worse, my wife took Wang Li and Wang Qi and fled to Shanghai via a difficult train journey. The train was overly crowded with no seats, and my children had to sleep on the narrow luggage shelf for three days before reaching Shanghai. I was the only one stayed behind in Kunming, upheld my post in the production leading group at my organization. My wife and mother were my primary care takers for my daily life. Now left alone, I had to pick up life skills to survive the harsh living environment. I learned to shop for scarce groceries and bought carrots and cabbages from stores where choices and supplies were both limited. I learned to cook meals and water using honeycomb coal. The factional fighting escalated. Since I was alone at home, some of “eight factions” rebels armed with iron bars, came in an apparent attempt to seize my apartment. In order to keep our living space, I telegrammed my wife urging her to return as soon as possible with the family. Learning the news, my wife immediately returned with my mother, Wang Li and Wang Qi, leaving the youngest daughter Wang Ping to stay with my second sister, Wang Bingchi, in Shanghai temporarily. In February 1968, to solve the violence and armed struggle in Yunnan Province, the Central Committee held a 6-month course at the Hongshankou Barracks in Beijing, with nearly 2,000 participants. In May of the same year,

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the “eight factions” and the “artillery faction” signed an agreement to cease fire. After that, the armed struggle subsided, and Kunming slowly returned to normal. My workplace also gradually returned to routine. But soon, there was another political event known as “sixteen articles” targeted at the reactionary technical specialists. Li Bolin, my director with whom I had a good relationship, tried to assure me by telling me that, “you are a trusted technical specialist and not a reactionary technologist.” In summer of 1970, the higher level of administration made the decision to move the Design Department (including the families) to Luxi County. Li kindly suggested that I go alone without taking my family along. I listened and moved to Luxi County with colleagues and a pile of professional books. We had to live in an abandoned temple and sleep on its floor as no other accommodations were available. One night there was an earthquake, fortunately there were no casualties because the temple was made of wood. Before long, the higher-level administration ordered the Design Department be moved back to Kunming. At that time, Li was the head of the revolutionary committee of the Design Department, while the head of the faction group at the department served as deputy and oversaw production. I was sent to work as a construction site representative at the Kunming Iron and Steel Plant in Anning City, Yunnan Province. 4. Life as a Site Representative at Kunming Iron and Steel Plant. The deputy director arranged for me to have two assistants with experience in civil construction. It was the first time I returned to Anning after my last convalescence. During my over one year in Anning, my daily work as a representative of the construction site was not very heavy, I mainly dealt with engineering problems at the site, and solved the problem of the blower station which was designed by us previously. At the same time, I also worked hard to learn about the production process of iron and steel mills. I inspected the construction site in the morning and was free in the afternoon, during which I studied management theory and operational research and read a lot of practical Japanese materials in the reference room. In my spare time, I expanded the “Methodology of Engineering Design”, initially completed in 1963, into a manuscript of about 100,000 words. Back then, I did not hope to become famous by publishing this book. I believed that my accumulated and creative ideas in the field of engineering over the years might be useful to future generations someday.

3.4 Summary This chapter centers on my work and life during 1951–1970, the period when I grew from a junior assistant engineer to chief design engineer of electrical power systems, along the way, I married and started a family. My work took me from Shanghai, the most developed city in China to Kunming, a relatively backward and isolated city in Yunnan Province in Southwestern Region. I suffered less from major political

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campaigns due to my relatively simple history and good leader, such as Ning Jian to be my mentor, and supportive colleagues. My ideas about systems engineering started to emerge during this period. Below briefly summarize the major highlights. 1. Work in Shanghai (1951–1957). My engineering career started at Shanghai Power Company (SPC) where I learned to design electric distribution system and transmission system as an assistant engineer. Later, I worked in the Engineering Department of East China Naval Headquarter where I learned to design complex electric power systems for a shipping organization. Through application of series decomposition and parallel decomposition, I was able to integrate engineering concepts and methods into complex system design and completed two mini electric power systems (including generation, transmission, distribution and utilization of electricity) for a naval base and an airport base, respectively. I was promoted to the Level 5 Engineer ranking when I worked in East China Naval Headquarter. 2. Work in Kunming (1958–1970). I was transferred from Shanghai to Yunnan Province to help develop a relatively backward region in its effort to alleviate severe shortage in electric power supply. I started out at the Kunming Hydropower Design Institute assisting with the design of Yilihe cascade hydropower station, with total installed capacity of 321.5 thousand kilowatt. There, I met my mentor, Ning Jian, the deputy director of the institute responsible for development to thermal power station. Ning recognized my talent and appointed me to be chief design engineer of Yangzonghai thermal power plant. The design was a success, although operation failures occurred during the raining season. Together with my team, we found the cause for the failure and implemented corrective measures. I did my work of learning by doing and broadened my knowledge in aspects related to mechanical and civil engineering by reading more books. After the restructuring of the Design Department, I became the deputy chief of the newly established second design office and chief design engineer of the thermal power plants. Afterwards, I oversaw the expansionary project of Kai Yuan Thermal Power Plant. Due to the successful track records in my design work, and the support from Ning, I was promoted to the chief engineer position at the newly established design department responsible for designing thermal power plants, transmission lines, transformer substation, and planning of provincial electric networks. For my excellent work, I was invited to attend a national seminar for chief design engineers in 1963 and visited many thermal power plants in different regions of China, which broadened my perspective and expanded my connection with peers nationwide. The Cultural Revolution caused significant disruption throughout the country, and my workplace was no exception. However, as soon as things stabilized, I was called back by the work unit to assist with the technical affairs. Although life in Kunming was far from comfortable compared with what I used to in Shanghai, the work experiences I gained from various design projects, troubleshooting episodes, and team leadership were invaluable. The scale, complexity, and range of the work I engaged during my years in

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Kunming laid a solid foundation for my future leap into large comprehensive projects at the national level. 3. Marriage and Family Life. I met my wife in Shanghai through a friend introduction, we fell in love and got married shortly afterwards. Soon we had a son and a daughter and settled in a nice apartment in the former French Concession. My wife was very supportive of my decision to transfer to Kunming for career growth. She left the comfort in Shanghai and moved the entire family including my mother to Kunming in 1958 to support my work. Life was hard in Kunming, a relatively backward city in China. My young children suffered most with the change of environment, but the family sustained the initial difficult and adapted to the local environment eventually. In 1964, we had another daughter. The Cultural Revolution and rebel faction violence and street fighting caused my family to flee for safety in Shanghai leaving me behind to stick to my work post. The separation was temporary and eventually we were reunited. Life was happy when the entire family weathered the ups and downs together! 4. Emergence of Preliminary Thinking in systems engineering. In 1963, I was invited by Electrical Engineering Association, Yunnan Branch to make a presentation. I delivered a speech with the theme “Methodology of Engineering Design”, the draft with about 20,000 words represented my first written effort in systems engineering. During the year when I stayed at Kunming Iron and Steel Plant as a site representative, I had time to learn the entire manufacturing process of iron and steel plant and to continue my writing. I expanded my initial draft of Methodology of Engineering to over 100,000 words. My writing was about design, but I wanted to get the idea across that a designer should not focus narrowly on design to satisfy a specific discipline such as power plant design, chemical plant design, and house design, etc. but should deploy principles universal to all designs systematically regardless of a subject specialty.

Reference Wang, H. J., & Li, S. T. (2018). Introduction to social systems engineering. Singapore: Springer.

Chapter 4

Work, Learning, Life and Publication During the Period in the Bureau of Electricity Yunnan Province (BEYP) (1970–1980)

4.1 Introduction After I became an electric power engineer in 1951, my major work involved designing the whole electric power system, including generation, transmission, distribution and utilization of electricity by industry, commerce and ordinary household consumers. I engaged in the engineering design for over 18 years. From 1970 to 1980, I worked in BEYP where my major work covered a broader range, including the operation, planning, capital construction, and technological upgrade of the entire electric power system of Yunnan Province. My work and learning were expanded in scope and complexity and my life was extended from family to broader social circle. By the end of the 1960s, when I was the Design Department’s construction site representative, I had my preliminary thoughts concerning the connection between my concept of Methodology of Engineering Design and the concept of Systems Engineering, a discipline from abroad. I had more chances to travel to Beijing and bought more English books to learn and to further my understanding of my discipline for the past 16 years. I began writing chapter by chapter of Introductions to Systems Engineering, which was finally accepted by the publisher in 1978. This chapter is organized to present the four aspects, i.e. my work, learning, life and publication in the period of 1970–1980.

4.2 Change of Environment Many significant changes took place during this period which ultimately affected my personal achievements and the destiny of my family—after all, this period was in the second and third stage of China’s Cultural Revolution. Hereunder, the Chinese study of the different stages of the Cultural Revolution is briefly presented.

© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 H. Wang, Explorations in Social Systems Engineering, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-3390-7_4

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4.2.1 Stages of China’s Cultural Revolution China classified the process of the Cultural Revolution into three stages: The first stage (May 1966–April 1969) started after the expanded meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee (May 4th–May 16th) which promulgated the “Notice of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China” on May16th 1966, also known as “May 16th Communique”. Revolutionary Committees were established in 29 provinces and municipalities’ autonomous regions up to end of 1967. The second stage (April 1969–August 1973) started in April 1969, the opening of the Ninth Party’s Congress of Communist Party of China and continued to August 1973, the opening of the Tenth Party’s Congress of Communist Party of China. The major events in this stage were the failed attempt by Lin Biao’s antirevolutionary group; Zhou Enlai presiding over the daily work of the Central Committee with the support of Mao Zedong; and the formation of the “Gang of Four” in the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee. The third stage (August 1973–October 1976) started from the opening of the Tenth Party’s Congress in August 1973 to expose and repudiate “Gang of Four” in October 1976.

4.2.2 Important Historical Events-Chinese 11th CPC Central Committee Third Plenary Session The Third Plenary Session of Chinese 11th CPC Central Committee was hold in December 18th–22nd 1978. This was an important conference where the following six achievements were announced: (1) The plenum achieved the ideological realignment to correct radical political wrong doings caused by “Gang of Four”. (2) The plenum achieved a political realignment. (3) The plenum achieved a change in the line of organization. (4) The plenum began a systematic process of cleaning up the wrongs of major historical events. (5) The plenum restored the party’s tradition of democratic centralism. (6) The plenary session made a new decision to implement reform and open up and launch a new process of rural reform.

4.3 Work in the BEYP (1970–1977) My work from 1970 to 1980 was affected very much by the macrosystem (Cultural Revolution and its broader aftermath) and the exosystem of my workplace and social network (based upon Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model describing the environmental context of human development). Both the Cultural Revolution and the Third Plenary Session of the 11th Party’s Congress were two historical events which

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had influenced the growth pattern not only in China, but also the global society at large. My work in the BEYP could be roughly divided into two periods: the period in 1970–1977, when I did all kinds of work without an official title, and the period in 1978–1980, when I became the Deputy Chief Engineer of BEYP. My work in the later period will be described in Sect. 4.4. This section will focus on the former.

4.3.1 Work in the BEYP Work in the BEYP in this period could also be divided into two periods: the initial period and work in the technological office under the production leadership group. In the initial period, I worked in BEYP’s department of operation, during which I became familiar with the organization’s system of operations and handled specific operational problems. In the later period, the production leadership group was established. Li Jinghang (former chief engineer of construction of Yilihe project) and I were appointed to deal with technical affairs related to thermal power and the electric system in order to assist the production leader group. The two of us sat in the same room and waited to be called on to solve problems.

4.3.2 Selected Events Events are arranged based upon time sequence. 1. Putting Pu Ji Transformer Substation into normal operation. Pu Ji Transformer Substation was one of the key transform substations located in nearby Kunming, and its 220 kv transmission lines connected to Xuanwei Thermal Plant. This substation was designed by Southwest Electric Power Institute, constructed by Construction Company of BEYP, and operated by Kunming Power Supply Bureau. Nearly all the substation’s major parts had been constructed with the exception of a few miscellaneous items; however, Kunming Power Supply Bureau refused to accept this substation and put it into normal operation due to its incompleteness. That was the major issue. My responsibility was to deal with major issues on behalf of the Operation Department of BEYP. I went to Kunming Power Supply Bureau to have a meeting with all the relevant parties. I listened to everyone’s opinions and clarified the division of labor for all parties, the date of completion for works to be completed by them and the date for putting Pu Ji Transformer Substation into normal operation. These arrangements were accepted by all parties. The day when Pu Ji Transformer Substation was put into normal operation, there was a huge failure of the electric system. Zhou Xing, the First Secretary of Yunnan Provincial Party Committee at the time (he was director of Northwest Political Security Bureau early in Feb. 1936 in Yan’an, where the Central

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Committee of the Communist Party of China was based for 13 years), was very angry about the failure of the electric power system. He said, in his professional opinion that “this event seemed to be as if the counter-revolutionaries fired a gun at me behind my back!” A special investigation team was established, led by the director of the provincial government; other members included Liu Jian, the deputy director of BEYP, and me. This team collected facts from the dispatch office, Kunming Power Supply Bureau, Pu Ji Transformer substation, Xuan Wei Thermal Plant and the Cascade Power Stations in operation in Yilihe. The cause of the system failure and the sequence of events were clarified and understood. In the original design by Southwest Electric Power Institute, the designer had designed a protective switch located at the back of a panel of measuring instruments. This switch must be kept in the open position in the process of open and close of circuit breakers. Otherwise, operation of any circuit breaker would be tripped off automatically. But this information was not shared by all stakeholders. The dispatch engineers had no information of this fact. Only the system protection engineers were vaguely aware of this knowledge after the designer transferred all drawings to them. The cause of the system failure was explored clearly. The dispatch engineer had no knowledge of this protective switch. It was in the ‘closed’ position when Pu Ji Transformer Substation was beginning the process of operating normally. The circuit breaker then tripped off automatically, and its load shifted to the other interconnected line between Xuan Wei Thermal Plant and Pu Ji Transformer Substation, then the circuit breaker of Xuan Wei Thermal Plant tripped off due to overload; its load was then shifted to the transmission line between Xuan Wei Thermal Plant and Cascade Hydropower Plants of Yilihe. The circuit breaker of this line also tripped off, causing a major system failure. The ultimate cause of the system failure was the imperfect management of transferring and sharing information during the turbulent environment of the Cultural Revolution. It was not caused by the action of counterrevolutionaries. 2. Putting Xuan Wei Thermal Plant into normal operation. In 1972, the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment was held in Stockholm on June 5th, 1972 and for the first time, representatives of multiple governments (133 countries including China) gathered to discuss the state of the global environment. This conference led directly to the creation of government environmental agencies and the UN Environment Program. China established the Environment Protection Office attached to the National Commission of Construction in 1973 (it was later promoted to the State Environmental Protection Administration). The government had also promulgated some Provisions on the Protection and Improvement of the Environment in 1973. “Three Simultaneous” was advocated in these provisions. It meant that the ‘design,’ ‘construction’ and ‘put into operation’ of environmental protective measures should be carried out simultaneously in the process of establishing a new project. The Ministry of Electric Power Industry also followed this regulation, even printing the regulation into formal documents and sending it to organizations of lower hierarchical level.

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With a greater awareness of environmental issues, there was debate in 1973 between the construction unit and the operation unit of Xuanwei Thermal Power Plant on the transferal and acceptance of this plant. The deputy director of the provincial economic commission, which was responsible for managing the operation of provincial economic units to achieve socioeconomic growth, asked BEYP to send someone from the operation department to his office. I was appointed by the production leadership group to go to the office of the provincial economic commission. The deputy director ordered me to go to Xuanwei to settle the debate and push Xuanwei Thermal Power Plant to start the operation as early as possible in order to meet the target of provincial economic growth. I went to Xuanwei Thermal Power Plant and met its director. I told the director the provincial economic commission’s intention for the plant to be operational without delay. The director showed me the official “Three Simultaneous” document he had received from BEYP. He told me that the ash disposal site had not been constructed fully and therefore he could not accept the transfer. Based upon Chinese administrative practice at that time, BEYP was under double guidance from the line ministries of the central government and various provincial administrative organizations. The director of Xuanwei Thermal Power Plant and I understood that we were in a complex situation. We decided to try to broker a compromise. To that end, I arranged a meeting between Xuanwei Thermal Power Plant and the construction unit. A temporary site for ash disposal with a smaller size was located, Xuanwei Thermal Power Plant would be put into operation immediately and the construction unit promised to quicken its construction of the permanent ash disposal site. This temporary solution was agreed on by all project stakeholders. This event illustrated the difference of opinions between the central and provincial governments as a result of the information transmission lag through hierarchical levels and the different concerns due to institutional issues. Lessons from this event could reduce the number of hierarchy levels in administration and open up the environment to create access to new and correct information. 3. Boiler furnace accident and explosion at Xuanwei Thermal Power Plant. One day in 1974, the production leadership group received orders from the provincial economic commission asking BEYP and Xuanwei Thermal Power Plant to investigate the explosion of the boiler furnace to discover whether it was a counter-revolutionary plot or not (at the time, it was popular for some politicians or rebels to blame counter-revolutionaries). Peng Mingchuan, the secretary of the Party Committee, brought a boiler technician from the Operation Department and me to Xuanwei to investigate the incident. We conducted a general observation of the damaged boiler and listened to the reports on the explosion. Apparently, the fire had been extinguished in the boiler and the boiler operator fed the pulverized coal and pushed forward the draft fan’s operation, resulting in the explosion of the boiler furnace. The boiler technician and I shared the same opinion after we learned of the explosion process: this accident was caused by mis-operation, not the actions of counterrevolutionaries.

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When there was a fire extinguished in the boiler, it was a common practice in boiler operation to put the induced draft fan first in order to purge the accumulated gases in the furnace. The gases included several combustibles from coal or CO due to the imperfect combustion process. After purging the furnace, operators could feed the coal which would force the draft fan to push fresh air into the boiler. The explosion was mainly due to mis-operation; the operator did not purge the furnace immediately after the fire had been extinguished. The rush feeding of fuel and fresh air had caused the combustion of the accumulated combustibles in the furnace, producing a very large amount of gas which led to the furnace’s explosion. It was not a purposeful action from the counterrevolutionaries. The boiler technician of BEYP’s Operation Department and I reported our findings to Peng individually. We advised Peng that he should not follow the provincial economic commission’s order. If this accident was handled incorrectly, it could cause a strike from the workers and staff of Xuanwei Thermal Power Plant. In such an event, the whole plant would halt operations, causing great damage to provincial economy. Peng agreed with us. He reported to the provincial economic commission that the operator was arrested, and he announced to the staff and workers that the boiler operator would be retained in the plant for one or two days to write a review of the accident. The operator would be released after he completed his review. In this way, the accident was dealt with smoothly in the turbulent period of the Cultural Revolution. 4. Participation in the damaged generators repair process. The first important hydropower project, Yilihe Cascade Hydropower Plant, with a total installed capacity of 321.5 thousand kws, started its construction in 1956 and completed in 1972. The third cascaded hydropower plant was Yanshuigou Hydropower Plant with an installed capacity of four units of Hydroturbine driven generators, each rated at 36000 kws (i.e. total installed capacity of 144,000 kws). Yanshuigou plant, however, had suffered from a generator burning accident in the initial period when I was in the Operation Department of BEYP. One of its generators was subjected once more to a burning accident in 1974. In order to learn more about the accident, I went to Yanshuigou hydropower plant to listen to the report of the chief engineer on the process of this accident. Later, I participated in the damaged generator’s repair process. The damaged windings were moved out of the generator’s slots and replaced with windings with new insulating material. When the above process was completed, the chief engineer informed me he was planning on putting the repaired generator back into operation. As I had participated in the repair process from the beginning to this point, I knew that the chief engineer and his team had missed implementing the important final step of generator repair, i.e. heating the new windings. The windings’ new insulating materials retained some inherent moisture, which had to be driven out through heating in order to avoid failure of operation. I decided to implement the heating process by short-circuiting the terminals to jumpstart and heating process of the generator. The chief engineer, however,

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rejected my proposal, because he had no prior knowledge of the scheme. In addition, should any accident happen during the implementation of the scheme, he might again be labeled as counterrevolutionary (he and his colleagues had already suffered from this designation in the past when the Cultural Revolution took place at Yilihe Cascade Hydropower Plants). I asked him to appoint one skilled worker to assist me in the implementation of the scheme. I asked the worker to short-circuit three terminals of generator through copper bar of an appropriate size. I checked the terminal connections and ran the control panel with reduced voltages in current circulating in the windings of the repaired generator. The chief engineer and the entire staff stayed in their homes to avoid being scapegoated should the procedure fail to jumpstart the generator. This scheme lasted about 24 h, and the generator was put into normal operation. This event illustrated the detrimental working conditions as a result of the Cultural Revolution and the management weaknesses in China’s relatively underdeveloped regions. 5. Host National Conference of Application of Computer. Since the emergence of the first electronic analog computer and electronic digital computer in the 1940s, there have been rapid developments in computer technology as well as its application in various fields. The computer has now become a major driving force for the economic and social development of global society. I started to learn about and acquire working knowledge of computer technology and its application in 1970. I studied not only the structure and functionality of computer components, but also Symbolic Logic, the Boolean Algebra which was the basis of digital operations. At the time, the knowledge of computers and their application was in the nascent stage in BEYP’s attached organizations compared to the more developed regions of China. Control Engineer Zhao Baosen was among a small number of engineers in the dispatched office who learned power flow calculation by computer. A former associate professor of Lanchow University (now working at Kaiyuan Electric Power Administration) had a funny anecdote about purchasing a computer. Gansu Province’s Bureau of Electricity bought a domestic made computer, but the bureau lacked an engineer or technician who could operate the computer. The bureau transferred the associate professor from Lanchow University, but then ultimately decided not to operate the computer. The computer was resold to Kaiyuan Electric Power Administration. This transaction also included the transfer of the associate professor from Lanchow to Kaiyuan. As the professor jokingly put it, “I was bought by Kaiyuan Electric Power Administration in this transaction.” This micro-case helped me greatly in my later career of policy research after the late 1970s. Development of China must be studied within the context of its reality, i.e. unbalanced development of its regions. The Ministry of Electric Power Industry (MEPI) planned to hold a national conference on the application of computers in the Electric Power Industry in 1975. It asked BEYP to host this conference. The production leadership group agreed to this request. I was made responsible for this conference, arranging

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logistics to host participants and working with MEPI engineers on the theme, schedule and organization of the conference. MEPI’s engineers were initially focused on several specific technologic applications for the computer in the electric power industry, such as the calculation of power flow, computer aided design (CAD), etc. I collected some opinions from the participants beforehand and combined with my prior knowledge of the status of computer applications in the South-Western and North-Western regions, I suggested that the conference theme should focus on popularizing basic knowledge of the computer and its applications in order to lay a foundation for the MEPI staff based in underdeveloped regions. The responsible people were not interested in my suggestion. They did, however, agree to divide the conference into two parts: one dealt with the specific technological aspects handled by MEPI and the other dealt with the popularity of computer knowledge and its applications responsible by me. I had arranged a series of lectures related to the basic knowledge of computers, such as the history of its development; basic structures and major parts of the computer; Boolean algebra and its operation; application of software systems in the operation of electric power systems; other applications, such as CAD or CAM; and future prospects. I asked several participants invited by the Ministry of Electric Power Industry to speak about these specific subjects. Most conference participants attended the session on the popularity of computer knowledge and its application. This national conference on the application of computers in MEPI had achieved its purpose of reducing the knowledge gap between developed and relatively underdeveloped regions, better allowing the latter to access the frontier technology that would benefit future development. We also learned from the conference that the decisions to carry out certain activities at the top level must be based on the concrete knowledge at the lower level.

4.4 Deputy Chief Engineer of BEYP I was appointed to be deputy chief engineer of BEYP in 1978. My work in this period was of a different nature compared to what I had been doing before (engineering design and the operation of power systems) and could be classified into three categories, which are described in Sects. 4.4.1–4.4.3. All my experiences in this period were in management.

4.4.1 Routine Work at BEYP I was responsible for supervising and coordinating planning, capital construction, science and technology and the operations department. During my engineering work,

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the major difficulty was overcoming lack of professionalism and the prejudice of various disciplines such as mechanical, electrical, civil and others, to compromise and achieve a satisfactory solution. The major responsibility of BEYP’s chief engineer was the coordination of the works of the different departments. Although many aspects involved in the coordination, it was relatively easier to achieve consensus for departments within the same institution.

4.4.2 Non-routine Work Between BEYP and Other Institutions Five cases will be described for illustrative purposes. 1. Debate of “Outdoor Power Plant” between Design Institute and operation departments of BEYP. The design institute advocated for the new “Outdoor Power Plant” or “Outdoor Boiler Plant” technologies in order to reduce the initial cost of constructing a power plant. These new technologies were generally opposed by the operation department due to the poor conditions of operation and maintenance of the existing outdoor power plant. There were debates between the operation department for Xiaolongtan Thermal Power Plant and the South-Western Design Institute which was responsible for the new design. The institute asked BEYP to visit a successful case of an outdoor power plant, Ban Shan Thermal Power Plant, located in Hangzhou Municipality. I went to Hangzhou Municipality to visit Ban Shan Outdoor Power Plant. It was a severe winter in December, with heavy snow during my visit to the plant; West Lake, a famous tourism site in Hangzhou, was completely frozen. During my visit, the engineers and operators complained about the design of the outdoor power plant. On my way back to the hotel, I fell on the snowfield and ended up breaking my left wrist. I spent two months in the Shanghai hospital with a wrist plaster before returning to my office, when the outdoor power plant idea was rejected. 2. Difficulties in dealing with environmental issues. Although the central government advocated for environmental protection policy during the early 1970s, these policies conflicted with the industrial policy implemented by China in the prereform period. China prioritized the growth of heavy industry. Heavy industries tended to be highly polluted because of their traditional production processes. Highly polluted industries preferred to pay fines for their discharge of pollutants rather than changing the process of production, because the cost of a production change would be much higher than the payment of a fine. During my post as deputy chief engineer of BEYP, I also served as the deputy chairman of the provincial environmental protection association. I knew the best environmental protection policy was the elimination of pollutants at the source.

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This was the only effective means of reducing the amount of discharge of pollutants. The fine collection measure did not reduce the amount of pollutant discharge at all. In general, there were different perspectives on the issue of environmental protection. The central government envisioned long term sustainable development from a global perspective, while the local government’s vision was derived from the perspective of growing the local GDP to meet the overall targets set up by the top level of government as well as collecting taxable income from the local industrial producers to finance local development. This was a complex system problem requiring coordinated efforts from the top level and stakeholders involved in the issue. Similar complexity could be found in the technology advocated by the design institute of the thermal power plant, i.e. comprehensive utilization of ashes from the burning of pulverized coal. The ashes could be used as cement during construction work. In theory, this comprehensive utilization of ashes could save the cost of building a large ash disposal site and increase the project’s earnings through sales of the cement derived from the ashes. Although this suggestion seemed simple, the technology did not achieve its purpose due to the different perspectives and interests of the stakeholders involved. 3. Participation in discussion of low-grade coal utilization. The Bureau of Operation and the Bureau of Science and Technology of Ministry of Electric Power Industry (MEPI) were charged with collecting information and promoting the exchange of such information among provincial thermal power plants. A specific conference was organized by MEPI in 1978, and I was invited to present on the utilization of low-grade coal with very low kcl/kg value. 4. Attending China Import and Export Fair (or Canton Fair) in 1979. China was in a nearly semi-isolated situation since the establishment of PRC in 1949. In order to break up this state of semi-isolation from the external world, the Chinese government launched the First China Import and Export Fair in spring 1957. Its role and influence on China’s external trade increased greatly once China implemented its reform and opening policy in late 1978. China became the world’s largest exporter in 2010, and the largest trading nation in 2013. A quota was allocated to BEYP by the provincial planning commission to participate in the China Import and Export Fair in 1979. BEYP gave me the quota, so I went to Guangzhou to participate in the Fair. It was a good opportunity for me to broaden my view of a variety of goods for both consumption and production that can be supplied by China and other countries. The Chinese intellectuals had a saying: “Read 10,000 books and travel 10,000 miles.” Learning seriously at this fair was equivalent to “traveling 10,000 miles.” This Canton Fair was not only a good platform to promote the development of external trade, but also a good information acquisition platform for intellectuals to broaden their knowledge. 5. Reception of Hydropower Delegation from Former Czechoslovakia in Early 1980. The reform and opening of China beginning in late 1978 greatly promoted the country’s socio-economic development. This can be proved from one key concept of General Systems Theory: the feature of “Equifinality and Multifinality of Open Systems.” Wang and Li explained this feature to China’s development as

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follows, “Biological and social system operated differently. The open systems have two different features. The first feature is equifinality, which is the system have equally valid alternative ways of attaining the same objective from different initial conditions (Convergence). China as an example, was one of the low-income developing countries and had per capita national income less than 400 RMB in 1980. China also had very different initial conditions compared to developed G7 countries. But China has implemented the development strategy of reform and opening in the late 1970s, and through implementation of seven Five-Year Plans post 1980, Chinese gross national income at 2014 reached 10097.0$ billion and per capita income around 7400$ in Atlas method, it is 17966.9 billion $ and 13,170$ in terms of PPP. Chinese economic output has surpassed six countries of G7 except U.S.A. The second feature is multifinality, which means open system from a given initial state, can achieve different and mutually exclusive objectives. (Divergence)” (pp. 60–61). Electric Systems’ planning of Yunnan Province was conducted by experts from the former Czechoslovakia during the Great Leap Forward. But this systems’ planning was based on a 30-year long-term planning with 1980 as the rational starting point. The former Czechoslovakia1 was involved in hydropower development in Yunnan Province during the 1950s. It expected to continue cooperating with China on exploring the rich hydropower resources in Yunnan Province. In early 1980, Czechoslovakia sent a hydropower delegation to Yunnan Province through the channel of the Foreign Economic and Trade Commission. BEYP at that time had a new deputy director from Provincial Foreign Economic and Trade Commission. I was then on mission at Xuanwei Thermal Power Plant and received an urgent call from the office of the Secretary of the Party Committee, asking me to return to Kunming by 5 p.m. I left Xuanwei at 12 noon and arrived in Kunming before 5 p.m. I was told by Yue Shihua, the Secretary of the Party Committee, that BEYP’s leaders would host the dinner for the delegation around 7 p.m. Li Jinghang and I organized two technological groups to discuss issues and respond to questions raised by members of the delegation. Li led the group of Chinese experts focused on hydraulic structure related to hydropower plants. I led the group of Chinese experts focused on mechanical and electric machineries related to hydropower plants. Members of my group came mainly from Kunming Hydropower Design Institute. Due to the lack of training in English, most of the members of my group could only raise questions and respond in Chinese. I chaired the discussion and served as interpreter for both sides. The members of my group were impressed by my broad knowledge of hydropower plants and already knew I was an expert on the electric power system and thermal power plants. Few of them knew that I had devoted all my available time to study various English books including several books on the design, construction and operation of hydropower plants. The members of the delegation were also impressed with my capability in English and my knowledge in the field of hydropower engineering. 1 Czechoslovakia

underwent a non-violent “velvet divorce” into its two national components, the Czech Republic and Slovakia on 1 January 1993.

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4.4.3 Major Difficulty with Parts and Accessories of Domestic Made Equipment Before 1980 The basic duty of electric power supply utility was to ensure a continuous reliable service for the customers. The power system was equipped with many equipment, the quality and reliability of the equipment would determine the quality and reliability of the power supply service. In the period of mandatory planning system implemented before the reform and opening, China was dominated by a seller’s market. The buyers had to receive the product from the manufacturer through allocation by the planning and material supply organizations of the central government. There was scare source of supply before the launch of reform and opening. Pu Ji Transformer Substation installed a 220 kV high voltage oil less switchgear manufactured by Shanghai Switchgear Plant. This type of switchgear had the defects of its operating mechanism. I requested that the Central Testing Institute of BEYP, which was decentralized from Academy of Scientific Research at Beijing, send a switchgear expert to examine it. Engineer Cao Rongjiang was sent by the Institute who was trained from the former Soviet Union. I went to Pu Ji Transformer Substation to observe the process of his investigation. He dismantled the operating mechanism and could not found anything wrong. We stayed there nearly one night. Nothing we could do to improve the situation. Defects of manufactured products would better be corrected only through improvement of manufacturing process, such as Total Quality Control (TQC) or Total Quality Management (TQM). The issue of poor quality of manufactured products should be studied within the context of improvement of the planning institutions.

4.4.4 Importance of Management 1. Experience learned as Deputy Chief Engineer. During my three years as deputy chief engineer of BEYP, I felt that my major work was not to deal with and solve certain specific engineering or technological issues. My major work was to assist the decision makers to manage the organization of BEYN to achieve certain target of national demand of socio-economic development. The organization of BEYN is generally set up by top authority. While planning, directing, organizing a proper team, coordinating the team’s efforts and controlling the process to achieve was the aim of my major work. It can be seen from various accidents or events described in this chapter that a cause was inappropriate management at different hierarchical level of the management. 2. Develop my knowledge base in management. With the awareness of the nature in my work, I bought many books related to management and studied them intensively. I learned management from the evolution of various theories. The first generation of management was Taylor’s (1856–1915) scientific management,

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this theory and practices was emerged in the later part of 19th century. It summarized the issues and practices of 100 years’ experience of industrialization into basic theories and institutions to improve the efficiency of production; such as time motion study, piecework wage which were applied mainly to manual workers. The second generation of management was based upon behavior science as applied to large scope of workers, manual labor and brain worker. The third generation of management was a product of WWII. It was also called scientific management and was based upon operation research, which is management evolved from certain qualitative principle to rigorous quantitative analysis to find optimal solution for specific management issue. The fourth generation of management was based on the emergence and popularization of general systems theories around 1950s. There was further evolution to Contingency Management and Total Quality Management post 1950s, i.e. theories, principles and tools of management evolves overtime. Henry Fayol (1841–1925) was a representative of classical theories, he considered management had five universal functional components, i.e. planning, organizing, directing, coordination and control. His principles formed the basis of management. While old theories and principles are replaced by new ones, they are generally complementary to each other. The crucial issue is whether one can select one or a combination of some theories or principles to be applied appropriately to deal with specific issues. I had written a paper titled Evolution of Western Management Theories in this period; it was published by the magazine Exploration of Economic Issue in 1981. Thanks for my extensive studying, I had acquired certain foundation of social science before my transition from a chief engineer to become senior researcher of social science by the end of 1980.

4.5 Learning Learning is part of life for an intellectual in the historical, contemporary and future global society. It is especially important to be a qualified social system engineer. It is worthwhile to review one paragraph of Wang and Li’s book (2018) Introduction of Social Systems Engineering. (p. 26), which highlights learning as an important element to shape one’s qualities: Machol describe system engineer qualifications in Systems Engineering Handbook. We maintain that competent social system engineers should have the same qualities of a system engineer. Namely, he/she must (1) be a generalist, rather than a specialist but not an amateur; (2) be a “T-shaped man, broad yet deep in one field-scholarly experience, such as Ph.D. (or equivalent) or work experience in multiple engineering or management field can provide depth and extensive interests and abilities can facilitate breadth; (3) have courage and ability to enter new field and become so called “6.month expert”; (4) have strong foundation in mathematics and logic; and (5) learn continuously and prudently especially mindful learning from mistakes.

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4.5.1 Some Basic Principles of My Learning in This Period The process of learning is not random. I have some principles governing my learning process: 1. Purposeful learning. My work to be chief engineer of BEYN requires knowledge in management science. Therefore, I spend a lot of effort to study publications and practice of other institutions related to knowledge management. This is one of the areas of my focus on learning. The basic nature of BEYP is an administrative organ of the government for the appropriate development of the energy resources into reliable electricity supply to the users. The electric system was equipped with various equipment from various manufacturers. And the other basic nature of BEYP is also a basic public utility which should provide reliable service to various users, agricultural, commercial and industrial. During the period to be chief engineer in BEYP, I learned that many accidents was resulted from poor quality of equipment. And, that the electricity supplier should have better knowledge of its customers to know its pattern of growth and specific requirements in service. Therefore, I try my best to visit various equipment manufacturers to learn the practice of process of manufacturing and the production process of heavy and light industrial products. Using all possible chances during my travel on missions to visit the practices of the real world, extended further the broadness of my knowledge. 2. Learning through writing. Since the early 1970s, I started to rewrite the book “Introduction to Systems Engineering” based upon the initial draft “Methodology of engineering design” with 100,000 worlds formed in the period of Cultural Revolution. During the period I worked in BEYP, I had a lot of chances to travel to Beijing and got access to information and books of this emerging discipline systems engineering. I sketched a content of chapters which included several elements that must be added to meet concrete conditions of Chinese engineers. Processes of writing and learning are mutually complementary and synergistic. 3. Effective learning. Learning by doing and doing by learning are two integrated processes that should also be an iterative process for effective leaning.

4.5.2 Participate the First Chief Engineers’ Power Grid Research Class Organized by Ministry of Electric Power Industry During my work in China’s electric power industry before 1980s, there was coexistence of several layers of electric power grids such as regional electric power grids, the Northeast electric power grid and the Fareast electric power grid. There was also the provincial electric power grid, such as Yunnan Province, Guangxi Province, Guizhou Province, etc. Looking long term, it is a mega-trend that a national electric

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power grid shall be formed through the connection of regional and provincial electric power grid. It is necessary to have a long-term vision that plans from a national perspective. MEPI organized the First Chief Engineer’s Power Grid Research Class on 3rd. Oct. 1979 to 13th Oct. 1979, I was invited to participate in the research class organized by Shen Gencai, the director of general office of MEPI at that time. There were exchanges of major concepts related to safety and reliability of the electric power grid. The electric power grid of Northeast region was relatively advanced by that time. Director Shen had found a document in Beijing National Library, which he reprinted and distributed to the participants. This document was a record of planning of electric power grid of whole Northeast region of China including major thermal and hydropower stations and the capacity and parameters of all generating plants. This planning was done by a few Japanese engineers or planners before the occupation of Northeast region by the Japanese army. Based upon director Shen’s study and analysis, he had the impression that our planning and construction of electric power plants and electric power grid in Northeast Region since the establishment of PRC were within the scope of planning of that document. This research class broadened my knowledge from the perspective of provincial to regional, and national. It also established a preliminary social network among chief engineers worked in electric power industry. Figure 4.1 is the photo of the class. (English translation of top Chinese characters is: Ministry of Electric Power Industry Remembrance of First Chief Engineer’s Graduation of Power Grid Research Class on October 13, 1979) (Table 4.1).

Fig. 4.1 Photo of first chief engineer’s power grid research class

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Table 4.1 Names of selected people in Fig. 4.1 No.

Name

Position by that time

Row 1, 3rd

Shen Gencai

Director of general office, ministry of Electric Power Industry

Row 1, 5th

Mao Henian

Chief engineer, General Administration Construction of Electric Power

Row 1, 7th

Liu Lanbo

Minister, Ministry of Electric Power Industry

Row 1, 9th

Su Zhewen

Deputy Minister, Ministry of Electric Power Industry

Row 2, 4th

Zhou Yansong

Chief engineer, Bureau of Electricity, Guizhou Province

Row 2, 7th

Cai Changnian

Chief engineer, Bureau of Electricity, Northeast region

Row 2, 8th

Wang Huijiong

Deputy Chief engineer, Bureau of Electricity, Yunnan Province

Row 2, 10th

Wu Zhixionga

Deputy chief engineer, Bureau of Electricity East China region

a Wu Zhixiong, he had been assistant engineer of relay and protection when I was apprentice engineer

in former SPC Note From the left to the right, and from front row to back row

4.6 Family Life and Personal Life in the Period of 1970–1980 This was a period of the later part of the Cultural Revolution and a period of transition from disturbance to a new period of reform and opening, begun since the late 1970s. This had a high impact on my family life and my personal life.

4.6.1 Family Life in This Period This period was also the period of growth of my children. The two elder children were in the period of transition from adolescent to adulthood. My son Wang Li was graduated from the junior middle school in 1970. He entered Kunming automobile factory to be apprentice of a fitter. He was recommended by Kunming automobile factory to become “student of workers, peasants and soldiers”.2 My elder daughter Wang Qi was affected by the policy and the movement for the educated youth to go to mountain area and countryside to receive “re-education by peasants”, she was sent to work with peasants and live in a village in the rural area near Kunming. After proving herself worthy, she was recommended by peasants to study English at Department of English, Yunnan University, as a “worker-peasant-soldier” student. 2 The

national college entrance examination was canceled since the beginning of Cultural Revolution in 1966. It was not until 1970 that universities began to re-enroll students. The practice of mass recommendation, approval by the leadership and the combination of the university’s review were later referred to as “College students of workers, peasants and soldiers. By 1977, before the resumption of the national college entrance, there were 940,000.” College student of workers, peasants and soldiers. Enrolled into universities and colleges.

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Fig. 4.2 Photo of my family at Yunnan. From the left to right: Row 1: 1st my elder daughter Wang Qi, 2nd my mother, 3rd my younger daughter Wang Ping. Row 2: 1st I, 2nd my wife Niu Fangming, 3rd my son Wang Li

Figure 4.2 is the photo of my family in 1972. My mother died on 27th March 1974; her death was caused by cerebral hemorrhage. I was on a mission to report to the Bureau of Operation of the Ministry of Electric Power Industry. I was informed by staffs of this Bureau and flew back to Kunming immediately. The death of my mother was a great shock to me. I was forced to leave the care of my mother in my life when I was five years old. Later, we met with each other once or twice a year when she came to Shanghai to meet me. We had chance to live together for one year from 1937 to 1938. She left Zhou Zhuang town without hesitation and went to Kunming in 1959. She stayed with me around 16 years at Kunming with relatively poor physical condition, she had done most of household works, and she took care with me with all her efforts and love. She never complained to me about her trouble or unhappiness simply because she did not wish to bother me. I knew she felt happy when I was sitting by her side.

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4.6.2 Personal Life and Social Life There were changes in my personal life which can be described from two aspects. 1. More involvement in academic activities besides my routine professional work. I had been involved to the study of systems engineering early in mid of 1950s and had given a speech on this theme in 1963. This theme suddenly became a hot topic of study when Qian Xuesen, Xu Guozhi, etc. published the paper Systems engineering-Technology of organization and Management (Chinese version) in Wen Wei Po on 27th Sept. 1978. I was also invited by the magazine Nature (Chinese Version) and newspaper Yunnan Daily News to write papers related to this theme. I was known in my country and became part time professors of Dalian Institute of Technology and Shanghai Jiao Tong University from Oct. 1979 to Feb. 1982. I was also the vice president of Yunnan Electrical Engineering Association. There were a lot of academic activities at this institution especially related to the environmental issues. Meanwhile, I was also invited by associations of Shanghai and Beijing to give speeches on systems engineering. There was nearly no study of this theme in the academic field of China due to long term semi-isolation from global academic activities, before the launch of reform and opening in late 1978. 2. More involvement in political activities. Due to my contribution to the development of electric power industry, I became the standing committee member of the Fourth Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference in Yunnan in December 1977. Figure 4.3 is the photo of part of Yunnan Daily (1st Jan. 1980) which reported the news of the conference of the Fourth Committee and showed a list of names of chairman, vice chairman, secretary general and standing committee members. My name was highlighted with the underline in the figure.

Fig. 4.3 Photo of part of Yunnan Daily (1st. Jan. 1980)

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4.7 Writing and Publishing Introduction of Systems Engineering (Chinese Version) 4.7.1 Writing In the later stage of my work in the Bureau of Electricity of Yunnan Province, a technological office was set up. It had only two members, Li Jingbang, who was originally the chief engineer of the construction unit of Yilihe Power Plant, and I were responsible for thermal power plant and the electric power systems. Even in turbulent times, I still had some job opportunities to travel to Beijing and across the provinces. I often took advantage of business trips to visit power plants and power equipment manufacturers in order to enrich the physical and perceptual understanding of my work. Whenever I visited Beijing, I would buy all kinds of foreign books on electric power production, design, management and so on. I found there were books titled systems engineering with contents like my methodology of engineering design. I made efficient use of scattered time, including on business trips on planes, trains and cars, to read literatures of systems engineering from abroad, including military missile systems engineering and so on. Combined with my personal engineering practice, I started to rewrite and expand my original draft, and gave the theme to be introduction to systems engineering. And with my experience to be chief engineer and my awareness of importance of management, this topic was also added in the contents of my book. I gradually expanded the original 100,000-word “Methodology of Engineering Design” into a 250,000-word first draft of “Systems Engineering”. In 1978, I was appointed Deputy Chief Engineer of BEYP, in charge of planning, capital construction, science and technology and production. In the process of presiding over the management work, I had a deeper understanding of the actual situation in Yunnan Province and the professional differences between departments. During the period in charge of the design work, I realized that the biggest difficulty was to reconcile the professional prejudices among all kinds of designers; such as electrical, mechanical, civil engineering and so on. All of them considered that their own scheme should play a dominant role. As a chief design engineer, my responsibility was to give a satisfactory solution for all stakeholders. Within the scope of management of BEYP, production, infrastructure, science and technology and other fields each have their own corresponding emphasis. In the management work, in addition to the professional management, coordination is more important. In 1977, I went to Xi’an Jiao Tong University to visit a professor who participated in the national computer conference held in 1975 and was invited to give a special report. The purpose to visit him was because the lecture he gave in 1975 was outdated to certain extent due to rapid development of computer technology, both worldwide and in China. I hoped to ask the professor to revise and perfect the lecture notes at that time to keep pace with the latest developments if possible. But the professor replied, “I am no longer studying computers, I am studying Systems Engineering,

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which is the latest subject in China.” I was surprised that my research field for many years had become the latest subject in China. I told the professor that I had been studying Systems Engineering for many years, so the professor recommended that I meet Professor Wang Yingluo of Xi’an Jiao Tong University. Professor Wang was very pleased to know that I had also engaged in systems engineering research. He said that colleges and universities in China were planning to offer such a course, and he also invited me to attend an internal meeting on Systems Engineering to be held soon and to give a lecture of this theme. Later, I was invited to attend this internal meeting of colleges and universities. I introduced main concepts of system engineering from part of my draft. Li Huatian, senior engineer from the State Metallurgical Department, was also invited to this meeting. He later served as president of Northeast Institute of Technology. He had just returned from abroad and had a certain understanding of Systems Engineering. He told me “I have raised suggestions in the meeting that professors, in order to guide graduated study of systems engineering, had better be done by senior engineers with practical work experience.” Later, my classmate Lei Tianyue became dean of Dalian Industrial College. He invited me to be a part time professor of that college and he sent his daughter Lei Lei to Yunnan to study under me as a graduate student of systems engineering.

4.7.2 Publishing I knew that the Systems Engineering, to which I had devoted myself to study for many years had become a new focus of research in domestic colleges and universities. During my visit to Xi’an Jiao Tong University, I went on a business trip to Shanghai via Xi’an. I went to the Shanghai People’s Publishing House to visit my distant relative Cheng Jieruo, then an art editor at the Shanghai People’s Publishing House, asked me whether I had any knowledge or experience in my years of work to be published. I told Cheng that I had two types of publishing topics: one is to compile computer manuscripts written by other experts, and the other is my own independently written manuscripts of Systems Engineering. Subsequently, Cheng introduced me to Wu Yanqi, an editor of Shanghai Science and Technology Publishing House. Editor Wu believed that books on electronic and computer were very popular in the market and his professional acumen told him that the term “systems engineering” was very new. Because of the low awareness of “systems engineering” in China by that time, Editor Wu suggested that I write a popular article introducing the main contents of “systems engineering” to popularize and advocate the concept and thereby facilitate the acceptance of the publication topic in later periods. I gladly accepted his suggestion. I wrote one manuscript to Science Pictorial but was rejected by editor-in-chief of Science Pictorial due to it not being popular enough. Then I rewrote and sent to him the second time, but it was again rejected due to same reason. I did not have time to rewrite it again. I just waited.

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One day, my colleague came to my office and said, “Chief Engineer Wang, Science Pictorial published your article, but there was another author.” I immediately read the Science Pictorial to verify and found that there was also a second author. Later, I learned that Mr. Qian Xuesen had publicized Systems Engineering at the Beijing conference, and the “second author” happened to hear Mr. Qian’s report, so he added some content to my manuscript without my permission and it was accepted by the editor-in-chief of Science Pictorial. Later, Editor Wu told me that there had been differences of opinion within the Shanghai Science and Technology Publishing House over the publication of my manuscript. According to Editor Wu, he once reported to his superiors the publishing plan for Introduction to System Engineering, but that publishing plan was rejected. Editor Wu later submitted once more a plan for the publication of the monograph, emphasizing the value of application of the book. This time, a deputy editor-in-chief of the publishing house surnamed Yao finally agreed and so my topic of Systems Engineering was finally passed in 1978. While waiting for the topic to be approved, Editor Wu once went on a business trip to Yunnan and Guizhou Region, and specially asked me to discuss the publication details of the manuscript when he was in Yunnan. At that time, although my manuscript was already over 250,000 words, he felt that according to all kinds of new materials for publication he had read, he needed to enrich the current content into a complete system. With the help of colleagues from BEYP, Engineer Guan of the Power Transmission and Transformer Substation Agency assisted me in transcribing and sorting out the manuscripts. After the preliminary finalization of some manuscripts, the deputy editor-in-chief of the Shanghai Science and Technology Publishing House asked me to revise the contents of certain definitions of the manuscripts, although I believed that Systems Engineering was a new field in China, while exact definition is crucial and the opinions of the deputy editor-in-chief were not entirely reasonable, in order to successfully publishing, I still made an appropriate compromise and made minor adjustments to the content of the manuscript. Before the publication of the manuscript of systems engineering, I was invited to give a special report entitled “Systems Engineering and Computer Systems” at the Shanghai Association of Science and Technology. The journal Natural Science also asked me for an article. The Yunnan Daily, published my paper Theory of System Engineering on January 13th, 1979. In the first half of 1979, the Shanghai Science and Technology Publishing House expected to publish the manuscript of systems engineering to be a gift to the “National Day” in the 30th Anniversary of the founding of PRC. I went to Hao Congzhou, deputy director of BEYP for support. Hao allowed me to take a month off to finish the manuscript. I spent all my efforts to complete the writing and my former colleagues of Design Department took the initiative to prepare drawings, tables and charts so that the manuscript could be completed qualitatively and quantitatively in a short period of time. I gave the final manuscript to the Shanghai Science and Technology Publishing House in June 1979, but the publishing house failed to fulfill its original expectation due to its organizational problem.

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Systems engineering became a hot major theme in China’s academic field around 1980, some domestic colleges and universities were ready to publish relevant teaching materials and books to meet the urgent demand. When the Shanghai Science and Technology Publishing House caught this trend, it split my full text of about 470000 words into the Volume 1 and the Volume 2. Introduction to Systems Engineering (Volume 1) was first published in November 1980 to catch the market, while Volume 2 was published until 1984.

4.7.3 Impact of the Publication Introduction to System Engineering (Volume 1 and Volume 2) integrated more than 30 years of my extensive practical experience in the field of engineering and technology, and my lessons drew from many important works in this field from abroad. Main bibliographies include System Engineering Handbook (Robert E. Machol), Methodology for Systems Engineering (Arthur D. Hall), Analysis and Design of Engineering Systems (Henry M. Paynter), and so on. This book covers many fields especially for the needs of Chinese engineering field, such as organizational management, environmental research, engineering economics, ergonomics, operation research, statistics cybernetics and so on. As a result of the best-selling books, Shanghai Science and Technology Publishing House reprinted Introduction to Systems Engineering (Volume I) for the third time in 1984 years. I spent twenty-four years writing my book Introduction to Systems Engineering (Chinese version). Although in the final version of this publication, I added several topics which I abstracted from many references from abroad. But this book truly contains my accumulated experiences of working fifteen years in engineering design and ten years in management. While the core part of my book was to explore method of design of diesel engine driven electric generation plant when I worked in the East China Naval Engineering Department in 1950s, the concept of parallel decomposition and series decomposition was innovated. This had been described in detail in Chapter 3 of this book. These two basic methods were elaborated and extended into a methodology with synthesis and analysis, induction and deduction, deduction and analogy, occasionality and inevitability. This is my unique contribution to the theme of study. I wrote the core part in a paper titled Methodology of Systems Engineering, published in the journal Philosophical Researches in two consecutive volume in 1980. The other feature of my book is methodology in nature. I have introduced four aspects of engineering design common to all engineering design based upon my twenty years professional experience. These four aspects are: design of system; selection of equipment; spatial location of all equipment focus on connection, and coordination. These four aspects are universal the basic framework of all designs, especially the design of complex process plants. Detail studies can be fitted into this framework. In the 1980s, Systems Engineering was still a new hot subject in China. After the publication of Introduction to Systems Engineering (Volume 1 and Volume 2),

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my popularity in academic circles expanded. Since then, I was frequently invited by different agencies to give reports.

4.8 Translations of Selected Parts of Introduction of Systems Engineering (Chinese Version) My book was written in Chinese and the publisher split it into volume 1 printed in 1980 and volume 2 printed in 1984. Key aspects are translated into English and presented in this section to provide a bird’s eye view of the books. Contents of the book are also translated, Contents of the first western (1957) book of systems engineering, contributed by Professor Goode and Machol, are also listed for comparison.

4.8.1 Translation of Preface of Introduction of Systems Engineering (Chinese Version) Box 4.1 Translation of Preface of Introduction of Systems Engineering (Chinese Version) In the 1950s, system engineering, a new discipline that explored the universal connection between various engineering systems emerged in the world, and a more efficient and complex system have been created through the application of this discipline. At present, the research objects of systems engineering have transferred engineering systems into social systems and natural systems. Although system engineering is relatively unfamiliar to most comrades in China, a large number of scientific research units and design units in China have made correct decision-making of thousands of projects through planning, designing and management, which is engaged in work within the scope of systems engineering to the extent. If these comrades can understand the new technology of systems engineering and consciously apply its principles in daily work, they can better serve the four modernizations of China. This is the main motivation for the author to write this book. This book seeks to introduce the main content of systems engineering based upon a practical perspective. The book is divided into four parts, a total of sixteen chapters. The first part introduces “What is system engineering” from Chapter 1 through Chapter 4. Chapter 1 is the introduction to this book and outlines the systems engineering. Chapter 2 describes the characteristics of interdisciplinary fields in systems engineering research. Chapter 3 describes the characteristics of the system engineering cross-time work procedures, and Chapter 4 explains the contents of the first two chapters with simple examples.

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The second and third parts explore the qualitative and quantitative basis of various projects of system engineering. The second part is collectively referred to as engineering logic from Chapter 5 to Chapter 7, applying the perspective of unity of opposites and some ideas of logic to explore the common rules of studying various engineering worlds. The third part summarizes the main points of applied mathematics in system engineering from Chapter 8 to Chapter 11. The author introduces several branches of mathematical tools such probability and reliability analysis, statistics and operations research and its application with practical examples. The fourth part, from Chapter 8 to Chapter 16, focuses on organizational management, engineering economics, environmental research, human engineering and cybernetics. Organizational management is both an integral part and a research object of systems engineering. Since environmental research is a blank point in domestic conventional engineering education, it has been included in this book. In consideration that many books on electronic computers have been published in China, this book only gives a brief overview. I felt deeply that “professional prejudice” is popular in academic field. I emphasized the attitude of founders of cybernetics to have awareness of the negative influence of professional prejudice to academic development. System engineering has become a key theme in China’s scientific research. Since system engineering is closely related to China’s socialist construction, the author takes this book as a “brick” to encourage more and more scholars to engage in this field and publish more and more excellent works in the future, forwarding this research field and accelerating the completion of China’s four modernizations. System engineering is a rapidly developing discipline with various viewpoints at home and abroad. Due to the limitation of the research level, mistakes in this book are inevitable. Readers are welcome to criticize and correct them. The author also gratefully acknowledges the encouragement and support from the Party Group of the Yunnan Electric Power Bureau during the editing process of this book.

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4.8.2 Translation of Postscript of Introduction of Systems Engineering (Chinese Version, Volume II) Box 4.2 Translation of Postscript of Introduction of Systems Engineering (Chinese Version, Volume II) The full text of this book was finished in early 1979. It is divided into two volumes for a variety of reasons. At the beginning of this year, the publishing house sent Volume 2 back to the author for review. After review, the material is still feasible. However, the original draft of Chapter 17 is the general situation of the development of system engineering at home and abroad. At that time, this chapter was written to provide the ‘information’ of the development of the subject to the domestic system engineering circles. However, after 1978, the research on system engineering in China has become ‘hot’. Researchers and associations in this field have sprung up like bamboo shoots after a spring rain and have developed rapidly. This part of the material is removed since it does not seem to be of great significance in today’s historical conditions. So I chose the general system theory (which is the theoretical basis of system engineering) as the summary chapter of the book (this part is translated from The Rise of General System Theory), this theory attempts to generalize the economic, society, human beings and other fields, an in-depth study is necessary to understand its essence. Since the publication of Volume 1, the author has received many letters from all over the country asking about the date of publication of Volume 2. Some colleges and universities cannot use it as teaching materials for lack of Volume 2. In order to preserve the whole system of the author’s thought of the original book of system engineering, it is still necessary to publish this volume. However, various aspects of system engineering have been studied in China today. Although this book, as an introduction, has summarized a wide range of engineering fields, microeconomics and management. The field of macroeconomic has not been touched to the limitations of the author’s original working experience. A special article on the relationship between system engineering and economics will be published in Feasibility study and Economic Evaluation edited by the Technical and Economic Research Center of the State Council. We will still go through practice, sum up experience, and then make further development of this book on macroeconomic issues in the future.

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4.8.3 Comparison of Contents of the First Western Book Systems Engineering: An Introduction to the Design of Large-Scale System and My Book The first western book with title of systems engineering was contributed by Professor Goode, Harry H. and Professor Machol, R. E., System Engineering: An Introduction to the Design of Large-Scale Systems. Their book had laid the foundation of academic aspects of systems engineering. Box 4.3 shows the major content of this book which may be helpful to understand better its evolution around 60 years in later period. And Box 4.4 shows the major content of my two books, Wang (1981) Introduction to Systems Engineering (Vol. I, Chinese Version) and Wang (1984) Introduction to Systems Engineering (Vol. II, Chinese version). Box 4.3 Outline of System Engineering: An Introduction to the Design of Large-Scale System Brief Description: This book contains six parts and 31 chapters. Because computer was a new tool in the age of 1950s, Part IV (Chapter 14–20) gives a detail description of digital and analog computer, therefore, this part is omitted in the following contents of the book: Part I Introduction 1. Complexity-The problem 2. Example of a large-scale system 3. An integrated approach to system design Part II Exterior System Design 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

Environment Origin and formulation of the problem Mathematical model Design of experiment, data gathering Analysis of experiments-mathematical statistics An example of exterior system design

Part V Interior System Design 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29.

Solution of the problem-Steps and tools Single Thread System logic High traffic Queueing theory Competitive Aspect-Game theory Guide to system design-Linear programming, Group dynamics and Cybernetics Simulation Component parts of the system Communications-Information theory Reflexive Control-Information theory

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30. Input-Output Human engineering Part VI Epilogue 31. Economics, Test and Evaluation, and Management

Box 4.4 Translation of Contents of Introduction of Systems Engineering (Chinese Version, Volume I and II) Contents (Volume I) Chapter 1 Overview 1.1 Introduction 1.2 System and System Engineering 1.3 Characteristics of Complex Systems and Basic Perspectives of System Engineering 1.4 Technical Contents of Systems Engineering 1.5 Methodology of Systems Engineering Chapter 2 Basic Concepts of Systems Engineering 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6

System and Circulation Quality System Components System Structure and Characteristics Five Common Characteristics in Complex Systems Sets and Relationships Basic Rules of Systems Engineering

Chapter 3 Working Procedures of Systems Engineering 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8

Introduction The Whole Process of the Engineering Systems The Life Cycle of Systems The Overview of Each Phase of the System Life Cycle Exploration of Characteristics of the System Phase Systems Engineering and Design Systems Engineering and Management Systems Engineering and Creativity

Chapter 4 Application Examples of Systems Engineering 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Returning System in the Aerospace Flight Systems Chapter 5 Abstract Models and Simulations

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5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 5.8

Introduction Overview of Engineering Logic Abstraction Models Performance Models and Operations Evolution of Functional Models Processes of Model Building Simulations and Model Building

Chapter 6 Engineering Logic 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 6.7

Introduction Induction and Deduction Reasoning and Results Synthesis and Analysis Content and Form Comparison Symbol Logic

Chapter 7 Engineering Analysis 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6

Introduction Engineering Analysis: Procedures Fundamental Principles of Engineering Correct Use of Mathematics Analysis of Modern Engineering Examples of Engineering Analysis

Chapter 8 Conventional Mathematics in Systems Engineering 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5

Introduction Laplace Transformation Dynamic Simulation Electrical Simulation Block Diagram Analysis

Chapter 9 Probability Theory and Reliability Analysis 9.1 Introduction 9.2 The Definition and Theorem of Probability 9.3 Analysis of the Application of Simple Probability Theory in Reliability Analysis 9.4 Reliability and Relabily Analysis 9.5 The Design and Application Examples of Reliability Analysis 9.6 Discussions on Reliability Analysis Chapter 10 Statistics Theory

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10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 10.6 10.7 10.8

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Introduction Random Variable Distribution and Data Processing The Frequency Distribution Characteristics of Variable Normal Distribution and Other Confidence Intervals and Confidence Levels Statistical Inference Graphic Method Curve Fitting

Chapter 11 Operational Research 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 11.5 11.6

Introduction General Discussions on Optimization Techniques Linear Programming Other Optimization Techniques Queuing Theory Decision Theory

Contents (Volume II) Chapter 12 Organizational Management 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 12.5 12.6 12.7 12.8 12.9

Introduction Overview of Industrial Engineering and Management of Project Systems Engineering and Management Science Management of Systems Engineering Research of Time and Motion Coordination Method Design of Industrial Management System The Entry of Electronic Computer in Management Field Other Management Techniques

Chapter 13 Engineering Economy 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 13.5

Introduction Systems Engineering and Economics Several Concepts in Engineering Economics Practical Examples of Engineering Economics Examples of Engineering Economic Problems in Foreign Electrical Industrial System

Chapter 14 Environmental Research 14.1 14.2 14.3 14.4

Introduction General Engineering Environment Overview of Special Engineering Environment Environmental Research and Protection

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Chapter 15 Human Engineering 15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 15.6

Introduction Objects and Tasks of Human Engineering Research Engineering Research of Human Function Overall Operation of Systems Human-Machine Relationships Human Engineering and Cybernetics

Chapter 16 Cybernetics 16.1 16.2 16.3 16.4 16.5

Introduction Cybernetics Overview of Control Technology Information Theory Computers and Related Issues

Chapter 17 General System Theory—The Theoretical Basis of Systems Engineering Reference 1. Chinese Document Materials 2. Foreign Language Books 3. Foreign Language Journals Concluding Remarks

4.9 Became Researcher of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) Through National Examination 4.9.1 National Examination by Chinese Academy of Social Sciences In 1980, CASS in Beijing initiated a national examination to recruit researchers across the country. The exam was open to all. After hearing the news, I immediately made a major decision on my work, abandoning work in the field of Engineering for 33 years and engaging in the study of social science. This decision was made on two basic considerations. Firstly, during my two decades of work at Yunnan province, information exchange was backwards due to its location in “hinterland” and underdevelopment of physical and social infrastructure. While Beijing is the capital of PRC with better opportunity to acquire information from domestic and abroad, it enjoyed a better environment for upgrading research capacity with in depth and in broadness. My wife was troubled by hypertension and hyperlipidemia

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during her stay at Kunming which is the plateau region 2000 ms above the sea level. This geographical situation proved very unfavorable for her health, while Beijing is in plain area which is favorable for her health. With the full support of my family, I went to Beijing to take the exam and became one of only two researchers of CASS at that time. This national public examination aimed at recruiting researchers was also one of the measures of opening and reform, implemented since the Third Plenary Session of 11th Party’s Congress. This event was reported in Guangming Daily of 2nd, Nov. 1980. (Chinese version). A part of the report is translated into English in Box 4.5. Which shows the influence of the event to the society at that time. Box 4.5 New Measures to Collect Talents by Academy of Social Science Report of open Examination of Research Personal by Newsman, Guangming Daily Wu Kailiu. The work of CASS, which has just completed the national public recruitment of researchers, has been praised by examiners and relevant comrades. They said: “The CASS has done a great good thing!” What is the good thing about this, and how? Newsman went to make a special interview with great interest. By the introduction of the person in charge of the office of admission examination of researchers, the newsman felt deeply that they had done this good thing, which turned out to be the result of the liberation of the mind. The shift of the focus of the Party’s work has put forward many new requirements for the social science. However, the research force of social science in China is relatively weak, and it has been seriously damaged during the period of “Tenyear Catastrophe”. Due to lack of researchers, many important topics had not been carried out as planned, and research institutions in many important disciplines cannot be established, thereby resulted in sharp contradictions. Over the years, according to China’s current cadre system, all kinds of our researchers have been uniformly assigned and arranged by the personnel departments. At present, we rely on this method as usual at present we cannot meet the needs of development. The relevant survey materials show that there are still a considerable number of talents in society who are committed to social science research, either because they are underemployed and look forward to return to the proper team, or because they are engaged in other jobs and expected to turn to the study of social sciences. The Academy of Social Sciences studied these situations and after seeking approval from the State Council, decided to break with the traditional practice and openly recruit researchers nationwide. Through this recruitment examination, we have indeed found a number of talents. CASS and the academies of social sciences in various provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions have admitted a total of 2 researchers, 39 associate researchers, and 519 assistant researchers and research apprentice. Wang Huijiong, who was admitted as a researcher, has been engaged in the technical work of the electric power system since graduated from the university

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in 1947, he has rich practical experience, and has extensive knowledge of other industrial technologies. Since the 1960s, he has been studying system engineering. His works and ability have a high academic level, and the experts in charge of the plea believe that he is an expert with both theoretical and practical experience. According to the introduction, the key units for the admission of researchers by the CASS are several economic research institutes. For example, the Institute of Economics had admitted researchers in population theory and econometrics, and the Institute of Industrial Economics had admitted researchers majoring in modern management science. The Institute of Agricultural Economics had enrolled researchers in animal husbandry economics and forestry economics. Technical economics was a marginal science with the combination of technical science and social science. The Institute of Industrial Economics, which was established not long ago, admitted 15 researchers, including several associate professors with a certain level of technical and economic research in the building materials industry, transportation, mineral resources, energy, and so on.

4.9.2 Relocation to Beijing After successfully passing the exam in Beijing, my family faced a new dilemma concerning the “Hukou”.3 The family relocation policy at that time stipulated that my family could only have three Hukou registrations in Beijing, one for me, one for my wife, and one for a child. In another word, I was only allowed to take one child to Beijing. My youngest daughter Wang Ping was entitled to the Beijing Hukou as she was not yet an adult. However, she was mature and voluntarily gave up her right to the Beijing Hukou and let her sister Wang Qi move to Beijing instead. She insisted on staying in Kunming for the college entrance examination. I and my wife respected Wang Ping’s decision although we were worried about her future uncertainty. In order to make a smooth transition, my wife decided to continue to stay in Kunming for another year, accompanying Wang Ping’s college entrance examination. At the beginning of 1981, I and my eldest daughter Wang Qi left Kunming together and went to Beijing.

3 Hukou

is a system of household registration used in mainland China. Hukou is the registration of an individual in the system. A household registration record officially identifies a person as a resident of an area and includes identifying information such as name, parents, spouse, and date of birth. A hukou can also refer to a family register in many contexts since the household register is issued per family, and usually includes the births, deaths, marriages, divorces, and moves, of all members in the family.

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4.9.3 Initial Period in Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Relying on the solid foundation of the micro-engineering economics and the hardworking experience at the grassroots level during the past 20 years, I prepared to transform my research field and undertake new tasks and challenges in the macroeconomic and social fields in coming future. I held the view that scientific system and technical system are subsystems of social systems. I believed that the transformation from an engineer to a researcher should also be the talent that system engineers should have, although it is a cross-border change. I worked with Li Boxi, an associate researcher enrolled at the same time, in an office room in the Institute of Industrial Economics of CASS in Yuetan North Street for less than a year. Both of us dealt with the various tasks directly managed by senior leader Ma Hong and had not accepted any tasks by the Institute of Industrial Economics of CASS. The office of our colleagues Zhang Zehou and Yu Jiawei was opposite ours. They assisted Comrade Ma Hong in handling daily administrative affairs, in fact doing some ground-breaking work for the upcoming new institute Technical Economic Research Center of the State Council. During my time at the CASS, I received Professor Zhang Zhongjun from Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Professor Zhang gave me a lot of support and helped my research related to Systems Engineering. Figure 4.4 is the photo of us when I accompanied him to visit the Great Hall of the People.

Fig. 4.4 Photo of Professor Zhang Zhongjun (right) and me in front of the Great Hall of the People

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4.10 Summary This chapter covers my work, life, and accomplishments from 1970 to 1980. Although my work encompassed broad technical aspects ranging from operation, planning, capital construction, to technological upgrade of entire electric power system of Yunnan Province, my career trajectory, nonetheless, embarked onto the managerial realm. Through my persistent learning and actual practice in management, I accumulated extensive experiences which enabled me to extrapolate and make connections between the engineering design methodology and the systems engineering originated in US and helped my future work after I was transferred to work later in Beijing. I began writing and eventually published Introductions to Systems Engineering in 1978. Below briefly summarize the major highlights. Work in BEYP (1970–1980). During my initial period working at Bureau of Electricity Yunnan Province (BEYP), the top of the hierarchy in all matters concerning electricity, I spent the most time solving complex and varying operational problems with power plants and electrical systems. During my later period when I was promoted to the Deputy Chief Engineer of the Bureau, my primary responsibility shifted to management although I was still involved with technical affaires, but at a higher level. I spent time coordinating activities amongst various units within the Bureau and handling external affairs with various agencies, managing budget and personnel, and making reports for top executives in and out of the Bureau. Since management was a new realm for me, I bought many books and studies them intensively. I learned management from both historical and contemporary perspectives and applied relevant principles in my work. Learning by doing and doing by learning is what I have always adhered to. Writing and publishing Introductions to Systems Engineering. My learning and practice in management coupled with my passionate and lasting interest in engineering methodology since my early days as a junior engineer and my new exposure to systems engineering principles and theories originated in US all pointed to a new direction in my inquisitive mind. I started to extrapolate, make connections, expand, and integrate my multifaceted knowledge base which propelled me to write about my perspectives on systems engineering. Chapter by chapter, I finally completed Introduction to Systems Engineering which was accepted and published in two volumes, Volume I in 1980 and Volume II in 1984. Family life. Sadly, my dearest mother passed away on March 27, 1974, which was a terrible blow to me physically and mentally. As the only survival child of my mother, she and I had a very close and loving relationship. I miss my mother to this day! Two of my children were grown from carefree and naïve children to young adults. The 10year Cultural Revolution interrupted their formal education (my son Wang Li only had 5 years of primary education and my daughter Wang Qi 3 years). Back then, Chinese government sent young people to work in factories and agricultural fields where labor forces needed most. So, as soon as my son reached age 15, he was assigned to work in a factory making automobile parts; and when my daughter was 17, she was sent to

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live and work in the countryside with peasants. After both proved their worthiness and won the trust from workers and peasants, they were both selected to attend colleges as the worker-peasant-soldier students with my son studying engineering and my daughter study English. Fortunately, growing up with my influence and role model for life-long learning, they both developed self-learning capability and persistence which helped them mitigate their education deficiency from early years. Eventually, they bridged the gap and made the leap successfully into advanced education in later years with my son earning BS in Mechanical Engineering and my daughter Ph.D. in IT. In 1980, another major event happened which changed the life for me and my family ever since. Chapter 5 will detail my work, life and how I made the successful transition from engineering to social science.

References Wang, H. J. (1981). Introduction to systems engineering Volume 1 (Chinese Version) (pp. 1–2). Shanghai: Shanghai Science and Technological Publish. Wang, H. J. (1984). Introduction to systems engineering Volume 2 (Chinese Version) (p. 112). Shanghai: Shanghai Science and Technological Publisher. Wang, H. J., & Li, S. T. (2018). Introduction to social systems engineering (p. 26). Singapore: Springer Nature.

Chapter 5

Period of Transition from Engineering to Social Science (1980–1983)

5.1 Introduction I was trained as an engineer and worked in the electrical engineering field for over 33 years. However, in 1980 I ventured into a new field—social science and began my new profession as a researcher and practitioner in applying and integrating policy science to China’s reform and opening to the outside world. This represented a paramount change for me in terms of work environment as well as my knowledge base. The change presented a significant challenge and at the same time a great opportunity for me. The major challenge was to expeditiously expand my knowledge base with the new knowledge and to broaden my expertise to meet the new work demand. For a well-trained intellectual in contemporary society, lifelong learning is a “must” quality for meeting the dynamic and ever-changing world. The higher education of today is expected not only to train students with the functional knowledge for specific disciplines but also to develop their how-to-learn ability for life-long learning of ever-expanding knowledge. (Unfortunately, not all institutions of higher learning seem to live up to such an expectation.) I considered my transition into the new profession a great opportunity for me to grow professionally because China as a semi-isolated country since the establishment of PRC in 1949 had much to catch up to bring it up to the norm once it opened to the world. According to General System Theory, “Change of closed systems is moving toward increase of entropy and disorganization. But the open systems appear to move in the direction of greater differentiation, elaboration, and higher level of organization.” Wang and Li (2018, p. 60). China’s legitimate membership in the United Nations was restored in 1981. And the 3rd Plenary Session of 11th Party’s Congress promulgated the strategy of reform and opening of China to outside world in late 1978. This new environment provided unprecedented opportunities for me to expand my knowledge base through learning by doing from international organizations and to build my expertise via practice with China’s domestic projects. This chapter will discuss how my learning and practicing progressed. It is organized into five major sections including: (1) change of environment, (2) transition via knowledge acquisition from international © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 H. Wang, Explorations in Social Systems Engineering, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-3390-7_5

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organization—short term UNIDO Consultant, (3) transfer to Technical Economic Research Center of the State Council, (4) transition via practice with China’s domestic project—comprehensive planning of Shanxi Energy and Heavy Chemical Industry Base, and (5) leadership team of Technical Economic Research Center. A summary concludes the chapter.

5.2 Change of Environment Again, Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model is used to describe the environment context in which an intellectual of China was developed in this period. 1. The macrosystem. The promulgation of reform and opening in late 1978 has brought dramatic change to macrosystem. China was successful in its rural reform through the achievement of household contract responsibility system, thereby established a sound foundation for further reform of its State-Owned Enterprises. The opening-up to the outside world contributed greatly to the development. As stated by Wang and Li (2018, pp. 608–701), “It should be emphasized that growth of external trade and FDI of China in this period has not only promoted economic growth of China, but also promoted greatly the growth of China’s technological capacity. It can be seen from descriptions of various Five-Year Plans in this period related to import and FDI. China has learned international experiences of various advanced countries from import of hardware equipment and licenses of software.” 2. The exosystem. I should say that I was fortunate to be able to take the national examination sponsored by Ma Hong for recruiting researchers of social science. He was then Deputy President of Chinese Academy of Social Science. But he was an open-minded reformer. It can be seen from the official document presented in Sect. 5.3 that he had the idea to create some new institutions to provide policy consultative service to the government. This was also one of the institutional reforms of China. The purpose of recruiting social science researcher through national examination was to find qualified personnel for the forth coming new institution of Technical Economic Research Center (TERC) of the State Council. So, when I transferred from Yunnan Province to Beijing, I and Li Boxi worked directly under his guidance. Ma Hong created a research friendly environment for us, he also emphasized organized research which was essential to study complex issues of contemporary society, and organized research provided a social network for us to get access to various institutions of line ministries. This favorable exosystem was the basic background that TERC could accomplish several projects which were long term, strategic and comprehensive to serve the development and reform of China. The three qualitative criteria of our research (i.e. long term, strategic, comprehensive) were also defined by Mr. Ma Hong for our policy research projects.

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3. The microsystem. My family moved to Beijing gradually, my wife Niu Fangming who was also transferred to TERC and my older daughter moved to Beijing in 1981. My younger daughter studied at Kunming Medical College. After her graduation, she was also reallocated to Beijing.

5.3 Transition via Knowledge Acquisition from International Organization—Short Term UNIDO Consultant 5.3.1 Participating in the Joint Research of UNITAD Project Between UNIDO and Chinese Academy of Social Science (CASS) Ma Hong selected Li Boxi and I to join a delegation responsible for a 3-month collaborative project between United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and CASS. This delegation consisted of six members, Chen Li (researcher of Institute of Industrial Economics), Yuan Jiaxing, Li Boxi, Chen Yuan, Mr. Ge and me. Chen Li and I were appointed to be chief and deputy chief of this delegation. I paid a visit to Ding Yangyan at Xinhua News Agency before my travel to Vienna. Ding was my schoolmate from Shanghai Jiao Tong University. After learning that I was going to Vienna, he told me that Wang Shu, the Chinese Ambassador to Austria then was his former colleagues and wrote a letter of recommendation for me to meet with Wang Shu. After thorough preparation, our delegation arrived in Vienna by the end of October in 1981.

5.3.2 Brief Description of UNIDO 1. Brief description of UNIDO. UNIDO was established in January 1967 as the successor of the Center for Industrial Development (CID), which had operated since 1961 as part of the Department1 of Economic and Social Affairs (ECOSOC). It has eight functions: • Assisting developing countries in the promotion and acceleration of their industries; • Undertaking operational activities to assist developing countries including (1) measures to achieve effective application of modern method in industrial production, programming and planning, (2) establishing and strengthening of 1 Currently,

it is called Economic and Social Council of U.N.

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• • • • • •

industrial institution, (3) development, adaptation and transfer of technology, and (4) training of technical and other personnel; Providing a forum and acting as an instrument for the developing and industrialized countries in their contacts, consultation and negotiation directed towards the industrialization of the developing countries; Assisting developing countries in obtaining external financing for industrial projects; Other advisory service: in cooperation with other United Nations bodies on the application and efficient utilization of natural resources, industrial raw materials, by products and new products; Cooperating with the regional commissions in industrial development planning and regional consultation with special attention to the needs of least developed countries; Developing conceptions and undertaking action-oriented studies and research programmes designed to facilitate foreign activities; Reviewing and promoting co-ordination of all activities within the United Nations system related to industrial development.

2. Organization Chart of UNIDO in 1980s. It is a common practice for enterprises of developed countries and international organization to use an organizational chart to show the structure of the organization, the functions, responsible individuals, lines of reporting at various units in a hierarchical level (e.g., department, division, section or branch etc.). Such an organization chart helps staffs understand the duties and responsibility of components of an organization. But this practice is not popular in some developing regions. The organization chart is not static, it is dynamic reflecting changes caused by changing external environment and internal factors. Figure 5.1 is a simplified organization chart of UNIDO in 1980s when our Chinese delegation participated in the joint research with UNIDO on the UNITAD model. This chart is extracted from p. 92 of Chief Technical Advisers Manual prepared by UNIDO in 1981.

5.3.3 Our Work at UNIDO—Working on UNITAD Model 1. General. The Chinese delegation was assigned to the Global and Conceptual Studies of Branch of Division for Industrial Studies (refer to Fig. 5.1). Some of the main functions of the division include: (1) promoting cooperation and coordination of UNIDO activities with those of other United Nations bodies and specialized agencies and provides substantive support to the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council and other international conferences dealing with industrialization matters; (2) providing policy coordination in planning and implementing UNIDO programmes and activities, maintaining liaison with UNDP and evaluating the performance of all such programmes and activities;

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Fig. 5.1 Simplified UNIDO organization chart

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and (3) cooperating and maintaining liaison with non-governmental organizations and business and industrial institutions with an aim towards mobilizing the institutional resources for the industrialization of developing countries. 2. The UNITAD Model. The UNITAD Model was a joint research project between UNIDO and UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. The purpose of the project was to study the relationship between pattern of growth, structure of trade and industrial structure. The name of the project is the combination of three alphabets of the name of the two organization. UNITAD, “UNI” stands for UNIDO while TAD stands for UNCTAD. This UNITAD model was composed of 9 modules and 136 equations. It divided the global economies into two types of countries and spatial distribution into 11 regions. The developed countries in five regions and the developing countries in six regions. The basic information and data required for the calculation of this model were input/output (I/O) table and external trade data of every country. China seemed had not prepared country I/O table before the launch of economic reform and opening in late 1978. Also, due to the relatively long period of semi-isolation from the global society, China had a very low ratio of trade to GDP to average value of other countries. Based on the estimation of the World Bank (1981), China’s average trade to GDP ratio for 1977 and 1978 remained one of the lowest in the world, its ratio of Export/GNP and Imports/GDP were 4.5% and 4.7%, respectively; while these two ratios were 15.5 and 16%, respectively, for all developing countries in 1978 according to Wang and Li (2018, p. 116). Therefore, this global model of international organizations required the participation of China’s delegation to provide I/O table of China. 3. Daily work at UNIDO. The daily work of the Chinese delegation was planned to meet the demands of UNIDO, it was divided into three stages: • Reviewing available documents supplied by UNIDO and contacting concerning individuals at UNIDO for this project. • Arranging Chinese data to adapt to the requirement of UNITAD model. For example, this UNITAD model focused on the study of structure of trade and industrial structure. The available data of ISIC should be changed to SITC etc. Li Boxi and I were assigned by Chen Li to do this work. • Developing and testing China’s I/O table in the UNITAD system. The Chinese delegation spent about 10 days reviewing the available documents. UNIDO had well prepared references for the work. For example, we were provided with not only the main document 1980 Report on the UNCTAD system, but also other references for modeling, such as The Analysis of Long Term Projections, Analysis of Coefficients of I/O tables, which were prepared for Expert Group Meeting on The Analysis and Projection of Technological Characteristics in the United System of Models. I was able to work on the UNITAD Model with ease as I had prior experience in working and writing about modeling [one chapter titled Abstraction, Model and Simulation was included in my 1978 publication Introduction to Systems Engineering Volume I (Chinese version)]. However, I did find it necessary to learn the meaning and definition of new terminologies in economics.

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5.3.4 Personal Learning Plan at UNIDO and Implementation 1. UNIDO as a platform to learn and practice social science. The joint research with UNIDO was an excellent opportunity for me to learn new knowledge of social science with an international prospective, which reminded me of my younger days working as an engineer intern, learning the practice of electrical power industry in a multinational company many years ago. Although the development of social science is closely related to the culture and history of a country and it is recognized by Western scholars such as Giddens (2001) that “We human beings have always being curious about the sources of our own behaviors… The objective and systematic study of human behavior and society is a relatively recent development, whose beginning date from the late 1700s…” (p. 6), I maintain the view that the social system and social science have co-existed since the existence of human beings on earth. In the Axial Age of world history, the Greek philosopher Plato (427–347BC) defined the preliminary ideal government and the structure of society. And during China’s Spring and Autumn and the Warring States Periods (771–476BC and 475–221BC), several famous philosophers and scholars, such as Confucius (551–479BC) the fonder of Confucianism, Laotse and Mo-tse had enduring influence on China’s political, social and cultural system. I kept the view that China lagged in the development of natural science and engineering compared to the developed countries, but not necessary in the study of social science. China has its strength and weakness in social science study. While the social science was developed relatively slowly both in China and abroad not until the year 1813 when Henride Saint-Simon proposed a science of society in an essay on the science of man,2 and in the years 1830–42 when Auguste Comte’s Courses in Positive Economy detailed the evolution of sociology as a science. I wished to emphasize the fact that the birth of modern science is the product of three major historical events, the Renaissance (14th century–17th century), the Industrial Revolution (18th century) and the French Revolution (1789–1799). As an intellectual in China, I knew that we should not only read traditional Chinese literatures related to social science but also had the awareness that the study of social science in China had some weaknesses compared to that in the developed countries. I determined to make the best use of the rare opportunity to learn social science at UNIDO; one of the organizations attached to the UN with rich human resources, experts with extensive working experiences in international industrial development, and a large library with abundance of references. 2. Personal learning plan. I prepared a personal learning plan in Vienna. Figure 5.2 shows partial notes I wrote on my notebook on November 6, 1981. The content of the photo is reproduced in Box 5.1 as follows:

2 Atkinson

(2015).

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Fig. 5.2 Photo of my notebook related to personal learning plan at UNIDO

Box 5.1 How to study the economic problems in Austria or Vienna A General Economic Setting (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)

Economic Policy; Tempo of Economic Development; Economic Revolution; Planning, Management and Economic Development; Trends in Capital Formation; Defense Establishment;

B The Economic Sector (7) (8) (9) (10) (11) (12)

Mineral Resources; Agriculture; Industrial Production; Electric Energy Resources; Fisheries; Money and Banking;

C Population and Manpower Resources (13) Population Growth and Distribution;

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(14) (15) (16) (17) (18)

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Employment; Work Incentives in Industry and Agriculture; Education: Policies, Problems; Scientific and Engineering Manpower; R&D;

D. External Economic Relations (19) Internal* Trade; (20) Foreign Aid; Appendix: (21) Balance of Payments; (22) Development of Transportation; (23) Role of Economic Policy and Economic Organization in Innovation and Growth. *Note: This word should be international, it was wrongly written to be internal by that time. 3. Implementation. My personal learning plan also included the content of information and references for our institution and possible future of our works. Since my workload at UNIDO was not heavy, I planned to study at least two or three books to establish the necessary foundation to meet the work requirement, i.e. not only for the UNITAD Model, but also to have enough information to carry out meaningful dialogues with UNIDO experts. Below describe my two main approaches to learning: • My approach of learning started from simple, then the complex and advanced. Two principles guided my learning in this period. First, the materials chosen must be simple but with a broad coverage. The materials should be simple, easy to understand and to master. They should also cover broad spectrum to provide a general linkage to other branches of knowledges. Secondly, every basic definition or terminology must be mastered precisely. My major focus of learning was macro-economic planning. China had adopted former Soviet Model of mandatory planning, but my three decades of work in China’s electrical engineering field led me to believe there were many weaknesses of this type of planning. I copied several books with the theme of planning in the library. Part of them were suitable for advanced studies, for example, Macroeconomic Planning by Bowles and Whynes, Economic Accounting and Development Planning by Arkadie et al.. But I also copied one book with the theme of Economic Theory and the Developing Countries by Dasgupta (1974). The content of this book is shown in Box 5.2. This book had only 132 pages. The reading load was not heavy, and I could finish the reading within three days. I read the book four times within half month, which helped me understand

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the content of the book with depth. I believe the traditional Chinese saying, “skill comes by practice,” which guided my practice in my previous career as an electrical engineer. I applied the approach of series decomposition and parallel decomposition to study problems of complex system as I am fluent with basic physics. Although I was not trained in economics, but my approach of learning enabled me to master basic elements of economics to do my work in UNIDO as a professional of economics.

Box 5.2 Content of the Book Economic Theories and the Developing Countries 1. The Relevance of Economics 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 2.

Dualism and Surplus Labour 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8

3.

The Dual Economy An Unlimited Supply of Labour Surplus Labour and Leisure Preference Technological Under-employment Surplus Labour due to Low Consumption Tests of the Surplus Labour Hypothesis Policy Implications Conclusions

The Population Problem 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5

4.

Introduction Rationality and Underdevelopment Technology: East and West The Puritanical Ethic and Economic Development The Colonial Background

The Malthusian View Economic Structure and the Population Problem The Theory of Demographic Transition Demographic Transition and the Developing Countries Population Planning

The Rate of Saving 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7

The Importance of Saving Determinants of the Rate of Saving The Absolute Income Hypothesis The Life-Cycle Hypothesis The Relative Income Hypothesis The Permanent Income Hypothesis Sectoral Savings Ratios

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4.8 Policy Implications 4.9 Conclusions 5.

The Planning Problem: Optimum Investment 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7

6.

The Planning Problem: Investment Allocation and the Choice of Techniques 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4

7.

Introduction The Input-Output Table Its Implication for Economic Structure The Assumptions of Input-Output Analysis An Example Applications to Planning The Dynamic Input-Output Model

Linear Programming 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5

9.

Introduction Investment Allocation and the Marketable Surplus Problem The Choice of Techniques Conclusions

Input-Output Analysis 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 7.7

8.

Planning and Capital Accumulation The Theory of Optimum Growth The Social Welfare Function The Planning Horizon Time Preference Institutional Constraints Conclusions

The Assumptions of Linear Programming An Example Some Difficulties Duality Applications

Cost-Benefit Analysis 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 9.6 9.7

Introduction The Rationale of Cost-Benefit Analysis Objectives Prices The Rate of Discount Criticisms of Shadow Prices Decision Criteria

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10. Education and Manpower Planning 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 10.6

Introduction Cost-Benefit Analysis in Education The Manpower Planning Approach The Tinbergen-Correa Model The Linear Programming Approach Conclusions

11. Some International Aspects 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 11.5 11.6

International Trade and Economic Growth: Historical Arguments International Trade and Inequality The Choice of Products for Exports and for Domestic Production Policies for Trade Control Foreign Aid Concluding Remarks

• My second approach of learning was to pay serious attention to various terms and definitions with precision. One of the difficulties in transition from engineering field to social science was insufficient vocabulary. There were many words or terminologies in different disciplines, and there were various editions of specific dictionaries to explain the definition of the word or terminology. In general, the definition in a specific dictionary was authoritative as it was precise, recognized and accepted by the users. Therefore, it should be understood, remembered and applied accordingly. This formed the basis of understanding of a specific discipline. But sometimes, different editions might have minor differences. A terminology ought to be studied carefully and mastered precisely. For example, I read one literature and found the terminology “Heckscher–Ohlin Samuelson Theorem” which I did not know, I tried to find its definition in several economic dictionaries, but some dictionaries only listed the term “Heckscher–Ohlin Theorem” without the word “Samuelson”. I continued my search effort until I found a statement in one economic dictionary that Heckscher–Ohlin Theorem was also called Heckscher– Ohlin Samuelson Theorem then I stopped my search. With the efforts paid to the fundamentals of learning, I had accumulated a lot of new vocabularies in other disciplines. This helped me greatly in reading various literatures. By the end of 1980s, after I worked in policy consultative services for over 8 years, Peter Harold, an economist at the Residence Mission of World Bank in Beijing, introduced me to his colleagues of World Bank as follows: “Professor Wang did not study abroad, but he speaks typical professional English; he is not specialized in economics, but he nearly knows all words in economic dictionary.”

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5.3.5 Collection of Valuable Information and References The co-operative project at UNIDO only lasted for three months. The time of learning was short and limited. I must collect as many references as possible to learn in coming future. The library of UNIDO and facilities provided a liberal and facilitating environment for us to collect information and references. The library was open all day long and permitted free copying and borrowing of any book. Li-Boxi and I worked together in the library every night after office hours to look for appropriate references and copied them. Many useful references had been collected for our future reading and many of them had been applied in our future works. The references collected were of two types: • Copies of books or part of books. We copied many countries’ experience of economic planning such as Romania and Bulgaria as effected by former Soviet Union Model of planning, and economic planning of France and other European countries. In addition, we copied related theories of planning such as ILO’s3 Planning Technique for a Better Future and Developing Nations: Quest for a Model, etc. We even copied a book Doing Business with China, this 350-page book showed a variety of studies of China by Western scholars, its content covered China Facts, China’s Economy with 9 sectors, China’s Foreign Relations, Understanding China’s Foreign Trade, Conducting Business in China, Foreign Trade Corporations, How to Host a Chinese Delegation, China’s Transport System and Travelling. This book reminded us it was necessary to know your counterpart with depth and breadth in dealing with international relations. • Free printed documents. UNIDO had printed documents of its research programme which could be obtained free through request. For example, it had a research programme on industrial redeployment and structural adjustment: it consisted of a series of country studies designed to analyze past changes in the industrial structure of individual developed countries and to present an overview of likely future development. All countries analyzed had the same pattern. We only collected study for four countries, Belgium, Hungary, Germany and France. The second type of references collected was background papers for Industry 2000-New Perspectives. This study was for the general conference of UNIDO in 1989 at New Delhi, India. This document portrayed the long-term trend of industrial development including mineral processing and manufacturing sectors. The third type was reports of consultations for building material industry, capital goods, agricultural machinery, iron and steel, fertilizers, petrochemicals, leather and leather products, vegetable oils and fats, food processing, training of industrial manpower, wood and wood products. This series of reports illustrated how UNIDO organized effective process of consultation to derive useful policy recommendations for developing countries. The fourth type of references we collected was Development and Transform of Technology Series, studied and published by UNIDO which included 18 documents. This study had a broad coverage of sub-studies, 3 ILO:

International Labor Organization.

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eight sub-studies related to general approach such as National Approaches to the Acquisition of Technology, UNIDO Abstracts on Technology Transfer etc., and ten sub-studies related to specific sectors, such as The Manufacture of Low-cost Vehicles in Developing Countries, Technological Profiles on the Iron and Steel Industry, etc. The books and documents collected were voluminous and heavy, and due to the limited resource of foreign exchange, we could not afford to buy a suitcase to ship them. So, we bought coarse cloth, and my colleague madam Li Boxi sewed it into a large handbag. We carried these precious references back to China which supported our future works effectively.

5.3.6 Establishing Social Connections 1. Making friends. My proficiency in English helped me greatly to make friends with professionals and staffs at UNIDO and to acquire information, knowledge and useful reference materials and documents. I knew from the organization chart of UNIDO that W. Behrens in the Division of Industrial Operation oversaw a Feasibility Study section. The topic “Feasibility Study” was emphasized in the Chinese engineering field. And Feasibility Study of Industrial Projects compiled by Behrens and published by UNIDO was translated into Chinese and published at Beijing. I found Mr. Behrens during lunch time at UNIDO’s restaurant and exchanged views with him, he welcomed me warmly and arranged a small gathering for me to meet with a group of experts from UNIDO. Through them, I got to know many new friends in UNIDO and got a lot of reference documents related to feasibility studies. 2. Making connections with experts. Through the Cooperative Research of UNITAD model with UNIDO, I got to know Professor Skolka, an expert of Input-Output technique. Professor Skolka was the consultant of this cooperative project, his native country was Poland. I invited him to participate in a small-scale discussion meeting composed mainly of the Chinese delegation at UNIDO. He agreed to attend this meeting held on December 14, 1981. Because this was the first time that I organized such an activity, I was very cautions and even provided a written introduction for him in the beginning of this meeting. Social connection is important because of its chain reaction. By the end of 1980s, I met Professor Palenski of MIT, her native country was also Poland, she was a good friend of Skolka, and we also established friendship and cooperated with each other on projects for quite a long period. 3. Attending Christmas Party. Christmas Eve is elaborately celebrated in the Western countries just as the festivity associated with Spring Festival in China. Staffs of UNIDO organized a party to celebrate this festival at Christmas Eve. Li Boxi and I paid the cost with our limited foreign exchange to attend the party. I enjoyed the party wholeheartedly. And with my knowledge of Western culture acquired

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during my adolescence, I joined the group to sing the Christmas song “Silent Night”. This impressed and excited the other party goers very much. Apparently, I might be the first Chinese who could sing the Christmas song in the international organization. My fully emerging at the party in a way shortened psychologic distance with UNIDO staffs, enhanced mutual understanding among us, and established true international friendship. 4. Making friend with a Chinese staff member. China was in a closed or semi-closed state before launch of reform and opening, and China restored its legitimate seat in the United Nations in the beginning of 1970s. Therefore, there were few people employed in international organizations attached to U.N. in the beginning of 1980s. One day, I found a Chinese female in the restaurant of UNIDO, we got acquainted after chatting. She was Ma Yalan, daughter of Ma Yinchu4 and worked at UNIDO as a staff secretary. We became good friends. She invited Li Boxi and I to have dinner in the rotating restaurant of Vienna. She also invited us to her home before our delegation left UNIDO. When she returned to Beijing to meet her family in late 1980s, she invited us to her residence in Beijing.

5.3.7 Life in Vienna and Beyond 1. Daily life. During our stay in Vienna, we received payment for our service as international consultant of UNIDO. It was high based on Chinese standard at that time. But I was told by Madame Ma Yalan that the payment was low compared to that given to consultants from developed countries. Chief of Chinese delegation Chen Li received the payment from the Financial Service and allocated some of it to members to cover daily living cost, such as food, transport, and small miscellaneous expenses. The delegation rented a house and the rent was paid by the team leader to the house owner. Because foreign exchange was a scarce resource, the Chinese government back then had a regulation that individual earnings (foreign currencies) from governmental assignment abroad must be turned into the organization where one worked. In order to save living cost, Madame Li Boxi and I prepared our daily meals on our own. We shopped at local supermarket for vegetables, produce, and frozen food. Unlike China in its early 80s where shortage of daily necessity was prominent, the market in Vienna had abundant supply of fresh vegetables, fruits, produce, and consumer goods from various regions of the world. Vienna residents spoke German or English, but German was more prevalent. I learned German during my sophomore year in Shanghai Jiao-Tong University. Now I was able to pick it up and apply it in situations when we must communicate in German. 2. Entertainment—opera and concert. Vienna, being the world’s capital of music, had plenty to offer for classical music which is my favorite. Everywhere I walked 4 Ma

Yinchu (1882–1982), who was a famous economist of China.

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in Vienna, I heard music being played. I attended several free concerts. But my dream was to see an opera performance at the famous Vienna Opera House where world’s renowned opera singers perform. However, an opera ticket was very expensive, over several hundred Shillings that were beyond our budget. One day I learned from a staff at UNIDO that the Opera House also had standing ticket at the uppermost floor at a cost of 10 Shillings. Li Boxi and I bought the standing tickets and went to the Opera House. Since we had the standing tickets and were the last ones to be admitted, we could hear the music and the singing but could hardly see the performance, as the standing place was too far from the stage. But I was head over heels with happiness for having realized my dream to see an opera performance at the world’s famous opera house. 3. Tourism—visiting the Habsburg Palace. Being the capital of once almighty Austria—Hungarian Empire, Vienna is also Europe’s cultural center. The Habsburg Palace has a history of over 700 years and features a combination of various architectural style and interior decoration. The palace occupies an area of over 240 thousand m2 with over 2900 rooms and uncountable treasures. My colleague Madam Li Boxi and I spent half a day visiting this magnificent palace. Although we only visited a small portion of this magnificent palace, we were very impressed and compared it to the Imperial Palace of China. Our first general impression was that European emperors seemed to know how to better enjoy their lives. The place furniture and accessories were comfortable for use and beautiful to the eyes while those in China’s Imperial Palace were made of hard mahogany, although they were decorated with marble and precious stones, but they were not comfortable to use in everyday life. The Habsburg Palace also has better lighting system, ventilation and is better heated than the Imperial Palace of China. 4. Overall impression of life in Vienna. I had a good impression after living in Vienna for three months. It had a good public transportation system with subways and buses covering every corner of the city. Not many private cars running in streets, and thereby, no severe traffic congestions during rush hours. It was safe to walk on the street late at night. People are friendly and well mannered. Whenever I stopped by a roadside with a map in my hand trying to locate a sub-way station, there would be someone coming to me and asking, “May I help you?” Once, I was lost and could not figure out the direction to a station, a lady came to me and offered to help, she said politely, “Don’t worry, I am going there in the same direction as you, we could walk together.” After she accompanied me to the station, she headed back to where she found me. 5. Lay-over in Paris. The delegation left Vienna and flew back to China in December 1981. There was no direct flight from Vienna to Beijing, we had an overnight lay-over in Paris for transfer flight. The delegation stayed at a Paris hotel for one night. Madame Li Boxi’s and my rooms were on the same floor. Her room had a black TV set but mine did not. I checked with the front desk, the staff replied, “TV is scare here, we cannot provide TV in every room. Whoever has the TV in the room is lucky.” It seemed a TV was a luxurious consumer good then even in a developed county. This was the first time I ever travelled in Paris and was very impressed with the metro system in Paris. Its reach was extensive providing

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access to many places in the city. And the cost was low, only 2 Francs per ticket, because the public transportation was subsidized by the government.

5.4 Transfer to Technical Economic Research Center of the State Council After returning to China, Li Boxi and I went back to work at the start of 1982 and our office was located at Yue Tan Bei Xiaojie. Yu Weijia and Zhang Zehou, Ma Hong’s administrative assistants, came to our office and informed us that four new members, Li Shantong, Chen Xiusheng, Xu Xiaonian and Pi Shenghao (some of them were postgraduates and some Master of Science and Engineering) were recruited and would join our team. Our office became lively immediately with the new recruits. Several day later, Ma Hong came to our office and informed us that Li Boxi and I had been transferred to the newly established Technical Economic Research Center (TERC) of the State Council. As one of many measures that signified the start of China’s reform, four such centers were established in the early 1980s to provide consultative service to the central government. The other three centers were Research Center for Rural Development, Economic Research Center, and Price Research Center. Regarding the establishment of TERC, the State Council published an official document on May 3, 1981 outlining the role and function of this new institution, its organization structure (leadership and personnel, etc.), and research scope and approach. Below section presents the English translation of the official document.

5.4.1 Abstract of Official Document Concerning Establishment of TERC of the State Council5 Comrade Ma Hong drafted the document Some Concepts for the Establishment of Technical Economic Research Center and sent to the State Council for approval. The State Council issued the official document Circular of the State Council on Some Concepts Concerning the Establishment of Technical Economic Research Center on May 3, 1981. The document contained 9 major items/sections and are described below: 1. Technical Economic Research Center (TERC) is a research and advisory institution under the leadership of the State Council and the Central Financial and Economic Leading Group (CFELG). 2. The Tasks of TERC include: 5 Li

(2015).

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• Proceed its work with the perspective of overall national economy, carry out feasibility studies, and provide analytical opinions for major technical and economic measures and construction projects sponsored by CFELG and based on the scheme submitted by various ministries and commissions to the State Council and CFELG. • Conduct special studies on strategic, comprehensive, and long term technical economic issues and prepare reports to submit to CFELB. • Predict the effect of major technical economic policies, analyze the results of implementation and provide recommendations for improving the relevant technical economic policies. • Conduct meetings regularly to facilitate exchange of academic views and collect feedback and input for some major technical economic issues. 3. Units participating in TERC include the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), and ten research institutes affiliated to leading organs of Economy, Science and Technology. 4. General Institute of Planning and Design, General Institute of Research and the Institute of Information of various line ministries and commissions are the regular contacting units of this research center and shall attend meetings and discussions of technical economic topics. They are also responsible for providing information and feedback on relevant technical economic issues. 5. The participating units may individually or jointly organize advisory entities (such as the Institute of Industrial Economics of the Academy of Social Sciences and the Institute of Capital Construction Economics of the State Construction Commission intend to set up advisory bodies). These consulting entities are responsible for carrying out the tasks of this research center. The center can also establish contacts with foreign consulting firms that can provide needed experiences and expertise. 6. Computing Center of the State Planning Commission and the State Bureau of Statistics shall be responsible for TERC’s needs for data computation and storage. 7. TERC shall establish a Standing Committee responsible for leading and organizing all works of the research center. Ma Hong is charged with the management of the committee. 8. TERC shall set up an advisory board with well-known scientists as its member consultants. 9. In order to carry out its work in a practical and effective manner, TERC shall establish a capable working organization with experts from various research institution. Specifically, each of the four institutions; the Institute of Industrial Economics, the Institute of the Technical Economics, the Institute of the Capital Construction Economics, and the Institute of System Science, will contribute one experienced researcher with functional expertise to TERC. In addition, it shall recruit ten key personnel with expertise in technology, economy, and macroeconomic environment from various ministries and commissions (preferred credential: under 50 and with qualification equivalent to chief engineer or deputy chief engineer) to assume organizational leadership. In addition, fifteen young

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technicians aged around 30 who know about economics and with computing capacity will be selected to undertake specific works. This organization with a staffing of no more than 40 people reports to the State Planning Commission.

5.4.2 Establishing TERC and My Work at Its Inception (1982) 1. Establishing TERC. Following guidelines of the official document Circular of the State Council on Some Concepts for the Establishment of Technical Economic Research Center, Zhang Zehong and Yu Weijia, under the guidance of Ma Hong, proceeded with the implementation. Ma Hong was instrumental in the process because of his extensive experiences and broad social connections. He knew which organizations to be invited as participating institutions, and which ones be invited as contact institutions. He was also responsible to select and appoint qualified individuals to be members of the standing committee, the consultants of the advisory board. He had a basic concept of the type of work that TERC should undertake—organized collaborative research as well as standalone research. Due to the complexity of the tasks to be carried out and the constraints of limited staffing (40 persons), organized collaborative research was the only effective measure to achieve satisfactory performance for various large-scale projects. Our later work at TERC under the guidance of Ma Hong proved that his framework was correct. 1982 was the year of working while building the organization simultaneously. Seven teams were established to handle specific work, they were: technical economics, energy, transport, agriculture, machinery industry, consumer goods, and raw materials. Seven young professionals were appointed as liaison officer of these seven teams, they were: Zhu Jiaming, Li Shangtong, Xu Xiaonian, Cheng Xiusheng, Ding Ningning, Hui Xiaobing, and Pi Shenghao, respectively. Participating and Contact units were also established, they reached 28 and 48 respectively in 1982, consultants for the advisory board reached 31 in 1982. In 1983, Zhang Zehou and Yu Weijia prepared a formal annual plan for TERC including 57 research projects for specific teams, 23 projects for participating units, and 10 projects for contact units.6 2. My work at its inception. Since Li Boxi and I were Chinese Academy of Social Science (CASS) associate researcher and researcher respectively by passing the national qualification examination, Ma Hong, the President of CASS, might have set his mind for us to work in the to-be-established TERC. Starting in 1981, we two worked on assignments coming directly from him. He used this opportunity to observe our capabilities. And in early 1982, he informed us that we were transferred to TERC. (In my resume, I listed working in TERC since January 6 The

number of specific teams increased to ten by the year 1983.

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1982 and working in the Industrial Economic Research Institute of CASS in 1981.) I performed three major tasks in my first year at TERC: • Attending the conference of Study of the Comprehensive Planning of Energy and Heavy Chemical Industrial Base of Shanxi Province with Ma Hong and relevant personnel from CASS and carrying out the follow-up tasks. This conference was organized by Shanxi Provincial Government at Taiyuan Municipality during February 5–13, 1982. Most conference participants came from 31 influential organizations of Shanxi Province. Some work was unfinished when the conference ended as some written materials were requested by people from Beijing and Shanxi. Ma Hong asked his team from Beijing, “Who can stay in Taiyuan to complete the final work?” Because the holiday, Spring Festival of China, was approaching, there was no response from the CASS group. So, I volunteered to stay and complete the work. I stayed several days at Taiyuan and worked with the Provincial Planning Commission head and his staff to put together a research working plan. This working plan included ten components and sixty items. The ten components were comprehensive balance (12 items), energy industry (5 items), agriculture (including forestry, husbandry, fishery; 9 items), water resource (5 items), other industries (3 items), transport (8 items), environmental protection and construction of cities and towns (3 items), science, technology, culture, education, and hygiene (4 items), people’s livelihood and social environment (5 items), and fiscal and finance (5 items). I was well prepared for this type work because (1) I collected lots of references related to theory and practice of planning during my three months at UNIDO; (2) during my previous work in Bureau of Electricity, Yunnan Province (BEYP), I worked in project design as part of national and provincial planning and oversaw the planning department of BEYP; and (3) I had firsthand experience of many weakness of past China’s mandatory planning system as I was charged to prepare a complete provincial planning by myself. I was glad to be involved in this project to get practical experience in a provincial comprehensive planning so that I could perform a better role in my future work at TERC. Ma Hong sent a report to former Premier Zhao Ziyang with the attachment of Research Working Plan of Comprehensive Economic Planning of Coal Energy Basis. Ma Hong emphasized in his report that improve economic efficiency was necessary for better development of the national economy. Economic structure of various aspects and relationship of ratio mix should be studied in order to achieve optimal balance. To prepare comprehensive development planning, professionals with theoretical and practical experiences in economy, science and technology, industry, agriculture, and other aspects of society should work together in the planning work. This method, if proved to be effective, might provide some fresh experience for planning work. His report was approved by former premier in April. Afterwards, Ma Hong brought a team to Shanxi Province to launch this project. This project was proceeded exactly as Ma

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Hong proposed in his report to premier. The whole process of implementation of this work plan is described in Sect. 5.5. • My other work was to coordinate with leaders and staffs of Provincial Planning Commission of Shanxi Province and consultants of 12 professional groups from various institutions at Beijing organized by TERC because I was appointed by Ma Hong as the chief consultant of the Comprehensive Planning of Energy and Heavy Chemical Industrial Bases of Shanxi. I traveled between Shanxi and Beijing regularly for the work. In addition, I managed the activities of new recruits and seven special teams at TERC and became acquainted with the members from participating and contacting units. • Li Boxi and I assisted Ma Hong in organizing the Seminar on Economic Evaluation of Construction and Reconstruction of Projects in 1982.

5.5 Transition via Practice with China’s Domestic Project—Comprehensive Planning of Shanxi Energy and Heavy Chemical Base 5.5.1 Background of the Project 1. A period of reflection, encapsulation of experiences, exploration of appropriate trajectories for reform and development. As described in Sect. 5.2, there were environment changes of macro system and exosystem during this period. When China was in the turbulent period of Cultural Revolution, there were emergence of so called “Four Small Dragons” and “Four Small Tigers” in South East Asia. These “dragons” and “tigers” abruptly raised their standard of living within a relatively short period of time. Their experiences of development were summarized by the World Bank in its publication, The East Asian Miracle. The Chinese policy makers, practitioners and academia were also in the period to reflect past experiences, analyze present affaires facing the nation, and search for appropriate trajectories for reform and development. For example, Que Muqiao, the famous Economist, published two papers, Review of Economic Work in the Past Twenty Years Based on Practical Experience in March 1979, and Review and Prospect of Socialist Economic Construction in China in September 1984. Ma Hong, Director General of TERC of the State Council not only summarized the past and explored the future, but also looked forward to learning from international experiences, for example he published papers How do Japanese Capitalists Manage Industrial Enterprises in 1979 and French Government’s Intervention in Economy in July 1980. In his publication Study of Economic Structure of Shanxi in early 1980, he made a point about China’s coal resources. Though abundant in reserve it was not distributed evenly from region to region. Shanxi had a dominant share of 1/3 of nation’s total coal reserve. Therefore, the plan to concentrate all efforts to

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explore coal resources and to build Shanxi into the strongest energy base would not only enhance the development of Shanxi Province, but also contribute to a high growth rate of overall national economy, it was a strategic direction with important ramification. 2. Work towards preparation of China’s Sixth Five-Year Planning. The State Planning Commission organized a special team made of leaders from the energy sector (coal and electric power) and other related line ministries to investigate the energy resource potential of Shanxi Province and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in June–August 1979. This team prepared a report titled “Two Large Energy Bases—Shanxi and Inner Mongolia With Great Prospects for Development.” This report had five major recommendations: • Concentrating effort to exploring coal resources of Shanxi and Inner Mongolia to their full capacity had important strategic ramification. • Recognizing the abundance of coal resources as a superior competitive advantage to promote coordinated economic development in Shanxi. This recommendation outlined two relevant components: (1) targets and measures of the plan and (2) peripheral developments around the core—coal industry development including coordinated development in agriculture, light industry, electric power, chemical industry, metallurgical industry and transport. Encourage foreign investment was also part of the recommendation. • Increasing transport capacity of coal in Shanxi through construction of new railways and upgrading existing ones. • Adopting appropriate economic policies. There were several suggestions including: (1) provinces with coal shortages should be encouraged to order coal directly from Shanxi rather than depending the State to coordinate, thus stimulating local coal mines to produce more and transfer more; (2) in the upcoming national plan, Shanxi Province should be allowed to export some lump coal, clean coal and coke on their own, and to develop its agriculture, light industry, and other weak sectors with the foreign exchanges earned from exports; (3) creating new ventures between coal and electric power, and coal and chemical industry utilizing formations, such as joint venture between central and local government, between other provinces and municipalities and Shanxi Province and its municipalities, income could be distributed according to the shares/ratios of investment; and (4) encouraging more pithead power plants to be built in Shanxi Province through economic incentive measures. • Promoting the development of Shanxi’s agriculture and light industry.

5.5.2 Preparation Before Formal Project Launch 1. Initial preparation by Shanxi Province. Shanxi Provincial Party Committee and Shanxi Revolutionary Committee sent a report titled “Report on Constructing Shanxi to Become Energy Base of Coal for the Entire Country” to the Party

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Central Committee and the State Council on September 19, 1979. Below briefly describe the 4 sections of the report. • Part I stated that energy was one of the crucial issues of China’s modernization process with coal holding a dominant share of 70% of the energy consumption. Shanxi Province had a dominant coal reserve of around 800 billion tons as an estimate and around 200 billion tons as confirmed reserve, representing 1/3 of the national total coal reserve. Shanxi coal mines had full range of coal with better mining conditions and shallow burial, so the investment would be less expensive and the payoff would be quick. According to the investment of recent ten years, the investment cost per ton of coal production was 70 yuan for large and medium coal mines. They were much lower than the national average of investment cost per ton of coal production. It was estimated that the production capacity of raw coal of Shanxi Province would reach 200 million tons, the quantity of production would reach over 160 million tons by 1985. Among them, the state would allocate 10 million tons of coal production to new mines and 85 million tons to old mines, and 65 million tons to other producers. External coal transfer would reach 100 million tons. • Part II presented the current ill-formed economic structure of Shanxi Province. Due to exceptionally low price of coal, rigid fiscal control of the central government, irrational wage system, and lack of local and corporate autonomy, Shanxi Province was ill-equipped to solve the problems in the production and further development of the coal industry. In addition, its agriculture, market of light industry and services of cities were under-developed. Furthermore, there was insufficient study on the internal linkage between concentrating effort in developing Shanxi’s coal industry to maximize its comparative advantage and its potential as a dominant force to promote organic development of other national economic sectors. Based on past experiences, we conceptualized that Shanxi Province could build a better and more rational economic structure by centering on comprehensive development and utilization of coal to bring about coordinated development in agriculture, light and heavy industry, and all other sectors. Developing coal industry would drive the development of electric power industry. Electric power stations of various scales could be constructed through pitheads, to transform export of coal to that of electricity. The total installed electrical power could reach from 2070 thousand kw in 1978 to 8037 thousand kw in 1985, an increase of around 6300 thousand kw, and the amount of electricity generated could reach from 10.6 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) in 1978 to 40 billion kWh in 1985. The extra 20 billion kWh of electricity could be exported to other provinces, which could alleviate the short supply of electric power in North and South China and reduce the pressure on railway transport at the same time. Developing coal industry would also promote the development of chemical industry through comprehensive utilization of coal resources. Actively developing cling film industry, chemical fiber, synthetic plastics, synthetic rubber

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and other chemical raw material industry would help change the structure of raw material supplies to light industry, and thereby, enhance the production from the relatively weak light industry in Shanxi Province. Furthermore, developing coal and electric power industry would also promote the development of metallurgical, machinery, and building material industries. The machinery industry of Shanxi had a great potential with 80,000 metal cutting machine tools. It could assume most manufacturing capacity for producing majority parts used in equipment required by coal, electric power and chemical engineering production. The machinery industry of Shanxi Province should be re-structured to provide services to coal, electric power and chemical industry, in addition to its support to agriculture. • Part III pointed out that the change of economic structure centered around coal would produce some new imbalances. Specifically, it outlined below five areas where imbalances were likely to occur and must be addressed: a. First, the current railway transportation could not meet the needs of coal transportation to other provinces. The railway transport capacity was 97 million tons with utilization rate of 90% at the time, which already passed the critical line rate of 80% and was under severe stress. It was necessary to accelerate the construction of new railway lines and upgrading existing ones. In addition, there were many small coal mines located more than 30 km away from railway stations and their aggregated annual production of coal was around 15 million tons. Therefore, it was necessary to enhance the transport capacity of trucks and construct or renovate 29 highways with 440 kms in length. b. Shanxi Province was in severe shortage of water resources. Its annual rainfall was only 400–550 mm and concentrated mostly in July through September. The rivers in the province were all seasonal and could not be regulated evenly. In addition, large scale coal mining often destroyed aquifer and caused the leakage of underground water and loss from karst caves and fissures. Ground-controlled water conservation projects were few, which made the water demand by industrial and agricultural use and the drinking water of people and livestock even more intense. In order to meet the ever increasing demand for water to construct the coal energy basis and to satisfy water usage by industry and agriculture, the province would not only make the best use of its current water resources and construct several large and medium reservoirs (including regulating reservoirs), but also explore an audacious solution to divert Yellow River into Shanxi Province. Regarding this bold and innovative move, the province was at the stage of organizing work force for the survey and design and was in dire need of support from the central government.

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c. The province had a weak agricultural sector which, for some time, would not be able to provide enough commodity grain to meet the needs of industrial development and urban population growth during the period of construction of the coal energy base. Therefore, the province needed the government support for one billion jin7 of grain and a certain amount of edible oil annually until 1985 based on preliminary estimation. d. During the construction of coal energy base, the province would face a series of important scientific and technological tasks which the current insufficient scientific and technological talents and imperfect S&T institutions could not support. In the near future, the province must accelerate talent training in practice through renovating and expanding existing institutions of higher learning on one hand, and request the central government to allocate more professionals with expertise in scientific research, geological surveying, design and construction and more scientific instruments on the other. e. Shanxi Province was in shortage of housing, schools, hospitals, commercial properties, and municipal public utilities in the process of urbanization. The necessary public services per capita were lower than the national average. Therefore, it’s necessary to focus on the balanced development in future investment of capital construction. Meanwhile, the environmental issue could not be ignored in the planned development. Facilities for environmental protection of new project must be designed, constructed and put into operation concurrently with the master plan. • Part IV proposed suggestions for reforming the Economic Management System. This section outlined five areas for reform: a. Reform of the management system of coal energy industry. Under the guidance of national plan and Ministry of Coal Industry, the development and production operation of Shanxi coal industry would proceed with unified approach on the province level. Local government and enterprises shall commit to complete the tasks of national coal production, construction and external transfer. b. Reform of Fiscal System. Projects and taxation of all enterprise except the railway and military industry were assigned to local authority to equip local government and enterprise with enough fiscal capability for developing coal production and other constructive projects. c. Reform of Investment System for capital construction of coal by changing the funding from state funds to bank loans. Investment requirement for new mines to be constructed would be 70% from bank loan and 30% from self-financing. The loan portion would be paid off together with principal and interest by the borrowers within 15–20 years after a new mine was put into operation. d. Reform of external trade system. Assuming Shanxi fulfilled its obligated national external transfer, it should be allowed to export 10% of its annual 71

jin = 0.5 kg.

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production of coal on its own with the cost of export transaction fees borne by the local government, and the export income and profit should be retained and utilized by the local government based on the pre-determined ratio that 80% of the foreign exchange would be turned into the central government while 20% would be retained by the local government. e. Gradually raise the price of coal to make its profit margin approaching parity with that of petroleum and electric power. 2. Outline of Construction Plan of Shanxi Energy Base (Draft). The provincial government sent its Outline of Construction Plan of Energy Base of Shanxi Province (Draft) to the State Council on July 30, 1980. The content of its major themes and sub-themes are summarized in Box 5.3. It can be compared to the content in Box 5.4 (to be presented in a later section), 1981–2000 Comprehensive Planning Energy and Heavy Chemical Base of Shanxi Province (Draft) prepared by Shanxi Provincial Economic Commission in June 1983. The latter was the product of a more than one-year joint study organized by TERC of the State Council and Shanxi Provincial Planning Commission.

Box 5.3 Abstract of Content of Outline of Construction Plan of Energy Base of Shanxi Province (Draft) July 1980 Preface I. Coal, Electric Power Industry 1. Coal production and Construction 2. Electric Power production and construction II. III. IV.

Transport Agriculture and Light Industry Several other important sectors of heavy industry 1. 2. 3. 4.

V. VI. VII. VIII. IX.

Metallurgical Industry Material of Construction Industry Chemical Industry Machinery Industry

Construction Industry and Commerce, service, urban public utilities Science, Education, Public Health People’s Living Economic Technological Policy Economic Management Systems Two schemes: 1. Scheme 1 With reference to the measures implemented at Guangdong and Fujian Province Expansion of local autonomy appropriately

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2. Scheme 2 On the basis of current fiscal system “Classify the income and expenditure clearly, implement contract responsibly system at different hierarchical level”, adjust and improve related economic system and regulations. X.

Several Concrete Issues 1. Water resources 2. Investment of construction and Issue of supply of major materials 3. Issue of supply of grain, edible oil and daily industrial products.

5.5.3 Organizing Expert Consultation Meeting on Pipeline Coal Transportation The theme of this expert consultation meeting was proposed by the former premier and it also represented one of the issues facing the project Comprehensive Planning of Energy and Heavy Chemical Industrial Base of Shanxi Province. The Science and Technology Commission proposed the scheme to transport coal from pipeline while the Ministry of Railway and Transport insisted on transporting coal through combined transport by railway, highway and water way. This was the second expert consultation meeting organized in the name of TERC, this time, I, Li Boxi, and new professional staffs were fully involved in this consultation meeting as we were officially transferred to TERC in 1982. With my practical experience in the engineering field, I was in doubt about the pipeline transportation of coal. My reasons were two: first, the coal had to be broken into small pieces and mixed with water to be transported in the pipeline by high pressure pumps, China had no capability to manufacture the high pressure pumps; secondly, it was necessary to separate the water from the coal and the combustion equipment of the boiler must be adapted to burn coal with water residue, these equipment were difficult to manufacture. In a large project with hundreds and thousands of equipment and system, reliability of pipeline transport of coal could not be guaranteed. I raised my doubts to Ma Hong, and he agreed with me. I was responsible to draft the initial opinions and recommendations of this expert consultation meeting, Ma Hong finalized the report, rejected the scheme of pipeline transportation of coal and sent it to the premier.

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5.5.4 TERC’s First Expert Consultative Conference on the Development of Coal Energy Base of Shansi Province in July 1981 Although TERC was established on May 3, 1981 as authorized by the State Council, it took time to establish such a new organization. One day in June 1981, Ma Hong gave me and Li Boxi a report, written by Vice Premier Yu Qiuli and sent to Premier Zhao Ziyang and Vice Premier, Wan Li and Yao Yilin, at the same time. His report emphasized: “From current situation of coal production and development trend in coming future, if we expect to accelerate the development of coal industry, it is necessary to rely upon Shanxi in a longer period. Through my investigation, I believe selecting one thousand mines out of existing three thousand and more mines to proceed in stages with technological upgrade as a group through unified planning. If transportation permits and if the coal can generate sales, it is possible for coal production of Shanxi to reach 300 million tons.” In his report, he also proposed six major measures and four concrete methods to support the development of local mines. We read the report but had no knowledge or experience to deal with this issue. 1. Preparation for an expert consultative conference. Former premier requested Ma Hong to organize an expert consultative conference to discuss Vice Premier Yu’s report. With the assistance of Zhang Zehou and Yu Weijia, Ma Hong held the first preparation conference on June 19 with 15 participating organizations. Ma Hong proposed the method and procedures for the expert consultative process. The second preparation conference was held on June 25 with 50 experts invited to attend, the deputy governor of Shanxi Province Jia Chongzhi came to the conference and presented a briefing of current state at Shanxi Province. 2. Expert Consultative Conference Convened in July 7–14, 1982. More than ninety experts, coming from line ministries, commissions, research units, higher learning and design institutions and with expertise in coal, railway, transport, electric power, metallurgy, chemical engineering, machinery, geology, water conservation, public finance, grain, goods and materials, environmental protection, geography, economy, and systems engineering, attended the conference. Vice Premier Yu Qiuli, First Deputy Chairman of State Planning Commission Song Ping, Minister of Coal Industry Gao Yangwen and Deputy Governor of Shanxi Yan Wuhong presented at the conference. Speech by Vice Premier Yu Qiuli was briefly summarized below: He emphasized energy as the important material basis for development of national economy. He quoted Deng Xiaoping’s remarks from 1980 concerning the preparation of long-term planning, “The first problem of long-term planning is energy. Now, it becomes clearer that energy issue is the priority of economy. If this problem is not properly resolved, it’s difficult for the economy to move forward.” Since the establishment of PRC, average annual growth rate of industry was 13%, while the average annual growth rate of energy was 10.1%, which lagged the growth rate of industry. National energy supply was in a state of chronic depression for a long time. The Central Committee and the State Council had formulated corrective measures. Attention must be devoted equally to development and conservation. With respect to development, it was

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necessary to develop coal and hydro energy as a priority with coal as the key. He then described four principles to make better development and structure of coal industry and concluded that Shanxi should be built into an energy base for the country to alleviate the constant depressed energy supply and create a favorable environment for national economic development. He also described four favorable conditions and two constraints, i.e. railway transportation and water resources, in the development of coal industry.

The conference participants discussed all speeches and the report of the vice premier written on My 17, 1981 (which he sent to premier and two deputy premiers) and completed Opinions of Preliminary Consultation Concerning Development of Coal Industry of Shanxi Province. Ma Hong took me and Li Boxi to attend the technological commission meeting organized by Ministry of Coal at Yan Tai on July 22–29 and convened the experts once more to revise and enhance the initial draft. And the final draft Opinions of Expert Consultation on Comrade Yu Qiuli’s Report Concerning the Development of Coal Industry of Shanxi Province from Expert Consultative Conference Organized by TERC.

5.5.5 Project Launch—Comprehensive Planning of Energy and Heavy Chemical Base of Shanxi Province A large-scale conference with the theme “Research Conference of Comprehensive Economic Planning of Construction of Energy Base of Shanxi Province” was organized and held at Taiyuan by leaders of Shanxi Province (Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Deputy Governor etc.) on July 22–27, 1982. The conference participants included eleven responsible individuals from ministries and commissions of the State Council, sixty-nine experts and scholars from fourteen research units of Chinese Academy of Social Science and twelve institution of higher learnings such as Tsinghua University, and provincial responsible people of commissions and bureaus and responsible people for various planning tasks. Total attendants reached two hundred and seven. Ma Hong gave a speech related to this comprehensive planning. Below present excerpts of the speech. 1. Excerpts of Ma Hong’s Speech—Preparing a Solid Comprehensive Development Plan for Energy Base of Shanxi Province and Contributing to Construction of Nation’s Four Modernizations.8 (April 22, 1982). This speech was divided into four parts: • Part I on reasons for a comprehensive development planning for the construction of Coal Energy Base of Shanxi. China is currently in the period of adjustment and most adjustment is in economic structure. In addition to adjusting the ratios of industry, agriculture, light and heavy industry, accumulation and consumption, one crucial effort is to fully strengthen the infrastructure of the national economy such as energy, 8 Ma

(1982).

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transport and communication. Currently, the insufficient supply of energy is an imperative constraint to the development of China’s economy. Increasing energy production has important ramification to the overall growth of the national economy in the contemporary society. China has no shortage of energy resources. For example, China has abundant resources of coal especially in Shanxi Province. Its known reserves reached 202 billion tons by the end of 1979, a share of 1/3 of the national total. The outward coal transfer from Shanxi reached 72 million tons in 1980, 60% of this amount was to supply relatively developed regions in China, such as East China, Beijing and Tianjin, and northeast China. But the development of our coal resources was far from meeting the needs of rapid and stable development of the national economy. Therefore, development of coal resources of Shanxi with planned and concentrated effort, to construct Shanxi into a large and strong energy base is not only a concern to Shanxi but is also critical to the development of the entire national economy. To recognize its importance is a preliminary condition for us to do an excellent job in building the energy base of Shanxi. At the same time, it is necessary to understand the role of comprehensive planning. Comprehensive planning must consider the development of coal industry in combination with the development of related industries, with near term and long term, and with local and global relations. Because national economy is an organic whole. The so called “organic” has two implications. First, it refers to every part of the whole is linked to each other, change of one part will affect the other part and the whole. Second, it refers to its variability and linkage in time phase. Every part is in a constant change state. The change at previous stage will affect its development at the next. Therefore, in order to do a good job in building an energy base in Shanxi, emphasis should not just focus on the priority of coal production and coal industry of Shanxi, but also on promoting agriculture, light and heavy industry, such as various industries of chemical industry, transport, urban construction, science, education, public health, environmental protection, labor employment, development and improvement of people’s livelihood. The planning should be centered around the construction of the energy base, proceed with research, and strive to achieve rational and balanced ratios of all relevant development as stated before. Shanxi people’s life should improve too with tangible benefits as a result of the social economic development. Therefore, achieving a sound comprehensive planning has important and practical ramification both to Shanxi and the nation. This represents a new way for China’s socialist economic construction and is a new starting point in the planning work. • Part II on the types of comprehensive planning to be formulated. Propose the following requirements be included in the comprehensive planning: a. Comprehensive planning should have clear, multiple and concrete aims under unified an objective. Single objective will reflect only one side while multiple objectives may reflect mutual constraints and linkages, and therefore, can represent a comprehensive development more objectively.

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b. Comprehensive planning should possess scientific nature. The first meaning of scientific nature refers to that the comprehensive planning must be based on reliable data and information. The second meaning refers to that our comprehensive planning work must be based on correct theoretical basis, such as systems engineering, econometrics, technical economics etc., and simultaneously, apply scientific method, for example, experiment in developing comprehensive economic models. Economic models have been applied extensively abroad, but it is new in our country. The economic models we require should solve the real issues of social economic development, reflect the linkage of economic activities among various economic units, provide quantitative analysis, and easy to use in decision-making process for leading parties. Shanxi has done a lot of work in compiling the input-output table of the whole province, which is ahead of other provinces and cities, its scope of application can be expanded. And in order to continuously improve the scientific planning, the practice of comprehensive planning should be updated based on theory. c. The Comprehensive planning measure should be appropriate and practical. d. Planning should embody sound economic benefits. • Part III on the benchmarks for a comprehensive planning with good quality. For a comprehensive planning with desirable quality, the overall work with its varying tasks should be carried out in the following down-to-earth manner: a. Be thorough in investigation, be critical in data analysis and synthesis, and be organized in research work. This comprehensive planning must examine ten aspects and more than hundred tasks. It requires large amount of information to complete those tasks. In the process, all kinds of materials need to be collected, investigated, collaborated to ensure integrity of the data and information. In the meantime, it is also necessary to conduct comparative study and critical analysis of various information to achieve the goal of “discard the dross and keep the finer part; eliminate the false and retain the true” to ensure usability of the data and information. The poor quality of our planning in the past, impacted by thoughts biased left, plus incorrect information and false reflection of situations are also important factors. b. Complete scientific support for various schemes/scenarios. It is necessary to include multiple scenarios in a comprehensive planning, and every scheme must have scientific support. It is required that the main part and its components of a comprehensive planning provide a set of elements with various important technical and economic indexes and incorporate provincial and national reality to serve as a base for decision making. Various schemes of comprehensive planning can include consideration of principals and basis of technical economics, computing method adopted, feasibility of making progress on schedule; human resource requirement and availability, material and financial resources, expected economic benefits and constraints, comparative analysis of various scenarios, and selection of the ones with optimal outlook.

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c. Planning work must encapsulate key points. Such comprehensive planning is large in quantity and broad in scope. The plan of our research work includes ten elements and one hundred and eight tasks. To ensure the quality and on time completion of the plan, it is critical to understand the general requirements but focus on the major components or key points. To build Shanxi energy base, the key points are: (1) transport, (2) agriculture, (3) water resources, and (4) comprehensive utilization of coal. These are all long standing and unresolved problems. In addition, ecological balance and environmental protection are also important issues to be focused. To ensure the quality and progress of the planning work, we must focus on these major contradictions and their linkage to the overall scheme while considering the general requirements. To implement, the tasks and special focus outlined currently can be adjusted (increase or decrease) according to actual conditions. To achieve expected results, we should not divide our workforce. d. Unified leadership, unity and cooperation. This comprehensive planning work covers issues of economy, society, science and technology; the participants include theoretical researcher and field practioners. These comrades, coming from in and outside the province, have their unique experiences, strength and working habits. It is expected that you will respect and learn from each other and work collaboratively under the leadership of the Shanxi Government charged to lead the effort. Comrades from outside the province should accept the unified organization and the arrangement by the province. • Part IV on timely implementation of the comprehensive planning. We hope that through the hard work of our comrades and by focusing on progress plan, organizational measure, and scientific method, Shanxi comprehensive economic planning including its economic modeling will be completed on schedule. Below outline the procedures for the implementation. a. First, we should have a vertically and horizontally linked detailed plan showing the research progress and with measures and requirements for implementation included. b. It is necessary to have a thorough organization measure, formulate the organization to implement the regulation system. c. Must have a set of scientific methods guiding the work. • Our work is complex, and the team is huge. To proceed, it’s necessary to have a set of scientific methods to guide the work. For example, analyzing a system and its subsystems and components, application and synthesis, setting system and integration criteria, standardizing terminology and method for reporting results, application of PERT diagram to control work progress, etc. Completing the comprehensive planning is a daunting task, but as remarked by Comrade Ziyang: “for economic efficiency, find out a new way of construction”, we should make every effort to compile a comprehensive plan that will benefit the people of Shanxi Province. Furthermore, the completion of such comprehensive Planning of Shanxi Energy and Heavy Chemical Industry Base will also

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make significant contributions to the construction of four modernizations of China. Let’s act and work together to build Shanxi into an important energy and heavy chemical industry base of China. 2. Opinions on research work plans for comprehensive economic planning of construction of Energy Base of Shanxi. This was the theme of a speech at the conference by Deputy Director of Provincial Planning Commission Tien Jiesan on April 23, 1988. This project was led directly by Provincial Planning Commission of Shanxi Province and Tien Jiesan was an experienced provincial planner having worked and led at the commission for a long time. His speech contained three parts: part one covered overall requirement of research work of planning; part two focused on “Specific Arrangements for Research Work of Planning”; and part three centered on potential issues associated with the arrangement for Research Work of Planning. Hereunder, I present a summary of his part 2 of the speech in a workflow chart in Fig. 5.3. He divided the work schedule into four stages with total time span of twelve months. 3. Workflow chart. Tian Jiesan presented a workflow chart for the project (Fig. 5.3). This chart encapsulated the ten components of the working plan proposed by Ma Hong and Shanxi Provincial Government in Taiyuan on February 5–13, 1982. And Ma Hong included this in his report to former premier on April 12, 1982. Twelve specific work sections were established, and section leaders and deputy leaders were assumed by provincial officials and chief engineers. Consultants from various research institutions and higher learnings organized by TERC participated in the comprehensive planning work. I and Xu Shoubo (who was the responsible person of Technical-Economic Research Institute under CASS) were appointed by Ma Hong to be the chief consultants of the project. The concrete work plan is shown in Fig. 5.3 and the organization chart of the project is shown in Fig. 5.4. 4. Concluding Conference. The conference lasted for six days. Director Ma Hong and Provincial Deputy Governor Jia Chongzhi made speeches, respectively, in the concluding conference. The conference site, Jin Temple Hotel, was a beautiful place. Ma Hong and I along with some TERC colleagues took pictures at the conference, which are shown in Figs. 5.5 and 5.6. Afterwards, the implementation of the study Comprehensive Planning of Energy and Heavy Chemical Base of Shanxi Province proceeded immediately.

5.5.6 My Role as a Chief Consultant 1. Background information. I was appointed by Director Ma Hong together with Xu Shoubo to be chief consultants of this project. Since Xu Shoubo was deputy director of Technical-Economic Institute of CASS, he spent most of his time in Beijing and came to Taiyuan less frequently. Therefore, I had to assume more responsibility for the project. Provincial Planning Commission rented several

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Fig. 5.3 Concrete plan of four stages

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Fig. 5.4 Organization chart of the project comprehensive planning of energy and heavy chemical base of Shan Xi Province

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Fig. 5.5 Photo of Ma Hong and TERC colleagues at conference at Jin Temple Hotel. From left to right: 1st Miao Fuchun (Former Deputy General Manager of China Life Insurance Group); 2nd Wang Huijiong (Author); 3rd Ma Hong (President); 4th Li Boxi (Former Member of Standing Committee DRC); 5th Yu Weijia (Former Director of Personal Bureau)

Fig. 5.6 Photo of Wang Huijiong and TERC colleagues at conference at Jin Temple Hotel. From left to right: 1st Deng Shoupeng (Former Director of Bureau of Techno Economics); 2nd Li Shantong (Former Director of Bureau of Development Strategy and Regional Economy); 3rd Wang Huijiong (Author)

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rooms at Yingze Hotel to be our temporary offices. I and my colleagues, Li Shantong, Cheng Xiusheng, and Ding Zhenjing (who was a lecturer of Northern Jiao Tong University and was appointed by Sun Shangqing as my assistant, but he returned to his university shortly afterwards). However, since TERC was in its early stage of establishment, I was needed in Beijing from time to time to handle required business. Therefore, I frequently traveled between Beijing and Taiyuan together with Li Shantong. We spent most of our time at Shanxi from May 1982 to July 1983. 2. Getting acquainted with local key personnel. To be effective for my role at this comprehensive planning project, I must have a thorough grasp of the provincial conditions. Although it was impossible for me to achieve my aim in a short period of time, I strived to master as much information as possible on key issues, such as water resources, coal production system, transport system etc. Meanwhile, I tried to get to know the local key personnel who understood the issues at hand. During my stay at Shanxi, I got acquainted with members of Provincial Planning Commission. In addition, I often contacted following people to gather input, for example, Xu Sifu, Deputy Director and Chief Engineer of Bureau of Water Resources who provided his insights on dealing with water resource shortage; Zhuang Guoshen, Deputy Chief of Science and Technological Commission of Shanxi Province and I exchanged views and ideas on comprehensive utilization of coal; Liu Wanxian, Deputy Director and Chief Engineer of Bureau of Coal Industry provided his input on the possibility of coal production in 1990 and 2000, constraints and conditions, management system of coal production, coal allocation and distribution by the central government, local coal mines, and community coal mines; the deputy chief engineer of chemical industry shared his take on prospects of developing chemical industry utilizing coal as the raw material and transforming it into gas, liquid, solid fuel, and chemical products through chemical process; Zhang Qian, the Director of Bureau of Statistics of Shanxi Province (the bureau prepared the first provincial I/O table of China) and I exchanged views on the application of mathematical modeling in this comprehensive planning. Through iterative exchange of ideas with local experts, I gradually expanded my knowledge on crucial issues, together with my personal observation and conceptual understanding of the issues, I formed systematic concepts for the overall project. I also contacted consultants from different institutions organized by TERC, to be familiar with each other, and to have better coordination with them as the chief consultant. 3. Active participation of major tasks at each of the four stages and assisting Provincial Planning Commission in organizing conferences on key issues such as transport, water resources, and coal production. Provincial Planning Commission controlled the implementation process. I actively participated in the key aspects of the process to gain a better understanding of the progress and to provide timely assistance in solving any outstanding issues the task force faced. One of the tasks of this comprehensive planning was to host conferences with demonstration sessions, Provincial Planning Commission was responsible for organizing the conferences. Since TERC had experience organizing such a conference, my

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colleagues and consultants organized by TERC assisted the local government in formulating the procedures of these conferences. Generally, important officials from Beijing would come for the demonstration sessions, for example, former deputy chief of State Planning Commission Huang Yicheng came to the conference for coal demonstration, and the deputy minister of transport attended the transport demonstration. 4. My own investigation. To be a chief consultant with past experience mainly from electrical engineering field, I focused much of my attention on the practical knowledge of the real world. Although I knew most of production process of all manufacturing sectors, I had no prior experience in coal mining process. I requested members of the Provisional Planning Commission to arrange for me to visit selected coal mines near Taiyuan. But out of concerns for my safety, they were hesitant to make such an arrangement. They finally allowed me to visit Xishan Coal Mine after my repeated requests. Similarly, although my main colleague and I worked hard for more than 6 months on the comprehensive planning project and cumulated some intangible knowledge of Shanxi, we nearly had no knowledge of its actual physical environment. Due to pressure to complete the project on time, the Provincial Planning Commission could not arrange for us to tour the province in the period of the final report preparation. But it arranged a car to send I and Li Shantong to Northern and Southern part of Shanxi Province around April and May in 1983, i.e. in the period of demonstration and acceptance. After these visits, I think I developed a better perception about the physical environment of Shanxi Province. 5. Participation of internal discussion meetings on comprehensive balance of the entire plan. I attended several internal discussion meetings aimed at comprehensive balancing of the plan and in the preparation process of The Discussion Draft of Comprehensive Planning of Construction of Energy and Heavy Chemical Base of Shanxi conducted by the Provincial Planning Commission of Shanxi Province. 6. Responsible for organizing and editing the book. Together with Tian Jiesan, we organized a team of 60 members to edit the book Compilation of Economic Mathematical Models of Comprehensive planning of Shan Xi. The participation units included Quantitative Economics and Technical-Economic Research Institute, Industrial Economic Research Institute of CASS, Chinese Academy of Science, Provincial Planning Commission and its two affiliated organizations, Scientific Planning Research Institute, Electronic Computer Center, twelve agencies of environmental protection at Shanxi Province, Academy of Social Science of Shanxi Province, two bureaus of Shanxi Province, five higher learnings and TERC. Thirty-three models were developed. These models covered broad areas of study, some of them were presented thereafter. They were Comprehensive Economic Models: Dynamic Input and Output Models; Technical Economic Model of Overall Planning; Strategic Decision-making Model of Coal Base; Coal Development, Transportation and Demand Forecasting Model; Investment Model of Coal Industry; Planning Model of Electric Power Industry; Planning Model for Rational Utilization of Soil and Resources; The Rational Utilization Model of

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Water Resource; Planting Industry Planning Model of Xingxian County; Environmental Protection and Planning Model; Household Consumption Model; and I/O Model of Light Industry. Based on the names of above-mentioned models, the theme they studied were all described in part I of Ma Hong’s speech “The role of comprehensive planning.” And this is the first time that China applied mathematical models systematically in a comprehensive long-term provincial planning. In order to make this publication more useful, it contained an appendix in its content with a brief description of method for six major mathematical models used in most of the thirty-three models collected in this publication, i.e. I/O method, Econometric Method, State Variable Method and Linear Programming Method, etc. However, I sensed a wrong trend in the development of applying mathematical method in Chinese academic field as the tendency leaned towards pursuit of higher number of equations to make the models more sophisticated in the analysis of economic issues. I perceived that this trend was detrimental to the further development of application of mathematical model to economic analysis. Application of mathematical models is nothing new for engineers and I remembered well some principles for applying mathematical models. It was said in one publication that: the best engineer is not the one who applies the most sophisticated models. He should know to apply the most appropriate model to the problem he faces. There are many differences between natural science, social science and engineering. But a few principals may be common to all. Therefore, several sentences were presented in the preface of the book to denote the importance of applying appropriate model to the economic phenomena under study. Economic model and mathematical “modeling” are becoming popular domestically. Model is an abstraction and simplified design of the real-world system. Economic model is a simplified abstract expression of real economic activities, it can be a block diagram, a statistical table or equation systems. Hydraulic model to simulate the economic system had once been adopted abroad, but it was short-lived. Currently, mathematical models are widely adopted both domestically and abroad. We must emphasize our current model is a combination of economic activity and mathematical expressions. Therefore, the precondition of preparing an effective model is to observe, analyze and synthesize an objective economic phenomenon, to understand the rule of mutual linkage of various variables of economic activities, to understand the rule that affects the changes, and apply appropriate mathematic tools to describe these rules. Of course, our current capacity of recognition had limitations either for the economic phenomena or for the application of mathematical tools. In fact, the study of macro-economic model started in early 1930 abroad, its development was further promoted due to popularity of application of electronic computers. China already lagged in its development and urgently required the close cooperation among field practitioners, natural scientists and social scientists to promote the development of modeling to promptly close the gap with the current development overseas. We emphasize here once again; a good model does not depend upon its number of equations. It depends upon whether it is a simplified abstract of the real working system. Therefore, whether it reflects scientifically the objective economic phenomena determines the nature of reliability and feasibility of a model. The second issue is whether the application of mathematical tools and simplification in assumption are appropriate or not. If the mathematical expression does generalize the variables and relationship that play a decisive role, then this model is reliable and feasible. If the

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7. Collaboration with Tian Jiesan. Deputy Director Tian Jiesan of Provincial Planning Commission, an experienced and dedicated professional, focused wholeheartedly on this comprehensive development plan. He emphasized that planning must take serious consideration on its social implication. He said in his April 22nd speech that “planning does not mean economic interpretation, but product. Think a bit farther, broader, deeper, and more concrete.” All these words reflected a profound accumulation of his experiences. He kept the progress of the project implementation closely to the schedule of the four stages announced by him on 23rd April 1982. We collaborated closely as I learned from him the actual conditions of Shanxi and he listened to my recommendations about the concept and opening process of planning that I learned at UNIDO. He considered this comprehensive development planning a valuable work in his career. After the project completion, he retired from his administrative position and became adviser of the Provincial Planning Commission. He participated the editorial work of Compilation of Information of Comprehensive Planning of Energy and Heavy Chemical Base of Shanxi 1981–2000 with six volumes. It is a valuable reference for planning.

5.5.7 Completion of the Project 1. Discussion draft. The Provincial Planning Commission completed the Discussion Draft of Comprehensive Planning of Construction of Energy and Heavy Chemical Base of Shanxi (Draft) 1981–2000 in June 1983. The outline is presented in Box 5.3, which can be compared with the content in Box 5.2, the original plan drafted by the Provincial Planning Commission in July 1980.

Box 5.3 Content of Comprehensive Planning of Construction of Energy and Heavy Chemical Base of Shanxi Province (Draft) 1981–2000 June 1983 Preface Part I Basic Tasks and Comprehensive Index Chapter 1 Strategic objectives and basic tasks Chapter 2 Total Amount of Social Production Chapter 3 Social Economic Efficiency Chapter 4 Public Finance and Credit Chapter 5 Investment of Fixed Assets

9 Wang

and Tian (1985).

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Chapter 6 People’s Life and Development Objectives of Social Affairs Part II Energy, Heavy Chemical Engineering Chapter 7 Coal Industry Section 1 Situation of coal resources Section 2 Guideline and scale of development of coal Section 3 Construction of coal mines Section 4 Planning of balance of production and sales of coal Section 5 Several Issues need to be solved to achieve the development planning of coal Chapter 8 Coal Washing, Screening and Processing Industry Chapter 9 Electric Power Industry Chapter 10 Saving of Energy Chapter 11 Chemical Industry Section 1 Chemical fertilizer industry Section 2 Basic chemical industry Section 3 Fine chemical industry Section 4 Pharmaceutical industry Part III Other Industrial Sectors Chapter 12 Metallurgical Industry Section 1 Iron and steel industry Section 2 Non-ferrous metals industry Chapter 13 Machinery Industry Chapter 14 Electronic Industry Chapter 15 Material of Construction Industry Chapter 16 Construction Industry Chapter 17 Geological Survey Chapter 18 Consumption Goods Section 1 Textile industry Section 2 First light industry Section 3 Second light industry Part IV Agriculture Chapter 19 Agriculture Section 1 Plantation Section 2 Husbandry and fishery Section 3 Commune and team enterprises Chapter 20 Forestry Chapter 21 Water Conservancy Section 1 Characteristics of water resources of Shan Xi Section 2 Situation of utilization of water resources Section 3 Guideline and measures to solve insufficient water resources

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Part V Transportation, Post and Communication Chapter 22 The Railway Chapter 23 The Highway Chapter 24 The Waterway Chapter 25 Pipeline Transport Chapter 26 Post Communication Chapter 27 Civil Aviation Chapter 28 Urban Public Transport Part VI Commerce and Supplies of Major Materials and Goods Chapter 29 Commerce within Province Chapter 30 Supplies of Major Materials and Goods Chapter 31 Economic Trade with Abroad Part VII Comprehensive Economic Regional Planning Chapter 32 Economic Regional Planning Chapter 33 Urban Construction Section 1 Urban construction and industrial layout Section 2 Urban residence Section 3 Urban municipal public utilities Part VIII Scientific Research and Cultivation of Talents Chapter 34 Natural Science and Technology Section 1 Tackling key problems in science and technology and promoting achievements Section 2 Measures to develop science and technology Chapter 35 Higher Learning and Secondary Professional Education Section 1 General colleges and universities Section 2 Secondary professional education Section 3 Adult higher and secondary education Chapter 36 Primary Education and Secondary Education Part IX Social Development Planning Chapter 37 Population Chapter 38 Cultural Undertakings Section 1 Literature, arts Section 2 Press and publications Section 3 Radio, television Section 4 Cultural relic, museum Chapter 39 Health and Sports Section 1 Health Section 2 Sports

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Chapter 40 Labor and Wages Section 1 Overall arrangement of urban and rural labor force Section 2 New Employees and industrial structure, ownership structure Section 3 Employee; wages Section 4 Labor productivity

2. Comprehensive Planning Demonstration Conference. A large-scale comprehensive Planning Demonstration conference was held at Taiyuan from 16th June– 26th June 1983. This conference had over 460 participants with officials from various line ministries from Beijing, local officials, researchers and scholars. Wang Kewen, the Provincial Party Committee Secretary gave an opening speech on June 16 and Tian Jiesan, the Deputy Director of Provincial Planning Commission, presented a brief introduction of the draft of Comprehensive Planning of Construction of Energy and Heavy Chemical Base of Shanxi (Draft) 1981– 2000. During this Demonstration Conference, the participants reviewed the draft plan and the drawings, discussed and raised questions. Director Ma Hong gave a speech on 23rd June and the Party Leader of Shanxi Province, Li Ligong, gave a speech after Ma Hong. He requested the Provincial Planning Commission revise and improve the plan based upon feedback collected at the Demonstration Conference. The Minutes of Demonstration Conference was passed on June 26, 1988. 3. Excerpts of Part I of the Minutes of Demonstration Conference. Part I of the conference minutes best described the features of the comprehensive planning, therefore, it is presented hereafter. The conference recognized that this comprehensive planning has embarked on several new experiments, which makes it differed from traditional planning. These major differences include: • The scope and content of the planning have expanded with broadened participation. More than 1400 individuals from 200 and more units in and outside Shanxi Province have participated in the planning preparation, these participants include leaders, practitioners, experts and professors of various disciplines. Researchers with expertise in social science as well as natural science. The planning covers the realms in economy, society, science and technology. Its depth and breadth have both surpassed those in the past planning. • Large amount of investigative and research work has proceeded. The planners with a scientific mentality to seek truth, have made extensive and in-depth investigations on the historical and current development in Shanxi’s economy, from urban to rural and from theory, to actual field work, thus achieving a better understanding of various parts (departments) encompassed in the planning. • Voluminous amount of data and information has been collected and scientific demonstrations have proceeded. Based on the statistics from 22 sources, the comprehensive planning work has thus far collected several million pieces of

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data, produced a total of 459 draft sectoral plans with research reports covering over 7.8 million words, and conducted sixteen sectoral planning demonstration meetings in succession. This has established a solid foundation for preparation of the overall comprehensive planning. • Adopting advanced tools (such as computers) and methodology (such as econometrics, technical-economics and systems engineering) of modern planning science. In this planning, thirty different types of forecasting and planning models based on quantitative analysis have been prepared to simulate and evaluate different schemes in constructing the base. • Emphasis the role of progress of science and technology, evaluation of economic efficiency and policies, and exploration of institutional reform. This planning has broken away from dependency on how indicators were selected and calculation in the past and has combined economic planning and construction with project management underpinned by science and technology. The plan has incorporated improvement adjustment and reform of eleven systems and policies in production relation and structure to meet the needs of the base and ensure smooth implementation of the planning scheme. 4. Final Report to the State Council. After the completion of the project Comprehensive Planning of Energy and Heavy Chemical Base of Shanxi 1981–2000. Director Ma Hong asked me to write a succinct work report for the State Council, he emphasized that the report should not exceed 3000 words, because the top leaders did not have time to read a long report. I completed my report “Brief Report on Compiling Comprehensive Planning of Energy and Chemical Base of Shanxi 1981–2000 on August 2, 1983 and gave it to Ma Hong. He sent my report with his brief introduction to the former premier on the same day. And the premier instructed to have the report printed and issued to relevant line ministries and commissions on August 4, 1983. The excerpts of my report are presented in Box 5.4 as follows:

Box 5.4 Abstract of Brief Report on the Compilation of Comprehensive Planning of Energy and Heavy Chemical Base of Shanxi Province 1981–2000 Comrade Ma Hong, • Introduction of various works completed in past 13 months; • General description of main situation of works, analyze and synthesize the three plans of planning objective and corresponding investment and output. And projection of national income and consumption level of inhabitants based upon medium objective of plan; • Put forward the transport, coal management system and corresponding policy problems which must be settled to achieve the objectives of comprehensive planning;

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• “This major differences of this comprehensive planning with past traditional plans are: increase the content of regional planning, exploration of combination of line and block planning is done; Schemes of three level year (1985, 1990, 2000 year), and also three quantities of coal production, i.e. high, medium and low, this not only reflects the combination of long term perspective plan, but also facilitates the selection of most appropriate scheme through mutual comparison; content of planning of science and technology is also added (The Chinese Academy has arranged seven key projects) explore the pattern of combination of basic research, applied research and development research; the content of policy analysis is also added which is the dominant factor in effecting human behavior; this comprehensive planning has also applied modern means and measures, for example, twenty and more mathematical models are prepared for checking purpose. By the mean times, working experience to organize practical works and workers of natural science and social. Science working together on planning is explored. The above exploration is primary experiment waited further improvement in continuous.” • In this comprehensive planning, there are insufficient studies to the up gradation of economic efficiency and technical reconstruction of existed enterprises. And also due to the higher number of participation of departments, institutions and research persons, the work of coordination is not up to ideal, and some organizational works are comparatively loosely. Please indicate any improper aspects of the above reporting work. Wang Huijiong 2nd Aug. 1983

5.6 Approval of TERC Leadership by the Central Committee TERC was formerly established on May 3, 1981 (refer to Sect. 5.4.1). I and Li Boxi were officially transferred to TERC in early 1982 per Ma Hong’s directive to strengthen the process of formulating the organization at its inception. To provide consulting service and organizing experts from various research, planning institution, and higher learning to participate in the Comprehensive Planning of Energy and Heavy Chemical Base of Shanxi 1981–2000, the first large project of TERC, new members were recruited and this project became the training platform for all of us at TERC. Director Ma Hong proposed the list of the TERC leadership of TERC and it was approved by the Central Committee which officially announced it on November 19, 1982. Below presents the list of approved TERC leadership:

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Director General Ma Hong (Part Time) Deputy Director Zhang Pan Standing Committee Sun Shangqing (Part Time); Gui Shiyong (Part Time); Lin Zixin (Part Times); Lin Zongtang (Part Time); Lin Hanxiong (Part Time); Shi Shan (Part Time); Wang Huijiong. Of the nine leaders appointed, only two, Zhang Pan and I, were full time.

5.7 Seminar on Economic Evaluation of Construction and Reconstruction Projects 5.7.1 Seminar on Economic Evaluation of Construction and Reconstruction of Projects, October 20–24, 1983 1. Background information. Economic evaluation of a project was an important component of feasibility study of industrial project. And this was also the first task assigned by the State Council to the newly established TERC in May 1981. TERC organized the first national seminar to kick off the its first task assigned by the State Council. 2. Seminar overview. More than 120 people from seventy organizations from ministries and commissions, planning and research institutions, consulting firms and higher learnings participated in the seminar. Forty papers were submitted and 19 were selected for presentation at the seminar. Director Ma Hong gave an opening speech. 3. Excerpts of opening remarks by Director Ma Hong. • Importance of Feasibility Study and Economic Evaluation of Projects. During China’s 6th Five-Year Plan period, the investment to fixed assets reached 360 billion yuan with 890 large and medium scale projects, of which 279 projects were proceeding with pre-stage engineering according to schedule. We should strive to get another 300 projects rolling in preparation for the 7th Five-Year Plan. These projects must undergo feasibility study and economic evaluation. To implement feasibility study and economic evaluation of projects, below two issues should be addressed: (a) Establish Work Regulations for Feasibility Study (b) Establish National Economic Evaluation of Construction and Reconstruction Projects. Ma Hong strongly advocated genuine cooperation among experts of different disciplines. He also stressed that social scientists and natural scientists should learn from each other towards better collaboration. He raised the point to study and develop social systems engineering, i.e. based upon principle of systems engineering to study the design of national economic and social development planning.

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5.7.2 Post-seminar Impact 1. An official document Trial Management Measures for Feasibility Study of Construction Projects was disseminated by the State Planning Commission on February 2, 1983. 2. A Study of National Economic Evaluation of Construction and Reconstruction Projects was accomplished by Guo Lihong and his research team in 2000. 3. A book edited by TERC titled Feasibility Study and Economic Evaluation with papers submitted to the seminar was published by Shanxi People’s Press on August 1984.

5.8 Summary This chapter focuses on my work and life in 1980–1983, during which I made a successful transition from an engineer to a policy researcher at the national stage. I was trained and worked in the electrical engineering field for over 33 years. However, in 1980, an exceptional opportunity propelled me into a new field—social science and a new career—a policy researcher and practitioner who applied and integrated policy science to China’s reform and opening to the outside world. This paramount change presented a significant challenge as well as a great opportunity for me. The major challenge was to expeditiously expand my knowledge base with the new knowledge and to broaden my expertise to meet the new work demand. I successfully bridged the knowledge gap through learning-by-doing from international organizations and building my expertise via practice with China’s domestic projects. Below briefly summarize the major highlights. 1. Knowledge acquisition from international organization—UNIDO as a platform to learn and practice social science. From October to December 1981, I was fortunate to be a member of a Chinese delegation to work at United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) for a short-term joint research project. The Chinese delegation’s main task was to provide the I/O table of China (the very first of its kind) for the UNIDAT model which studied the relationship between pattern of growth, structure of trade and industrial structure for each participating country. Through review of UNIDO documentation, data collection and analysis, the Chinese team successfully developed and tested the China I/O table. Through this experience, I learned the contemporary modeling process and how models functioned in national economic forecast. I spent much of my spare time reading and collecting valuable information from UNIDO library and brought back important materials to China which helped my future work. Through interaction and exchange of views with UNIDO counterparts, I made close connections with experts in various fields and made life-long friends. Life

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was not all about work, I also spent time touring Vienna, savoring local food, and enjoying concerts, opera, and other cultural events. 2. Building expertise through practice with China’s large-scale domestic planning project. After my official transfer to the newly established Technical Economic Research Center (TERC) of the State Council, I was appointed as one of the chief consultants in the comprehensive planning of Shanxi Energy and Heavy Chemical Industry Base. The project, as a pilot, was China’s first attempt to apply science and technology backed methodology in the planning of a longterm project since its opening to the outside world. Launched in 1981 and completed in 2000, the project aimed at building Shanxi Province into the nation’s energy and heavy chemical base utilizing its rich natural resources in coal. I stated my work in 1982 and was actively engage in all major aspects of the project; ranging from organizing expert consultation conferences and demonstration conferences, participating in meetings and exchanging views with high level state and province planning administrators, coordinating research activities with professors and researchers from academia, China Academy of Social Sciences, and research institutions, preparing and reviewing reports, and editing conference proceedings and books related to the project. Through learning, practicing, and exchanging views with industry and research counterparts, I expanded my experience and knowledge base into the realm of large-scale comprehensive planning for a province, and the planning covered not only the coal, energy, chemical and transportation industries, but extended to other industrial sectors, agriculture, communication, education, city and community development. 3. Leadership role at TERC. I was again very fortunate to have a mentor and supportive colleagues which ensured my seamless transition from engineering to social science research within a short period of time. Ma Hong, my mentor, who was Director General of TERC and Vice President of China Academy of Social Science, recognized my talent and expertise, and provided valuable opportunities for me to grow professionally and socially. With his backing, I was made a full-time member of the Sanding Committee of TERC and responsible for its academic and technical affaires.

References Atkinson, S. (Senior Ed.) (2015). The sociology books. New York: P. K. Publishing. Dasgupta, A. K. (1974). Economic theory and the developing countries. U.K.: The Macmillan Press. Giddens, A. (2001). Sociology (4th ed.). Cambridge: Polity Press. Li, W. (Chief Ed.). (2015). Major events of the Development Research Center of the State Council (H.J. Wang, Trans.) (Chinese version, pp. 29–32). Beijing: China Development Publishing House. Ma, H. (1982). Prepare a good comprehensive development planning of energy base of Shanxi Province to contribute to construction of national four modernizations. Collection of Ma Hong’s Articles (2010) (H.J. Wang, Trans.) (Chinese version, Vol. 3, pp. 386–395). Beijing: China Social Science Press.

References

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UNIDO (Ed.). (1981). Chief technical advisers manual (formerly) the international team leader’s manual (2nd revision, pp. 30, 92, 79–80, 90). Austria: UNIDO. Wang, H. J., & Tian, J. S. (Chief Ed.). (1985). Collection of economic mathematical models of comprehensive planning of Shanxi (Chinese version, pp. i–ii). Provisional Planning Commission of Shanxi. Wang, H. J., & Li, S. T. (2018). Introduction to social systems engineering (pp. 116, 698–701). Singapore: Springer.

Chapter 6

Work, Learning, and Life Prior to Joining Development Research Center of the State Council (1983–1990)

6.1 Introduction This chapter describes my work, learning and life in the period from 1983 to mid of 1990 during which I served on the Standing Committee of Technical Economic Research Center (TERC) in 1983–1985, and the Standing Committee of Research Center for Economic, Technological and Social Development of the State Council (RCETSD) in 1985–1990. The major projects and reports conducted in this period were four: China toward the Year 2000; Research on New Technological Revolution and Countermeasures of Our Country; Industrial Policy Studies; and Integrated Economic Development Policies and Planning. These four projects had different features: the first one was to study the overall national development strategy and policies in a long term; the second one was the study of science and technology and its relation to national economic and social development; the third one focused on industrial policy studies which formed the foundation of meso system1 ; and the last one was about integrated economic development policies and planning with similar content as the project of China toward the Year 2000, but with an added new component of the study of economic reform and opening. The experiences I gained from leading and engaging in the four large-scale comprehensive projects contributed significantly in my writing of Introduction to Social Systems Engineering (Wang and Li 2018). In addition to the four major projects, I engaged in other broad range activities nationally and globally (e.g. collaborative research, seminars, conferences, etc.) and published a series of papers on science policies, economic and social-economic development policies, etc.

1 Meso system is one of three component systems of integrated framework III of systems of national

planning. Please refer to Sect. 5.5.2 Third Integrated Framework of Systems of National Planning (III). Wang and Li (2018). Introduction to Social System Engineering (pp. 239–242). © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 H. Wang, Explorations in Social Systems Engineering, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-3390-7_6

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6.2 Organizational Changes and Environment 6.2.1 Environment and Organizational Change The macro-system of environment was favorable for the work and development of TERC, the unit where I worked. Establishment of policy consultative institutions were one of the reform measures. Four such institutions were established in the beginning of 1980s, Economic Research Center (ERC) was established on July 9, 1980, TERC was established on May 3, 1981, Price Research Center (PRC) was established on July 7, 1981, and Policy Research Office of Central Committee (PROCC) was established in 1981 and it became Rural Development Research Center of State Council (RDRC) in 1983. The State Council found that the former three institutions had their functions in duplication with each other, it determined to merge three centers into one center, so RCETSD was established on June 29, 1985 with leadership appointed on October 7, 1985. Xue Muqiao was appointed as the honorable Director General, Ma Hong was appointed as Director General. Four Deputy Directors were appointed, they were Zhang Gensheng (part time), Zhang Pan, Sun Shangqing, Wang Jikuan (part time). Six members of Standing Committee were appointed, they were Ji Chongwei, Wang Huijiong, Zuo Mu, Li Boxi, Wu Jinglian, and Tian Yuan. There was further organizational change on April 4, 1989. It was determined by the State Council to establish Development Research Center of the State Council (DRC) with total staff of 260 persons. Its leadership included one honorable Director General, one Director General, six deputy directors and five advisors. To be an organization of consultative research, an Academic Committee was established. One office and eight bureaus were set up in this Center. In January 1990, Development Research Center was formally established, and it has lasted to present without large organizational change.

6.2.2 Organization in the Period of TERC It had been described in Sect. 5.4 that Ma Hong’s concepts of pattern of work of TERC is a pattern of organized research in combination with self-research. I am fully in agreement with Ma Hong’s concept through practice of policy consultative service in China more than thirty years. There were seven specific teams with members mainly experts outside TERC except liaison officer. In the beginning of 1983, there was adjustment of seven specific teams, raw material team was reorganized into three teams: metallurgy, chemical engineering, and materials of construction with liaison officers of Lu Zhiqiang, Cao Siyuan and Pi Shenghao, respectively. Another specific team, feasibility study of construction and reconstruction of national economy, was added, and the liaison officer was Guo Lihong.

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Table 6.1 Organization of TERC since February 1984 Name of section

Head

Rank

Members

Comprehensive section

Li Boxi

Bureau

Li Shantong, Xu Xiaonian, Miao Fuchun, Zhou Lin, Pang Bangxuan, Li Jiange

Engineering section

Li Jinchang

Bureau

Zhu Hongfei, Deng Shoupeng, Guo Lihong, Lu Zhiqiang, Cao Siyuan, Lv Wei, Chen Xiaohong

Information section

Dong Qiliang

Bureau

Zhu Jiaming, Pi Shenghao, Ding Ningning, Tang Ruoni, Gong Lin, Chen Yue

Office

Cheng Xiusheng

Deputy Bureau

Zhu bing, Yu Weijia, Tan Yiqun, Lin Xiaomao

In February 1984, the formal organization was determined to be consisted of three sections and one office which was shown in Table 6.1. By the end of 1984, the total staff reached 40. Ma Hong had dialogued with me several times, he expected me to be responsible for the engineering section. Since I had unpleasant experience during my past work in the engineering field, I felt that if I took the responsibility of the section, I must took care of the section members including their housing, wage adjustment and approval of their travel expense and other expenses etc. There are simply too many administrative affairs for a section head under China’s system. I would rather be a member of a standing committee and focus my effort on assigned tasks and academic affairs. Therefore, I declined to be a section head during my work in TERC and beyond. 1. Workplace and my colleagues in TERC. In the period of TERC, our office was mainly in the State Council which was located at northern part of Zhongnanhai (Central South Sea). Figure 6.1 shows a photo with most members of TERC at that time. 2. Major work during the period. What presented here are summary of major work accomplished. More detailed narratives of my work in this period will appear in Sect. 6.3–6.10. Through learning by doing, most of the work done were relatively successful. The measure for success of our work was based on the published documents of each work and their positive impacts. Since our work was of the nature of a new discipline, soft systems engineering with no pervious established theories, and nearly all of us were inexperienced, it is impossible to achieve perfection in every task and mistakes did occur. The crucial issue is one must be honest to his work and to oneself and learning from mistakes to improve continuously. It can be seen from Fig. 6.1 that most staffs of TERC were relatively young, most of them were graduates from universities with master or bachelor’s degrees of science, engineering and social sciences. Most of them lacked life experiences

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Fig. 6.1 Photo of some colleagues of TERC at Zhongnanhai From left to right: The back row, 7 males: Li Jinchang, Ding Ningning, Xu Xiaonian, Miao Fuchun, Cheng Xiusheng, Zhu Bing, Chen Yue. The middle row, 3 female and 3 males: Li Shantong, Pi Shenghao, Lu Zhiqiang, Deng Shoupeng, Tan Yiqun, Pang Bangxuan. The first row, 2 males: Guo Lihong, me

but worked hard and selflessly. They worked together harmoniously. The office was filled with atmosphere of vitality and harmony. This was also the reason of success of the works done in this period through the effort of teamwork and organized research. In the initial period of TERC, Ding Ningning raised a question to me, “Can TERC last long? Or it may be a temporary institution and sooner or later may be abandoned by the government.” I replied him, “It depends on our work.” And the works done by TERC in this period had its impact not only domestically, but also internationally. One story under Table 6.1 impressed me profoundly at that time. The four graduates who came to the Center in early 1982 were Li Shantong, Cheng Xiusheng, Pi Shenghao, Xu Xiaonian. Ma Hong was looking for someone responsible for the office, Zhang Zehou recommended Pi Shenghao and talked to him. But Pi Shenghao preferred to do research work rather than administrative work in the office. Possibly, he felt pressured from Zhang’s talk, he wrote on the blackboard “I am determined not to work administratively in office.” Then Ma Hong and Zhang Zehou requested Cheng Xiusheng to work in office, and he was quickly promoted to be deputy director of the office. This story under Table 6.1 can illustrate clearly the democratic working environment of TERC and the simplicity of young professional at that time.

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6.2.3 Organization in the Period of RCETSD Table 6.2 portrays the organization structure in RCETSD. Ma Hong, Director General of RCETSD talked about division of labor among party members, advisors and member of standing committee. I was given more responsibility to supervise and coordinate two sections, Development and Forecasting Section and Technical Economic Section. In 1988, Lu Zhiqiang was appointed as deputy section head of Technical Economic Section. In October 30, 1989, Wu Mingyu, the Deputy Director of the center, became Director of UNDP Project “Integrated Studies of Economic Development Policies and Planning”. I assumed the directorship of project office. In July 11, 1990, Li Shantong was appointed as Deputy Director of Development and Forecasting Section (rank deputy bureau head).

6.3 China Toward the Year 2000 This was the first largest organized research project led by TERC, the formal research time lasted around 2 years and with 180 participating units and more than 500 participants involved in the first level2 of study. And the results of the study have significant impact both at home and abroad. Table 6.2 Organization of RCETSD Name of section

Director

Rank

Deputy director

Rank

Economic dynamics section

Wu Jinglian

Bureau

Hu Ji

Deputy Bureau

Development and forecasting section

Li Boxi

Bureau

Economic regulation section

Zuo Mu

Bureau

Lu Baifu

Deputy Bureau

Technical economic section

Li Jinchang

Bureau

Price section

Tian Yuan

Bureau Wu Chao

Deputy Bureau

Cheng Xiusheng

Deputy Bureau

Foreign trade and foreign economic section Information editing section

Dong Qiliang

Bureau

Office

Meng Xiangang

Bureau

Source Chronicle Events of Development Research Center of the State Council 1980–2013 (pp. 77– 78, 100–101, 113)

2 In

the project China toward the Year 2000. There are three levels of study, the first level included the report system of one main report, twelve sub-reports published in the name of TERC. The second level included several sub-reports outside the primary design of the projects. The third level was organized by China’s Research Office of Project 2000 attached to CAST.

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6.3.1 Initiation of the Study and Period of Preparation Although official launch of the project China toward the Year 2000 was around the mid of 1983, the initiation of this study was much earlier. Former Secretary General CCCPC Hu Yaobang gave requirements to Director General Ma Hong “What China will be in 20 years and 50 years; a clear picture should be drawn.” Several institutions started to launch the study of China toward the Year 2000. Institute of Science and Technology Information of China (ISTIC) started to translate some information from the publication The Global 2000 Report to the President: by Gerald Barney. This study was listed as a key project of planning of social science in China’s Sixth Five-Year Plan.

6.3.2 Launch of the Project and the Process of Implementation 1. Research Seminar of China toward the Year 2000. It was organized jointly by TERC and Chinese Association of Science and Technology (CAST) on May 25, 1983. Both Ma Hong and the Secretary General of CAST gave speeches at this seminar. A small part of Ma Hong’s speech related to purpose of this project was quoted below: China toward the Year 2000 is to better realize the strategic goal set up by the Twelfth National Congress of the Communist Party of China; to supply a systematic reference with scientific basis for the decision making and policy making for the Party and the State Council; to provide an overall picture for the development planning of sectors and regions. It is hoped that through this concrete picture, Chinese people will be further encouraged to concert their efforts towards realizing the ambitious guidelines of the Party. In other words, the study China toward the Year 2000 is to find a way to achieve the socialist modernization process of the Chinese pattern.

2. Organization of leadership team. A leadership team was established headed by Ma Hong with eight members, they were Zhang Shou (leader of State Planning Commission), Sun Shangqing (leader of TERC), Zhu Rongji (leader of State Economic Commission), Lin Hanxiong (leader of Ministry of Construction), Zhang Pan (leader of TERC), Lin Zixin (leader of ISTIC), Yang Weizhe (Commissioner of State S&T Commission), and me. In addition to leadership team, there was also an advisory group with around 10 members. 3. Organization of Research Working Team. A research working team was established, with Li Boxi as the section head, Li Jinchang and Bao Jinzhang as deputy section head. There were 18 members, 9 from TERC, they were Li Shantong, Pang Bangxuan, Zhou Lin, Miao Fuchun, Cheng Xiusheng, Lu Zhiqiang, Ding Ningning, Hui Xiaobing, Tang Ruoni; 9 from Chinese ISTIC. There were also an editing and publication teams attached to the working team, with two member Lin Xiaomao and Li Shihao.

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177

4. Key research project. Project was listed to be key research project in TERC’s annual working plan of later part of 1983. Ma Hong sent “TERC Summary of Work of First Half Year and Work Plan of Second Half Year” to the State Council. And the former premier made a comment: “China toward the Year 2000 is a large engineering project. If this study is well researched, it will be of a great significance, it is necessary that all efforts be concentrated to complete the project in success.” 5. Establishment of the report system. Design of the contents of this large. Comprehensive project required the establishment of a cohesive report system. Division of labor and responsible people of each sub-report were appointed. I and an expert from ISTIC were requested by Ma Hong to prepare a simple preliminary outline of the main report. We each spent around 2 weeks to draft an outline of the main report. But the draft was rejected by Ma Hong. Through several iterations of discussion and revision, I summarized the design of the report system into 13 report preparation teams as portrayed in Fig. 6.2 based on basic concept of systems theory. The size of these 13-report preparation teams differed. The largest one was Energy report team with 51 members. The smallest one was International Environment report with only 19 members. This difference was due to different structure of report preparation team. The leadership team only identified the responsible people of each report and the four-layer structure preparation team. The head of each team had autonomy to organize members and division of labor of his/her team. The structure of organization of Energy report and International Environment Report were compared in Table 6.3.

Fig. 6.2 Report System of “China toward the Year 2000”

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Table 6.3 Comparison of organization of energy and international environment report Division of labor

Energy report No. of persons

International environment report No. of institutions

No. of persons

No. of institutions

Responsible of report

1

1

1

1

Writer

5

5

6

1

Participation of research

42

27

11

1

Liaison official from research Working team

2

2

1

1

Table 6.3 illustrates the difference of team composition on different tasks. The members for International Environment report came from one institute, the World Economic and Political Research Institute CASS only, while the members for Energy report came from the Chinese Association of Energy with membership from 27 different institutions. It can be seen from the four-layer organization structure that the higher number of participants of research may study each theme with more diverse opinion while the team with lower number of participants of research may be easier to get consensus for decision of situation and policy recommendation. Also due to the organizational feature of TERC since its establishment which had ten specific teams, the responsible persons of the ten specific teams such as agriculture, transport, consumption goods, and raw materials were also responsible for the respective report preparation teams, and also the members of those report preparation teams were mostly from the specific teams of TERC. The only outsider was Lin Hanxiong, the responsible person for the Energy report, but his team members were mostly from the respective team of TERC. Lan Tianfang became one of the advisers of China toward the Year 2000. Due to this organization feature, the process of research and preparation of the reports proceeded smoothly. The liaison official was responsible to transmit information of progress, issues and major points of research from each report preparation team to leaders of working group. The working group would report to the leadership group in case of needs. In fact, Ma Hong, Zhang Pan and I were in the same office building of the work group, which ensured timely problem solving and smooth coordination of major activities. Seminar to discuss intermediate research results was held jointly by TERC and ISTIC on June 9, 1984. Ma Hong made a speech with the theme “To achieve the grand goal at the end of this century, carry out an excellent study of China toward the Year 2000”. He raised the point that “preparation of China’s Seventh FiveYear Plan should be combined properly with the strategic objectives achieved by the year 2000”. Important discoveries or policy recommendations in the process of the study were sent to the decision makers promptly without having to wait till the completion of the entire project.

6.3 China Toward the Year 2000

179

I was also responsible in the draft of the main report. Participating in all research preparation teamwork helped me understand key issues. I and Li Boxi joined the discussions of 25 policy recommendations of this project chaired by Ma Hong with selective participants.

6.3.3 Completion of the Project This project was completed in April 1985 with one main report, 12 sub reports and around 20 specific reports. The State Council attached great importance to this research result and distributed the reports to the ministries and commissions of the State Council and to every province and municipalities in the form of documents referred to by the State Council. The project China toward the Year 2000 received National First Prize for Science and Technology Progress in July 1988. And the result of sub-report Overall Quantitative Analysis received First Prize of the National Computer Application Exhibition Project in 1986.

6.4 Impact of Study of China Toward the Year 2000 6.4.1 Influence on the Reform of Chinese Planning System from Both Central and Provincial Level China followed the Former Soviet model of Central Mandatory Planning before 1980s. It has gradually reformed its mandatory Planning system into Indicative Planning System since its Sixth Five Year Plan. The project Comprehensive Planning of Energy and Heavy Chemical Base provided an example of the objective, process and contents of a reformed planning system, while China toward the Year 2000 provided additional example of reform of central planning system. Many provinces and municipalities launched their own study toward the year 2000 right after the completion of China toward the Year 2000, examples, Liaoning Province toward the Year 2000, Shenyang Municipality toward the Year 2000, Jiangsu Province toward the Year 2000, etc. Our center was also invited by Guangxi Economic Research Center to share our experiences of the study, and I, leading a team with six members, visited the center to share our insights. China towards the Year 2000 study was the first largest organized research project of China. Many newspapers, such as “People’s Dairy”, “Economic Dairy” provided coverage of this research project. “Outlook Weekly” in its Overseas Edition No. 4 on 25th Nov. 1985 published several papers to introduce this study. They used “China toward the Year 2000” as the cover page for the magazine. And the journalist

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wrote a paper with the theme Centennial Revitalization-China toward the FutureComments on the Publication of the Research Report “China toward the Year 2000. This Outlook Weekly also publish my paper Vision of China by the Year 2000, and Li Boxi’s paper Strategy and Option of Policy toward the Year 2000. Figure 6.3 shows the cover page “China toward the Year 2000” of Outlook Weekly November 1985 Issue.

Fig. 6.3 Cover of Outlook Weekly

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181

6.4.2 Impact on the Research of Academic Field 1. Impact to the Systems Engineering Society. China’s Systems Engineering Society was established early in November 1980. But it was generally recognized by the member of the society that “3 Chinese Systems Engineering experts do not have sufficient comprehensive knowledge and capacity. Generally, the person who understands economy but is unfamiliar with mathematics, while the person with mathematics expertise is not familiar with economics and engineering. In addition, even for person who understands mathematics, the branch of mathematics is too narrowly defined to be applicable. But the expert of systems engineering trained abroad generally has broader knowledge.” I was the member of standing committee of Systems Engineering society back then and was invited to speak twice in its annual conference in 1984 and 1985, respectively. Two papers were written with both my and Li Boxi’s names, but I presented them, one was about Systems Research of “China toward the Year 2000” and New Stages of Systems Engineering, and the other was Systems Research of “China toward the Year 2000” and Its Conclusion. 2. Speech given in National Defense Science Technology and Industry Commission. The National Defense Science Technology and Industrial Commission also proceeded with the study National Defense of S&T toward the Year 2000 at that time. They invited our center to give a report related to China toward the Year 2000. Nearly all senior leaders of this organization came to listen to my report, including Qian Xuesen,4 Zhu Guangya and no questions were raised during my speech, probably due to politeness. But after my speech, I sit next to Qian Xuesen, he raised a question to me. He said: “We sent a missile to the sky based on rigorous and precise calculations. How about your studies of China toward the Year 2000?” I did not address his question directly, but simply answered, “Mr. Qian my original background was engineering.” Then Qian Xuesen kept silent and had no more questions. 3. Influence on Asian Pacific Region-International Conference of Asian Pacific Economy toward the Year 2000. An International Organization Asian and Pacific Development Center (ADPC) had requested the Chinese government to lunch the activity to hold an international conference with the theme Asian Pacific Economy toward the Year 2000. On Nov.12th–Nov.15th 1986. This conference was jointly sponsored by four organizations of China, the State Economic Commission, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, CASS and our Center. This was the first large international conference approved by the State Council. The conference was held at the Grate Hall of the People, former Premier Zhao Ziyang came to give opening address to this conference and take photo together with all participants. 3 Source

China’s Systems Engineering Society (Ed.) Level and disparity of Systems Engineering in Domestic and at Abroad (Chinese Version). Beijing (p. 3) Research Office of China toward the Year 2000, Chinese S&T Association. 4 Both Qian Xuesen and Zhu Guangya had been Deputy Director of The National Defense Science and Technology and Industrial Commission by that time.

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Table 6.4 Conferences the author lectured related to China toward the Year 2000 Name of conference

Date and place

Host

The future of Taiwan

August 1985, Xiamen

CASS

China-US joint economic commission

8th–10th May,1986 Beijing

Ministry of Finance, PRC

Issue and prospects of Asian-Pacific region

5th–7th August 1987, Hong Kong

Hong Kong Universitya

Peaceful coexistence of 21st century: agenda of co-operation of economy, society and technology

1st–3rd July 1988, Seoul

Korea Institute of International Relations

a Note

This conference hosted by Hong Kong University was mainly due to the imitative of Korea Institute of International Relations. China and South Korea had not established official diplomatic relationship between them. The two sides were allowed to contact only in international conference. Then the director Choi of Korea Institute of International Relations requested Professor S.K.Y. Chen to hold this international conference to let director Choi to meet me. And he invited me to participate the international conference of Peaceful Coexistence of 21st Century to be held at Seoul in 1988

The participants came from 15 countries and ten international organizations with 66 official delegates and 27 observers. The Chinese delegates with Research Center of Economic, Technological and Social Development of the State Council to be dominant player organized seven reports presented in the international of conference. Overall Introduction to the Study of China toward the Year 2000 with the name of Wang Huijiong and Li Boxi, presented by Wang Huijiong; Macro-Economic Model Projections of China towards the Year 2000 with the name of Li Boxi, Li Shantong, Pang Bangxuan, Xia Shaowei presented by Xia Shaowei; China’s Education toward the Year 2000 with the name of Zou Beilong, Huang Shiqi presented by Huang Shiqi etc. ADPC complied all conference papers edited into a book Asian Pacific Economy toward the Year 2000 and published at Kuala Lumpur in 1987. I knew some famous experts at this conference and kept our friendship, S.K.Y. Chen, Asian Research Center of Hong Kong University, Whang I Jhong of South Korea Research Institute and Seji Naya, East West Center of U.S.A. 4. Conferences I attended. I received many invitations to speak at various conferences about China toward the Year 2000, Table 6.4 lists the conferences I presented.

6.4.3 Opening the Channel to Cooperate with the World Bank 1. Project of World Bank. The project China toward the Year 2000 proceeded nearly in parallel with the World Bank project China Long Term Development Issues

6.4 Impact of Study of China Toward the Year 2000

183

and Options. Because the President of the World Bank, A.W. Clausen, visited China in 1983 and was received by Deng Xiaoping and Zhao Ziyang, he knew that the major development objective of China by the year 2000 was to have per capita GDP reach 800 U.S.D. He agreed to do a research for this. And an expert group of the World Bank led by Edwin Lin and Adrian Wood came to China in early 1984 and proceeded their study. During the working process of the World Bank and our center, collaborations between us took place. If fact, both Edwin Lin and Adrian Wood came to China to conduct a general survey of China from October to December in 1980. And in June 1981 there were other expert groups came to China to study and prepare the first complete report system of China including one main report and nine sub-reports. These report systems were reprinted on March 1983. And I read and studied the report system critically in 1983. I knew Dr. Adrian Wood early in 1983 and invited him to come to a workshop of TERC to discuss feasibility study and evaluation of industrial projects. He was knowledgeable, frank, and academic in nature. We became good friends quickly and he is one of my lifelong international friends. 2. Debate of the report. After the completion of the main report of the World Bank project, Edwin Lin requested me to organize workshops to discuss five chapters of their main report. TERC had 10 specific teams with experts came from planning and research intuitions. So, it was easy for me to organize five workshops related to agriculture, energy, industrial technology, population and employment, international economic strategy. The last theme was jointly chaired by Huan Xiang, the director of Research Center of International Issues. In the workshops of population and employment, there were debates on the World Bank report. I requested a coffee break and raised my question to chief economist Wood, I said: “There was conflict of view of the Bank’s main report and its sub-report. In Bank’s main report, it was said that China can achieve the target to quadruple its national economy by the year 2000 on condition that China can control its population growth within target, while in Bank’s sup-report, it was against China’s family planning policy.” Dr. Wood answered me frankly: “There were American journalists coming to China, collecting all negative stories about China’s family planning system and writing reports in the newspaper. China’s family planning system became naked murder under their description. This had created bad perception among public opinions. They were in objection of China’s family planning system.” Dr. Wood said that himself opposed the sub-report writing, but the Bank’s headquarter office was located at Washington D.C. and was under pressure to have the report written this way. His frank explanation improved our mutual understanding and friendship. He gave me a book Social Changes, this book had assisted me to broaden my way of thinking in studying context of events: think technologically, economically and socially. I attended a “seminar of knowledge economy” in London suburb after 2000 which was sponsored by the World Bank. Dr. Adrian Wood worked at Department for International Development of U.K. government at that time, came to see me, and took me to London after the seminar ended (Fig 6.4).

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Fig. 6.4 Photo of Dr. Adrian Wood with us when he worked at DFID. From Left to Right Back Row: 1st I, 2nd Adrian Wood, 3rd Representative of DFID. Front Row: 1st Li Boxi, 2nd Staff of DFID, 3rd Li Shantong

6.5 New Technology Revolution and China’s Countermeasure Research (1983.10–1984.5) 6.5.1 Origin of the Project One night in October 1983, Ma Hong asked me to attend an important meeting in Zhongnanhai. In a small conference room with just a few participants, of whom I knew Lin Zixin, director of the ISTIC. Subsequently, former Premier Zhao Ziyang went into the meeting room and introduced to everyone the new industrial revolution proposed in The Third Wave, which was published in 1980 by Alvin Toffler. But the Chinese translation was first published in 1983. He asked everyone to pay attention to this trend and study its relationship with China’s modernization. After the meeting, Director Ma Hong said to me, “Huijiong, can you take up the responsibility for this project. After listening to Premier Zhao Ziyang’s speech, I felt that the premier seemed to agree with Toffler’s opinion, and that there would also be a new industrial revolution driven by information technology in China. I had a different view and replied to Ma Hong: “I cannot take the charge, but I can join the study of this project.”

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6.5.2 Organization and Process of the Project 1. Organization of the project. Ma Hong respected my opinion at the time considering that I was still in charge of the major project of China toward the Year 2000 which was also led by himself. He gathered Wu Mingyu of the State Science and Technology Commission and Nie Li the deputy director of Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense to form a three-member leading group, and invited Zhang Pan, I and Li Boxi, to participate in the meetings of the leading group and relevant discussions at the same time. In the meantime, a secretary team was organized by members of Science and Technology Development Research Center of State Science and Technology Commission and TERC led by three members of the leading group to prepare conference Brief, Collection of New World Industrial Revolution Research Data etc. 2. Process of the project. After formation of the leading group, it organized and held two major seminars on “New World Industrial Revolution and China’s countermeasures” successively in November 1983, January and March 1984, in the name of the TERC and the Science and Technology Development Research Center of the State Science and Technology Commission. In fact, due to the complexity of the theme, there were two smaller size of seminars mainly involving experts held in late November 1983 and January 1984. The first meeting was held on November 5, 1983, with attendance by more than 1600 experts in natural sciences, social sciences, engineering and technology, and responsible cadres of relevant departments. In late November, a meeting attended by more than 130 experts was held, focusing on the meaning of the new technological revolution and its impact on China and the world, as well as the situation and prospects for the development of various new technological fields in our country. The participants spoke enthusiastically, and I agreed with the speech the key to the development of knowledge-intensive industries lies in education made by Lei Tianyue, a researcher at the Ministry of Machinery. In his speech, he pointed out that education is our weakest link, and we should not only rely on academic experience, but should advocate lifelong education and change the concept of “one-time education”. In January 1984, 200 experts were invited to discuss comprehensive policy and policy in the fields of microelectronics, computers, optical fiber communications, information systems, and biotechnology. A separate group was organized to study two specific theme “Technological Revolution of traditional industries” and “Develop Mechanical-Electronic Technology with full effort” from 12th January to 25th January with involvement of chief engineers or economic and technological experts and responsible individuals of eight firms from the Eighteenth sector. On March 24 of the same year, a meeting of more than 200 people was held to discuss the above-mentioned policy, and the draft of comprehensive policy. 3. My perception and my role in this project. Although Tofler, a great journalist, had applied rhetoric successfully to describe the third wave. But to be a serious

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policy researcher, I must find the basic theories to explain this mega trend within social and historical context. I requested my colleague Madam Li Shantong who had been my assistant in Shan Xi project to work with me on the topic. We two stayed in Beijing Library and searched various references for two days. And we found literature on Schumpeter’s business cycle and economic development theory, entrepreneur and innovation, and the development and decline of innovation cluster, as well as the long wave theory of Kondratieff’s economic life. After understanding of these relevant theories, I formed my perception of the Third Wave of Toffler Technological innovation is mainly driven by entrepreneurs and science or technology experts. In the development of technology and economy, they are closely related and follow the law of periodicity. At present, the new industrial revolution emerging in the world, especially in the developed countries, reflects that the world is in the rising cycle mentioned in Kondratieff’s long wave theory. Then I wrote a paper co-signed by Zhang Pan, me and Li Boxi, which was printed and ready to be presented at the Second Seminar, which will be held in March 1984. The printed materials were stacked under my office desk. One day before the meeting, Ma Hong came to my office to inquire about my speech preparation and saw the materials. Director Ma Hong knew that Kondratieff was executed by Stalin and was considered as “reactionary” from political perspective. Director Ma Hong requested that the paper not be presented at the Second Seminar. However, some experts of the Science and Technology Commission learned about the information, they specifically asked for the paper from Li Shantong. Subsequently, Ma Hong also changed his concept related to Kondratieff and agreed with my point of view in the preparation of final report to the State Council. My role in this project had two functions: the first is to clarify the impact of the “third wave” to China through my understanding of the basic theories underlining technological innovation and Kondratieff cycle, I think the impact of the third wave is larger for the developed countries, while for the developing countries, we should accelerate the industrialization process through integration of modern information communication technology. This concept was contained in the final report of the leading group; the second, the approach of this project was organized research. Much valuable information contained in papers and in the “New World Industrial Revolution” Research Data presented by various experts of different disciplines. I had learned a lot of information and knowledge in a short period of time.

6.5.3 The Result 1. The final report. The leading group and relevant personnel of the meeting constantly studied all kinds of materials in the course of seminar meetings and

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formed the first draft of Outline of the Report on the New technological Revolution and China’s Policy Research in February and on March 1984, and formed the final draft subsequently on March 28, 1984. Director Ma Hong reported it to the Central Financial and Economic leading Group. The outline of the report was divided into four parts: the first part was “seizing the opportunity to meet the challenge”, which emphasized that the modern technological revolution, as an important driving factor, has promoted the transformation of the economic and social structure of the developed countries; the second part was “the basic content of policy”, which put forward ten aspects, among which the second aspect emphasizes the problem of accelerating the transformation of traditional industries with emerging technologies; the third part was the “key developing direction”, which put forward the transformation of traditional technology, the development of information technology, modern communication network, new material, energy saving technology, aerospace technology, new energy, marine engineering and biotechnology; the fourth part was “strengthening planning and adopting the necessary special policies and measures”, which proposes 11 measures, such as the organization of various forms of joint ventures and consortia, It includes the combination of research, design, production and service and the association of importing, digestion and manufacture, etc., establishing special investment companies for emerging industries, issuing stocks by local governments, enterprises and individuals, and so on. A considerable number of the measures proposed in the outline could not be achieved by that time. 2. Annex to the report. On May 20, 1984, an annex to the report Outline of the Report on the New Technological Revolution and China’s Policy Research was submitted, in which specific policies were put forward for eight technologies, namely, technological progress in traditional industries, microelectronics and computer industries, computer information systems, optical fiber communication technology, new materials, space technology, biotechnology and mechanical and electronic technology. 3. Related work of provincial government. Since it was former Premier who personally held a forum to assign tasks, all provincial and municipal science and technology committees attached great importance to the “new technological revolution and China’s policy” research project, and according to the requirements of the premier, various local government departments organized their own research groups to carry out related research. The Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Commission established the “New Industrial Revolution” Policy Research Group (divided into the Economic Group and the Science and Technology Group), and put forward a general report on the “New Industrial Revolution” and the outline of Shanghai’s Strategic Policy in January 1984. The economic group put forward the Strategic Plan for reforming Shanghai’s traditional Industry with New Technology, and the Science and Technology Group put forward the Strategic Plan for Shanghai to establish New Industries (draft for soliciting opinions)”. The basic thinking was roughly the same as the “Outline of Report” compiled by TERC and the Development Research Center of the Commission on Science and Technology.

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After the completion of the outline of the report, Director Ma Hong, I and Li Boxi all shifted our focus to China toward the Year 2000. Deng Shoupeng of the TERC joined in at the later stage of the project and carried out subsequent work in cooperation with staffs from the Ministry of Science and Technology.

6.6 Industrial Policies Studies 6.6.1 Origin of the Project and Stages of the Project 1. Origin of the project. After we completed the project China toward the Year 2000, our center cumulated experience of several development issues of China in Macro and long-term aspects. But China is too large and diversified to be understood only at Macro level. It is necessary to study China with depth and breadth at sectoral and regional level. By that time, Li Boxi assumed the responsibility as the Director of Development and Forecasting Section, I exchanged my view with her, and she agreed with me. In November 1985, National Investment Policy Seminar was hosted by our center. The organizational work was under the charge by Development and Forecasting Section. The theme of the seminar was “Rationalization of Industrial Structure and Investment Policy Studies Seminar”. Bo Yibo, Ma Hong and Zhang Pan all spoke at the seminar. Director Ma Hong sent a report to former Premier on April 27, 1986 requesting to study the theme industrial policy systematically and priority of strategic industrial policy of different regions. This report was approved by former premier on May 16. 2. Involvement of the World Bank in the project “Industrial Policy” studies. Because the World Bank and our center had established good cooperation relationship during their project “China: long term development issues and options. Vice president Carlos of the World Bank had visited our center in March 1987 and talked about cooperation between two sides. And a group of World Bank expert came to our center in April, I was responsible to discuss with them. The World Bank group completed a “Memorandum of understanding” related to “Collaborative Research Project on Industrial Policies between the World Bank and the Research Center for Economic, Technological and Social Development, of the State Council in 10th April. I reported the contents of this memorandum to Ma Hong. I had translated three major parts of this memorandum. • Scope of the cooperative research with the World Bank • Pattern of cooperation, content and planned progress • Length of cooperation and financial arrangement The World Bank would approve a soft loan to our center in June 1987 and the Ministry of Finance and State Planning Commission of China should provide

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similar funding to support this study. I drafted this report on behalf of Ma Hong and sent it to former Premier with above contents on 22nd May, and it was approved by the former Premier. 3. Three stages of study of “Industrial Policy”. The study of industrial policy of our center could be divided into three stages. The first stage was mainly done with cooperation of domestic institutions. The second and third stage were mainly accomplished with cooperation with the World Bank. It was meaningful as Ma Hong stated in his report to the former Premier “We consider to collaborate with the World Bank, an international organization, in joint research activity which can further advance the international practice of qualitative and quantitative analysis of industrial policy, improve the quality and level of policy research work of our country.”

6.6.2 The First Stage of Industrial Policy Studies (April 1986–July 1987) 1. Report of “Preliminary Research of Industrial Policy of China”. The first stage of Industrial Policy Studies was mainly done through close collaboration between State Planning Commission and our center. The Development and Forecasting Section prepared “Outline of Research of Industrial Policy” and distributed it to various line ministries participated in this study. Our center also organized postgraduates of CASS to make survey in several places and prepared several background reports of studies of industrial policy, such as Research report of Industrial Policy of Shanghai and Zhejiang Province, Current Development of Sichuan Province and Major Policies, Investigation and Analysis Related to Labor Contract, etc. Li Boxi, Zhou Lin, Liu He (Researcher of Industrial Comprehensive Bureau of State Planning Commission by that time) and Lin Dongliang together wrote a research report on the basis of many reports of various line ministries with the theme “Preliminary Research of industrial policy of China” on March 14, 1987, and sent it to former Premier. The former Premier wrote his comments on the report on March 21, “This paper has put forward a very important idea, it is worth serious study.” 2. Joint conference hosted by State Planning Commission and our center. In late July, the State Planning Commission together with our center organized a conference with some provinces and municipalities at Dan Dong Municipality, Liaoning Province. Participants from our center included Wu Mingyu (deputy director), I and Li Boxi (both of us were members of the Standing Committee). This Conference lasted for five days. The deputy director Zhang Shou of State Planning Commission gave a speech in the morning of July 1987, while Wu Mingyu the deputy director of our center gave speech in the afternoon. There were two days of discussion in small sections, one day for speeches given by participants in the

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conference. And one day for concluding the conference. The Dan Dong Conference received 18 simple reports submitted by provinces and municipalities, while our center received more than 30 detailed reports and over 40 simple reports from various line ministries, provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities since April 1986. 3. Major outline of the report “Issues Related to China’s Industrial Structure and Industrial Policy”. Based on the role of various administrative organizations, State Planning Commission had the responsibility to promulgate industrial policies. Therefore, Director Zhang Shou’s speech was of significance, it was outlined in Box 6.1.

Box 6.1 Outline of Issues Related to China’s Industrial Structure and Industrial Policy This speech is divided into 3 major parts: I. Current situation of China’s industrial structure 1. China’s industrial structure has obtained explicit improvement through several years of adjustment since third plenary session of eleventh Party’s Congress. 2. There are still relatively serious problems in our current stage of development: (1) Unbalance among industrial sectors, the disparity between basic industry and processing industry is relatively large. (2) Structure of industry is backward mainly due to poor mechanical electric industry and also poor iron and steel industry. The other feature is weakness of emerging industry. (3) Industrial structure cannot be adapted to change of demand structure. The affordable capability of demand is too large. (4) Regional industrial structure is unreasonable. II. Causes of serious disadvantage of Existed Industrial Structure. There are many aspects, the main causes may be classified into follows: 1. The cause is long term, historical 2. Wrong concepts and wrong recognition. It is shown in following: (1) How to judge the stage of China’s economic development? (2) How to recognize the relationship between planning and market? (3) Unreasonable institution due to insufficient deepening of reform III. How to do well the rationalization of our country’s industrial structure? 1. Recognized clearly development stage of China’s Industrial structure In a relatively longer period later, modernization reform of China’s industrial structure can be roughly divided into 3 stages:

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2. 3.

4.

5. 6.

7.

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(1) Preliminary rationalization stage Try to coordinate development of industrial structure, upgrade technological level (2) To achieve the stage of efficiency type industrial structure (3) Achieving the stage of higher level of industrial structure Overcome weak link of national economy, develop basic industry and basic infrastructure Judge and identify key industries which can bring along economic development Seven industrial sectors are identified: (1) Several important equipment manufactures (2) Construction Industries (3) Clothing industry (4) Food industry (5) Consumer’s durable industry (6) Micro-electronics industry (7) Automobile industry Reform and rationalization of China’s enterprise organizational structure (1) Do better cooperation of specialization (2) Proceed reform of enterprises based upon economy of scale (3) Organizing combined enterprise Realizing comparative advantage of regional resources, do better rationalization of regional industrial structure Insist upon science and technology progress, absorb fully advanced technology and experience of developed countries to accelerate the rationalization of China’s industrial structure Control effective demand appropriately, to adjust industrial structure from both sides of supply and demand

6.6.3 Second Stage of the Study 1. Preparation of outline of the study. It was quite different from previous projects, Li Boxi and I drafted a system design for this project and distributed it to the participants. It included one main document and four attachments. All these were written in Chinese. The major outline of the main document was translated and provided in Box 6.2. The name of the four attachments were: Attachment1, one of research report (abstract) of American Sectoral Industrial Policy—Industry Policy Report on the United States Textile and Apparel Industry, Attachment 2A—On the Specific Requirements of Regional Industrial Structure and Industrial Policy,

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Attachment 2B—Investment Survey of UNIDO, and Attachment 2C—Industrial Structure and Industrial Policy of Hungry. The last three attachments were documents collected from UNIDO when we were short term consultants at UNIDO in 1981. These documents were translated to be references for the Chinese participants of this project.

Box 6.2 Outline of System Design of the Project Industrial Policy and Industrial Structure Wang Huijiong, Li Boxi I. Background of Research of the Project Industrial Policy and Industrial Structure 1. Industrial structure and its change Table 6.1 (omit) Change of Industrial Structure of China and some developing countries 2. Motive force to promote industrial structural change Table 6.2 (omit) Analyze the two major forces: One was growth of national economy and result changes of many endogenous factor; the other is technological change etc. 3. Industrial policy and its change II. Research Objectives and Requirements III. Scope of Research This project can cover a very broad area of studies, which had been pointed in its memorandum of World Bank which had pointed out it was necessary to limit the area of study closely related to development issues. Diagram1 (omitted) A diagram was drawn to show the relationship of scope of study of industrial policy and industrial structure with government strategy, current industry, product market and factor market, import and export, household demand etc. IV. Methodology of Research Work 1. Do better linkage studies Due to complexity of this project, related linkage factors should also be studied, although they should be limited in number. A diagram was presented in the main document. Diagram 2 (omitted) Showing related factors effected change of industrial structure 2. Cross country studies was preferred 3. Macro study should be integrated with micro-study 4. Sectoral study should be integrated with regional studies 5. Qualitative analysis should be combined with quantitative analyses Table 6.3 (omitted) Objectives of Economic Policy and their expression in Industrial policy

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V.

Organization of Research Works Through the organized research of the project “China toward the Year 2000”, the organizational work was successful in general, but our organizational work with regions was weak. We stress in this study to organize regional study and sectoral study together to see whether there will be improvement of this. Fig. 6.3a (omitted) Systems Engineering Organization Fig.6.3b (omitted) Organization of industrial policy and industrial studies VI. Working Result and schedule of project Our center will complete a stage report (Feb. 1988), one quantitative report (March 1989) and a final main report (March 1989). The source of our reports will be based upon the reports from various line Ministries and regions. And also, the interim reports sent to the World Bank for comments. Based upon our memorandum with the World. We expect that the line ministries with their papers on the list of papers to be checked by the World Baker can handle them well and submitted in time. All their final reports should be completed by the end of March 1989.

2. Preliminary schedule (Table 6.5). 3. International seminars. Based upon initial memoriam, the World Bank and China must have an initial seminar to know concepts of their counter parties so that better coordination can be resulted for this joint research. The World Bank delegation was led by Shhid Yusef, with six team members. While the Chinese side was led by me and Li Boxi. There were around no more than 100 participants came from the State Council and Jiangsu and Zhejiang Province. Because the World Bank delegation will visit Shanghai, Wuxi after its seminar in Beijing. 4. Views of the World Bank delegates. Konovalov, Nicholson and Ziller jointly wrote a paper on International Policies for Structural Change which was presented by Table 6.5 Preliminary recent schedule discussed in the memorandum of the World Bank Related line ministries submitted their reports to the World Bank for comment

The World Bank delegation come to participate Seminar they will visit other parts of China

October

November

1987

December

January 1988

Related provinces, regions submitted their interim report for comment

WB will send a delegate to China to discuss interim reports they received

February

March

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Konovalov in the seminar. This paper reports from recent literature the current state of the debate on industrial policy and the emerging lessons of industrial policy. Section II discusses the debate on industrial policy at a conceptual level, why it has not yet been resolved and the areas of general agreement within the debate as to the government’s role in setting the macro-economic framework and in market development. Section III then considers the experience in industrial targeting. The discussion is organized as a cross-country comparison of general policy approaches, case studies and lessons. In Section IV, it turns to policies for structural change in declining industries. Here it covers market mechanisms for adjustment, the conceptual basis for government involvement, the international experience as indicated by several cases and some suggested lessons. Section V provides a general conclusion. The World Bank delegates state that two points must be made at the outset. First, this paper is essentially a survey of issues and experience, it does not attempt to resolve the debate over the use per se of industrial policies for targeting and structural adjustment. Secondly, this paper deals with international experience in market-based economies. It does not deal explicitly with China’s unique adjustment and targeting issues. They expect to produce a second version of this paper addressing these issues as the product of their visit to China. 5. Prospects of industrial structural change of China and major issues. The Chinese delegates presented a paper with the theme “Prospects of industrial structural change of China and major issues”. This paper was written in the name of Wang, H. J. and Li B. X. and was presented by Wang H. J. at the seminar. The main viewpoint was: “From the short history of China’s process of industrialization, China had followed the former Soviet Modal i.e. put priority on the development of heavy industry rather than on the light industry. While after the completion of the First Five Year Plan, the former Chairman Mao had found the former Soviet Union’s policy cannot adapted to China’s concrete conditions. He changed the priority of sectors to be agriculture, light industry and heavy industry. And published a paper in People’s Dairy in 1976. Therefore, industry policy was dynamic. In contemporary globalized economy, industrial policy was not a simple targeting policy, because there were many related factors and too many players needed to be evaluated. Historically speaking, although there was no terminology of industrial policy, but in a long history of agricultural society, the emperor of every dynasty had to pay attention on agricultural policy. Because in the year of serious famine, it may even cause destruction of a country. On Chinese history, there were no shortage of events of rural rebellions against the government due to serious famine and poor corrupted governmental policy. 6. The work of the World Bank. The World Bank Expert Group, with highly qualified professionals and their rich experience, has provided various assistance to developing countries. The group completed six background papers for their preparation of the final report based on our memorandum. Their background papers were for their internal discussions only. But given my rapport with the expert group, I obtained a copy of each paper.

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Box 6.3 Background papers of the World Bank Chapter 1: Towards a Framework for Industrial Policies Chapter 2: Structural Change in Chinese Industry Chapter 3: The Present Industrial Policy Regime Chapter 4: The State Investment System Chapter 5: Tax and credit Policy Chapter 6: Sectoral and Regional Policy In fact, one of the delegates of the World Bank Group, Dr. Peter Ditus, was senior than I.J. Singh in the group who wrote a similar paper The State Investment System which was completed in April 13, 1989. The six chapters listed in Box 6.3 were interim reports of the final report, all of which were completed on the same date of June 7, 1989. Dr. Ditus’ paper was well arranged and presented major changes of China’s investment system. Below, I quote some excerpts from the paper: C. National Priorities and Local Decision making. Decentralization of economic decision making and of economic power over resources has been the key element of industrial reforms over the past decade. Before 1978, almost all investment was financed through capital grants from the budget. By contrast, in 1988, the central government financed only 21% of fixed assess investment through the budget, and enterprises and local governments retained a large part of profits. As a result, provincial and lower level government have become a more important focus of industrial decision making. In recent years investment plans have been exceeded by significant margin, which is regarded as the main reason for inflationary pressures that have built for last three years. In 1988 the aggregate target for fixed investment was yuan 330 billion, whereas actual investment was yuan 431.4 billion (according to information from the investment department of SPC). With capital construction investment relatively tightly controlled, this was mainly due to technical upgrading, collectives’ and individuals’ investment weakness of the project approval system. If projects in priority sectors, such as energy, transport, or agriculture appear unprofitable to local government and enterprises because of state pricing policies or uncertainties. Then few projects will be proposed in these sectors. On the other hand, if projects for example, in light industry appear to be favorable from a local point of view, but are known to be inconsistent with national practices, then the project entities will try to avoid the SPC approval system. Among them, the more obvious bureaucratic strategies are: • breaking projects down into separate subprojects that do not require approval. • underestimating project costs and using states plan prices, even if inputs can be expected to be procured at market prices. • “Stretching” projects and presenting only the first phase as an investment project. Dr. Ditus made an objective analysis of these forces that were indeed at work to see the role of SPC controlled investment decline. Dr. Ditus left the World Bank after the mission, we had kept contact and friendship. He became Secretary General of Bank of International Settlement at Switzerland in the beginning of 21st Century. In the year 1999–2001, I was invited by ABB to be one of the International Consultant of its China Energy Technology Program. This program identified Shandong Province of China to be its cooperative partner. This project had two project directors. My responsibilities as a consultant were two: the first was to participate in various international conferences of this programme held in China or abroad; the second was to respond to questions of project director. When there was a

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first international conference held at Lausanne, I informed Dr. Ditus of my accommodation at Lausanne, he drove a motor car to my hotel to meet me at night. He told me there was shooting in the street. It was dangerous to go outside. But his wife told him, “Professor Wang is in town, and you must go and visit him!” I was deeply impressed. 7. World Bank and China’s delegation visited Shanghai (Nov. 25th–Nov. 29th 1987). There was similar large-scale seminar of industrial policy held in Shanghai and organized by Shanghai Economic Research Center. The participants included four groups: group 1 was World Bank delegates (6 persons); group 2 was delegates from the State Council (7 persons); group 3 was delegates from Jiangsu and Zhejiang Province (5 persons); group 4 was delegates from Shanghai (27 persons). Because this might be the first large international industrial policy seminar between the World Bank and the lower parts of Yangtze River. Nearly all participants of Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang province and three municipalities were directors or deputy directors of their respective centers. And both sides were well prepared. Because the Chinese side was currently in the second stage of research. The Shanghai Economic Research Center had prepared a draft report with the theme “Basic concepts of Export Orientation of Shanghai Industrial Structure” and printed in 14th November 1987. The first day of seminar was held at Shanghai Restaurant. The whole day was presentation and discussion. In the second day, the whole World Bank delegation visited Shanghai Municipal Planning Commission to listen the long-term development planning. In the afternoon, they divided into groups and visited Economic Commission, Science and Technology Commission, Price Bureau, Reform Office, Agricultural Commission. Bureau of Agriculture, Municipal Bureau of Instruments. Yangtze River Computer Association Company, and Shen Bei Office Mechanical Machinery. By the nighttime, the Shanghai Municipal governor invited the World Bank group and the Chinese delegations to have dinner together. In the morning of the third day, the World Bank group was further divided into two groups one group visited the Shanghai Computer Company and Shanghai TV First Factory; the second group visited the Oil Fat Company. I went on the tour with Yusef. We two are both book worms. He told me, he had to deal with many different themes, and there was no time to read a whole book. The best way was to travel on mission, to bring a suite case filled with six or seven books, all books were read after the mission. His strategy was like mine. Because he had been friend of mine, he told me frankly his opinion related to seminar discussions. A cadre had raised a question to replace Shanghai textile industry with modern information communication technology. He said to me: “based on my personal knowledge, Shanghai’s textile industry is very competitive in international market. I have never heard a policy to remove a competitive sector in the market and replace it with a new high-tech sector whose competitiveness in the market is unknown!” He also told me the World Bank was under restructuring. He returned to Washington D.C. soon after and accepted a new role appointed by the Bank. I.J. Singh would replace him to lead the project, industrial policy.

6.6.4 Third Stage of Work (January 1989–May 1989) I.J. Singh continued to lead the project. The Bank’s study was also based on 6 detailed micro studies of Shenyang, six factories at Chengdu. All work was carried out based

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on the plan. Singh turned the eight sectoral reports (shown in Fig. 6.6) completed by Chinese counterparts to the World Bank’s staffs for evaluation. When Singh came to China, I and Madam Li Shantong accompanied him on a mission to Shanghai Municipal Government. Deputy Governor, Huang Ju met us. Singh also established a good working relationship with our younger staffs. Fig 6.5 was a photo taken from our Center with almost all participating staffs in the industrial policy project. Figure 6.6 is an internal memorandum of the World Bank for the Chinese papers of sectoral industrial policy. The Bank’s experts were serious in their job. The comment to ‘Coal Industry’ had a volume of 20 pages, and it was very detailed, including Background, General Evaluation, several important issues listed in the detailed comments, organization of the report, and comments by chapter and section (4 chapters). Then they sent the feedback documents to Dr. Peter Harrold, the Residence mission at Beijing. He sent them back to our center. And we revised those papers together with the authors.

Fig. 6.5 Photo of I. J. Singh with most of participants of Industrial Policy Studies. From left to right: First Row (seated on sofa): Li Shantong, Li Boxi, I. J. Singh, Wang Huijiong Second Row [Note Later position of those young staffs were: Tong Yueting, Professor of National University of Singapore; Lv Wei, Member of Chinese People’s Congress; Deng Zhigao, Director of Office of DRC; Li Peiyu, Chairman of China Reinsurance Group; Ma Jun, Deutsche Bank Chief Economist for Greater China; Hou Yongzhi, Director of Bureau of Development Strategy and Regional Development; Li Shudian, Cadre of Shandong Province, returned back to Shandong Province later.] (Stand): Tong Yueting, Lv Wei, Deng Zhigao, Li Peiyu, Ma Jun, Hou Yongzhi, Li Shudian

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Fig. 6.6 Office memorandum of the world bank (review of sub-sector studies for DRC)

6.6.5 Final Stage of Work (June 1989–January 1991) Based upon the memorandum, Li Boxi, Li Shantong and I went to the headquarters of the World Bank at Washington D.C. to work together with I.J. Singh to finalize the project. Our first work was to provide comments to the draft final report of counterparts. Our Center prepared two sets of reports: First, we selected 14 papers done by different line ministries and regions organized by our center. Second, after discussing with Li Boxi and Li Shantong, based on several major ideas of the Chinese papers we received, I wrote an English paper with the theme “Overall Framework of Industrial Policy”. The paper was about 40 pages with 5 sections: Introduction; General Discussion on industrial Policy; Principle and criteria for setting up industrial

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policy and four essential elements of industrial policy; An evaluation of the past and current IP in China; conceptions related to the preparation of IP. The paper was sent to Singh to fulfil our promise of the memorandum. We also filled the form “Comments on First Draft of Report on Industry Policy” the Bank sent us on June 23, 1989 with 26 comments for its six chapters. I.J. Singh modified his final publication into 5 chapters. And published it into green cover5 on June 29, 1990 with the theme “China: Industrial Policies for an economy in transition”. The contents of the book are herein listed in Box 6.3. Box 6.4 Contents of “China: Industrial Policies for an Economy in Transition” Summary and Conclusions A. Introduction B. The Role of Planning C. Structural Change and Industrial Policy D. The State Investment and Material Supply Systems E. Price Reforms and Credit Policies F. Enterprise Autonomy and Accountability G. Policy Implementation I.

Structural Change and Industrial Policies A. Introduction B. Structural Change and Industrial Policy Stability in Subsectoral Shares Short-Term Sectoral Imbalance and Lagging Infrastructural Development Growth of the Collective and TVE Sectors Development of the Service Sectors Changes in Demand Growing Role of Foreign Trade C. Implications for Industrial Policy D. Characteristics of the Transitional Regime Reduced Role of Central Planning Dual Price Regime Thin and Fragmented Markets Changing Role of Enterprise Autonomy Lack of Institutional Structural and Rules

II. The State Investment System

5 Generally, the World Bank official publications were classified into several colors, green or yellow

were informal for getting information feedback from others. Grey cover publication was formal publication to government. And finally, red cover, common sales to the public. I.J. Singh’s report was published to be working paper WPP 143 in working paper series.

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A. Overview of the Investment System B. The Declining Influence of the Central Government The Project Approval System and Project Approval Limits Control Over Financial Resources The Material Supply System C. Changing Investment Patterns D. Sectoral Investment Priorities Recent Developments Problem with Present Sectoral/Targeting Policies E. Reforming the State Investment System III. Price Reforms and Credit Policies A. Introduction B. The Role of Prices and Industrial Investments The Price Regime and Provincial Investment Priorities State Plan Prices Relationship between Market and State Plan Prices Recent Price Changes Domestic and International Prices C. Enterprise Response to Dual Pricing and Material Allocations D. Recommendations for Price Reforms The Case for Price Reforms Recent Announcements on Price Adjustments Policy Recommendations E. The Role of the Financial System Interest Rate Policies Directed Credits and Credit Ceilings Recommendations for Financial Policies IV. Enterprise Autonomy and Accountability A. Introduction B. The Contract Responsibility System C. Enterprise Taxation Policy Implications of Enterprise Taxation Policies Enterprise Taxation and the Contract Responsibility System D. Labor Policies E. Some Conclusions F. Recommendations for Further Reform of the Contract Responsibility System and Enterprise Tax Policies G. Measures for Promoting Competition Competition in the Domestic Market Collectives, TVEs and Increasing Competition Scale Diseconomies and Inefficient Investments

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Barriers to Entry Industrial Restructuring and Exit Policy H. Recommendations for Promoting Competition V. Policy Implementation A. Introduction B. The Austerity Program and Medium-Term Policies C. Timing and Sequencing of Policy Reforms Interdependence of Reform Measures One Possible Reform Sequence D. Policy Coordination and the Role of Government Direct and Indirect Policies The Emerging Role of Government The Role of Governments vis-à-vis Industrial Enterprises Policy Coordination Bodies Our center is to provide policy consultative service for the government and advanced policy academic research. We are not in the administrative position to promulgate policies. The State Planning Commission promulgated Decision of the State Council Concerning Current Key Points of Industrial Policy on March 15, 1989 and promulgated further Outline of National Industrial Policy in Ninety’s Decade on March 25, 1994. Our Center published two studies with collection of papers by line ministries. One was Studies of Chinese Sectoral Industrial Policies (Chinese version) edited by Wang Huijiong, Li Boxi and Zhou Li. And published by China’s Financial Economic Publisher on September 1989, the other was China’s Mediumand Long-Term Industrial Policy edited by Wang Huijiong and Li Boxi and published by China’s Financial and Economic Publisher on January 1991.

6.7 Integrated Economic Development Policies and Planning Among all the work I was responsible for in my administrative role at DRC, this project consumed the largest amount of work and manpower. This project was described in case 3 of section 4.3 Nation as Large-Scale Social Systems Engineering in our book Introduction to Social Systems Engineering (Wang and Li 2018, pp. 189–198). Hereunder, I shall simply describe the process of the project.

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6.7.1 Project Launch The center approved “Report concerning application for financial grant of Research Project from UNDP’s Agreement ‘Comprehensive Research related to launch of Integrated Economic Development Policies and Planning’. The center appointed Wu Mingyu to be director of the project, I was appointed to be director of the project office. But on the day for signing the agreement, Wu Mingyu was absent due to some reasons. Although some vice presidents of our center participated the ceremony of signing the agreement, no one would proceed with the signing. So, I signed the agreement on August 20, 1988 to launch the project.

6.7.2 Project Themes The original intension of the project was integrated of three themes: development, reform and regional development. Currently, it was divided into three subprojects. The theme of subproject 1 was: Pattern of China’s Industrialization and Industrial Policy, which was responsible by Li, B. X. Li, S. T. & Lu, Zhiqiang to be deputy. The theme of subproject 2 was: To stabilize the economy, kept coordinated development, perfect the macroeconomic policy, study of macroeconomic institution and international comparison, which was responsible by Wu, J. L, & Hu Ji to be deputy. The theme of subproject 3 was Study of regional industrialization capability and assessment of opportunity. Organization of this subproject was composed of members of DRC, members of leaders from provincial and municipal Research Centers of Shandong, Hunan, Sichuan and Tianjin. I was also the part time director of this subproject. The final report system included five volumes of Chinese Report, five volumes of English Report within which, one volume were compilation of contracted papers from international consultants.

6.7.3 Project Results People’s Daily reported the results of this project on 22nd December, the report said: “Integrated economic policies and planning is the largest one of policy research soft project supported by UNDP to China up to present, this project was responsible by Research Center of Economic, Technological and Social Development of the State Council together with more than several tenth of line ministries of the State Council participated in this research, 22 tasks had been completed. Scope of research had covered hot and difficult issues of China’s development, reform and regional policies. A fair part of the results of research had achieved active role in planning and reform of national related departments and provinces. Some results had been absorbed in

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National Eighth Five-Year Plan, Ten Years Plan and preparation of Economic System Reform.

6.8 International Activities There were many domestic and international activities happened in this period, only a few meaningful international activities will be described.

6.8.1 Participation of Seminar of New Technology and Development by UNESCO on 4th–7th December, 1984 in Paris The Chinese Academy of Social Science received a letter of invitation from UNESCO (United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organization) requesting participation to “Seminar of The Third Wave and New Technology Development. CASS had no appropriate personnel and they passed the letter of invitation to Ma Hong. He asked me to participate on behalf of TERC. As described before, I did not worship Toffler’s view blindly, although the ‘Third Wave’ is a mega trend, but the strategy to deal this mega trend must be based on concrete conditions of each country. Therefore, the theme of my paper (with co-author Li Boxi) was “Choice for the developing countries, energy society or information society?” I used the terminology “energy society” means the developing countries have not accomplished its process of industrialization. Their major strategy shall focused on continuous its process of industrialization and pay certain attention on the growth of information technology. My speech was approved nearly by all the participants. Dion Teles, the chief engineer of an electronic engineering Company of Brazil requested the Seminar Organizer to print my paper for distribution. Professor J. J. Salomon, Chairman of Centre Science Technologies et Societe (CNAM) came to me to invite me to participate in a civil society for science policy studies, he was one of the organizers. The normal name of this organization is: International Council for Science Policy Studies. The president of the council at that time was Professor E. Mendelson, secretary was Georges Ferne who worked at OECD. That council had relatively close collaboration with OECD, which can be shown in part of the letter that Ferne’ sent me in April 1988. It can be seen from the fact that our center was a new institution not known internationally, therefore UNESCO sent letter of invitation to CASS. This is a good opportunity for our center to get access to most international organization. I accepted Saloman’s invitation to be member of this council.

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6.8.2 Participation of Collaborative Research Project of UNU (United Nations University) Between 1984 and 1985, Ma Hong and I went to New Delhi to participate an academic conference. Ma Hong asked me to go alone to the academic conference hosted by historical institute of India. The theme of the conference was related to System Engineering, I gave a speech related to systems engineering within the context of historical development: the growth of various disciplines of natural science and engineering, increasing complexity of engineering projects post the first industrial revolution especially post the first and second World Wars. Then. Emergence of General Systems Theory to deal with those new complexities. I explain some essential elements and features of general systems theory and systems engineering and their trend of growth in global society. After my speech, the chairman said: “After all, you have explained the “terminology” systems engineering and the general systems theory very clearly to us. We some Indians always talked about systems engineering, but they cannot explain what really systems engineering is?” Meanwhile, my speech attracted the attention of deputy director of UNU, Mr. Kinhide Mushakoji. He was also in attendance of that conference. After he returned to Japan, he asked his programme official Takeo Uchida to write a letter to me, inviting me to participate a research project of UNU, “Technological Independence—The Experience of Six Asian Countries.” China was in the beginning period of opening to the outside world. There was no previous example to have joint research project with abroad by that time except the former Soviet Union. Therefore, I did not response. But Uchida continued his effort to send me one more letter after another. I took these letters and discussed with Li Boxi, she went together with me to report to Ma Hong, and Ma Hong promised to let our center to participate this joint research project of UNU. A team was established, 16 persons from TERC, 3 persons from National S&T Information Research Institute, one person from deputy director of S&T Development Research Center attached to State, S&T Commission. This team was responsible by I and Li Boxi. The first international conference of interim report of participating countries included Korea, Japan, Thailand, China, Philippine and India was held at Beijing. This project was responsible by Professor Saneh of Thailand. He suggested to have a unified outline of final report of each country based upon his review of the interim reports submitted by each country. This outline included exploration of pattern of development from historical perspective of each country, natural endowments and case study. We submit our interim report of second phase to UNU in Aug. 1986. The final report was completed in Dec.1986. It was divided into two volumes. The first volume was the main report which was summarized by I and Li Boxi based on the research works of our team members. The second volume was a collection of case studies. I myself wrote the English main report around 130 pages.

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Although every country submitted their country report on time, but UNU could not publish them in time due to many reasons. Finally, UNU entrusted Dr. Susantha Goonatiake to re-edit six country reports to be a uniform whole. I received a letter from Takeo Uchida on January 22, 1992 with two attachments, one preface written jointly by Saneh and Susantha, and “China” written by me, requested me to review and approve. I replied him simply with OK. Figure 6.7 shows the cover of the book published by UNU in 1994.

Fig. 6.7 Cover of the book Technological Independence: The Asian Experience

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6.8.3 Speaking at the Opening Session of International Conference “Euro Prospective” I was invited by Dr. Thierry Gaudin, the director of the Center for Long Term Forecast and Evaluation/CPE to deliver a speech in a large international conference “Europrospective” with 1500 participants in Paris from 23rd to 25th April 1987. This conference was organized by the Center National dela Rechercha Scientifique/CNRS; the Center for Long Term Forecasting and Evaluation/CPE; the French Planning Commission/CGP; the Commission of the European Communities, with the participation of the International Council of Science Policy Studies, I was already its member. Director Gaudin invited me to have dinner together. He told me one of the reasons for this conference was that the Japanese manufacturing products were very competitive in the European market by that time and the Europeans were worried about it. He also told me my speech was scheduled in the opening session of a large hall with 1500 participants. He asked me, “Have you ever read the Book of Change?” I answered him “I shall talk about it in my speech.” I was well prepared for my speech after rewriting “China toward the Year 2000” into a relatively short paper and printed and distributed 1500 copies to the audiences. And I prepared 25 projections. My speech was successful. Hugues de Jouenel, who spoke in the same session with me, came to me asking for me permission to translate a part of my paper into French and publish it in his Journal ‘futuribles’ I consented with pleasure. Figure 6.8a, b are pictures of arrangement of opening session and the publication ‘futuribles’.

6.8.4 Other International Conferences During this period, I also attended many other international conferences either held in China or overseas. Most noteworthy ones included: (1) International Symposium for International Technology Transfer held in Beijing in May 1986 and organized by China’s Academy of Science, the State Economic Commission, and US Northwestern University, I co-chaired the Policy Change section with Rasto Macus; (2) International Symposium on Technology Policy, Finance and Project Planning held in Bombay in February 1987 and organized by EDI of the World Bank, I was appointed to lead the learning session; (3) Conference on Project: Reflection of Future Research on World Problems held in Paris in December 1987 and organized by UNESCO, I presented a paper Perspective of World Problems; (4) Regional Development Conference held in Beijing in September 1988 and organized by Chinese Enterprise Management Association and UNCRD. In fact, the leaders of Chinese Enterprise Management Association had went to UNCRD, UNCRD promised to identify senior Japanese experts to assist China on regional planning. Professor Shinich Ichimura identified to assist planning of Wuxi. Figure 6.9 is a photo that Mr. and Mrs. Ichimura

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Fig. 6.8 a Photo of schedule of opening session b French translation of China toward the Year 2000

Fig. 6.9 Photo of Mr. and Mrs. Ichimura and I having lunch together

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and I had lunched together. I presented Introduction to China’s socio-economic development Policy; and (5) Conference on International Economic Change and East West Security Structure Change held in Chicago in November 1988 and organized by East West Security Institute, I delivered a speech on China’s Perspective of International Economic System and East West Security in the 1990s.

6.9 Life–Major Family Events While I was fully occupied with my works in this period, some major family events occurred. My elder daughter Wang Qi was selected for the Sheraton Hotel Management training program hosted by Sheraton New York Time Square Hotel. She went to USA in 1985 for the training. Afterwards, she was offered a scholarship to study MBA at Penn State University. Upon her graduation, she had several job-offers, but accepted a faculty position at School of Management of Gallaudet University in Washington DC. This is a unique institution, founded in 1864 by an Act of US Congress (its Charter), which was signed into law by President Lincoln. Gallaudet is the world’s only university in which all programs and services are specifically designed to accommodate deaf and hard of hearing students and is known as the Harvard University for the deaf. Gallaudet University paid for her to get a PhD in computer technology in education. There, she has learned American Sign Language, taught many courses in business and IT, and mentored numerous American, Chinese, and other international deaf students to pursue graduate studies and advance their careers to fulfill their potential in life. Her outstanding work eventually earned her tenure and full professorship. Then my younger daughter Wang Ping graduated from Kunming Medical College and moved to Beijing. She worked in several hospitals in Beijing but expressed her desire to advance her training overseas. Her sister made special arrangements and sponsored her to come to US as a visiting scholar at University of Pennsylvania in 1989. By the end of 1990, both my daughters were in US pursuing advanced training and career.

6.10 Summary 1983 to 1990 was a period of emerging reform and revitalization in China. After the 10-year Cultural Revolution, the Chinese people were eager to return to normal life and work and they welcomed the government strategy of reform and opening to the outside world. Many government research institutions were either established or further strengthened to carry out research projects, to explore various forms of reform and relevant policies and provide consultative service to the country’s top decision makers. ERC comprised mostly of former economists, TERC with researchers from a

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few engineering fields, and newly graduated college students and postgraduates, were such institutions which eventually emerged into the present Development Research Center of the State Council. During this period, I was responsible for four large organized research projects under the leadership of Director Ma Hong who was an old cadre and reformer. These projects were: China toward the Year 2000; Integrated Economic Development Policies and Planning (with Grant from UNDP around 3 million U.S.D.); Industrial Policy Studies; and New Industrial Revolution and Countermeasures of China. I used the first two projects as case studies in my book Introduction to Social Systems Engineering (Wang and Li 2018). My work provided me a great opportunity to work collaboratively with experts in the World Bank, UNESCO, UNU, UNCRD, OECD and other international organizations and thus to form long-term friendship. My exposure at international conferences and seminars as a speaker or participant broadened my experience and expertise, which has paved the way for my later work and publication. Besides scholarly work, I was also involved in administrative duties and decision-making processes as a member of the Standing Committee of the Center in this period. Many types of work of different nature occurred in this period. Again, I applied learning by doing to acquire new information and knowledge swiftly. I read a variety of literature related to my new projects. For example, in doing the study China toward the Year 2000. I read three volumes of Barney’s Letters to the President, OECD’s literature on future trends and the Japanese publication Japan toward the year 2000, etc. Time flies! As I was busy engaged in my work, my children had grown to be adults. By the end of 1990, both my daughters were in US to pursue their advanced education and fulfilling their dreams in life!

References Li. W. (Chief Ed.) (2015). Major Events of Development Research Center of the State Council 1980–2013 (Chinese Version) (pp. 77–78, 100–101, 113). Beijing: China Development Press. Wang, H. J., & Li, S. T. (2018). Introduction to social systems engineering. Singapore: Springer.

Chapter 7

Work and Activities as a Member of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and Vice President for DRC’s Academic Committee (1990–2000)

7.1 Introduction This chapter describes my work, learning and life in the period from 1990 to 2000 during which I served two terms as the member of the Eighth and Ninth Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee and since 1993 was in charge of Academic Committee of DRC as its Vice President. In my role as the member of CPPCC, I was involved in several tasks. Most noteworthy were (1) as a member of the 8th CPPCC National Committee, where I actively participated in the task force to investigate and research the technological transformation of China’s existing enterprises and (2) as a member of the 9th CPPCC National Committee, I was a contributing member of the task force to investigate how China could develop its cultural industry. My work with these task forces, especially the 2nd one has broadened my perspective on culture as an important element in social systems and expanded my social circle to include well known artists and entertainers. During this period, I continued my busy schedule working on mission critical projects domestic, international or joint and globe-trotted to various conferences to present or chair sessions or simply to learn. Meanwhile, my three children all grew up to be accomplished and responsible adults.

7.1.1 Reasons of Delayed Retirement I was busily occupied in my professional life when I was in the administrative position as a member of Standing Committee of Development Research Center of the State Council (DRC). In mid-1990, my age was already surpassed the official retirement age. But DRC was in the booming period, and I was also director of the project office of UNDP, due to the extreme complexity of the project and its organizational work, the date of completion of this project had been postponed twice: the first from September © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 H. Wang, Explorations in Social Systems Engineering, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-3390-7_7

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1992, to the end of 1993; the second from the end of 1993 to June 1994. And these delays were approved by all parties concerned. And I served two terms as the member of the Eighth and Ninth Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee since 1993. Based upon China’s regulations, one can continue to work if he/she is the member of the CPPCC National Committee or deputy of National People’s Congress. Therefore, I not only delayed my retirement but became even busier during 1990–2000 period. DRC had been in operation for several years and majority of its work and activities became routines. Some selected work and activities I participated will be descripted in this and coming chapters. The presentation of the events will be mostly based on the time sequence when they occurred. However, events that were related but occurred on different time frame are lumped together to make the theme of this book “Exploration of Social Systems Engineering” clearer. Social Systems Engineering has a very broad coverage. Its knowledge may be not come only from research work or academic activities. For example, my participation of activities of CPPCC is also a contributing factor in my exploration of Social Systems Engineering.

7.1.2 The Macrosystem The macrosystem for the growth of developing Asia and China was good in this period. This can be seen from the data of IMF.1 The ten-year average growth rates for the advanced economies, developing countries, and developing Asia were respectively 3.3%, 4.3%, and 6.9% from 1982 to 1991 and 3.5%, 5.6%, and 7.5% from 1992 to 2001. Therefore, China had a relatively favorable global macro system for its development in this period.

7.1.3 The Exosystem By early 90’s DRC’s reputation as China’s top government policy research and consulting agency has been well established due to its success in several large-scale domestic and international projects, such as China towards the Year 2000, Industrial Policy Studies, and Integrated Economic Development Policies and Planning. So, it was in high demand for collaborative research both at home and abroad. In addition, through years of my own efforts and hard work, I have established a proven track record for productive and quality work among my colleagues in China and collaborators overseas. By now, invitations for me speak at conferences or involve in various projects poured in. In 1989, I went to the World Bank Resident Mission in Beijing to discuss issues where I met Zhang Hanzhi who later became the Head of Bureau of Foreign Affairs of DRC. She was very impressed with my ability to 1 IMF

(2000).

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discuss issues in English with the World Bank staff and remarked that, “It is a rare thing that you know your business and can speak excellent English.” Afterwards, we collaborated closely on several matters and developed good rapport. She and her department always supported my many international engagements and approved my international travel requests promptly.

7.2 The Conference of “China and the World in 1990s” 7.2.1 Origin of This Conference Although this important international conference was sponsored by Research Center for Economic, Technological and Social Development of the State Council (RCETSD) in May 1988, the activity had been discussed earlier by Ma Hong and other leadership with Mr. Martin Lees, the Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations, who came to China in November1986 to participate the international conference of “Asian Pacific Economy toward the Year 2000”. Ma raised his concern on the prospects of global technological impact, the prospect of economic growth and social development. Due to the complexity of these issues, Martin Lees spent more than one year to prepare and organize the conference.

7.2.2 My Role as Chief of Secretariat of the International Conference I was appointed by Vice President Wu Mingyu to be a temporary Chief of the Secretariat of this important conference. My major roles were two. My first role was to meet and greet important foreign guests at the airport, because most of the 19 foreign guests were senior politicians or business leaders, or famous scientists. For example, I was responsible to receive Donald Kendall, the President of Pepsi Cola, I met him at the airport, and sent him to the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse; the other foreign guest was Koji Kobayashi, the chairman of the board of Nippon Electronic Company (NEC), we had a nice conversation in the car and learned that we has similar background as I used to be the deputy chief engineer of a power plant and he was an electronic engineer in his younger days. He told me about the difficult days he faced post WW II. We invited 30 Chinese participants, most of them were ministers or vice-ministers of various ministries, and I assumed the responsibility to help them communicate with foreign participants. So my second major role was to collect all papers from foreign participants, read them and summarize them into Chinese (because the time was insufficient to translate the entire papers) and classified them based on the four categories: (1) change of global S&T and their impacts to global economy; (2) the

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issues of the global economic structure; (3) physical deterministic factors of global economic activities; (4) political economic relationships in the 1990s. In addition, I was responsible to provide comments on crucial issues raised in foreign participants’ papers and prepare conference materials for their dissemination to the Chinese participants, so they were prepared for conference discussions.

7.2.3 The Conference 1. General. This international conference proceeded for 5 days, with 49 formal participants, 19 of them came from abroad. The senior Chinese government officials attached significant importance to this conference. Both premier and deputy premier then met with the foreign participants and had dialogued with them. Senior leader Deng Xiaoping also received the entire delegates of this international conference and had a picture taken with all participants (refer to Fig. 7.1). Only Ma Hong and Wu Mingyu of DRC gave speeches on the first day of the conference. Ma Hong delivered the opening address, and Wu Mingyu gave a brief overview of the world situation in the 1990s. Afterwards, five-day formal presentations and discussions proceeded. Mr. Donald Kendall was generous enough to pay the cost of the last day dinner for all the conference participants, and provided free Pepsi Cola drinks during the conference, but Coca Cola drinks were not allowed to appear in the conference.

Fig. 7.1 Photo of Deng Xiaoping together with all participants of “China and the World in 1990s”

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Due to the difficulties to identify the name of the participants one to one in the photo, Table 7.1 is presented below with most of the foreign quests and a few Chinese government leaders. 2. Process of the conference. The conference was well organized, and the presentations and discussions were proceeded in the following orders: • Technological changes and its impact on global economy. There were four papers presented and discussed in this section, two by foreign participants and two by Chinese. Contents of foreign papers focused more on the nature and broad influences of these technological changes on the global economy especially for China, while Chinese papers focused more on international comparison of the current situation of technology between China and developed countries, and the difficulties in catching up with the world’s advanced level due to China’s weakness and financial constraints. Generally, there were nearly not many debates between two sides • The issue of the structure of global economy. There were six papers presented in this section, three from foreign participants (within which, one foreign participant wrote two papers). This section provided only a general information of the changing trend of the global economy. Japanese economy was very strong by that time, part of Asian economy was rising especially the South-East Asian economies. China was also in rising but it had not attracted the attention from global economic powers by that time. MNCs had become a driving force of globalization were recognized by most of the participants of the conference. • Physical deterministic factors of the global economic activities. The issue of agriculture, energy and mineral production were raised and discussed in this section. Three papers discussed above three related topics were presented by ministers and professor from China to explain Chinese current situations and prospects to eliminate worries of international societies on Chinese issues of these three. And there were no debates on these among participants. But Mr. Gustave Speth, the director of the World Resource Institute had presented two papers related to China’s energy structure and the other related to warnings of the damages to China’s ecological environment. A Chinese vice minister responsible for environmental protection had also talked about environment issues of China but used more mild words. Mr. Lewis Branscomb, the director of S&T and Public Policy, stood up and criticized Speth severely during the discussion, he said: “It’s true for the issues of the environment. I had listened to your talks on environment several times in my country. Can you speak them in less severe sense?” Possibly, Mr. Branscomb don’t believe the degree of serious described by Speth. • Analysis of changes of international political and economic relationships. Although there were five papers presented in this section, only three of them had concrete contents. Mr. John Mroz, the director of East West Institute, his Institute was also dealing with reform of former Soviet Union. He had also

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Table 7.1 Names of partial participants of Fig. 7.1 Name

Country

Post (had been)

Name

Country

Post (had been)

Deng Xiaoping

China

Chairman of the Military Commission of the CPCCC

Sir Anlhony Barber

U.K.

Minister of Finance

Olusegun Obasanjo

Nigeria

President

Lewis Branscomb

U.S.A.

Director of S&T Public Policy, Kennedy School

Huan Xiang

China

Director Research Center of China’s International Relationships

Koji Kobayashi

Japan

President NEC

Ma Hong

China

Center for Economic, Technological and Social Development

Kurt Furgler

Switzerland

Chairman, Swiss Council

Hu Kang

China

Minister of Agriculture

Robert D. Hormats

U.S.A.

Deputy board of Director Golden Sachs

Tang Ke

China

Minister of Petroleum

Donald Kendall

U.S.A

President Pepsi Cola

Zhang Shou

China

Vice President, State Planning Commission

Gustave Speth

U.S.A.

Director, World Resource Institute

Sun Shangqing

China

Deputy Director of DRC

Runroken Yoshino

Japan

Director, International Economic Research Institute

Wu Mingyu

China

Deputy Director of DRC

Andrics Van Agt

Netherland

Prime Minister

Pedro Pablo Kiczynski

Peru

Chief Manager of First Boston Company

Kanovalov

UEER

Chief Researcher, Far East Institute

Monkombu Sambasivan Swaminathan

India

Member of India Agricultural Planning Commission

Martin Lees

U.K.

Assistant Secretary-General of U.N.

John Mroz

U.S.A.

Director of EastWest Institute

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spoken several sentences from Western Newspapers by that time for China’s consideration.

7.2.4 Works and Activities Post the Conference 1. China and the World in 1990s. A book China and the World in 1990s (JIU SHI NIAN DAI De ZHONG GUO Yu SHI JIE in Chinese) edited by Wu Mingyu with collection of all papers in this conference was published by China’s Fiscal and Financial Publisher on April, 1989. 2. Invitations to other international seminars. Although I did not speak at this international conference, some international participants learned about my work and talked to me. During one coffee break, both Donald Kendall and John Mroz came to me together and told me that they were aware of my contribution to this conference. Kendall intentionally arranged for me to sit next to his son at the dinner he hosted for the conference participants. Mr. Mroz had a project “International Economic Change, Restructuring and East-West Security” and organized a large international conference for this theme on November 14–16, 1988 in Chicago. He invited five Chinese participants, I, Mr. Wu Mingyu, Mr. Yang Yang, Mr. Zhang Xiaobin and Mr. Zhou Xiaochuan (who was a commissioner of the State Commission of Economic Reform by that time) to the conference. My paper “China’s Perspective of International Economic System and East-West Security in the 1990s” was scheduled to be presented at Working Session I of this international conference. Although there was a series of conferences subsequently to deal with the same theme, for example, the Moscow conference in March 1989, I was too busy with other important activities. So, I stopped further interaction with this institution. After the project completion, Mr. Mroz sent me a copy of the final project report.

7.3 Member of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference I served two terms as a member of the Eighth and the Ninth CPPCC National Committee from March 1993 to March 2003. CPPCC is one of the important political bodies of China. Public information about this organization and its role is widely available. Therefore, I will simply focus on my activities relevant to the themes of this book. One activity is described in Sect. 7.3.1 when I was member of the Eighth CPPCC National Committee, the other two are covered in Sect. 7.3.2 when I was member of the Ninth CPPCC National Committee.

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7.3.1 Participation of the Eighth CPPCC National Committee 1. The Economic Commission. The CPPCC had established several commissions in its organization to deal with routine works including investigation and research. Leadership of those commissions were generally the deputy chief of CPPCC. Wang Yuzhao was the vice chairman of the Economic Commission, who was also the then deputy director of DRC. 2. Task force to investigate and research the technological transformation of existing enterprises. It is not an open secret that the extra high economic growth rate of China depended heavily upon its investment. China invested heavily in projects of capital construction in its five-year planning period before the launch of economic reform and opening in late 1970s. Therefore, in the period of reforming its planning system from the mandatory planning system learned from former USSR into the indicative planning system commonly used by most UN countries, the Chinese government also emphasized technological transformation of its existing enterprises because it’s more applicable to concrete conditions of China in the period of reform. Therefore, both Wang Yuzhao and Ji Guobiao (the deputy director of the Committee of Science, Education, Culture, Health and Sports of the Eighth CPPCC National Committee) had interest in this theme. A task force of eleven members of CPPCC led by Wang and Ji was established to implement this project. I was selected as a member of the task force by Wang Yuzhao. 3. The beginning process. The research started with investigating economically developed Jiangsu and Fujian provinces, as well as provinces in Northeast China Region, where state-owned enterprises were playing a major role. We visited a depressed tire factory in the northeast region where only a few production personnel were seen working in the workshop. 4. Main investigation in Provincial Planning Commission of Jiangsu Province. The provincial state commission arranged a formal meeting for us. The director of the provincial state commission chaired the small meeting and made his welcome remarks. Then he asked a head of subordinate department to give a report related to projects of capital construction and technological transformation of existing enterprises of past several years of its Seventh Five-Year Plan. The department head stressed that most of investments were technological transformation of existing enterprises during the report. After his report, I had some doubts, but did not raise my questions at the meeting. After the meeting, I asked the department head to come to my room to have a chat. I said, “We are all in this line of work. Please tell me truthfully how many technological transformation projects you had just reported are new capital construction projects? How much is the share of new capital construction projects?” He replied, “Yes, it is true that more than 90% of them are new capital construction projects, and less than 10% of them are real technological transformation.” Such an investment pattern of China was well-known even by some foreign experts which I described in the paper of Peter Ditus of the World Bank in Chap. 6. But it was a common practice in

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Chinese planning system for a while. This example certainly illustrated an issue of complexity of reform in certain areas. 5. The other activities. Jiangsu Province also arranged for us to visit the Jinling Pharmaceutical Factory in Nanjing, and we learned about some contradictions related to intellectual property rights. Then our group went to Yangzhou, Taizhou and other places to visit the development of a very dynamic Chunlan Group, but at that time the scale of that enterprise group was still very small. 6. The final report. This task lasted for a year. The two leaders Wang Yuzhao and Ji Guobiao held several meetings with the eleven members to discuss what we learned in the three different regions. Our findings were: northeast region depressed the most, Fujian province was better, while Jiangsu province was the best among the three and it had relatively better performance of its technological transformation of its existing enterprises. In fact, this situation was also impacted by opening condition of different provinces. Fujian province had a poor economic performance in the first half of 1980s until the beginning of 1990s when investment poured in from Taipei China to the province. We developed the 100-page final report. The two leaders of the task force wrote the 2-page summary report which was printed and disseminated to relevant line ministries of the government or party.

7.3.2 Participation of the Ninth CPPCC National Committee 1. Suggestions for the Preparation of China’s 10th Five-Year Plan. I continued as a member of the Ninth CPPCC National Committee and wrote a paper “Suggestions for the Preparation of China’s 10th Five-Year Plan” to present at the general conference. But it was not selected. I included this paper in Chap. 5 of my book Comprehensive Study of China’s Development and Reform (Chinese version) which was published by China Intercontinental Press in 2004. In the paper, I applied the terminology Social Systems Engineering. Below is an English translation of the section: China is implementing a system of socialist market economy. But China currently is in the primary stage of socialism. In an international environment of economic globalization, theory and practice of international planning works have tremendous value which can be referred to in the process of deepening our reform. I shall stress one point of view in this paper, the difficulties we shall face in reform of the planning system of China shall be no less than the reform of SOEs, or it might be even more difficult, because it is related to the reform of the functions of a government. These two are closely related system - a complicated social systems engineering.

2. Participation of the Task force to study the development of cultural industry of China. Zhang Siqing, the vice chairman of the Ninth CPPCC National Committee and in charge of the Committee of Science, Education, Culture, Health and Sports of the Eighth CPPCC National Committee, was interested in studying the theme.

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He organized a task force, but 100% of the members came from his commission. So, he asked the chairman of Economic Commission to provide him with an economist. After consultation with me, I became a member of the task force to study the development of China’s cultural industry. • The process. This large project lasted for three years. The task force listened to the report of the general status of development of cultural industries and undertakings by Ministry of Culture. Then, the task force travelled several provinces and municipalities to investigate to discuss and collect feedback from local authorities, for example, Hunan, Jiangsu, Shanxi, Sichuan, and Gansu. The major issue was that we needed to have a consensus regarding what defined a cultural industry. To be an economist of this task force, I myself had insufficient knowledge of a cultural industry. • Learning by doing and my role in the task force. I studied literature related to cultural aspects. Firstly, I read available books, such as Introduction to Cultural Studies, and The Cultural Industry by Adorno, and studies downloaded references from UNESCO website. I also asked Yusef of the World Bank to introduce me more relevant books in dealing with economics and culture. He recommended David Throsby’s Economics and Culture. I bought the book and read it thoroughly. I was very happy to join this task force which stimulated me to study the important topic “culture”, a very important element of human development. I drafted a paper Selection of Several International Studies of Cultural Industries to the secretary of the task force who was writing the final report for the task. At the same time, I also wrote a paper Some Views Related to the Development of Cultural Industries and included this paper in Chap. 16 of my book Integrated Studies of China’s Development and Reform. This paper included five sections: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Introduction to cultural industry. Broad culture, narrow culture and multi-polarization of culture. Exploration of cultural industry and its definition. International experience-The role of cultural industry in national economy. Prospect of development of cultural industry of China.

• A unique social environment. Serving on the task force to study the cultural industry offered me a unique social environment as most contacts I had in my 60-year of professional life were engineers, workers, staffs, researchers, professors and various officials. But the task force members of this project were very different. They included mainly the movie stars (male and female) such ass Li Ling, who played Song Qingling and Wang Tiecheng who played Zhou Enlai. Movie director Yu Yang, famous singer Ma Yutao, famous artist Wang Chengxi, and especially, the famous actress of Peking opera Li Weikang. When the task force traveled to various provinces or municipalities, this task force would give special performances at the request by local communities. Therefore, as a bonus to serve on this task force, I enjoyed excellent performances for 10 times while traveling with the group two to three limes every year. I

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Fig. 7.2 Photo of the task force in Shanxi Province. From left to right: 2nd Li Ling, 4th Li Weikang, 5th Wang Tiecheng, 6th Yang Weiguang, 8th Zhang Siqing, 9th Yu Yang, 10th Ma Yutao, 11th Wang Huijiong (Note This photo was taken at Yungang grottoes of Datong municipality. Yungang grottoes is one of the four famous grottoes (such as Dunhuang grottoes) for tourism)

formed friendship with Li Weikang which has lasted to this day. In reflection of my membership in CPPCC National Committee, this period contributed to my research in Culture, an important element of social systems engineering, it was also a joyful period in my life. Figure 7.2 is a photo of the task force on tour to Shanxi Province (not all members of the task force participated every travel and investigation).

7.4 Participation of National Policy Consultation Working Conference in 1990 and Met CCCCP and Central Government Leaders Since the establishment of ERC, TERC and Price Research Center (PRC) at Beijing in the beginning of 1980s, it was the general practice that provincial governments and autonomous regions also established equivalent institutions for policy consultative service. Director Ma Hong had a principle that the relationship between the research center of the State Council and similar provincial institutions was a parallel one, and there was no vertical leadership relationship. But information exchange and coordination among these institutions were necessary. For that purpose, the first

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national policy consultation working conference was held in Taiyuan Municipality in 19872 to facilitate such an exchange. The second national policy consultation conference was held in Beijing on April 10–12, 1990. On the last day, our center was informed that the leaderships of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China would receive the entire delegation at Huairen Hall in Zhongnanhai. Some top leaders of the Communist Party of China and the Central Government came to this conference and took a picture (Fig. 7.3) with the conference participants. The picture only serves as a reference as the people in the photo are too small to be recognized. However, President Jiang Zemin had a nice talk at the conference and mentioned several people whom he knew. Figure 7.4 below is a cropped picture from the original photo (Fig. 7.3) showing only some of the people mentioned in Jiang’s talk. This image also included colleagues of our center who have been mentioned in this book in previous chapters. In Jiang Zemin’s speech to conference participant, he, first, delivered his welcome remarks and then said: “It’s a small world! I am very glad to be here in this conference, because I knew some old friends here. Comrade Xue Muqiao, a famous economist, whom I respected very much. Comrade Ji Chongwei, we had worked together in foreign economic relations and trade commission. And I am also very happy to see my former classmate and my college days class president - Wang Huijiong is standing there among us!”

7.5 Participation of the Ministerial Conference of Industry Organized by UNIDO 7.5.1 The First Phase of the Conference Global Forum on Industry: Perspective for 2000 and Beyond 1. Origin of the conference and changes. The Secretary-General Campos of UNIDO had an initial plan of such conference organized by UNIDO and the forth coming Regional Meeting of Minister of industry of the Asian and Pacific Region, organized by the UNIDO, in cooperation with the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), which was to be held from 15 to 17 November 1995. And due to the unforeseen decision to schedule the same dates for the Asian Pacific Cooperation Council (APEC) meeting of Heads of Government and related Ministries, the date and venue of the UNIDO meeting had to be changed to New Delhi, India on 16–18 and 19 to 20 October 1995. 2. Arrangement of the Chinese government. The Ministry of Foreign Economic and Trade Cooperation of China (MFETCC) was responsible to deal with this affair.

2 Li

(2015).

Fig. 7.3 Photo of “The Second National Policy Consultation Conference”

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Fig. 7.4 Cropped picture of the second national policy consultation conference

The minister entrusted the Chinese ambassador to India to be the first representative of the Chinese Minister to participate the conference. I was appointed to be the second representative, in case of the ambassador could not make it. MFETCC also arranged one of its staff Sun Yongfu (he became Director of Bureau of Europe in later period of MFETCC) to participate the conference. 3. Schedule of the First Stage of the Conference. The first plenary session was held in the morning of October 16, with inaugural address given by Indian Minister of Industry, keynote address given by Director General of UNIDO Campos and a report “Perspectives on industrialization: Global industrial partnership, interdependence and competitiveness” given by Singh, senior Advisor to the Director General of UNIDO. Then, there was a general discussion. From the afternoon of October 16 to the evening of October 17, all participants were divided into eight panel discussion meetings. Chairpersons, vice chairpersons and rapporteurs had been prearranged. I was appointed as the chairperson of Panel VII on “Employment and Social Aspects of Industrialization”. The other seven panels were: • • • •

Panel I: State of world industry and outlook for 2000 and beyond Panel II: New technologies, innovations and competitiveness Panel III: Globalization and Industrial partnerships Panel IV: Global trade liberalization: Implications for industrial restructuring

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• Panel V: Industrial policy reforms: The changing role of Governments and private sector development • Panel VI: Environmental policies and industrial competitiveness • Panel VIII: Industrial development and international cooperation: The future role of UNIDO. The second plenary session of the conference was held in the afternoon of October 18. Eight panel reports including conclusions and recommendations of each panel were presented at the session. After a general discussion and review of each panel’s reports, they were adopted. The eight panel reports adopted at the session were submitted to the third plenary session and were approved by the Forum and incorporated in its final report. After the adoption of the final report, the Forum was closed. 4. Details of selected aspects of the Conference. This conference was well prepared and organized with the participation of around 120 representatives from 43 countries, and extensive information and papers related to industrial development were provided for discussions at the conference. Below present selected aspects of the conference: • Abstract3 keynote speech given by Manricro de Mariay Campos, Director General of UNIDO. His original speech had six pages. Therefore, abstraction of his speech from official document of UNIDO is quoted below: The Director-General of UNIDO, on behalf of the organization, expressed sincere appreciation to the Minister for Industry and the Government of India both for cosponsoring the Forum and covering the local costs of most of the participants. He noted that industry was an indispensable vehicle for the technological development and modernization of developing countries, and industrial development must constitute a crucial element of any development strategy. He also expressed concern however, that some industrialized countries appeared not to appreciate that critical need. The emphasis given to social issues and poverty alleviation often ignored industrial growth as the principal means of creating jobs and increasing incomes. He warned that attempts at the international level to underplay the need for industrialization in developing countries were not only short-sighted but could result in unnecessary confrontation and conflict in the coming years.

He urged that it must be recognized by the international community that the process of industrialization was vital for developing countries. That would necessitate strategies to cover market failures in those countries, in addition to a greatly expanded programme of international resource support. Such support would have to cover not only increased investment and technology flows, but also the development of institutional and technological capability that was imperative for the development of an industrial and technological culture in developing countries. The Director-General said that the complexities of industrial growth during the coming decade and beyond highlighted the continuing necessity of providing specialized industrial services to developing countries and transition 3 UNIDO

(1995).

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economies. The role of UNIDO needed to be considered by the Forum in that context. As a result of its extensive restructuring and reforms, UNIDO was uniquely suited to meet fully the demand of its Member States for such specialized services currently and in the coming decades. The Director-General emphasized that, in the past decades, there had been sufficient evidence to confirm that industrialization continued to be a strategic force for long-term, economic and social development and that process was possible through the political will and the joint efforts of the various sectors of society to formulate and implement within a market-oriented framework, strategies and policies for rapid and sustained industrial and technological development. East Asia had been the most important scenario of such consensual visions and achievements. It must be recognized that there were no miracles or recipes. India, the new rising industrial star, was very conscious of the efforts required. The years ahead posed enormous challenges to industrialization and development all round the world, especially for regions and countries that had been falling behind, the Director-General concluded. At the same time, the coming decades would pose a challenge of co-responsibility for all countries, particularly those already enjoying higher levels of industrialization, development and well-being. He said that future markets, future investment opportunities and future peace and stability would depend on effective recognition of that international interdependence. It would depend also on an imaginative programme of action for global industrial partnership, the design of which was the challenge facing the Forum. • The Eight Panels. The panel discussion and its recommendation consumed five sixth of the conference time. For every panel, the conference provided one issue paper and several background papers for panel discussion. For example, for Penal VII chaired, the conference provided an issue paper Employment and social aspects of industrialization which was prepared by the UNIDO Secretariat and three background papers, which were written by invited experts. The three background papers were: Industrialization in developing countries: The challenges of employment and integration by John Humphrey; The implication of new organizational techniques for developing countries by Raphucl Kaplinsky and Does new technology bode well for working women? An evaluation and analysis by Seasti. • Report of Panels. The eight reports of panel formed the foundation of the final report. For illustrative purpose, Box 7.1 contains part of Report VII.

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Box 7.1 Partial Report of Panel VII on Employment and Social Aspects of Industrialization 1. The current trends towards liberalization and globalization are bound to have uneven effects in different parts of the world: some industries will upgrade in response involving expansion into higher value-added market niches and larger investment in skill development of both Labour and Management. While Asian NIEs will expand into advanced sectors. African economies may be at a further dis-advantage by the Uruguay Round Agreement. Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) have a crucial role to play not only in employment generation but also in developing new opportunities in export markets. Industrialization must seek both efficiency and equity and UNIDO has, for a long time, advocated industrialization as the only route to sustained improvements in living standards. 2. The Forum was of the view that creation of new employment opportunities in the rural non-farming sector must continue to have the highest priority in the growth programme of most developing countries. This will, however, must be achieved in an increasingly competitive environment in which Technology and HRD will play an important role. It is essential that National Governments take note of this fact in formulating their policies. 3. The Forum recognized that such policies would need to be country-specific and not be replicated on any single unique pattern. In fact, a “twin-track” strategy may be necessary-export oriented SME has been the preferred route for some countries in South East and East Asia while for others in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean, a network of small and micro enterprise, geared primarily for domestic consumption, may be a better strategy. Again, countries like China, India, and Indonesia with a large population and vast areas may need to use both the approaches. The twintracks will have to be melded into a policy whole, though ‘centering’ of the policy in each country will depend on the resources, (human and natural) and accumulated endowments of that country. 4. The Forum noted the dilemma of increased income inequality with tends to grow in the early stages of industrial growth but becomes more equitable as growth progresses. The immediate benefits of industrialization may be limited, to certain regions and sections of population Industrial policies must counteract this tendency with greater equity content and through the establishment of small and micro enterprise. It is also necessary to avoid any bias in favor of capital-intensive measures which are inappropriate in developing counties which are short of capital. 5. While employment is the basic objective, the Forum recognized that it can best be achieved through adoption of ‘optimal’ technology and forms of organizations that are matched to the needs of the country and to develop the sectors with high opportunity for employment generation. In most cases

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where markets are small and demand is limited, a high degree of mechanization is neither necessary nor desirable; on the other hand, in some cases such as sub-contracting where good product quality is essential, use of latest techniques (which may reduce employment) may be inescapable. What is necessary is to have a balanced and pragmatic approach with technology as a tool for growth and not an end. Upgradation of technology may focus on existing product and process improvements, rather than on rapid expansion into new sectors. In Sub-Contracting the linkage between the large and small units should be for mutual benefits and not be exploitive.

7.5.2 The Second Phase: Meeting of Ministers of Asia and the Pacific (19–20 Oct.) 1. Nature of the conference. This was a continuation of the ministerial meeting in the first three days. But the second stage of conference was jointly organized by UNIDO and ESCAP. The theme was dominated by UNIDO as it expected to continue advocate its report on the Global Forum on Industry (the eight panels; the second, UNIDO had five special objectives of industrial development of Asian Pacific Region. 2. My role in the conference. There were five plenary sessions arranged for this conference. But only plenary session II (14:30–19.00 of October 19) and plenary session III (morning of October 20) dealt with concrete substance. The other three were conference routines in nature. For example, plenary session I was opening session with hosts’ statement of hosts, session IV was preparation of draft report, and session V was adoption of draft report and decisions. My role in the conference was a little bit difficult. Because relevant Chinese ministry entrusted Chinese ambassador to India to be the first representative and I was the second representative. The ambassador was too busily occupied so he only participated the conference in the morning of October 16, I had to perform his role rest of the time. Generally, I gave improvised speech in international conference, but I had to prepare a written speech for the conference, part of my written notes was shown in Fig. 7.5. The entire speech will be presented in Box 7.4. 3. Programme of Plenary Session II and III. All programme of plenary session II and III and brief description are listed in Box 7.2.

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Fig. 7.5 Part of draft of written speech given in the conference

Box 7.2 Programme of Plenary Session II and III Plenary session II Agenda item: “Perspectives for competitive industrial development in Asia and the Pacific region in the context of evolving global developments, regional integration and emerging constraints” – Introduction by ESCAP – Discussion Agenda item: “Coping with the competitively challenge at enterprise level: innovation, new technologies and institutional support” – Introduction by UNIDO – Discussion Agenda item: “Ecologically sustainable industrial development: Challenges and options in Asia and the Pacific” – Introduction by UNIDO – Discussion Plenary session III Agenda item: “LDCs in Asia and the Pacific region” – Introduction by ESCAP – Discussion

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Agenda item: “UNIDO Regional Programme for Asia and the Pacific: Achievements and Perspectives” – Presentation by UNIDO – Discussion Report on the Global Forum on Industry – Presentation by UNIDO

4. Five Major UNIDO activities in Asia and the Pacific. Descriptions of five UNIDO activities in Asia and the Pacific were quoted from the official document UNIDO Regional Programme for Asia and Pacific; Achievements and Achievements as follows: • Industrial and technological growth and competitiveness. Accelerated industrialization, combined with competitive technological applications and quality standards, and production efficiency is considered as a sine qua non for competitiveness in a global economy characterized by liberalized trade, globalized industry and rapidly changing technologies.

Box 7.3 UNIDO Services Industrial policies and private sector development Operational support for sectoral development Investment promotion Technology for competitiveness Environment and energy Human resource development Women in industrial development Enterprise restructuring and privatization Small- and medium-scale industry and rural industrial development Quality, standardization and metrology Industrial information Industrial statistics

• Equitable development through industrial development. This objective reflects the perception of industrial growth as a major instrument for bringing about socioeconomic development and social progress-through employment creation, regional development and poverty alleviation • International cooperation in investment and technology. This objective acknowledges the key importance of promoting foreign direct investment and the creation of joint ventures, strategic partnerships, technology licensing agreements, and other contractual linkages and arrangements between enterprises in different countries, to increase efficiency, capability and competitively.

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• Development of human resources for industry. This objective aims at the enhancement of human capacity to meet industrial goals in the form of upgraded knowledge, specialized skills and experience in entrepreneurship, management, technology acquisition, absorption and adaptation, research and design, and the capability for competitive production or services. • Environmentally sustainable industrial development. Under this objective UNIDO strives, inter alia, for the harmonization of industrial strategies and programmes with the environmental need to reduce industrial pollution and degradation; the use the sector-specific clean production concepts including the selection and transfer of environmentally suitable technologies; the phasing-out of ozone-depleting substances; and improved energy efficiency in production processes.

Box 7.4 My Entire Speech Given in the Second Stage of Conference on Behalf of Government Representative Mr. Chairman, Honorable participants, First, I shall express my thanks to the organizer of this regional meeting, UNIDO in cooperation with ESCAP and the Government of India in hosting this meeting on “Accelerated Industrial Development and competitiveness in the Asian and Pacific Region.” It is well known that the global economy has entered a new period of unprecedented output and growth since the end of the Second World War. Post War growth of economy was promoted by a new wave of industrialization process with the participation of many developing countries. And it was also promoted by an explosion of new products, new technologies, liberalization of international trade increased international capital flow and increased integration of the global and regional economy. Assembly line production, the automobile, electricity and consumer durables were given a push by the postwar release of postponed consumer demand. Some of the new technologies assisted the globalization of the markets. The jet aircraft shortened travel time greatly. Telecommunications made it easier for MNCs to coordinate subsidiaries in different countries. The new electronic media helped to shape a global market with increasingly similar consumer taste. Trade liberalization under the former GATT helped to create a global environment that was conducive to the development and diffusion of new technologies to certain extent. All new achievements in science and technology such as DNA, semiconductor, computer, genetic engineering, laser, super conductor, space exploration, and creation of new elements have been the major factors contributed to this global change and also the emergence of new sectors and the decline of certain traditional sectors. There is rapid industrial restructuring throughout the world, it also effects greatly the trade structure and increases the competition among countries in the international market. But due to historical reasons and

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other socio-economic factors, the growth and development of different region and different country are very much unbalanced. The Asia Pacific region especially the East Asian region has a high economic growth record in past several decades. But many Pacific Island countries generally have a lower GDP growth rate, some of them even have negative economic growth rate, this situation also holds true for a part of African countries. Therefore, the subject of this meeting “Accelerated Industrial Development and Competitiveness in the Asia and Pacific Region” is a subject of pressing concern to the Asia and Pacific Region, it is also in consistence with the basic function of UNIDO and its five broad development objectives. I believe that UNIDO had performed its function well to promote the industrial development of the world, specially its contribution to the developing countries. The five topics discussed in this meeting are essential current issues and challenges faced by the region. Competitiveness, narrowly defined as “the ability of an economy to supply increasing aggregate demand and maintain exports.” Plays increasing role in the promotion of global and regional development, the changes in the arrangements governing world trade for developing countries in Asia and the Pacific region. At the national level, in order to maintain the industrial competitiveness will involve a lot of measures and policies, specially the macro-economic policies, for example, a flexible economic structure to adapt to rapid change of market demand and production technology, encouragement of saving and investment, reform in management system, investment in human resource development and improvement of quality of labor, to keep a reasonable linkage between the wage level, productivity and taxation. All these factors related to competitive strength cannot be created overnight. And we expect UNIDO can keep the long-term effort to focus on these. Besides, although competition is favorable to the improvement of the global productivity, but generally it is difficult to have a Win-Win solution. The international organization such as UNIDO can play a greater role to assist to establish a “Non-Zero-sum Game.” On the micro-aspects, there will be serious competitively challenge at enterprise level. Whether an enterprise can create its own innovative new technological capability is one aspect of the issue, the institutional support to the enterprises, specially the small and medium enterprises, or the industrial enterprises in the rural area, is another critical issue in development. In China, the town and village enterprise have now a share of more than thirty percent of the gross value of industrial output. But there is a great margin for improvement in the management skill and production technique of those enterprises to achieve higher productivity. We think similar situation may be prevailing in other countries Theme 3 of UNIDO Policy Framework for the policies, networking and basic technical support to small and medium enterprises and also theme of the Policy Framework set up on innovation, productivity and quality for international competitiveness as well as the agenda item “Coping with the competitive challenge at the enterprise level: innovation, new technologies and

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institutional support” will strengthen greatly the production capability both in quality and quantity. It will improve further the global productivity as well as the betterment of the global welfare. Regarding the issue of sustainable development, it is an evolution of the development thinking and strategy when the mankind has acquired increasing knowledge of the nature and the interaction of human activity and his living environment. The top leadership of China had participated the U.N. conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janerio in 1992, and it is announced that “China’s environmental problems are part and parcel of the global problems. China is keenly aware of its responsibility and role in the protection of the earth’s ecosystem. So, it has attached importance to and taken an active part in the U.N.-sponsored discussions concurring environment and development. it has signed a number of relevant international connections or agreements.” Our government is very serious to our international commitment. The Environment Protection Committee of the State Council has initiated to prepare. “China: Agenda towards 21st Century-A White cover Book deal with population, development and environment.” This project was led by State Planning Commission and State Science and Technology Commission with the participation of 52-line ministries and 300 experts this document was completed and approved by the State Council in May 1994. But China must rely upon coal as the main source of energy. This is a great challenge faced by us. We are glad to learn and get assistance from UNIDO in adopting cleaner production process. And we shall also study in detail the forthcoming ISO 14000 standards. Mr. Chairman, China is one of the developing countries, we are fully aware the specific industrial development problems faced by the least developed countries. Different countries may have different constraints. We hope the discussion held here will achieve some meaningful solutions so that a shared growth and prosperity can be enjoyed by the region and the global society in common. Mr. Chairman, China highly appreciate the effort and contribution that UNIDO has done to the growth of developing countries. This is a rapid changing society with rapid changing environment Every country and all institutions should adapt to these changes. We expect that the result of this conference, will improve the capability of the developing countries and developed economy to adapt, to cooperate better to create a better prospect of Asian Pacific Region in the coming future.

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7.6 Releasing Industrial Development Global Report 1996 on Behalf of UNIDO and Establishing New Vision of Industrial Development 7.6.1 Release of Industrial Development Global Report 1996 on Behalf of UNIDO 1. General. United Nations subsidiary bodies, depending on the nature of their activities, are required to prepare and publish relevant global reports to reflect global developments relevant to its area and to propose future directions. Those that have a greater impact on the world are World Development Report of the World Bank and World Economic Outlook of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). These reports are of high quality given the huge human, financial and material resource input into their preparation. Countries and some financial institutions in the world often regard them as an important reference for economic development. These reports are generally published in the headquarters, but sometime, they may also be published in their Office of Residence Mission in important countries with added information about the host countries. 2. Suggestion from officer in charge of UNIDO Beijing to entrust DRC to release its annual report. UNIDO as a special agency of UN, its major role is to promote and accelerate industrialization of developing countries with emphasis on the manufacturing sector. Its major annual global report is named Industry and Development Global Report. In the mid of 1990s, this report changed its name to Industrial Development Global Report. The new Industrial Development Global Report 1996 focused on sustainable industrial development and competitiveness. In order to promote the popularity of this report, the representative of the UNIDO in Beijing came to DRC to meet me with his signed contract No. 96/SEM/001 suggesting that DRC host a 1-day seminar on UNIDO’s Industrial Development Global Report 1996. I found that there was much organizational work involved, such as “invitation of high-level government representatives, representatives of foreign Embassies in Beijing and other interested parties as requested by UNIDO-Beijing.” (Contract No.96/SEM/001). I asked my colleague Madam Li Shantong, then director of the Bureau of Development Strategy and Regional Economy, to assist me in the preparation as she provided great assistance when I was the director of UNDP CPR/88/-29/B/01/99 office. She read the contract and agreed to assist me in all organizational work. So, I signed the contract. 3. Preparation and hosting of the seminar. • Identification of appropriate speakers and their roles. Jostern Nygard of UNIDO, director Li Shantong and I spent nearly half a day to identify appropriate speakers and the relevant part of the World Development Report to be addressed. We agreed on five experts: Liu He, deputy director of the long-term

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Planning and Industrial Policy Department of the National Development and Reform Commission; Shang Yong, director of the State Science and Technology Commission; Huang Qian, director of the Science and Technology Department of the State Education Commission; Fan Yuansheng, responsible person of the State Environmental Protection and Pollution Control Department; and Part I. All the speakers were responsible to cover a part of the Industrial and Development Global Report respectively, namely, Part II “Global industrial change: development issues and priorities” (by Liu), Part III “Technological innovation: can developing countries sustain their competitiveness” (by Shang), Part IV “Industrial competitiveness sustainable through skills development” (by Huang), Part V “Industry and the environment in a globalized world economy” (by Fan) and Part VI “A new role of governments and the international community” (by me). • The seminar. This seminar, conducted in English, was successful. Each speaker introduced the content of the relevant part of UNIDO’s global report in combination with concrete conditions of China. Discussions were also lively. This seminar disseminated the contents of the Industrial Development Global Report 1996 successfully. 4. Launching reports of subsidiary bodies of UN. I believe as an intellectual working for knowledge production, dissemination and utilization of useful knowledge is my responsibility. I was asked by ESCAP to assist it to launch its annual report Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific since 2001. Because it had no representative office in China, ESCAP entrusted UNDP representative office in Beijing to organize the work. I agreed to lend my assistance. But in the first one or two years, ESCAP sent its experts to Beijing to unveil the report, I simply supported them. But in later years, it simply sent me the annual report and PPT, I took the full responsibility to release its reports until 2009.

7.6.2 Participation of Asia-Pacific Regional Forum on Industry 1. Organization, theme and objective. This regional forum was jointly organized by UNIDO with the Ministry of Industry of Thailand at Bangkok, from September 23 to 24, 1999. The objective of this forum with the theme “Vision and Challenges for Sustainable Industrial Development: Lessons from Asian Crisis” was conceived as an intellectual platform for the exchange of insights and sharing of experiences among those ultimately responsible for the creation of an environment conducive to sustainable industrial development within Asia and the Pacific. 2. Arrangement of the forum. The two-day forum focused on three issues presented in below Table 7.2.

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Table 7.2 Arrangement of the forum Date

No.

September 23, 1999

Opening session

September 24, 1999

Theme

Session I

The Asian crisis: implications for industry and industrial policy and the Pacific

Session II

Industrial reform to enhance industrial competitiveness; implications and strategies or SME development

Session III

Strategic vision and industrial policies for the new millennium

Concluding session

3. Professor Lall’s paper and my paper. Professor Lall was the consultant of UNIDO and the creator of indicators for measurement of competitiveness. His paper was divided into six parts: Introduction; the Emerging Setting for Industrial Growth; Pattern of Industrial Competitiveness; Role of Industry in the New Millennium; Future Industrial Strategy (including Technological Activity, Creating Industrial Skills, FDI; and Incentive System); the Role of International Organizations and UNIDO. His paper also included two annexes. One was distribution of manufactured exports over technological subcategory (resource-based, low-, mediumand high- technology); and 22 economies, developing, industrial countries and the world were analyzed. The other annex was skill indices, technical enrollment and R&D of 120 economies. I think his paper was part of the exploration of the index for measuring the competitiveness of industries he compiled in 2003. My paper presented in the panel was “Strategic Vision and Industrial Policies for the New Millennium”, which was composed of six parts: Introduction; Lessons from East Asian Financial Crisis; Role of Industry in the Coming Decade and Clarification of Industrial Policy; a Framework of Strategic Vision and Industrial Policies for the New Millennium (the framework including six aspects: New Emphasis Should Also Be Put on Social Objectives; Ecologically Sustainable Industrial Development Should Also Be Focused; Focus on Development of SMEs as Essential Component of Industrial Policy; Partnership; Thinking in Long Term but Acting in Present; Industrial Policy Should be Complemented with Other Policies); the Role of UNIDO and Conclusions. 4. Zhang Shou and I. International conferences generally cover participants with travel expenses such as air tickets, hotel accommodation, etc. After returning from the forum, Zhang Shou had more than 200 Thai Baht left. He asked his secretary to send the Thai baht to my house, and attached a letter saying that he would not have much chance to go abroad in the future, while I had more international activities, so he gave the baht to me so as not to waste it. At that time, the equivalent of 200 baht was less than US $10, and his action impressed me very much. He had been vice president of Shanghai Jiao Tong University before transferring to Beijing to become deputy chief of former State Planning Commission. Before the 1980s, when I was still working in the Yunnan Provincial Bureau of Electric

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Power, because of my research in “systems engineering” already had an impact in China, Zhang Shou hoped to transfer me to teach at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and made arrangements to transfer my entire family. However, it was interrupted by the failure to obtain approval from Yunnan Province.

7.7 Supporting the Implementation of UNDP Project (PR/91/144) 7.7.1 Origin of the Project 1. Background of the project. The project came from the Yellow River Delta Conservation and Development Research Center (YRDCDCC) in Dongying, Shandong Province. The Yellow River flows into Bohai Bay in Shandong Province, with an average annual flow of 32 billion cubic meters. Since the middle of the 19th century, the Yellow River had formed a narrow Yellow River Delta below Lijin County, Shandong Province. Since the 1960s, Shengli, Gudao, Hekou and other oil fields had been developed in this region one after another. In 1983, the State Council approved the establishment of Dongying City in the Yellow River Delta region. Perhaps in view of the inspiration of the rapid development of the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta in China, the local authorities applied to the UNDP for the project Support for Sustainable Development of the Yellow River Delta. The project was approved by the Chinese government, the Dutch government, and the UNDP on November 22, 1994. The project number was CPR/91/144. Executing Agency was China International Center for Economic and Technical Exchanges (CICETE). The implementing agency was Yellow River Delta Conservation and Development Research Center (YRDCDRC). 2. Total Budget. The total budget set up for CPR/91/144 was $697045, within which, the UNDP share was $ 500000, the Chinese government was $ 55000, third party (the Dutch government) was $142045. 3. Three Immediate objectives. CPR/91/144 Project had three immediate objectives presented below with several detailed outputs and activities listed under each immediate objective. • The first immediate objective focused on the river mouth was to prepare (initiatives for) fundamental planning inputs in order to harness and stabilize the course of the main channel of the Yellow River and in the medium and long term, and safeguard the environmental basis for nature preservation. This goal was ultimately to be achieved by guiding or even stabilizing the river channel, controlling stilt deposits and fixing the direction of the main course of the river, entering the Bohai Sea.

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• The second immediate objective was to complete the establishment of the YRDCDRC to enhance its capacity and skills in comprehensive analysis and planning, to improve abilities of the working staff in analyzing techniques and research. • The third immediate objective was to produce inputs for an overall comprehensive plan for the sustainable development of the Yellow River Delta and several cooperative development agreements, both for additional research and the actual implementation of activities with a focus on Agenda 21 Projects.

7.7.2 Requesting Assistance from Central Agency and Organization of the Leading Group and Expert Group 1. Complexity of the project. The project was extremely complex, including the regulation of the Yellow River estuary and water resources management, as well as environmental and economic development issues. The implementation agency, the YRDCDRC, newly established in 1995, was very weak and in need of constant support of the central authorities. Shandong Province sent people to Beijing to seek assistance, they contacted the Institute of Water Resources and Hydroelectric Power Research, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the DRC, the leaders of all three organizations consented and accepted the project. 2. Organization of the leading groups and expert groups. • Organization of project leading groups. There were several leading groups organized for this project. The Shandong provincial leading group of the project, led by Song Fatang, the deputy secretary of Shandong Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China, and executive deputy governor of People’s Government of Shandong Province, was composed of 34 members. The Netherlands steering group, led by Mrs. Tanja van Beek, the deputy secretary of the Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management, had five members. The leading group of Dongying UNDP Project, led by Li Diankui, the former secretary of Dongying Municipal Committee of the CPC, had 32 members. Yang Yuzhen was the director of the project office and the director of the implementing agency of YRDCDCC. • Organization of the expert groups. In March 1995, three Chinese expert groups were established. The members of the core expert groups of the project were Zhang Qishun, Wang Zhaoyin and He Shaoling of the River Mouth Harnessing and Water Resource Group (all of whom were in charge of the Institute of Water Resources and Hydroelectric Power Research); I, Li Boxi and Li Shantong of the Economic Group, Chen Shupeng of the Environment Group (academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences), Liu Gaohuan and Xu Xuegong. The total number of Chinese experts participated in this project

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reached 57 in number. The international experts participated this project were 10. I and Leo de Viees, the coordinator of Netherlands Coast Zone Management Center and the actual person in charge of the Netherlands steering group, were also elected to be the team leaders of the editorial group of the main report.

7.7.3 Process of the Project According to the stipulations of CPR/91/144, the project should be completed within two years, i.e. it should be completed by the end of 1996, but due to the delay of organizing expert groups, the date of completion of the project was postponed. This is the second time that I dealt with the work of the UNDP. In this work, I was relieved of the burden of organizational work and was able to focus my effort on professional and coordination work. Before the work started, I and the colleagues of the economic group completed the conceptual design of the economic development strategy of the Yellow River Delta. This conceptual design had 9 pages. Figure 7.6 shows the structures of the conceptual work. Due to the delay in the launch of the project, the actual implementation period was from April 1995 to early 1997. The project research was roughly divided into four stages: (1) initial stage (1994.10–1995.5); (2) initial reporting phase (1995.6– 1995.10) with a review meeting of the China report held in Beijing in October 1995 and attended by more than 200 people representing governments and institutions at all levels; (3) intermediate reporting stage (1995.11–1996.4) with a tripartite review meeting held in April 1996 and attended by officials of the UNDP, representatives of the Netherlands and officials from Shandong Province and Dongying, the full exchange of views between domestic and foreign experts and officials laid a solid foundation for the final report; and (4) the final reports which were completed in May 1997.

7.7.4 The Final Outputs 1. General. The three expert groups provided more than 100,000 word counts in the general reports for the project (English version and Chinese version), three subreports (economic development report, water resources and utilization report, environmental protection and pollution control report), and a number of specialized reports, for example, the economic group had three specialized reports: Sustainable Development of Industrial Planning of YRD; I/O Analysis of YRD; Land use and regional planning of YRD; the environmental group had one specialized report Study of Environmental System of YRD; the river mouth harnessing group had completed more than 5 specialized reports. The Chinese experts

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Fig. 7.6 Structure of the conceptual design of economic development of YRD

also participated in the preparation of “Sustainable Development of Transport of YRD”. 2. Brief of the general report. The general report was jointly written by experts from eleven Chinese agencies, two Netherlands agencies and other foreign agencies. The report with its Chinese and English versions, contained extensive and complex information such as engineering based upon hydraulics (river mouth harnessing), economics and environmental science related to sustainable development. It had seven chapters: Introduction; the Current Situation of the YRD;

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Objectives and Criteria for the Sustainable Development; Preconditions for Sustainable Development; Toward the Objective of Sustainable Development; Major Conclusions and Policy Recommendations; and Proposed Follow-up Projects. In addition, the report contained an executive summary and two annexes, Annex 1 dealt with Land Use and Agricultural Engineering and Annex 2 represented some tables for scenario analysis. Two sections4 are extracted from Chap. 6 of the report to show the policy responses by the project expert groups at that time and are presented in Boxes 7.5 and 7.6.

Box 7.5 Basic Policy Framework for Sustainable Development of YRD In dealing with sustainable development of the YRD, all types of policies should be adapted to fit into the following basic policy framework. 1. Policy distortions that favor environmentally unsound practices should be eliminated or reduced. 2. Social aspects should be given more attention, economic efficiency improved, and financial resources used efficiently. 3. Externalities and imperfections that result in overexploitation of resources should correct or at least mitigate, through improvement of institutions’ incentives and regulations. 4. Investment in human resource development and rural industry to provide employment for surplus labor force should be stressed. 5. Broad social cost-benefit analysis should be applied to all public projects by: (1) cast them in the overall sectoral and macroeconomic policy context; (2) take into account all benefits and costs, whether near or distant, whether economic, social or environmental, and whether quantitative or qualitative; and (3) avoid projects that lead to irreversible changes in the environment. 6. The environmental dimension should be studied more through improvement of analytical capability. Institutional capacity, especially relating to implementation should be reinforced. To raise the awareness of the public and of government staff is of critical importance, i.e., “thinking globally, acting locally”.

Box 7.6 Concrete Policy, Measures for Sustainable Development of the YRD 1. Economic Policy (1) Dongying Municipality has grown from the establishment of Shengli Oil Field. Shengli Oil Field was a resource base industry due to the

4 Support

for sustainable development of the Yellow River Delta UNDP Project No. CPR/91/144 General Report, pp.108-111, Dongying, Shandong, China 197.

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(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

(6)

(7)

(8)

controlled price and the national division of labor in the past central planning system. Shengli Oil Field produced mainly crude oil under state-controlled price and sent the oil to other regions for processing into high value-added downstream product. It was necessary to correct market distortion to improve the economic efficiency of production. As the established institutions cannot be reformed overnight, it is recommended to support the development of oil refinery and downstream production activities at Shengli Oil Field. In its preliminary stage, Shengli Oil Field could expand its 1.5-million-ton heavy crude oil refinery into a 5-million-ton capacity refinery, should also produce downstream chemical products after detailed feasibility study. In view of the declining proven reserve, the establishment of new industries should be planned in advance, otherwise, once the resource is depleted, there will be serious employment problems, as happened in the “coal city” in the Northeastern region. This does not mean that the Shengli Oil Field should reduce its effort in oil exploration and production, but it should have a strategy of sustainable development. The price of oil should be liberalized within the context of the overall national economy. In the long term, it seems reasonable to reorganize the crude oil production sector and petro-chemical sector into enterprise groups. It is recommended to issue a “Petroleum Act” to guarantee the production and operation of the petroleum industry within a sound legal environment. The local industry (including town and village enterprise) should be developed with full effort. Linkage of development of TVEs in Dongying municipality to Shengli Oil Field, and the agricultural sector are considered critical. In the future development of TVEs, clean technology should be applied. Dongying municipality has been designated to become the commercial base of grain and cotton, and environmentally sound modern technology should be applied. It is recommended to establish “YRD Sustainable Development Demonstration Region”, with experimental regions for grain and cotton production, animal husbandry, and TVEs with clean technology. Stabilization of the river course is a precondition of sustainable development of the YRD, the share of resources from various departments concerned for this investment should be carefully studied. It is argued in this study that the water shortage in YRD can be considered as an engineering problem, that means if proper engineering measures are implemented, the water supply in dry and flood season can be properly assured; and the shortage of water problem can be solved. It is emphasized that China is one of the countries with

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rainfall below 1000 mm with per capita water resource of 2720 M3 per year, whereas the average value in ESCAP region is 4600 M3 . Many engineering structures erected in the upper reaches of YR, are the reason of the water storage in YRD in the dry season. Agriculture consumes 68.9% of water resource for human activities. Economizing on the use of water is an important aspect of sustainable development. It is recommended that there should be a better management and water pricing policy for the whole Yellow River region. 2. Technology Policy There is a trend of thought in China and many developing countries that technology transfer will allow developing countries to bypass the phase of development experienced by industrialized countries that was noted for intensive energy and material consumption. Both high technology and appropriate technology should be used in the economic development of Dongying municipality. For a long period to come, Dongying municipalities should still build its capability centered on the Shengli Oil Field. Shengli Oil Field should develop its high technology capability for current and future production, create venture capital by relying upon its own technological capacity, at the same time, it should get access to available information and evaluate particular technology to be transferred from abroad. Appropriate technology should be adopted by the local industry through assistance from Shengli Oil Field and other available domestic sources. 3. Social Policy China has set the objective to establish a socialist market economy, common prosperity of the people is emphasized, and development is first and foremost social. There is need to have a new approach in the development policies, to educate the people’s participation in economic and social development of Dongying municipality. Strengthening the education of the people, improvement of the quality of life of rural and urban population is an important element to be considered in the social policy. 4. Environment Policy Several aspects should be focused upon in the environmental policies. (1) Minimize any significant adverse environmental impacts of new developments through new concepts of integrated planning with environmental aspects taken into serious consideration. (2) Development of environmental performance evaluation procedures based upon (detailed basic survey recommended in Chap. 5). (3) Embody life cycle concepts, and the concept “the polluter pays”. (4) Prevent pollution, reduce waste and consumption of resources (materials, fuel and energy and water resource) and commit to recovery and

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recycling, as opposed to disposal where feasible, both through pricing and regulation. (5) Special arrangement should be made between oil exploration and production and the nature preservation area. 5. Management of Wetland Nature Reserve The biodiversity is closely related to the area of wet land although the quantitative relationship is yet to be revealed. In general, the bigger the wet land area and the more fresh water there is, the higher the biodiversity in a river estuary. Management of the nature reserve includes: (1) to divide the nature reserve into three zones, namely Central Zone, Transitional Zone and Experimental Zone. The management of the reserve should follow the dynamic characteristics of the wetland because the wetland is migrating with the river channel changes. Therefore, the range and the zones of the nature reserve varies with the fluvial process of the Yellow River delta. (2) to train the staff with international standard wetland management routine; (3) to exchange information on migrating birds and staff training with international wetland organization and institutions of other countries; (4) For any resources development project within the nature reserve, studies on effect on biodiversity must be carried out. Manager of the reserve should provide the research results to decision makers and dissuade them if the project has significant effect on the reserve; (5) to study the impact of water and sediment change and shift of the Yellow River channel on the reserve and measures to mitigate negative effects; (6) to establish a monitoring system including hydrologic data collection, bird counting (4-12 times/year) and regular vegetation surveys with remote sensing (once per 3–7 years); (7) to develop eco-tourism for collection of funds for the management of the reserve. The red crowned crane and other birds could be the main attraction of tourists. Negative impacts of the tourism on the biodiversity can be avoided if the tours are well organized.

7.8 Participation of the Symposium on States, Markets and Social Progress 7.8.1 Background of the Symposium The U.N., since its establishment post WWII, has spent serious efforts to promote the global development. In the mid of last century, it launched several “Decade of Development”. By the end of last century, it had organized two important global conferences, Earth Summit in 1992 with Agenda 21 raised, and Social Summit in

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1995 at Copenhagen. The Economic and Social Council of U.N. is responsible to organize and promote the implementation of these summits. This symposium was part of the activities for implementing the output of the Social Summit and further initiatives.

7.8.2 Symposium Jointly Organized by Related Chinese Governmental Agencies and U.N. Agencies The theme of this symposium was relatively long, it was “Symposium on States, Markets and Social Progress: Roles and Cooperation of Public and Private Sectors”. This symposium was held in Beijing from October 11 to 13, 1999, which was jointly organized by John Langmore, the head of the Department of Social Policy and Development of the U.N., and Hao Jianxiu, the vice chairman in charge of Social Development of the former State Planning Commission, and Deng Pufang, the chairman of the China Disabled Persons’ Federation, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The symposium was attended by 22 international experts from 21 countries around the world. In addition to Hu Angang and I who were on the list of international experts of the U.N., other experts were three authors of the background report, eight domestic experts, eight United Nations observers and five domestic observers. There were 54 participants altogether. I had participated many international conferences since the mid-1980s and had written about social security and poverty alleviation for a few international organizations, which might be the reason for me to be included in the list of international experts of the U.N.

7.8.3 Report5 of the Symposium John Langmore and his team completed the report of the symposium for 25 pages. It was divided into two parts, summary and the report. Figure 7.7 shows the table of content of the report. Since paragraph one and two in the summary were valuable perceptions of state and market, I have extracted them in below Box 7.7 for illustration. Box 7.7 Extract of Partial Summary of the UN Report A key question for the symposium concerned the inter-relationships and interaction among actors of Government, the private sector and civil society for

5 Longmore

et al. (1999).

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Fig. 7.7 Contents of the symposium report

social progress. How does one define a well-functioning State? What is a wellfunctioning market? What is the contribution of civil society? All must work efficiently and yet the gauge of efficiency, as measured by budget expenditure or by profit, is insufficient. The measures of social progress are improvements in well-being for all people, their empowerment and their enhanced participation in decisions which affect their lives. To lead to social progress, development must be socially responsible and environmentally sound. In determining priorities, attention must be given to ethical and societal values. It is the view which

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heads of State and Government so nobly put forth at the World Summit for Social Development. There is no universal recipe for development and social progress, and each society must determine its own approach. We have recently witnessed increased concern that the State cannot respond to social needs; to some extent and in many places, the State has all but withdrawn, allowing the market to determine social well-being. Ultimately, however, Governments are the representatives of populations and have the responsibility for promoting society’s goals. All markets function based on traditions institutions, rules and regulations. It remains a key function of the State to determine what range of issues are to be dealt with by markets, to set frameworks and to enable private actors to act more responsibly through them. The State takers on principally an “enabling” role, complemented secondarily and where necessary, with an “implementing” or a “regulating” role.

7.9 Activities with the U.N. Center for Regional Development (UNCRD) 7.9.1 UNU and UNCRD After the WWII, Japanese economy recovered very quickly and remained as an economic power in the world. In order to maintain its favorable position in the United Nations, the Government of Japan has been funding the establishment of relevant United Nations organizations in Japan, such as the United Nations University (UNU) and the United Nations Center for Regional Development (UNCRD), headquartered in Nagoya, Japan. As a result, the heads of the center are all Japanese scholars.

7.9.2 Activities with UNCRD 1. Presenting at the international seminar. I was invited to present at the international seminar (November 7–8, 1991), on the 20th anniversary of the founding of UNCRD, which was established in 1971, in accordance with the agreement between the Japanese government and the United Nations, its purpose was to promote sustainable development in developing countries. I wrote the paper Globalization and Regional Development and presented it at the seminar. Other papers with similar theme were presented by Peter Hall, the director of the Community Research Institute in London, a prominent scholar in the field of international

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urban planning, and Saskia Sassen, a famous Dutch American sociologist and economist. Professor Shinichi Ichmura from Japan was invited as commentator of these papers. After the seminar, UNCRD invited Peter Hall and four other experts to serve as guest editors to organize the conference papers, and published a book titled Multilateral Cooperation for Development in the Twenty-First Century in 1993. 2. Writing papers for its journal. In the spring of 1997, at the request of UNCRD, I wrote Some Aspects of Economic Reforms in China: A Case Study of an Economy in Transition for its journal of Regional Development Dialogue, Vol. 18, No.1, spring 1997. According to my paper, China’s rapid economic growth in the two decades after the reform and opening was because China had established a good economic foundation before 1979. Although the editor-in-chief of the journal did not fully agree with this view, he thought some of the arguments of the paper, such as the “Decision of the CPC Central Committee on the Reform of the Economic System” in 1984 and the “Decision of the CPC Central Committee on the Establishment of a Socialist Market Economic System” in 1993 were very persuasive. I believed that important policy documents in China should be published in various foreign journals to widely publicize the Chinese government policies and decision-making practices. In the spring of 1999, I wrote Urban Poverty Alleviation and Development: the Chinese Experience at the invitation of the UNCRD and published in the same journal, Regional Development Dialogue, Vol. 20, No.1, spring 1999. 3. Jointly organized the seminar. From 5 to 7 March 1998, the DRC and UNCRD jointly held a seminar in Beijing on “Transition from a Centrally Planned Economy to a Market Economy”. At the conference, I and Madam Li Shantong coauthored Prospects for and Issues on the Chinese Economy in Transition. The statements made by some foreign experts at the meeting focused more on social development issues in accordance with the spirit of the 1995 United Nations Summit on Social Development. The conference paper was published in July 1998 in the form of study No. 26 of UNCRD. 4. Participation in the Global Forum on Regional Development Policies. From 1 to 4 December 1998, I was invited to participate in the Global Forum on Regional Development Policies co-sponsored by UNCRD and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs and wrote a paper Redefining Regional Development Strategy: The Chinese Experience. All the papers and information on the conference were collected at the UNCRD Proceeding Series No. 37 published by UNCRD in July 1999.

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Fig. 7.8 The photo of the retirement commemorative meeting. From left to right: Lin Jiabin, Hideki Kaji, and me

7.9.3 Chair the Retirement Commemorative Meeting for the Former UNCRD Director Hideki Kaji, the former director of UNCRD, collaborated with me for a long time and sometimes asked me to review the articles to be published in his journal. UNCRD also had a cooperative relationship with the Chinese Academy of Sciences. At the end of 1999, Hideki Kaji retired from UNCRD, and would give a speech at the Chinese Academy of Sciences to commemorate his retirement. The Chinese Academy of Sciences invited me to chair the meeting. Figure 7.8 is a photo from that meeting.

7.10 Collaboration with Economic and Social Commission of Asia and the Pacific Region (ESCAP) 7.10.1 Establishing the Relationship with ESCAP After the 1950s, the manufacturing industries of Japan and the “Newly Industrial Economies” or “Four Asian Tigers” (Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong and Taipei, China) and the “Tiger Cub Economics” (Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and the

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Philippines) have sprung up one after another in the Asia-Pacific region. The abovementioned countries and regions were facing the problem of structural adjustment after nearly 40 years of development, due to the changes of domestic and international environment. The United Nations ESCAP Commission, with the support of the UNDP and the South Korean government, carried out a study on “Industrial restructuring in the Asia-Pacific region” before the 1990s, and published the results of this study in the form of a book Asia-Pacific Industrial structure Adjustment in March 1991. However, the publication rarely covered the Chinese Mainland, because it did not invite Chinese experts to participate in the project. Therefore, the United Nations ESCAP held the Sub-regional Workshop on “Promoting International Competitiveness and Efficient Resource Utilization in Manufacturing” from 22 to 24 May 1991. The letters of invitation were sent to me and six experts from other Southeast Asian countries to participate in the project. The organizer of the United Nations ESCAP were Divisions of Industry, Human Settlement, and Environment (with eight participants) and Technical Cooperation Division (one of its chiefs). The theme of the workshop was deepening the project’s findings published by the ESCAP in March. After the meeting, B. P. Dhungana, the officer in charge of the Industry Division of the United Nations ESCAP, asked me to provide a case study of China. I wrote and submitted the paper Promoting International Competitiveness and Efficient Resource Utilization in Manufacturing-China case Study in December 1991. Since then, whenever the ESCAP organized industry-related meetings, I was often invited to attend.

7.10.2 Participating the Project of Social Security for the Poor in the Asia Pacific Region I once delivered a report on poverty alleviation at an international conference of poverty alleviation hosted by Indonesia, which attracted the attention of Roy, the chief of the social division of the United Nations ESCAP, and we two exchanged business cards. It was possible that Roy handed over my business card to the relevant personnel of the Social Division in charge of the project. In 1994, the Social Division of ESCAP sent a letter of invitation to me to participate in the study of the project Social Security for the Poor in the Asia-Pacific region and asked me to write a country report on China. This was the first cooperation between the United Nations ESCAP and the DRC. I wrote the country report Social Security System and Alleviation of Poverty in China and participated in the expert meeting on “Expanding Social Security for the Poor” held in Bangkok, Thailand, from November 20 to 24, 1995. Twelve experts from 12 countries, including Bangladesh, China, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Uzbekistan and Vietnam, attended the meeting. Nine organizations under the United Nations, such as the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Health

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Organization (WHO), the International Labour Organization (ILO), and other nongovernmental organizations, also had their representatives attending the meeting. Finally, 24 suggestions were put forward on the topics of social security concept, strategy, policy and project, system, financing, regional support measures and so on. The United Nations ESCAP published Toward Social Security for the Poor in the Asia-Pacific Region in 1996, which included regional studies and eight country reports.

7.10.3 Attending the Expert Meeting on Strengthening Asia-Pacific Regional Economic Cooperation for the 21st Century I was invited by the United Nations ESCAP on March 30, 1995 to participate in the expert meeting on Strengthening Asia-Pacific Regional Economic Cooperation for the 21st Century held in New Delhi, India, from 10 to 12 April 1995. The theme of the meeting was the follow-up meeting to the Delhi Declaration, but I did not participate those activities related to the Delhi Declaration. The 46 invited experts were mainly from East and South Asian countries. There were two participants from China, I and Shi Min who was director of the Asian–African Development Research Institute of DRC. A total of 14 participants from ESCAP and the UNDP attended the meeting. At the meeting, I worked well with Abul Hashem, senior economic affairs officer of the Development Research and Policy Analysis Department of the United Nations ESCAP, and assisted Hashem in drafting the relevant documents for the conclusion of the meeting. After Hashem left the office, his department also established close business ties with me.

7.10.3.1

Participating the Seminar on “Tax Reform in Central Asian Economies”

Invited by the Development Research and Policy Analysis of the United Nations ESCAP, I, as a Chinese expert among international advisers, attended a seminar on Tax Reform in Central Asian Economies held in Kyrgyzstan from 16 to 18 November 1999. There were 18 experts from Kyrgyzstan, 6 experts from Kazakhstan, Armenia and Tajikistan, and other international advisers from China, India, and South Korea. I wrote a paper and gave a speech on China’s tax system and the progress of its reform.

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7.11 Serve as International Consultant to Kazakhstan 2030 Strategic Plan 7.11.1 Origin of the New Responsibility I was responsible for the UNDP project Integrated Economic Development Policies and Planning in 1989 (PR/88/029/801/99). That project was illustrated as case study 3 in my book Introduction to Social Systems Engineering (Wang and Li 2018, pp. 189–198). Mr. Behrstock was deputy representative of the UNDP Beijing Office at that time and was transferred to be the UNDP Resident Representative of Kazakhstan in the mid of 1990s, his major assistant was a Chinese, Mr. Xu Haoliang (he is currently the Director for the Bureau for Policy and Programme Support of the UNDP). Therefore, he arranged Technical Assistance to Supreme Council for preparation of Kazakhstan 30-Year Strategic Plan (2000–2030). I was selected to participate the first workshop in 13–15 February 1967.

7.11.2 Participate the Consultation on the Draft of Strategic Plan 2030 Mr. Behrstock made arrangement for the six experts including I and Madam Li Shantong to meet Mr. E. A. Utembaev, the chairman of Agency for Strategic Planning. Mr. Behrstock suggested to Mr. Utembaev that the consultation between the experts and him and his staff take the form of small working groups on specific topics, with participation of relevant line ministry. The time schedule arranged for me was 25 April–3 May, for Madam Li Shantong was 27 April–3 May. Two more experts were invited, Dr. Jongho Yoo of South Korea and Mr. Liu He of China. But they were not able to come at that time. But the arrangement was made to get their written comments on the draft strategic plan. I was requested by the UNDP to stay one more week in Almaty after my colleague Li Shantong left. I stayed for several more days and discussed the draft strategic plan further with Mr. Utembaev. The draft strategic plan was titled A Conception of Kazakhstan’s Development Up to 2030. It contained five parts: Introduction; Tasks and objectives; Ways to Fulfill the Tasks and Objectives; Stages and Priorities of Development and Conclusion. Promulgation of the Strategic Course. I felt their draft covered broad international experiences, and they might wish to know more about concrete experiences of China. I considered it my responsibility to talk more about Chinese experience. So, in my discussion with Mr. Utembaev, I started from social reform with the higher share of population and achieved successful results through gradualist approach. Then went to the urban system reform because Chinese industrial system was dominated by State-owned enterprise system concentrated in the urban area, contract responsibility once pushed forward widely in the urban

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area. Then turn to study comparison of change of profit transfer into taxation. Both experience of successful policy and lessons of failure were explained truthfully, I believe our plain dialogue interested Mr. Utembaev very much.

7.11.3 Completion of the Kazakhstan 2030 Strategic Plan A new draft of Strategy for the Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan up to the year 2030 was completed by the Agency for Strategic Planning in July 1997 in Almaty. The Agency reported the result of the new draft to the president. The content of the Strategy 2030 is presented in below Box 7.8. Box 7.8 Contents of Kazakhstan 2030 Strategic Plan I. Introduction A. Introduction into Strategy II. World (Global) Trends 2.1 Development Experience of Set of Countries 2.2 Lessons to Learn III. Kazakhstan on the Eve of the 21st Century 3.1 Post-Soviet Development Results 3.2 Current Tasks until 2000 B. SWOT Analysis IV. Opportunities and Threats (Strengths and Weaknesses) 4.1 Opportunities 4.2 Threats V. Strategy Objectives 5.1 Maximum Utilization of Opportunities 5.2 Containment of Threats 5.3 Starting Points of Development Scenarios C. Strategy 2001–2030 VI. Development Goals 6.1 GDP per Capita (2000, 2010, 2020, 2030) 6.2 Human Development Index (2000, 2010, 2020, 2030) 6.3 Production Diversification (Industrial Structure) VII. Development Priorities 7.1 National Security and Territorial Integrity 7.2 Internal Political Stability 7.3 Freedom Entrepreneurship 7.4 Energy and Natural Resources Infrastructure

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7.5 Foreign Investments and New Technologies 7.6 Professional Civil Service 7.7 Human Values. Education and Culture D. Strategy Stages VIII. Strategy 2001–2010 IX. Strategy 2011–2020 Mr. Behrstock sent the draft report of the Strategy 2030 to me for review. I felt this new strategy was very much consistent with contemporary planning practice. Analysis of external world in relation with concrete domestic conditions, methodological, several modern methods of analysis were applied, such as scenario method and SWOT analysis. There were two unique features of this strategic plan: First, it had system development goals and system priorities, i.e. a multi-objective system. Its development goal was not only GDP oriented, but also focused on Human Development Index. Its priorities were not only focused on internal political stability, but also focused on free entrepreneurship and human values, education and culture. Secondly, it used an innovative approach to link closely the strategy and long-term goal (30 years) with relatively short and medium terms of strategy and goals (2001–2010, 2011–2020, 2021–2030). This strategy had incorporated many advanced thoughts and methods. In October 1997, the UN Representative of Kazakhstan, Mr. Behrstock and programme officer, Xu Haoliang, sent letters to Professor Gray and I (both of us were international consultants of the project Strategy 2030 in Almaty). On October 9, Nazarbayev, President of Kazakhstan met us and had a picture taken with the consultants which is shown in Fig. 7.9. During the period when my colleague Li Shantong and I worked in Kazakhstan, we met Pierce, the chief of Residence Mission at Kazakhstan of the World Bank. Pierce once oversaw China affairs at the World Bank headquarters in Washington D.C. We were very pleased to meet each other again in a foreign country. Pierce invited I and Li Shantong to tour the scenic spots of Almaty. Figures 7.10 and 7.11 show the photos of the project consultants and others.

7.12 Family Life—Children and Grandchildren I am not sure whether other Chinese intellectuals have the same value system with family life like mine. I have almost spent all my time in work and learning during my work in the DRC and rarely had time for my family and my children. In addition, I also followed my father’s advice who taught me “Younger generation’s career depends on their own effort. Don’t be the horse and cow (meaning slave) for your offspring.” Therefore, my primary focus has always been my own career and professional life.

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Fig. 7.9 Photo of President Nazarbayev with international consultants for “Kazakhstan Strategy 2030”. From left to right: Front row seated: 1st Wang Huijiong, 2nd Behrstock and 3rd President Nazaybayev; Back row standers: 1st David Pearce (World Bank Representative), 8th C. Gray (HIID)

Fig. 7.10 Photo of consultants of Kazakhstan 2030 Plan. From left to right: 1st Li Shantong, 3rd Wang Huijiong, 4th Liu He

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Fig. 7.11 Photo of us and UNDP local staffs at Almaty. From left to right: 2nd Liu He, 5th Xu Haoliang, 6th Wang Huijiong, 7th Li Shantong, 8th C. Gray

But somehow, my life-long learning spirit and dedication to my work have positively influenced my children as they have all internalized the value of life-long learning, persistence, and adaptability in their respective life and careers. My two older children, Wang Li and Wang Qi, who grew up during the 10year Cultural Revolution, had a very limited primary and secondary education as their schools were shut down and teachers were sent away to work in farms or factories during the period. However, they learned to study on their own even when the environment was harsh (my son was sent to work in a factory when he was 15, and my daughter was sent to the countryside to live and work with peasants when she was 17). Eventually they overcame many difficulties and earned college degree (my son, a BS in Mechanical Engineering in China) or graduate degrees (my daughter, MBA and PhD in Computer Technology in Education in US). Now, my son Wang Li is an executive for an IT firm in Beijing, and my daughter Wang Qi is a tenured full professor of business and IT in US (Fig. 7.12). My younger daughter Wang Ping fared better education wise. She had a normal primary and secondary education and went on to earn a college degree in medicine in China. She then worked in several hospitals in Beijing as an internal medicine doctor. In 1989, her sister Wang Qi found her a visiting scholar opportunity in US and sponsored her to go to America. After working as a research fellow for a few years, she went to law school and earn a JD with specialization in intellectual property. She and her husband Dr. Michael Yeh, who was the Science Champion of Jiangsu

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Fig. 7.12 Photo with our elder son and daughter in 2014

Province during the college entrance examination and entered Tsinghua University, are now both partners in a law firm in Washington D.C. Fig. 7.13 is a photo of their family with us in 2014. While on this topic about family, I would like to briefly talk about my five grandchildren in this chapter. My first grand-daughter (Wang Li’s child) Wang Jiahui received her MBA from Université de Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne and is now an executive assistant for a large corporation in Beijing. Figure 7.14 is a photo with our first granddaughter Wang Jiahui in 2017. My daughter Wang Qi has two daughters, Lulu Wang who received her MD from University of Virginia and is now a surgical resident in Otolaryngology (ear, nose, and throat), and Fifi Wang who was a national merit scholar in US, graduated summa cum laude in her undergraduate, and is now a graduate student in London School of Economics. Figure 7.15 is a picture taken in front of the Rotanda at University of Virginia (UVA) founded by Thomas Jefferson, with our daughter Wang Qi and her children Lulu Wang (on my side) and Fifi Wang (on my wife’s side) in 2016. My younger daughter Wang Ping has two children. Her son, Alexander Wang (with his hand on my shoulder in the Fig. 7.13) is now a university freshman with a full merit scholarship, and her daughter, Cecilia Yeh (the little girl between my wife and I in the Fig. 7.13), is now a middle school student who loves to read and write.

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Fig. 7.13 Photo with our younger daughter Wang Ping and her family in 2014

Fig. 7.14 Photo with our first granddaughter Jiahui in 2014

7.13 Summary

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Fig. 7.15 Photo with our daughter Wang Qi and her two children Lulu and Fifi at UVA in 2016

7.13 Summary This chapter mainly covers my work and activities as a member of the 8th and 9th National Committee of CPPCC, an important arm of Chinese governing system, and my active engagement in many domestic and international activities and conferences. Participating in the task force to investigate the technological transformation of existing enterprise infrastructure enabled me to grasp the major institutional issue rooted from following the former Soviet Model of Industrialization. I wrote a paper “Suggestions for the preparation of China’s 10th Five-Year Planning” and used the term “social systems engineering” for the first time. I stated, “I shall emphasize one point in this paper—the difficulties we will face in reforming China’s planning system will not be less than that of SOEs; rather, it may be even more challenging because such a reform impacts the functions of a government which is a complicated social systems engineering.” My participation in the task force to study how to develop China’s cultural industry and close interaction with people in fine arts and entertainment broadened my scope beyond industry and economy and prompted me to read many books related to culture and to think reflectively about culture as an important component of Social Systems Engineering. During this period, I attended many consequential national and international conferences, assisted international organizations in their project implementation or to

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unveil their annual reports, and all the while expanded my scope of knowledge domain. Most notable activities or conferences included: (1) National Policy Consultation Working Conference held in Beijing in 1990 during which the top Chinese leaders including President Jiang Zemin, Premier Li Pong, and others met the delegates; (2) Ministerial Conference of Industry held in New Delhi in 1995 and organized by UNIDO, where I delivered a speech on behalf of China’s Ambassador to India; (3) I hosted the seminar in 1996 to unveil the Industrial Development Global Report 1996 on behalf of UNIDO; (4) I supported the implementation of UNDP Project (DR/91/144) “Sustainable Development of Yellow River Delta” and led the Chinese team to work collaboratively with the Dutch experts in writing the general report; and (5) I was actively involved with UNCRD by presenting or chairing its seminars, writing papers for its journals, and organizing its forums. I was so busy in my work that I hardly had any time for my children. But thanks to my wife and to my children’s resilience, my son and daughters grew up to be successful, responsible, and highly educated individuals. They viewed me as a role model for work and learning as they internalized the value of life-long learning, persistence, and adaptability in their respective life and careers. However, they surpass me in family devotion and children nurturing. As a result, all my grandchildren are growing happily and fulfilled. As a father and grandfather, I am very proud of my children and grandchildren’s accomplishment and utterly thankful to whoever have helped them along the way!

References IMF. (2000). World economic outlook. Washington D.C.: IMF. Li, W. (Chief Ed.). (2015). Major events of the development research center of the state council (Chinese version) (pp. 518–519). Beijing: China Development Publishing House. Longmore, J., Kan, G., & Huber, R. (1999, October 11–13). Report of the symposium. Beijing. UNIDO. (1995, October 25). Report of the global forum on industry: Perspectives for 2000 and beyond, pp. 3–4, ID/WG.542/32 (SPEC). Wang, H. J., & Li, S. T. (2018). Introduction to social systems engineering. Singapore: Springer. Wu, M. (1990). China and the world. Beijing: China’s Fiscal and Financial Publisher.

Chapter 8

Exploring Social Systems Engineering Through Collaboration with Various International Organizations (1990–2000)

8.1 Introduction Most of the activities described in this chapter occurred during the same period as those in Chap. 7. However, the activities in this chapter only focused on the collaborative ones with international organizations to demonstrate how I explored Social Systems Engineering through my learning and experience in collaborating with international experts in various projects. Since most projects done in this period were contracted by international organizations, I was given the title of domestic international consultant given my extensive knowledge about China. To show collaborative work, some of the original document done by international experts are quoted in the chapter. In addition to those collaborative projects with international organizations, selected important personal activities are also included in the chapter, as both have contributed to the formal emergence of personal methodology of social systems engineering in this period.

8.2 Assist the World Bank Researcher in the Study “Analysis of the Reasons for the Rapid Growth of China’s Coastal Regions” 8.2.1 General To explore the mechanism of the rapid development of China’s coastal provinces, Ashoka Mody, a senior researcher of the World Bank, first consulted a group of “China experts” from overseas. With the support of Carl Dahlman, Shahid Yusef, I. J. Singh, Barry Naughton and five other researchers from the World Bank, a 50-page research proposal was put forward and questionnaires were designed. Dr. Mody also searched for reliable business partners in China to implement the survey. He © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 H. Wang, Explorations in Social Systems Engineering, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-3390-7_8

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requested David Pearce, the World Bank Country Director for China then, to write to me asking for my help. After talking with Mody, I believed the project would serve China’s research agenda as well and the research methodology was consistent with mine (study of macro phenomena is better carried out with simultaneous study of micro phenomena). At that time, DRC lacked enough resources to carry out micro-enterprise surveys, to collaborate with the World Bank in this project could also supplement the research work of the center, especially the UNDP project. This project was still in the implementation stage which necessitated more micro studies. In view of this, I agreed immediately to assist. After preliminary discussion, the two of us decided the survey locations (Guangdong, Fujian, etc.), the scale and the industries to be surveyed. Through personal contact, I won the trust of Mody who needed organizations such as DRC and research partners such as me to get his project proposal approved by the World Bank. In Mody’s project proposal, it is described as follows: “Development Research Center will be the implementing agency of the investigation, and we have established a close cooperative relationship. DRC will also use the surveys for their own future research and development.”

8.2.2 My Role My priority at the time was to complete the UNDP project (PR/88/029/B/01/99) “Integrated Economic Development Policies and Planning” (covered in pervious chapter). At the same time, I also committed to participate the project “Institutional and Policy Priorities for Industrial Technology Development” jointly funded by the World Bank and the Canadian Development Center. These two projects consumed much of my time, and I could only spend a small portion of my time on Dr. Mody’s project. So, I defined my work as follows: (1) organize domestic human resources to form a task force; (2) sign agreement with provincial Economic Research Center to assist the work of survey; (3) participate several pilot surveys with questionnaires personally at some selected locations to acquire first-hand knowledge of this research methodology; (4) deal with unexpected events promptly at local level; (5) keep continuous information exchanges with Mody. After I defined my role in this project, I started its implementation. I requested Zuo Xuejin, the Former Vice President of Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences to assist me to lead the survey together with his staff Miao Jianhua and Wu Zhengzhang of our center to form the task force. I accompanied him to sign the agreements with Fujian Economic Research Center and Guangzhou City Economic Survey Team respectively. And we started several pilot surveys in Fuzhou, Xiamen, Quanzhou (Shishi district and Nan Anxian district), Guangzhou and Dongguan, respectively. I participated directly in Fuzhou and Xiamen pilot surveys. After the pilot surveys, several weaknesses of the original questionnaire were found. I passed this information to Dr. Mody who revised and sent me the final questionnaire. Then the work of survey with the finalized questionnaire proceeded. At the end of 1992, Dr. Mody agreed with Dr. Yusef to further refine his research hoping to include two more provinces dominated by state-owned heavy

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industries in the project. Considering my busy work schedule and knowing that heavy industry dominated provinces were harder to define and organize, I did not agree.

8.2.3 Experience Gained from the World Bank Project I gained much knowledge and experience through collaborating with the World Bank in this project. First, to be a qualified policy researcher, one should not only limit oneself with handling daily tasks. One must develop the habit to extrapolate and integrate daily phenomenon into quantitative and theoretical foundation. Secondly, large think tanks or research institutions should have quality assurance procedures in place to guarantee quality and achievement of each research project. Dr. Mody’s research proposal “Explaining Rapid Growth: Chinese Coastal Provinces and Mexican Maquiladoras” prepared in February 3, 1992 contained 50 pages. Its table of contents and executive summary are shown in Box 8.1 which can be used to verify whether Mody’s research proposal achieved its aim in the subsequent section. Box 8.1 Explaining Rapid Growth: Chinese Coastal Provinces and Mexican Maquiladoras A Research Proposal February 3, 1992 Table of Contents Executive Summary I. Objectives and Relevance 1. 2. 3. 4. II.

Objectives Why China and Mexico Relevance to Bank Policy and Operation Project Implementation

A Typology and Model of the Growth Process 1. A typology of Growth 2. A model of the Growth Process

III.

Narrative Analysis 1. Firm Strategies and Competition 2. Foreign Knowledge 3. Externalities (or Amplification)

IV.

Sources of Growth: Regression Analysis 1. Firm Level Analysis 2. Analysis: County/Province Level

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V. VI.

Relationship to Other Research Research Design and Methodology 1. 2. 3. 4.

Data Collection Questionnaire Selection of Localities within China and Mexico Selection of Firms within Localities

VII. Output VIII. Organization, Budget and Timetable 1. Organization 2. Timetable 3. Budget Bibliography Appendix A: Why China and Mexico 1. China 2. Mexico Appendix B: The Questionnaire Executive Summary Objectives and Strategy A question of central interest to the bank’s operational work and policy advice is: when does the process of economic growth become self-sustaining? In other words, when does growth provide positive feedbacks to generate continued growth? A significant body of work has emphasized the importance of providing firms with the right incentives and price signals to allow economically efficient decisions. Recent analysis also reminds us that investment in physical capital and knowledge generating activities, inflows of high-quality international knowledge, and self-sustaining agglomeration effects have a powerful impact on growth. In contrast to most existing studies, we propose that economy-wide or regional growth be viewed through the eyes of individual firms. The strategy is to seek the perception of firms on the resources they draw from their environment and to discern how they use these resources to implement growth strategies. In keeping with our emphasis on analyzing the microeconomics of growth, our main data source for this research will be a survey of firms (360 in China and 60 in Mexico), though we will also conduct a more conventional investigation using published regional data. Through a careful firm-level survey in two of the highest growth regions in the developing world (Southern China and Northern Mexico), we expect, in the proposed research, to map various knowledge flows and agglomeration effects

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and identify the leverage points at which these long-run drivers of growth can be influenced. Relevance to Bank Policy and Operations The research should provide guidance on policy issues related to regional targeting (e.g., creation of export promotion zones), mechanisms for attracting foreign investment, the timing of infrastructure development, the relationship between labor/education policy and labor mobility, and the role of local support networks. A Model of the Growth Process Growth in developing countries is best viewed as a process of “catching-up” with international best practice. “Catching-up” involves accessing and effectively using this knowledge. However, “catching-up” should not be viewed merely as a transition from the current state to a more efficient state of functioning. “Catching-up” is expensive and requires several resources and hence can be aided by a supportive local environment. We use the analogy of an amplifier to describe growth (See Fig. 1). Knowledge, (both domestic and foreign) is the input to the amplifier. The amplifier itself consists of potential agglomeration economies (professional and social contacts, labor mobility, availability of specialized inputs, economies of scale in infrastructure provision). Knowledge from local and foreign sources is amplified through one or more of these agglomeration effects, leading to growth. In addition, firm strategies and competitive conditions have an important influence on the growth process. To carry the analogy of the amplifier one step further, firm strategies and competitive conditions may be thought of as a voltage bias on the amplifier. At certain voltages, the amplifying effect can be significantly impeded. This may occur, for example, when a regional economy is dominated by a few monopolies that have little incentive to innovate or imitate from the pool of international knowledge. In such a situation, firms may invest very little in reverse engineering, design modifications, and other efforts that create a demand and a supply of skills, which in turn are the basis for the amplifying system to work. Based on the above framework, we develop several hypotheses to guide our interpretation of the responses to the questionnaire. The hypotheses relate to firm strategies and competitive conditions, the presence and strength of agglomeration effects and the different sources and effectiveness of knowledge. Methodology The survey is to be based on a questionnaire that was pretested in Guangdong and Fujian provinces in July 1991. The questionnaire has since been revised and scrutinized by an expert in survey design. The current version is attached here as Appendix B. It will be further pretested before being administrated. The firm survey data will be analyzed in two forms. The first, which we refer to as narrative analysis, will describe and analyze firm strategies with regard to

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product differentiation, the functioning of the local labor and material inputs market, perceptions of firms on the relative importance of various agglomeration economies, and the relative importance and effectiveness of various forms of international knowledge flows. Secondly, the data will be used to estimate reduced-form equation on the determinants of growth and investment (equipment and training), explicitly accounting for local agglomeration effects (as perceived by the firm) and the flow of international knowledge in its various forms. Secondary data I the regions being studied in China and Mexico are being obtained. Certain analyses of the data have already been carried out to test specific growth models. Developing Country Collaboration The development Research Center, Beijing, will be the survey implementing institution. We have developed a close working relationship with them. They will also use the survey as a basis for furthering some of their own research interests. In Mexico, we will have the support the Secretariat de Comercioy Fomento Industrial (SECOFI). Resources Requested A total of $123,000 is being requested. This will go towards conducting the survey, travel, and consultant fees. The project will have the benefit of participation by Arvind Panagariya, Paul Romer, and Andrei Shleifer. In a typical textbook of Sociology related to “Sociological1 Research Method”, survey through questionnaire is one of the methods. Mody and his assistant designed the questionnaire for this study. It contained eleven categories and 71 questions in the first tier and more questions in the second or third tiers. The eleven categories are shown in Box 8.2. In addition, the World Bank also prepared a 10-page Interviewer’s Manual of Instructions for users. Box 8.2 Main Categories of the Questionnaire I. Background Information of the Firm The following questions seek to establish the profile of the firm in terms of total employment, sales and export structure and transactions with principal business partners. II.

Product Strategies and Competition In the following questions we would like to know the principal product produced by your enterprise.

1 Giddens

and Bridsall (2001).

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III.

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Expectations of Sales Growth and Investment in the Next 3 Years In the following questions, we would like to n-know the firm’s perceptions of future prospected and expected investments in your area.

IV.

Machinery, Equipment and Material Inputs A. Machinery and Equipment B. Material Inputs

V.

Education/Experience/Training The following questions seek to establish the firm’s employment profile in terms of the level education and experience of the employees and the firm’s efforts/investment in training and research and development.

VI.

Recruitment and Turnover The following questions attempt to trace the movement of people in the firm, reasons for the termination of service, what they do and where they go upon leaving the firm and the incentive structure and compensatory benefits offered by the firm as inducements to reduce turnover.

VII. Watching and Talking The following questions attempt to measure the form’s efforts in developing and maintaining a strong network through its foreign and domestic linkages, both formal and informal. VIII. Foreign know how The following questions focus on the role of foreign support and knowledge in the firm’s operations and the extent to which the firm has exploited this support and knowhow in order to achieve its growth objectives. IX.

Policy Environment The following questions ask about the enterprise’s perception of the impact of policies and regulatory instruments on enterprise profitability and overall growth.

X.

Infrastructure The following questions ask about the availability and reliability of infrastructure in the firm’s current and whether the firm perceives these deficiencies as major obstacles to growth.

XI.

Summary Assessment of Growth Factors

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The following questions provide a recapitulation of the firm’s overall view of the important factors of growth.

8.2.4 Research Paper of the Project After the project completion, Dr. Mody and his assistant Wang Fangyi wrote a paper “Industrial Growth in Coastal China: Economic Reform …And what Else?”, and sent it on April 5, 1993, to the World Bank’s Research Committee (RPO 667-50) to bring his research project to a closure. The paper was also published in the Vol. 2 of World Bank Economic Review in May 1997. This highly academic paper contained many econometric analyses based upon information processed from survey questionnaires. The 34-page main part of the paper (with appendix around 36 pages) was divided into five sections: 1. Introduction. In this part, a brief description of China’s high economic growth was given, growth rate of GDP was 10.1% between 1980 and 1989, 11.5% from 1985 to 1989. And at the same time, China became a substantial exporter of manufactured goods. And the five coastal provinces (Guangdong, Fujian, Shandong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang) registering growth rates around 20% a year between 1985 and 1989 while the three coastal municipalities (Beijing, Tianjin, and Shanghai) had relatively lackluster performance. The economists from abroad had also found three facts: First, despite economic reforms, market forces continue to be weak in many critical areas. Labor and capital markets are subject to numerous controls and rigidities. Second, the sequence of reform has often been unorthodox. Observers are agreed that Chinese reforms have suffered from a “stop and go” mentality which would generally be regarded as creating uncertainty. Third, within China, the correlation between degree of reforms and economic success is weak, geographical environment advantages (e.g. coastal areas) or gaining greater autonomy do not necessarily guarantee economic development. Therefore, it is considered necessary to analyze from broader perspectives and factors, such as foreign knowledge, domestic human resources and infrastructure, conducive to generating structural features of knowledge and dissemination, such as competition specialization labor mobility and social interaction, etc. 2. Statistical analysis of the output growth. The second part of the report was a statistical analysis of the growth of output and the impact of its time, industry, region and different roles. 3. Finding influential factors. The third part made a large number of regression analysis, obtains the influence of various variables on the industrial growth of coastal provinces, and analyzes the specialization, competition among enterprises and the growth of industries outside the region, foreign direct investment in human resources-education and affected by foreign knowledge, infrastructure,

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initial conditions, light, heavy industry and other variables on industrial growth correlation analysis. 4. Test analysis. The fourth part made the sensitivity analysis and the assumption error analysis. 5. Conclusions. The fifth part was the conclusion. According to the analysis of variable decomposition and the time variable model of regression analysis, the main conclusion is that China’s economic system reform can only independently explain a very small part of China’s growth changes from 1985 to 1989. Nearly half of the growth change (48%) is due to the synchronization of coastal area growth with specific industrial processes. The fastest growing sectors in any given year do not have a special model, nor are they necessarily the most laborintensive industries. These factors of synchronization background include the externalization of industry and the flow of information between regions through informal information networks. Differences in regional initial conditions, such as human capital and access to infrastructure, have a significant impact on the output growth of “right” industries that have emerged in the region at the “right” time. Foreign direct investment also produced related knowledge flows, which also had a strong stimulating effect on the growth of China’s coastal provinces. In addition, secondary education, industrial specialization and competition all play a positive role in promoting growth. The last part of the document also summarizes the experiences, lessons and enlightenment of the development of China’s coastal provinces. Several appendices including regression equations and large number of data are part of the paper.

8.3 Participation of the Project Institutional and Policy Priorities for Industrial Technology Development—Formal Emergence of My Concept on “Methodology of Social Systems Engineering” 8.3.1 General The purpose of this project was to explore the role of scientific and technological institutions and government policies in promoting the development of industrial technology. The multinational and multi-sectoral study project was initiated and funded by the World Bank and the Canadian Development Centre. The Asian Technology Department of the World Bank was responsible for designing and leading this project. The full name of the project was “Institutional and Policy Priorities for Industrial Technology Development”. The project selected eight economies: Mainland China, India, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Mexico, Canada and Hungary; and six industrial sectors, including traditional and contemporary emerging industries such as textile industries, foundry, machine tools, polymers, automotive parts manufacturing and

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software industries. The aim was to explore how they could enhance their technical level, get support from external institutions (science and technology institutions), market and policy-led resources, and how they interact with science and technology institutions. The overall research methods included historical research and organized questionnaire survey (the questionnaire format was uniformly designed by the World Bank) to gather rich quantitative and qualitative data for meaningful analysis. Carl Dahlman of Economic Development Institute of the World Bank (EDI) asked me to organize some members to participate. I thought that the past work of the DRC was mainly macro research in nature, and it was necessary to conduct in-depth investigations into micro enterprises and scientific and technological institutions to learn the state in the meso-industry. Considering the human resource shortage of our center, I negotiated with Kong Deyong, the Director of the Science and Technology Development Research Center under the former State Science and Technology Commission, to jointly carry out the work. Kong agreed and appointed his deputy Xu Zhaoxiang to be responsible for this project. Xu was assisted by Tang Shiguo of his center for the specific work. I appointed Madam Lv Wei, the Director of Techno-Economic Bureau of DRC to assist me. Dr. Carl Dahlman requested Melvin H. Goldman of Asia Technical Department to contact me and Mr. Xu directly. The work started in 1992.

8.3.2 The World Bank Roles 1. The three World Bank roles. The World Bank three roles included: (a) prepare the questionnaire of Technology Institutional Profile and Guideline, a suggested draft industry association questionnaire with instructions for interviewers was sent to us in early March 1993 for use in the survey; (b) coordinate the outline of country report through faxes to Professor Xu and me; and (c) organize the final international conference at Ottawa, Canada on May 8–10, 1994. The leaders of the eight economies met together. Xu Zhaoxiang and I jointly drafted China’s National Report with separate parts and presented the draft report, respectively, at a meeting. The entire report was accepted at the final meeting. Chapter 9 Conclusions and Policy Suggestion of our paper are shown in Box 8.3.

Box 8.3 Conclusion and Policy Suggestions of the Final Report of “Policy and Institutional Priorities for Industrial Technology Development” Chapter Nine Conclusion and Policy Suggestions 1. Mainly due to the development of technology market and the change of S&T funding system, there has been a great improvement in establishing collaborating relation between the R&D institutions and industrial firms.

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2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8. 9.

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An important task which research institutes now face is to extricate themselves from the old centralized economic system and become guided by market forces; but the market is still immature, staff of TI’s had not the experience to be subjected to the market force and adverse effects of the previous centralized economy die hard. The establishment of a complete technology service system that supports industrial technological development as now become even more imminent than the improvement of R&D and firm interactions. It should include standards/testing, professional training, consulting services, intermediaries for technology transactions, and engineering services, which have long been the major weak links in China’s supporting system for ITD. Considering the extremely low level of firms’ spending on professional training and the low quality of labor force and product quality in most industrial firms, the government should provide more training incentive and take more effective measure to strengthen quality control. Lack of technological dynamism in China’s industrial sectors has been a matter of utmost concern for quite a long time. It is a manifestation of much larger structural problem and cannot be solved by any shortcut or through any simple policy measures. It is really a central link in China’s all-round system reform to give vitality to the State-owned enterprises through the transformation of its backward enterprise management mechanism (EMM), which is in fact, closely related to the transformation of Government function and improvement in their market environments. The overall target of transforming EMM is to change their situation of being appendages of Government administrative organs, so that they can have the autonomy in enterprise management, including production, marketing, pricing and misemploying unqualified staff and workers etc., assume sole responsibility for profits and losses, and actively participate in market competition. However, this target of transforming EMM can only be achieved by transforming the traditional planned economy into one of increased market influence. Experiences in the development of technology market, industrial consumer goods market, specific Economic zone and New and High-tech Industrial Development Zones etc. have all shown demand for technology and motivation for technology development has come primarily from areas and trades which enjoy a relatively high level of market economy. Now is the time to establish and develop a whole-sale market for capital goods as well. Without an improved market environment, the transformation of the traditional enterprise management system cannot but be an empty talk. Without the necessary market mechanism, it is impossible for manufacturers of capital goods (e.g. machine tool and castings) to respond prompty to the

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fast-changing needs of their potential customers, thereby hampering the pace of technology development of both the supplier and user of those capital goods. 10. Technology transfer from abroad has been proved to be an efficient way to upgrade China’s industrial technology level. As many as 30% or so major product/process changes in the firms interviewed was due to technology importation. However, there is no direct relation between the extent of technology importation and the degree of technology dynamism of the firms interviewed. With so many dynamic and less dynamic firms reporting their achievements due to technology importation, we may conclude that technology importation itself does not help improve technology dynamism unless a well-organized and well-motivated efforts are made to adapt and assimilate the imported technology and make further technology innovations on this basis. 11. However, compared with Japanese and Korean experience that considerable effort should be made in the adaptation, absorption and assimilation of imported technologies, China’s domestic effort and input has been extremely low. 12. There should be policy incentives to encourage the industrial firms to use the support of domestic TI’s, including technology assessment and evaluation of the proposed new construction projects, the adaptation and assimilation of imported technologies, technology transfer from domestic suppliers and the firm-TI collaborative technology development projects.

2. Main report in English. The World Bank was also responsible to write the main international report based upon the eight economy reports. The main international report was completed in April 1997. I received a copy of the main international report sent by Goldman on June 13, 1997. It consisted of 5 chapters. Chapter 1 was background of the project and methodology; Chap. 2 was the overview of survey/results; Chap. 3 was the pattern of application of firms; Chap. 4 was how to make technological institutions to perform their role; Chap. 5 was government and reform of technological infrastructure. Goldman also asked me if I could translate the main international report into Chinese. I regrettably declined his request due to shortage of human and financial resources at that time. The main report contained rich data and information and some are extrapolated in Tables 8.1 and 8.2 for illustration purpose.

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Table 8.1 Sample characteristics of national technical institutions China

Mexico

Korea

Japan

India

46

17

16

62

26

1972

1981

1979

1953

1965

78

53

56

79

65

Average number of staff and workers

416

88

419

92

439

Average percentage of technical staff

46

66

42

71

33

Average percentage of contracted income (1992)

57

41

56

23

39

Number of Sample Average years established Percentage of samples of technical institutions in special industries

Note Since the lack of comparable forms, data from Canada, Hungary and Taiwan were not included in the table

Table 8.2 Firm Surveyed: number of examples of sectors and economies Sector

Korea

Japan

India

Polymer

China 35

Canada 39

29

25

6

Taiwan Province 22

Total 156

Machine tool

36

19

35

44

10

26

170

Auto parts

35

16

34

64

35

94

278

Textile; textile

35

20

33

35

25

62

210

Casting

36

13

35

51

8

98

241

Textile machinery

0

2

58

27

0

8

95

Software

35

4

0

42

27

117

225

Medicine

0

19

0

1

21

16

57

Electron

0

52

42

2

0

187

282

other

0

214

0

31

0

89

335

Total

212

398

266

322

132

719

2049

Note Sector and economies with number ‘0’ was informed by the World Bank not to be surveyed

8.3.3 The Chinese Version of the Country Report 1. Publication of the Chinese Version of China’s Report. After submitting the English version of China’s country report to Ottaw in 1994, the Chinese project team began to arrange the publication of the Chinese version country report. The title of the book is Technical Progress of Firms: Policy/Institutions, it was published by China Development Press on April 1996. Xu Zhaoxiang and I were the chief editor, Tang Shizhong and Lv Wei were the deputy chief editor. The editing team had four members including Ma Chi, Chen Xiaohong, Yang Tianzheng, and Zhao Jie. 2. Contents of the Book. This book contains seven chapters.

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Box 8.4 The Contents of the Chinese Version of the Country Report Chapter 1 Overview-Technological progress, policy of Industry and Institutions 1.1 General description of the project 1.2 Development of industrial technology and reform of China’s economic system 1.3 Implications of international research trends to Chinese study of industrial technology development policy and institutional reform 1.4 Survey questionnaire of firms and scientific Institutions-Exploration primarily methodology of Social Systems Engineering 1.5 Experience and policy recommendations on improving science and technology institutions and technology development 1.6 Country report and international report Chapter 2 Technical progress and policy for textile industry 2.1 Current state of development of Chinese Textile Industry 2.2 Analysis of results of survey 2.3 Main conclusions and policy recommendation Chapter 3 Technical progress and policy for Chinese Foundry Industry (Structure and descriptions are the same as Chapter 2) Chapter 4 Technical progress and policy for machine tool industry (Structure and descriptions are the same as Chapter 2) Chapter 5 Technical progress and policy for polymer industry (Structure and descriptions are the same as Chapter 2) Chapter 6 Technical progress and policy for firms in auto parts industry 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4

Basic situation of auto parts industry Survey of firms and technical institution Case analysis Main conclusions and policy recommendations

Chapter 7 Technical progress and policy for software industry (Structure and descriptions are the same as Chapter 2)

3. Great regret. I wrote Chap. 1 of the book and raised formally in my paper “survey questionnaire of firms and technical institutions-exploration of methodology of social systems engineering”. I learnt the importance of design of various survey questionnaire from two successive joint researches with the World Bank. The questionnaire must be an integral part of the project Technical Progress of Firms: Policy/Institutions. Our team translated into Chinese the 35 questions for firms and 39 questions for technical institutions and asked the publisher to include all of them in the publication of the book. But regrettably, the publisher did not include them in the book publication due to poor management.

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4. Raised initial concept of social systems engineering. I raised more concepts of social systems engineering in another publication published in later part of the year. Information highway became a hot topic of discussion in recent years in China. Luo Peilin from Chinese Academy of Science was worried that overemphasis on new technological revolution and construction of information highway might result in neglecting normal industrialization process. He invited another academician of Chinese Academy of Science Wu Youshou and me to his home to discuss the issue. We determined to edit a book titled “New Technological Revolution and Information Highway”, with Luo Peilin as the chief editor, Wu Youshou and I as the deputy chief editors. This book was divided mainly into four parts.2 Part 1 was Overview-New Technological Revolution and its Final Prospect; part 2 was Application of Information Technology; part 3 was Foundation of Information Technology; part 4 was Social Systems Engineering and Information highway (I wrote this part). This might be the first paper I wrote to explore social systems engineering and its appropriate application. Primary definition of it was explored. This book was published in December 1996.

8.4 Assistance from the World Bank to Improve Policy Research Capacity Through Its Soft Loans 8.4.1 General The Chief of the World Bank promised to give a soft loan to our center to improve our policy research capacity, cases described in this section can illustrate this.

8.4.2 International Seminar on Quantitative Analysis Using World Bank Soft Loans I and my two colleagues, Li Boxi and Li Shantong are all scholars with a background in science and engineering. We were very clear that the research and analysis of modern economics and policy needs to be quantified step by step, and that is what China needs to learn and practice. We organized an international seminar on quantitative analysis in Xi’an from 2 to 14 July 1991, with the support of the World Bank soft loan. Li Qingxiong of the City University of New York, Xiao Zheng of the University of California, Lin Wuu-Long, Senior Researcher of the United Nations Department of Technical Cooperation and Development, and Shang-Guan Yongqin, the Vice President of Citibank, were invited to systematically introduce the basic points of macroeconomics, business cycle analysis, the theoretical basis and 2 Lu

et al. (1996).

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development trend of the modern econometrics, the development and application of macroeconomic models, the formulation and policy analysis of economic plans, as well as the establishment and application of practical databases. The seminar was attended by researchers from development research centers and information centers in 22 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions, quantitative analysis personnel from some ministries and commissions, and more than 70 scholars majoring in econometrics in key colleges and universities. Delegates submitted nearly 40 papers or research reports, including national macro models, regional models, departmental models, prosperity index analysis and some theoretical discussions. During the seminar, more than a dozen experts given speeches there. To a certain extent, the meeting summed up the experience in the development and application of economic mathematical models in China since the 1980s and achieved the purpose of explaining the development trend of international quantitative analysis theory and application in recent years (Fig. 8.1).

Fig. 8.1 Photo of Main Member of International Seminar on Quantitative Analysis held at Xi’an. From left to right: 3rd Li Boxi, 4th Wang Huijiong, 5th LIN Wuu-Long, 6th Su Qingxiong, 7th Wang Yingluo, 8th Li Shantong

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8.4.3 International Conference of Macro-economic Modelling of China Hosted by DRC Supported by Soft Loans of the World Bank and UNDP Project This conference was attended by 18 economists from Chinese government and universities, nine from foreign countries, and several observers from UNDP. On the first day, Wu Mingyu, the Deputy Director of our center, and Jan Matson, the Director of UNDP delivered welcome remarks respectively. I delivered a report entitled Economic Forecasting in P.R.C. A Survey of Chinese Macro-Economic Modelling on behalf of Li Boxi. Li Shantong and myself. The report was divided into six parts: general situation of economic forecast development in China; medium-short-term forecasting model in China (four models were introduced); medium-long-term planning model in China (four models were introduced); others (Link model, etc.) of modeling work; evaluation of various models; and future prospects. The written English report also included an attachment with seven model equations. In addition, four other domestic experts took the floor to introduce their mathematical models. The agenda of the second day was speeches given by six foreign experts, and the third day was speeches by three foreign experts, including Zalm, who had a wealth of theoretical and practical experience as the Director of the Dutch Central Planning Agency (later as Dutch Finance Minister, etc.). The greatest result of this international conference was the debate on CGE model and the macroeconomic model. Zalm advocated that both models should be developed. What’s more, there were many CGE model experts at the meeting, such as David Roland-Holst and Dominique van der Mensbrugghe, they established cooperative relations with the DRC through this conference. We determined to focus on the development of CGE model in future because the Chinese economic had already some knowledge on macro-economic model but not enough on CGE. Therefore, we changed from the general exploration of the mathematical model to the study, application and perfection of the CGE model in China. Since then, with the help of Holst and Dominique, Li Shantong established and perfected the DRC-CGE model. The DRC-CGE model was used in 1997–1998 for China to participate in the WTO project in cooperation with the World Bank. Li Shantong also trained and developed a team of CGE model workers in several colleges and universities in China. Li Boxi, Li Shantong and I also wrote a paper Two Decades of Policy Modelling of DRC for the International Conference on Economic Models held in Beijing in November 2001.

8.4.4 International Seminar on Market Economy and Legal System By 1990s, I had been engaged in policy research at the DRC for more than a decade. I realized that since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the study of law and legal system of PRC was relatively weak in China. From the hierarchical structure

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of system theory point of view, study of law should take higher precedence than that of policy, so I strongly supported the Decision of the CPC Central Committee on Promoting Several Major Issues of Governing the Country According to Law with Full Speed adopted at the Fourth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee. When I was the Director of the Project Office of the UNDP, I felt the necessity to hold seminars on the legal system of the market economy. In order to establish a socialist market economic system in China, it is necessary to build a legal system. In the context of economic globalization, if the Chinese government wants Chinese enterprises to expand overseas, it must also understand the legal system of foreign countries. From this perspective, I wanted to use the foreign exchange resources of the comprehensive research project on economic development and reform of the UNDP project to organize an international seminar on the legal system. So, I contacted Mao Rong, a Chinese legal scholar in the United States, and asked her to organize relevant experts abroad to participate in seminars at China. Mao Rong graduated from Yale Law School and worked in a law firm in the United States. I applied for activity funding from UNDP in China. UNDP was very strict in evaluating project applications. Unexpectedly, my application was rejected. I checked with Jan Mattson, the Director of UNDP Residence Mission at Beijing, for a reason. Jan Mattson explained that UNDP supported other project of the same nature led by another organization in China. However, Mao Rong organized several foreign experts in the United States. I could only turn to E. C. Hwa, an economist at the World Bank Office in China to apply for support with a soft loan. Mr. Hwa, a Chinese scholar who went to study in the United States from Taiwan, made an urgent processing of my application. In a very short period, foreign exchange was disbursed from a soft loan paying the US experts to travel to China, so the seminar was held as scheduled. Hwa sat next to me when he attended the opening ceremony of the seminar, I thanked him, he simply replied “That’s what friends for!” The International Seminar on Market Economy and Legal System was held from July 26–30, 1993, a total of 50 Chinese participants attended the seminar. In addition to members of the DRC, the Legislative Bureau of the State Council, leaders of multiple national ministries, commissions and economic research centers, and enterprise units in some provinces, and some professional lawyers were also invited. Foreign experts attending the seminar were mainly O’Melveny and Myers LLP and six experts from Kelly, Milton and Medel Law Firm (RM&M). Before they came to China, I wrote to them about the background of China’s establishment of socialist market economic system, hoping that they would introduce the corresponding legal system and supporting institutions, etc. As a result of these background requirements put forward in advance, the content of the seminar was highly targeted, which involved brief introduction of American legal system; American financial system; anti-trust law; preferences and restrictions on foreign investment; FDI in the United States; forms of commercial enterprises; American tax system; United States Securities Act-Business Merges and Consolidations; Immigration and Labor laws; United States foreign trade laws and policies and product liabilities, etc. (Figs. 8.2 and 8.3).

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Fig. 8.2 Photo of International Seminar on Market Economy and Legal System

Fig. 8.3 Photo of the Chinese organizers having lunch with foreign experts. From left to right: 1st Li Boxi, 2nd Li Shantong, 3rd Padideh Ala’i, 4th Wang Huijiong, 5th Mao Rong

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8.4.5 Participation of the Global Knowledge Conference in 1997-Knowledge for Development in the Information Age Co-hosted by the World Bank and the Government of Canada 1. Origin. In the 1960s and 1970s, after the rapid development of information technology and related industries, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)3 released a report on Knowledge-based Economy in 1996, which once became an upsurge in China. In a short period of time, many books about knowledge economy had been published. In fact, as far as academia was concerned, the research on this problem and phenomenon abroad has been going on for a long time. When I attended the European Prospect Conference held in France in 1987, the organizers sent me a book, Euro futures, explaining that the world would enter into the stage of the information society in the second half of the 20th century, and mankind will enter the stage of bio society by the 21st century. The publication was the report of FAST, a European Community research project in 1978 with a cost of 5.6 million euros and with a research team of ten experts. To some extent, the book explained the development stage of human society from the perspective of technological determinism. Biology society means that biotechnology will become the leading industry of human society in the 21st century and affect all aspects of human society. However, the development and dissemination of information technology had promoted the emergence of human knowledge, accumulation and dissemination of knowledge which was changing and affecting the development of human society. The OECD report was based on long-term research, and the World Bank was a global think tank to some extent and often shared the same view with the OECD. 2. The First Global Knowledge Conference. In order to promote the wide diffusion of the concept, the World Bank decided to co-host the Global Knowledge Conference 1997-Knowledge for Development in the Information Age with the Government of Canada, to organize high-level expert presentations from all over the world, and to invite national experts to participate in the conference to understand the trends in the use of knowledge for development. I was invited by the World Bank, and the Ford Foundation paid for the full cost of my participation. The conference was held in Toronto from 22 to 25 June 1997. The first day of the conference was the opening ceremony, with welcoming speeches delivered by the head of Government of Canada, the President of the World Bank and the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan. In the following three meeting days, there were plenary meetings and working sessions of sub-groups. The themes of the plenary report are global knowledge agenda; investing in knowledge infrastructure; knowledge and technology forum; global knowledge: partnerships between women and men; knowledge of good governance; global 3 This

activity was not paid by soft loans of the World Bank. The author grouped this activity here is due to its importance and simplification of structure of this book.

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knowledge and local culture; A challenge; a future partner, etc. The meeting had seven working sessions on: the empowerment of information and knowledge to the poor; the role of the State: the policy and regulatory framework of the information economy; infrastructure and capacity-building; and the consolidation of science and technology in developing countries; information flow, citizen dialogue and citizens with access to information; distance education and learning technology; partners, etc. During the meeting, Hu Qiheng, the Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences by that time, was in the front seats of me, “The whole world are talking about the knowledge society,” she told to me anxiously, “what should we do when we go back?” Since then, the development of knowledge economy has been gradually carried out worldwide. 3. Follow-up meeting. I had been invited by The Fourth World Knowledge Forum organized by Maeil Business Newspaper and TV at Seoul in 2003.

8.5 Cooperation with Development Center of OECD and Also Became Consultant of Development Center of OECD 8.5.1 General Established after World War II in 1961, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is known as the “club of developed countries” because its members are originally developed countries, and it have only gradually absorbed the participation of South Korea, Mexico, Chile and Estonia in recent years. Its secretariat, based in Paris, has more than 2,000 staff and more than 700 experts engaged in various fields of research and analysis. It also has a development center, Li Shantong and I had more cooperation and exchanges with the center.

8.5.2 Cooperation with the Development Center of OECD on Development of DRC-CGE Model The DRC had transferred its general research on mathematical models to the development and application of specific models in the 1990s. Later, the DRC-CGE model developed by Li Shantong and her team benefited mainly from the contribution of David Roland-Holst and Dominique van der Mensbrugghe, they had worked at Development Center of OECD by that time. In 1995, Li Boxi, Feng Shan, a professor at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and I visited Spain with soft loans of the World Bank to exchange views with Juan Carlos Collado, director of

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Fig. 8.4 Photo of DRC Team Visit Madrid. From left to right: 1st Li Boxi, 2nd Wang Huijiong, 3rd Juan Carlos Collado, 4th Feng Shan

Centro de Estudios Economicos Tomillo (CEET) in Spain, who was also an expert in the field of CGE models (Fig. 8.4).

8.5.3 Cooperation with OECD Expert Madison In cooperation with the OECD Development Center, I participated in the seminar held in China about Monitoring the World Economy 1820–1992 by Angus Maddison and served as one of the reviewers of the Chinese translation of the book. Angus Maddison was a historian of the British quantitative economy, who has made an in-depth study of the historical development of the world economy and the Chinese economy. His Monitoring the World Economy 1820–1992 was published by the OECD Development Center in 1995. In view of the important economic significance of the book, I once wanted to translate the book into Chinese for reference by the domestic economic community. Later, Chinese scholars Gai Jianling and Li Dewei, who visited the Paris Development Center, had translated the work. I and Professor Ren Ruoen, a Chinese visiting scholar who had been at the Paris Development Center, were invited to undertake the revision of the Chinese translation. The Chinese translation was published by the Reform Publishing House. Jiang Bowen, the Director of the OECD Development Center, accompanied Professor Angus Maddison on a visit to China around 1996 and held a seminar where

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283

Angus Maddison presented his research on China, with I to be a commentator. During my presentation of my comments, I saw Jiang Bowen give me a gesture of appreciation. Li Shantong recalled that when she went abroad to meet Angus Maddison at an international conference, Angus Maddison checked her about my situation. He also commissioned Ding Yifan, the Director of the China Institute of World Economics, to send a Chinese translation version of his Chinese Economic Performance in the Long Run 960–2030 to me when they met at an international conference abroad.

8.5.4 Became Consultant of Development Center of OECD In January 1997, Li Boxi, Li Shantong and I served as chief translators for the OECD Development Research Center Report Social Problems in Reform and Development. The OECD Development Centre prepared a series of policy summary reports. In order to expand exchanges with China, Jiang Bowen, the Director of the OECD Development Center, asked me whether some of its policy summary reports could be translated into Chinese for publication. I agreed and organized personnel (mainly my colleagues, such as Li Boxi, Li Shantong and others) to translate these policy summaries from No. 6 to No. 10 into Chinese. These five themes were “Sustainable Development in Rural Africa”, “Employment creation and Development Strategies”, “Disarmament dividends: policy challenges for Development”, “Pension Fund Investment: From ageing countries to emerging markets”, “Institutional Framework for the Informal Sector”. Director Jiang also asked me to serve as a consultant of OECD Development Center. After the translation, I realized most of these five themes involved social issues and there seemed to be a lack of emphasis on social issues in the process of development and reform all over the world. As a researcher at a “think tank”, my research and suggestions should be predictive and show early warnings. I believed that relevant social issues must be emphasized to the public and government agencies, so I wrote to Jiang Bowen, proposing that the book be entitled Social Issues in Reform and Development, which Jiang agreed, and the book was published by Shanghai Yuandong Publishing House in April 1997.

8.6 Cooperation with Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Learn from ADB Standard Procedure of National Economy Analysis 8.6.1 General The ADB was established in November 1966 with the headquarter located in Manila, Philippine. China participated the ADB on March 10, 1986. It had 67 member countries by the end of December 2013, 48 of them came from Asian Pacific region,

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while 19 came from other regions. Currently, China ranked No. 3 in member contribution to the Bank, while U.S.A. and Japan ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in membership contributions.

8.6.2 Asian Economic Outlook Workshop Programme The ADB set up the Asian Economic Outlook Programme in the later 1990s and designed a standard form related to procedures of all-important aspects of a national economy. If one follows the standard step by step, then the entire national economy has been analyzed. This standard form is shown in Box 8.5. Box 8.5 5th Asian Economic Outlook Workshop—Recent Economic Performance in India and Prospects for 1993 and 1994 I. Economy at the Crossroads II. Recent Economic Performance (1991–1992) a. b. c. d. e.

Economic Growth and Sectoral Performance Employment Savings and Investment Budget, Money and Prices External Sector Performance

III. Future Prospects a. b. c. d. e.

Economic Growth and Sectoral Performance Employment Savings and Investment Budget, Money and Prices External Trade and Payments

IV. Major Economic Policies and Development Issues a. Recent Structural Reforms and Prospects – Financial Sector Reforms – Trade Policy Reforms – Industrial Policy Reforms – Foreign Investment Policy – Public Sector Reforms b. Effectiveness of Reforms and Further Adjustment c. Poverty Reduction d. Stabilization Policies – Fiscal Policy – Tariff Policy

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285

– Monetary and Credit Policy – Exchange Rate Adjustment – Administered Price Policy V. Conclusion Statistical Appendix The ADB publishes Asian Economic Outlook every year. Initially, experts from relevant countries were invited by ADB to attend the workshop every year and provide report on the state of their economies. ADB experts edited and proofread studies with those of national experts and summarized into the annual report Asian Economic Outlook. Before 1991, the DRC arranged for other people to participate in ADB events. But since 1991, I had been invited to attend the annual workshop of the Asian Economic Outlook held at the headquarters of the ADB in Manila for four consecutive years, providing China’s country report and introducing it at the workshop. The report was jointly written by Li Boxi, Li Shantong and I, but I presented it at the ADB headquarters in Manila. After I finished my country report presentation on China in 1991, representatives of other countries attending the meeting asked me a common question: “Why doesn’t China privatize?” At that time, the international economic community almost believed that privatization was the main way out of the transitional economy. However, I replied as follows: “It is impossible for China to privatize. That’s because in the past, China’s assets were owned by state-owned enterprises and collective enterprises, it was estimated that there were about 2–3 trillion yuan of assets by that time, while the ordinary people have about 700 billion yuan deposits in banks (Figures in 1990). It is impossible for ordinary Chinese people to spend all their assets to buy stocks. They must also consider the costs for living expenses, aging, illness and death. Even if they set aside half of their savings to buy stocks, it counts for only 1/8 or 1/9 of national assets. So, privatization will not solve China’s problems.” I used actual data to explain the reason of not implementation of privatization, there was no objection from the participants. At the meeting in 1992, China was in the middle of an overheated economy. Recognizing that domestic economic issues should be properly worded at the international conference, I said a few words on Chinese economy after my presentation of China’s country report: “My personal view is that China’s high investment this year is unsustainable.” As I left this early warning in 1992, when China experienced high inflation in 1993, no one at the workshop questioned my report this year about China’s inflation and economic overheating. At the ADB annual meeting of the Asian Economic Outlook, I met Mr. Wu Zhongshu, an economic expert from Taipei China. At that time, the Chinese Government stipulated that when participating in international conferences, the participants from Mainland China can communicate with the participants who were from Taiwan only if they admited that they were from Taipei, China. At the annual meeting, Wu Zhongshu introduced the report Prospects for Taipei, China every year. Both belong to the

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Fig. 8.5 Photo of the 5th Asian Economic Outlook Workshop. From right to left: Front row: 3rd Wang Huijiong, 5th Dowling, the Head of the ADB Economic Department. Second row: 5th Wu Zhongshu

Chinese nation, blood is thicker than water, I and Wu were easily accessible. Wu was much younger than me and respected me greatly. In addition, Wu has the excellent cultural tradition of the Chinese nation. After receiving the remuneration of the ADB, he went to buy a local pearl necklace for his mother. Wu Zhongshu has been transferred to the post of president of the Taiwan Chinese Academy of Sciences in recent years, and he has maintained contact with me (Fig. 8.5).

8.6.3 Apply Grant for the Project “Research on the Prototype CGE Model of China’s Economy” After studying and practicing various models to China’s economic analysis, Li Shantong and I considered it necessary to turn to the study of CGE model and apply it in policy analysis, so we applied to the ADB for the “Macroeconomic Model Project of the People’s Republic of China”. Zuo Xuejin, the Executive Vice President of Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences at that time, had learned and applied CGE models abroad, so I invited him to participate in the research of the project, in which Zuo Xuejin did most of the work. The project “Research on the Prototype CGE Model of China’s economy” was launched in December 1992 and completed in April 1993. After concluding the project, Zuo Xuejin and I went to the headquarters in Manila to introduce the relevant research results to the ADB. Li Shantong did not go to the

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287

ADB because of other arrangements, but later, with the help of OECD experts, after years of hard work, she created an applicable DRC-CGE model.

8.6.4 Participate in ADB Assistance Project “Regional Industrialization and Development Policy Planning” 1. Consultant of the ADB’s Assistance Project. On August 7, 1992, the DRC established the “ADB Technical Assistance Project—Regional Area Industrialization and Development Policy Planning” research group. In the project, I was one of the four consultants; Wu Mingyu was the project director; Li Boxi was the director of the project office; and Li Shantong and Li Peiyu were deputy directors of the project office. At the same time, Liaoning, Guangdong and Yunnan Provinces were selected to participate in the study, and all three provinces set up project offices. The ADB chose East West Institute of the United States as the consulting organization. The East West Institute also invited three consultants, and the project leaders was Barry Naughton, whose members were Dr. Manuel F. Montes, and Dr. Shelley Mark. 2. Activities. In this project, I participated in the small international seminar on “China’s Regional Development and industrialization Policy Research” held in Beijing on February 3–5, 1993 and participated in the discussion of regional international conferences after the completion of the sub-reports. When holding an international conference in Nanhai, Guangdong Province, Ms. Dang Bin of CCTV was invited to act as an interpreter. Her task was to translate foreign speeches into Chinese, but I considered that my Mandarin was poor because of strong Shanghai dialect, people of Nanhai certainly could not understand. So, I asked Dang Bin to help translate my English speech into standard Mandarin. 3. Wrote general report together with others. I worked together with Li Boxi, Li Shantong and others in preparation of the general report. In the final phase of the project, Li Shantong and I went to Hawaii to work with Montes to finish the English version of the general report. The English version report China’s Regional Development Strategy and Policy was published in December 1994.

8.7 Participate the Study of “Rebuilding New Global Order” Supported by Sasakawa Peace Foundation 8.7.1 Origin of the Project In 1991, Sun Shangqing, the Deputy Director-General of the DRC, called me to his office and told me that a Japanese agency would hold a very important international

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meeting and invite our center to send people to attend. The Japanese side had a high standard for the participants, not only with a broader range of knowledge, but also with a high level of English capability. Sun Shangqing considered me as the most suitable candidate and sought my response for this. I replied immediately: “I have no problem to attend the meeting, but there may be different views among the leadership of DRC. Please let me know after the leadership reach a unified decision, and I will follow.” Later, I received a fax from Sun Shangqing informing me the leadership decision to send me to the Japanese meeting. Afterwards, I contacted Kazuo Takahashi, the Japanese sponsor of the Ogawa Peace Consortium, which was in charge of the project “Global System Post-Cold War”, and then participated in four meetings of the project.

8.7.2 Organization of the Study Two committees were set up for organizing this study. First, the Global Committee was mainly composed of well-known international personalities, including 14 members from 11 countries. The four Japanese members included Honorable Koji Kakizawa, the Japanese Parliamentary Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs, Member of the House of Representatives, Liberal Democratic Party; Mr. Shiniji Fukukawa, the Executive Vice President of Kobe Steel, Ltd., the Former Administrative Vice Minister of International Trade and Industry; H.E. Ambassador Nobuo Matsunaga, the President and Director General of the Japanese Institute of International Affairs; Professor Hideo Sato, Professor of Political Science, College of International Relations at Tsukuba University. Members of other countries included Academician Oleg T. Bogomolov, Academician of Russian Academy of Sciences and President of Russian Institute of International Economics and Political Studies; H. E. General Olusegun Obasanjo, Former President of Nigeria; Dr. Carlos Geraldo Langoni, the Former Central Bank President of Brazil, the Director of the Center of World Economy of Getulio Vargas Foundation; Dr. Laurence Martin, the Director of the Royal Institute of International Affairs; Professor Heinrich Vogel, the Director of the Institute for Eastern and International Studies of Germany; Dr. Noordin Sopiee, the DirectorGeneral of the Institute of Strategic and International Studies of Malaysia; Professor Thierry de Montbrial, the Director of the French Institute of International Relations; Dr. Graham Allison, Douglas Dillon Professor of Government, John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University; Dr. Brij Tankha, Reader in Modern Japanese History of the Department of Chinese and Japanese History at University of Delhi at India; and I. There was also a 12-member Japanese committee, half of which were Japanese politicians, such as Finance Minister, Deputy Minister of Industry, and members of parliament, as well as businessmen and scholars.

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8.7.3 Process of the Project The project had four meetings, the first phase of the meeting focused on the issue of the “New Global Order”, and the second phase discussed the study of “Large Population Mobility” done by Institute de Relations Internationales et Stratégiques under the commission of the project. At the first meeting, Koji Kakizawa made a speech at the dinner meeting to explore a new global order. His speech was mainly divided into five parts: the first part was about the global instability after the end of the Cold War, the second part was the force of global stability, the third part was that Japan explores its appropriate global positioning in the world, the fourth part was his own contribution to the establishment of a new global order in Japan. About this, he proposed five steps: (1) emphasizes the social sectors, especially refugees, health, population and human resources; (2) protects environment; (3) emphasizes broad cooperation in development; (4) coordinates foreign trade, monetary and macroeconomic policies the global level; and (5) focuses on some areas of politics, such as regional contradictions and counter-terrorism. The fifth part of the report was on the issue of responsibility-sharing highlighting the shared global responsibility of the United States, the European Community and Japan.

8.7.4 My Lunch Speech During the meeting, I was asked by the organizers to give a lunch speech on the Reform of China’s Economic System. This topic was not difficult for me because I had engaged in policy research for more than a decade. AT the lunch, I made a free-style speech in English for nearly an hour, introducing China’s gradual entry into the urban economic system reform, management system reform and ownership system reform in 1984, starting with rural reform. I won applause at the end of my speech. Mr. Oleg T. Bogomolov came to me to shake hands and commented that China’s economic system was better reformed than Russia’s. Dr. Carlos Geraldo Langoni also came to me to shake hands and invited me to give a lecture in Brazil. I spoke frankly that I could not afford the travel cost. Langoni said: “No problem, leave everything to me, I will get you first-class flight tickets.” Thus, my visit to Brazil in 1993.

8.7.5 The Final Report Through several meetings, the project leader, Kazuo Takahashi, submitted a 120-page written report on the study of the Global System Post-Cold War to the Global Commission in March 1992 on behalf of the Japan Commission. The title was Rebuilding a New Global Order-Beyond Crisis Management, with a subtitle “Report to the Global

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Committee on the Global System Post-Cold War”. The contents of the final report are shown in Box 8.6. Box 8.6 Contents of the Final Report Rebuilding a New Global Order-Beyond Crisis Management Report to the Global Committee on the Global System Post-Cold War Preface I. Introduction II. Conclusion III. Recommended IV. An in-depth study of the problem V. Parameters of global social change 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

The decline of ideology: global Partnership and Trilateral Relations The emergence of a global market economy The increase in the complexity of the military dimension Diversity of increased democracy and its fragile foundation Cultural pluralism North-South conflicts related to human rights, democracy, military and environment and global partnership cooperation 7. The rise of the middle class in global society 8. The great movement of mankind 9. Scientific globalization and technology nationalization 10. A marked increase in international illegal activities VI.

Actors in global social change 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Country (6 subtitles) Regional institutions Multinational and global companies The emerging multinational elite Ethnic minorities Religion Global mass media

VII. The emerging global social structure 1. 2. 3. 4.

Material theory between global partnership and trilateral relations Emergence of problem-oriented system Global and regional systems Unipolar and multipolar

VIII. Scenarios for the establishment of a new global system 1. Evolutionary scenario (1) Scenarios based on strengthened global partnerships

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(2) From regionalism to globalism 2. Destruction scenario (1) The collapse of the major powers and the resulting global unrest (2) Global economic recession and global chaos (3) Global chaos caused by national and moral conflicts (4) Globalization of terrorism Note Dynamism explains the philosophy of the universe by force and other interrelationships Saburo Kawai, President of the Sasakawa Peace Foundation had written an introduction of the book. He had explained clearly the relationship of organization of the project and the major role of the Sasakawa Peace Foundation. Some of his preface is quoted as follows: Having entered a rare period in history of dramatic change over the past several years, world society will continue the process of systematic transformation in the years to come. Given the rather basic nature of the sources of the current dramatic change in world society. Crisis management will continue to be the central requirement of the world community. The Sasakawa Peace Foundation thus considered it essential to contribute to this formulation of a long-term perspective in the global community. Having explored several approaches over the course of 1989 and 1990, it was decided that a two-tier structure would be conducive to the tasks of this exercise. One tier would consist of top experts on global affairs from around the world. The other would comprise a group of Japanese figures totally familiar with this subject. The global group should consist of a relatively small number of people representing the entire world community. The Japanese perspective, which will become an increasingly important factor in the world, would be formulated through the participation of all of the major leadership segments of the country. The Sasakawa Peace Foundation would take on the task of organizing these groups as well as of playing a central role in contributing inputs to the deliberations of these two groups. This broad idea was translated into action in 1991. This exercise assumed the following. The Global Commission met twice, in Kyoto in October 1991 and in Tokyo in February 1992. Before each meeting the Japanese Committee met twice to discuss the draft of the issues prepared by the Sasakawa Peace Foundation. The first meeting of the global Commission discussed the issues paper, titled “Reconstructing a Global System”. The second meeting considered a report, entitled “Reconstruction of a New Global Order-Beyond Crisis Management”, dealing with scenario analyses. The present report has been redrafted to reflect the key points raised during the discussion of the Global Commission’s second meeting.

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8.8 Trip to Brazil to Speak at the Vargas Foundation Conference 8.8.1 Preliminary Information Prior to Brazil Trip Dr. Langoni sent me the invitation for speaking at the Conference on Industrialization and Economic Reform of China on April 10, 1993 at Rio de Janeiro. I had not visited Brazil before and needed to get myself informed about the general state of the country. I went to Ding Yangyan, then Director of Foreign Affairs Bureau of Xinhua News Agency, and asked him to give me a briefing about Brazil. Ding asked a Xinhua reporter who worked in Brazil before to meet with me. The reporter told me that due to severe wealth disparity in Brazil, underworld societies were active in Rio de Janeiro, and reminded me to be vigilant when taking taxis. At another international conference, I met Chen Kunyao, then Director of the Center for China Studies at the University of Hong Kong. He traveled to Brazil for various conferences and business activities and confirmed what the reporter told me. Chen cautioned me not to walk alone around the Sheraton Hotel in Rio de Janeiro where I would stay because it’s not safe.

8.8.2 Travel Arrangement by Vargas Foundation The flight from Beijing to Brazil was long with a transfer stopover in Tokyo, Japan. As promised by Langoni, the foundation provided me the first-class airline ticket. Therefore, although the journey was long, I rested well during the flight. Since the official language of Brazil is Portuguese, the Vargas Foundation provided me with an English and Portuguese translator, and she received me at the airport and accompanied me to the Sheraton Hotel. During my stay in Rio de Janeiro, the Vargas Foundation provided me with a car, chauffeur, and the translator which alleviated my safety concerns. After I arrived in Brazil, a friend Dion, whom I met at the UNESCO conference on the Impact of the Third Wave, made a special trip from Brasilia to Rio de Janeiro to visit and invite me to visit his home and stay for several days in Brasilia after the meeting. The Vargas Foundation made special arrangements for the meeting and asked reporters to interview me. In addition, with the support of several sponsors, a 28-page of publication promoted by the Conference were printed and circulated. Figure 8.6 is a scanned image of the publication’s cover page highlighting my interview with the Brazilian journalists.

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Fig. 8.6 The publication’s introduction about me interviewed by Brazilian journalists

8.8.3 The Conference I sent the draft of my speech Industrialization and Economic Reform of China to the Vargas Foundation before the conference. At the meeting, I made an oral presentation for more than an hour without referring to my original manuscript. Dr. Langoni chaired the meeting and complemented me for being able to address the audience for more than 1 h without recourse to the manuscript. Afterwards, I handled the Q&A session successfully. Figure 8.7 shows a scanned photo of Dr. Langoni chairing my speech session. At the luncheon with Dr. Langoni and other senior guests, he asked, “Which should Brazil tackle first, economic reform or political reform?” The political history

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Fig. 8.7 Photo of Langoni chairing my speech session

of Brazil was very complicated, after winning independence from Portugal, the son of the former king ruled for a period. When the monarchy was abolished and a republic was established, several military coups and military dictatorships took place before the restoration of the Republic. At that time, Brazilians even talked about whether to welcome the king back to restore order. I replied: “According to China’s experience, it is better to put priority to reform the economic system, and then the reform of the political system in the future.” My reply was only based on my intuition of experience in China as I had not made a specific and in-depth study of Brazil’s history, politics, economy, etc. Figure 8.8 is a scanned photo of Dr. Langoni and me together with some senior guests before the luncheon. After the meeting, the foundation compiled a book with my manuscript translated into Portuguese, along with a paper presented by Shultz who was the economic adviser to the President of the United States then, and several papers written by Dr. Langoni and others. It was published in 1994. Figure 8.9 is a scanned image of the book cover page. Later, based on the report of the Brazilian Conference, Li Shantong and I coauthored a book Industrialization and Economic Reform of China, which was published by New World Publishing House in 1995.

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Fig. 8.8 Photo of Dr. Langoni, I and some senior guests

8.8.4 Trip to Brasilia After the meeting, I flew to Brasilia to visit my friend Dion. On the plane, I happened to sit next to China’s Ambassador to Brazil. The ambassador was also invited to the Vargas Foundation meeting and told me that “Vargas Foundation is very influential in Brazil, and we should strengthen its connection in the future.” Then he asked me if I needed embassy’s help with accommodation at Brasilia. I told him that my friend already arranged everything. Upon arriving in Brasilia, Dion picked me up from the airport and drove me to his home. Brasilia, the capital of Brazil, is not as prosperous as Rio de Janeiro, but it is clean, with good social order. The Dion family was very hospitable. Dion once told his family that I was the first person who wrote to comfort himself when he was removed from his position by the military government. In the late 1980s, Dion lost his job as the boss of an electronic company in Brazil and took refuge in Paris, where Solomon arranged a temporary job for him. Later, after the improvement of the political situation in Brazil, Dion returned to resume work. He and his wife worked during the day, and his son took care of my food at home. Friends in Brazil’s power sector introduced me to Brazil’s largest Itaipu Hydropower Station (Itaipu Binacional) and sent me plenty of information about the hydropower station (Fig. 8.10).

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Fig. 8.9 Scanned Image of the Book Cover in Portuguese

Before leaving Brazil for home, I received a call from the ambassador inviting me to have lunch, the ambassador also invited my Brazilian friends to thank them for their hospitality on behalf of the Chinese government. My friends Mr. and Mrs. Dion and I attended the luncheon hosted by the ambassador and his wife.

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Fig. 8.10 Photo of Mr. and Mrs. Dion (first and second from right) and their friend having dinner with me

8.9 The Boao Forum for Asia and Other International Engagements The Boao Forum for Asia was established with the backdrop of accelerated process of economic globalization and rapid development of regional economic cooperation in Asia. In 1998, the former leaders of the Philippines, Australia and Japan put forward the idea of establishing an “Asian Forum”, which was strongly supported by the Chinese government. In November 2000, I was invited to attend the experts and scholars meeting of the Boao Forum for Asia to discuss the feasibility study report about the forum by Professor Ross Garnaut of the Australian National University. At the meeting, leaders of the preparatory group were elected. In 2001, the Boao Forum for Asia proceeded with its first conference (Fig. 8.11).

8.10 Summary This chapter centered on my international engagement in various conferences either as a presenter, panel member or participant. My activities and collaboration with international counterparts in a variety of comprehensive projects enabled me to learn

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Fig. 8.11 Photo of Boao Forum for Asia Experts and Scholars Meeting. Front line from right: 1st Wang Huijiong, Second line from right: 3rd Yuan Ming, then Vice President of the School of International Relations, Peking University

and expand my knowledge base which contributed substantially to my exploration of Social Systems Engineering. My most noteworthy activities and products in this period included: (1) After learning and experiencing the survey research method through collaboration with the World Bank in two projects, I wrote Sect. 1.4 Survey Questionnaire of Firms and S&T Institutions in Chap. 1 of the Chinese publication Technical Progress of firms: Policy/Institution; (2) I wrote the first paper “Social Systems Engineering and Information Highway” and published it in the book New Industrial Revolution and Information Highway; (3) we had utilized the World Bank soft loans efficiently to explore mathematical modeling, especially the recursive Dynamic DRC-CGE model, and the relationship between market economy and legal system; (4) participated the ADB Technical Assistance Project—Regional Industrialization and Development Policy Planning and contributed to its general report; (5) Participated the study of “Rebuilding of New Global Order” by Sasakawa Peace Foundation and served on its Global Committee with other well-known international figures; and (6) Delivered a speech at the Conference on Industrialization and Economic Reform of China by the Vargas Foundation in Brazil and my speech was included in a book in Portuguese. These and other activities provided the foundation for my emerging personal methodology of social systems engineering in this period.

References

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References Dr. Takahashi, K. (ed.). Reconstruction of a New Global Order-Beyond Crisis Management. Sasakawa Peace Foundations: Tokyo. Giddens, A., & Bridsall, K. (2001). Sociology (4th ed., pp. 636–661). U.K.: Polity. Lu, P. L., Wu, Y. S., & Wang, H. J. (Eds.). (1996). New Technological Revolution and Information Highway (Chinese version). Shanghai: Far Easten Publisher.

Chapter 9

Work and Activities Before My Formal Retirement (2000–2009)

9.1 Introduction During the 2000–2009 period before my official retirement in June 2009, I was actively engaged in a series of national and international projects and conferences. As stated in Chap. 7, Sect. 7.1.1, I had long passed the retirement age based on China’s official policy for civil services and was among the few to be allowed to postpone my retirement due to my expertise and extensive involvement in comprehensive, mission critical projects at national and international level. However, I knew I could not postpone my retirement indefinitely and therefore, must make the best of whatever remained in my long career to learn and to still contribute. In this chapter, I will describe selected activities and events which are most relevant to my exploration and learning of the discipline of social systems engineering.

9.2 Participated the Project “Research on Industrial Policy for Sustainable Development” from 2001–2003 1. Origin of the project. The project was implemented by the UNIDO and was jointly organized by the National Development and Reform Commission of China (NDRC, formerly the State Planning Commission) and experts from the UNIDO. From NDRC’s perspective, it was hoped to lay the foundation for implementing the concept of comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable development planning, and for providing reference to the government in formulating relevant policies in industrial development through research. From UNIDO’s point of view, it was to carry out its main responsibility to provide high-level services to the Chinese government in the field of “sustainable industry development” (SID). Nine national ministries and advisory bodies in China were involved in the project which had 19 sub-projects nested. The DRC was involved in two major activities, one was the CGE model and its application in Guangdong, Shaanxi and © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 H. Wang, Explorations in Social Systems Engineering, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-3390-7_9

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other provinces by Li Shantong, and the other was the project report on “Comprehensive Policy for Sustainable Industrial Development” by the Dutch expert Casper van der Tak and I. 2. Process of the main report. The English report co-authored by Van Der Tak and I had about 250 pages. The report was divided into two parts with nine chapters. Van Der Tak wrote the first part, and I wrote the second part. The second part included the historical review and current situation of China’s industrial development, the establishment of framework conditions, comprehensive policies and sustainable industrial development, departmental policies and regional policies. To some extent, this part of the research results were also a summary of my experience of 33 years of engineering work and 20 years of policy research in China, as well as 20 years of collaboration with many international organizations. I believe that the institutional framework proposed at that time is still relevant today. Some important points are quoted below: • Continue fiscal reform and reduce reliance on extra budgetary income for financing. • Increase funding for the monitoring and implementation of environmental conditions. • Continue to reform the financial sector, improve the ability of the financial industry to allocate funds to the most productive industries, and reduce government intervention in loan decisions. • Improve the contract execution mechanism and reduce the transaction cost. • Assess the market situation of key industries formulated by the central and local governments. • Evaluate the cost of internal trade barriers and take appropriate action to solve the problem of internal barriers. 3. Closing seminar. The NDRC organized a seminar in February 2003, at which Van Der Tak and I made presentations. Later, Yang Weimin of the NDRC edited the three volumes of Industrial Research on Sustainable Development in China, which was published by China Market Publishing House in June 2004. 4. Publication of our report. The English version country report, written by Casper and I was selected to be published in a book Towards Sustainable Development Industry-Reports from Seven Developing and Transitional Economies edited by Ralph A. Luken and Paul Hesp, it was published by Edward Elgar Publishing Company in 2003. 5. Establish friendship with Sergio. Through the project work, I established a good relationship with Sergio M. Miranda-da-Cruz, the representative of the UNIDO in Northeast Asia (China, Mongolia, South Korea, North Korea), and we regularly exchanged work experiences with each other. When I was invited to give a lecture at a dinner meeting in Beijing with scholars graduated from Stanford University, Cruz chaired the meeting (Fig. 9.1). In addition, when I published my English book Integrated Study of China’s Development and Reform, he also wrote a book review for me per my request, and his book review was published on China Daily on December 11, 2003 (Fig. 9.2). After his office term ended in China,

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Fig. 9.1 Cruz chaired my lecture session to the scholars graduated from Stanford University

Cruz returned to the UNIDO headquarters in Vienna to serve as Director of a Bureau. Two years ago, he retired and went back to a university in Vienna to study quantitative economics. He was indeed a scholar-type official in an international organization.

9.3 Undertook the Project “Yantian International Development and Railway Freight” 9.3.1 Origin of the Event Hutchison Huangpu Port and Shenzhen Dongpeng Industrial Co., Ltd. (now renamed Shenzhen Yantian Port Group) signed a joint venture contract for the establishment of Yantian International Container Terminal Co., Ltd. in Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, Beijing. On July 20th, 1994, Yantian International opened its port and ushered in the first ocean-going container ship. In my view, its first president, Mr. Xie Jintian, was a shrewd academic manager. He attended the Huangshan meeting held by the former State Planning Commission in 1998, and my English speech at the meeting attracted his attention. In order to expand the shipping business of Yantian International Container Terminal Company, Xie Jintian intended to promote MTR container transport. In 2004, he commissioned our center to carry out the work. Director Ma

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Fig. 9.2 China daily coverage of the book review about my first English book

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Hong served as the consultant, Li Boxi served as the head of the project and finished the general report. I was responsible for the overall academic guidance and research and writing Sub-report IV “International MTR Container Transportation experience and its Implication to China”. Although the project was organized by Jia Dashan of the Water Transport Research Institute of the Ministry of Communications, Lin Zhonghong and Wang Huichen of the Ministry of Railways, the actual work of railway transportation was mainly carried out by Hong Yan of the Planning and Consulting Department of the former Economic Planning Research Institute of the Ministry of Railways.

9.3.2 Desk Study I engaged in marine shipping and container terminals and other related research work for the first time. Based on my more than 50 years of work experience, I knew the preparation of the desk study must be done well first. I collected and read many relevant literatures. I studies one by one all the 20 references listed in Sub-report IV, such as National Measures to Develop Combined Transport CEMT/CM 2002 from the European Conference of Ministers of Transport over the years, Transport Infrastructure Planning in a Wider Europe, Strategy for Transport Infrastructure Development in a Wider Europe, Policy Notes and Declaration CEMT/CM 2004 and Freight Shipment in America 2002 from the Bureau of Transportation (USA) Statistics and so on.

9.3.3 Field Survey and Completion of My Sub-report Afterwards, I went to the terminal site to learn the operation of the terminal and container terminal, and to investigate and understand the international experience. In 2003, Liu, Deputy General Manager of Yantian Company, formed a 13-member delegation to Europe and the United States on a field-inspection tour to Hamburg Port, Rotterdam Port, Felixstowe Port (belong to Hutchison Whampoa) in Europe, New Jersey Port and Newark/Elizabeth Wharf Multimodal Railway in New York, Port of Los Angeles; as well as the railway structure in Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States; and the Toy “R” in the United States and the Cartridge Distribution Center in Los Angeles. Through these broad surveys, I gained a preliminary understanding of the international logistics practice. And the delegation collected nearly 300 pages of materials during this comprehensive on-the-spot inspection field trip abroad, which were included in Sub-report 5 Overseas Inspection Report. In October 2004, I completed my sub-report Experience of International MTR Container Transportation and its Enlightenment to China. Figure 9.3 is a scanned photo of Jia Dashan and I at Yantian Container Terminal.

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Fig. 9.3 Photo of Jia Dashan and I at Yantian container terminal

9.3.4 Leisure at Hong Kong SA During Our Work for Yantian International Container Terminal Co., Ltd. Top executives of Yantian International Container Terminal Co., Ltd. lived in Hong Kong. They invited the delegation to tour Hong Kong during our work for the company. Figure 9.4 is a photo of Wei Yubang, the Vice President of Yantian Company with some members of the delegation at his home in Hong Kong.

9.3.5 Consultant of Yantian International Container Terminal Co., Ltd. from 2006–2008 Mr. Xie Jintian, the President of Yantian International Container Terminal Co., Ltd., needed Li Boxi and I to continue providing consulting services to the company, because of our extensive experience and broader connections with international and domestic institutions. As a course of my consulting work, I downloaded the annual publication of Review of Maritime Transport from the UNCTAD website. In addition, I received the annual “UNCTAD, Trade and Development Report” from the United Nations Organization for Trade and Development every year. I studied these materials diligently. As a

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Fig. 9.4 Photo of the executive of Yantian company hosting the delegation in his Hong Kong home. From left to right: 1st Hong Yan (the former Ministry of Railways), 2nd Huang Qingyou (standing), 3rd Wei Yubang, 4th Wang Huijiong, 5th Ning Tao (Institute of Water Transport Science, Ministry of Communications), 6th Jia Dashan, 7th Shan Min, 8th Wei Yubang’s wife

result, I had a new understanding of the development of international trade, seaborne cargo ships, oil tankers, containers and the development of international ports. During my six years as a consultant of Yantian, I provided 18 consulting reports to Yantian International Container Terminal Company, covering a wide range of topics. The first category was related to global economic forecasts, such as Prospects and Projections for Changes in Global Trends, the State of the Global Economy (2010) and Prospects (2010–2015), etc. The second category was the analysis of economic knowledge and economic fluctuations, such as Change: Business Cycle and Other Economic Cycles, Global Financial Crisis and Its Impact and Prospects at Home and Abroad, Global Financial Crisis and Economic Recovery Outlook, etc. The third category was dedicated to port issues, such as The Decade of Ports-Lessons to Be Learned and so on. While in charge of Yantian International Container Terminal Co., Ltd., Mr. Xie Jintian also studied for his doctorate at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom. He also employed some foreign professors and scholars to Yantian to assist him to improve his work. After 2010, he ceased to be the president of the terminal company and received a doctorate from Cambridge University. He co-authored the book The Dynamics of Corporate Co-evolution-A Case Study of Port Development in China with foreign scholars John Child and Suzana B. Rodrigues in 2002 and sent it to

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Fig. 9.5 Photo of Yantian group and us having lunch together. From left to right: First row (seated): Wei Yubang, me, Xie Jintian, Li Boxi. Second row (standing): Wu Yong, Yan Dabiao, Wu Zhiqiang

me by email inviting me to write a book review. The book was published by E.E Publishing in the UK in 2013. I wrote a comment for this book “The Dynamics of Corporate Co-evolution provides an excellent co-evolution from the perspective of power relations within a hierarchical system. It is relevant to firms working within a political environment but also useful for people working in think tank and policy analysis. Its treatment of relationship management has universal implications.” Mr. Xie Jintian is currently a visiting professor at the University of Hong Kong and maintains a good relationship with Li Boxi and I (Fig. 9.5 is a photo of us having lunch together).

9.4 Consultant of Project “Research of Main Functional Regions of China” Entrusted by the NDRC 9.4.1 Evolution of Chinese Practice of Planning Since 1981 There was continuous evolution of Chinese planning system due to its rapid change from the former mandatory planning system learnt from the Former Soviet model to a

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new form of planning system-indicative planning system. In our book,1 Li Shantong and I spent about 54 pages discussing the evolution of China’s planning system from its First Five-Year Planning up to Twelfth Five-Year Planning period as coordinated regional development is always an important component of discussion together with other sectoral reform and design.

9.4.2 The New Concept of Regional Development However, China’s regional development plans have different priorities in different periods. Criteria for regional planning was sometimes based on geographical location, such as eastern, central, western, coastal and inland areas, etc.; sometimes based on income level, such as giving priority to supporting poor areas, and “old revolutionary base areas, autonomous areas for ethnic minorities, inland frontier areas and underdeveloped areas”; sometimes the development plans emphasis was placed on the diffusion mechanisms of development, such as urbanization and production networking. Since the beginning of the 21st century, the central government began to consider the environmental carrying capacity of the spatial regions. The NDRC raised a new concept of regionalization, i.e., Main Functional Zoning, which classified the Chinese regions into four types: Optimized Development Zone; Key Development Zone; Restricted Development Area and Prohibited Development Area. The Development Planning Department of the NDRC requested the China Development Planning Research Center of Tsinghua University (CDPRC) to undertake the research on the subject of “Differential Policy for the Construction of the Main Functional Zones”. By that time, Li Shantong was also the Deputy Director of the CDPRC, and served as the project leader. She invited me to be a consultant of the subject and I was responsible for the research and writing of the first chapter.

9.4.3 Process of the Project I participated the meetings of various stages of the project led by Li Shantong and wrote the first chapter Public Policy System, Analysis and Evaluation. I had transferred from the engineering field to the policy study field for more than 20 years. I felt that there was still a relative shortage of theoretical system research in the field of modern public policy in China. If the study was carried out based on the perspective of Chinese history, there was no lack of materials for the study of public policy, but the workload was too large. During my work in the field of policy, I absorbed experience with policy work through practice, i.e. cooperating with international organizations; at the same time, I maintained contacts with foreign scholars studying public policy, such as Yehezkel Dror of Israel and Stuart S. Nagel of the United States, getting a 1 Wang

and Li (2018).

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lot of information from them. I wrote 12 articles on policy research for a magazine of Shanxi Province from 1987 to 1990. Since the 21st century, I asked my eldest daughter, Wang Qi, to buy a dozen new editions of books on public policy in the United States and send them to me. So, I wrote the first chapter of the project report as I learned and summarized the content of these books. The first chapter was divided into five sections: introduction, the nature and basic theory of public policy, system theory and the type and analysis of public policy, hierarchical analysis and policy analysis of policy system. In the course of my work, the research group arranged Huang Zhihua, a doctoral student at Tsinghua University, to assist me. The fourth section of this chapter “Analytic hierarchy process of policy system” was basically completed by him. I have always believed that the modern policy research needs some degree of quantitative research, and the key to quantification was to use appropriate mathematical methods for the problem. Analytic Hierarchical Process (AHP) was the analysis and application of hierarchical structure in the concept of system. The core function of policy was incentive and regulation. From the perspective of regulation and control of behavior, the law ranks higher level than the policy. However, I had not conducted a systematic study of the law, except learning a little bit of knowledge by soft loan of the World Bank to organize seminar of learning legal system of U.S.A. The book Policy Research on the Main Functional Zones of China, as the result of the project, was published by the Economic Science Publishing House in 2009. Li Shantong and I co-wrote a preface for the book and pointed out that academically, the content of the book also carried out a certain degree of exploration on the two emerging disciplines “policy science” and “regional science” in the 20th century.

9.5 Participated “International Seminar of New Economy and Development” Jointly Sponsored by China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the UNDP Since the 1990s, the American economy has experienced a new sustained and rapid growth after the World War II. Driven by the improvement of information technology, the average annual real growth rate of the GDP of the United States reached 3.7% during the decade of 1992–2001, and the unemployment rate and inflation rate tended to decline. Popular magazines and popular economics gave it a fashionable term, such as Business Week and Newsweek in the United States called it the “New Economy”, continued to publish the discussions on the “New Economy” in 1996. In the same year, the OECD proposed the concept of “knowledge-based economy”. The “First Global Knowledge Forum” was jointly organized by the World Bank and the Government of Canada in 1997. In order to clarify some issues, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China and the UNDP co-hosted the “International Seminar on New economy and Development” on November 1–2, 2001. The aim was to: (1) expand understanding of the “New Economy” and its impact on developing countries; (2)

9.5 Participated “International Seminar of New Economy and Development” …

311

provide a platform for domestic and international experts, scholars, entrepreneurs and government officials to explore the new economy and promote the exchange of views and dialogue on related issues; (3) make recommendations to the policy makers of the Chinese government. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs invited me to attend the meeting due to my engineering background before working as a social economic scholar in recent decade, and I had studied the trend of technological development in Western Europe. They projected that the 20th Century is the age of information society, while the 21st century is the age of bio-society. From my perspective, the New Economy of information society and bio society would be different.

9.6 Participated “Lunar Exploration Project” Organized by the Office of the National Leading Group From April to November 2004, I participated in the discussion meeting of the “Lunar Exploration Project” of the National Medium- and Long-term Plan for Scientific and Technological Development. The leading group office of the project organized expert meetings on several major projects in 2004. I was invited to participate discussion on the Lunar Exploration Project (Phase II and Phase III) led by Academician Tu Shancheng of the Fifth Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Group in April 2004. Most of the participants were experts in the fields of rocket, guidance, astronomy, and so on. I participated in the discussion, mainly for estimating costs of different schemes. In July 2004, I received an honorary certificate issued by the National Leading Group for this project. During this period, I also had contact with researchers from institutes affiliated to the Aerospace Science and Technology Group, and a few elder researchers also read my book Introduction to Systems Engineering (Chinese Version) published in the 1980s. On October 15, 2004, the Lunar Exploration Engineering Center of the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense issued a letter of invitation to me to be member of the pre-research expert group for the second and third phases of lunar exploration. On the same day, I received a notice from the Commission of Science, Technology, and Industry for National Defense [2004] No. 1344 “On the Establishment of an Expert Group for Advance Study of the Second and Third Phases of the Lunar Exploration Project”. I also attended the “Inaugural Meeting of the Pre-research Expert Group” and the “Preliminary Technical Requirements Review Meeting for the General Demonstration of Phase II and III of Lunar Exploration” on November 29, 2004, and the “Second Symposium of Phase II and III Engineering Probe Group for the Lunar Exploration” on February 1, 2005.

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9.7 Participated the “Annual Conference of China Association for Management of Technology” (CAMOT) Organized by Professor Li Hua During my work at the DRC, I also carried numerous part time jobs, for example, serving on the standing committee of systems engineering society. I don’t mind the number of part time jobs I have. Under Chinese system, all associations are coordinated by the same administrative body. Many Chinese professors working abroad wishing to do something for his/her home country, generally prefer to establish an association to exchange information with domestic institutions. China Association for Management of Technology (CAMOT) is one of such institution established by Professor Richard Li Hua. Professor Li Hua did not know me before, he found from the internet that I had written several English papers. Then he came to me and asked for my assistance. From my side, I fully understand his intension and his difficulties, insufficient human and financial resources to carry out these activities which had become a part of activities of Chinese administration and various research institutions. I promised to provide my assistance and agreed to deliver keynote speech for his conference. From October 21–23, 2008, I was invited by CAMOT to deliver a keynote speech “China’s Technology Development and Management in the Context of Reform and Opening”, co-authored by me and Hong Yan, at the meeting held at the University of International Business and Economics. Invited by CAMOT again, I delivered another keynote speech on “Globalization and its Impact on Technology Management in China” (co-authored with Hong Yan) at CAMOT’s 2010 October meeting. After the second CAMOT annual meeting jointly organized by CAMOT and Shanghai University, the two English papers were published in Journal of China’s Technology Management, Vol. 5, 2010, by Emerald. (Note: Wang and Hong’s paper won the Outstanding Thesis Award in Journal of China’s Technology Management, Vol. 5, Issue 3.)

9.8 Assisted Organizations Affiliated with UN to Launch Their Annual Reports 9.8.1 My Impression of UN I am an intellectual born in Shanghai, China in 1925. I have lived a relatively longer life, 94 years old. The average living standard of many Chinese people has improved greatly due to technological progress of the global society on the one side and improvement of global governance on the other. Therefore, I was glad to participate the activities related to UN.

9.8 Assisted Organizations Affiliated with UN …

313

9.8.2 Launch Human Development Report 2005 on Behalf of UNDP On behalf of UNDP, in 2005, I launched the Human Development Report 2005 with a subtitle “International Cooperation at a Crossroad: Aid, Trade and Security in an Unequal World”. In the report, it stated that although China had exceedingly abnormal fast economic growth rate and improved the lives of its people based on the statistics, it did not automatically transform into a rapid decline in child mortality. And the report compared India with Pakistan, and China with Vietnam, the former had a higher economic growth rate than the latter, but the latter was better at reducing child mortality. After the introduction of the report, journalists among the audiences raised various questions existed in the reform of China’s health care system at that time, I replied frankly with my thoughts “the issue of health care system reform in China is very complicated”, I said, “in carrying out the reform of the medical system, China should not only learn extensively from good practices in other countries in the world, but also conscientiously extrapolate and absorb our own useful experiences.” My view was that when China carried out reform and opening, it was impossible to confirm that everything in our past was correct, otherwise there would be no need for the reform and opening. But careful and prudent evaluation of the past was necessary. In the 30 years’ reform and opening-up, China had achieved great success, such as making significant progress in education and medical and health care in the social field, but some mistakes might be unavoidable, we must face them honestly and correct them in time. And there were positive experiences that could be learned from our own experience in the past. The key is to consider national conditions, and conscientiously sum up experiences and lessons.

9.8.3 Assisted UNESCAP to Launch Their “Flagship” Publication Economic and Social Survey of Asia and Pacific With my long-standing partnership with the Policy Analysis and Research Department of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), I was invited to launch its “flagship” publication Economic and Social Survey of Asia and Pacific. The agency did not have a representative office in Beijing, so it asked me to launch its annual report. And the UNDP Beijing Office was responsible for the administrative activities, such as organizing the conference, providing conference accommodations, while I was responsible for the technical details, i.e., launching the annual report and responding to questions. This work lasted for about eight years. I was happy to undertake such tasks for two reasons: (1) I hoped to maintain cooperative relations with relevant international organizations so as to gain

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access to their various research results and publications; and (2) I believe that China should make corresponding contributions to international organizations.

9.9 Participated the “Applying Knowledge for Development: A Policy Forum in Brazil, China and India” Jointly Hosted by the World Bank and Canadian Government I was invited by the First Global Knowledge Forum organized by the World Bank and the Canadian Government. My perception of the forum was that it aimed to give warning to the participants that there would be large social changes for the entire world, changes of factors of production, of demand, of institutions etc. The knowledge revolution was not just the activity of developing information and communication technology or high-tech industry in a narrow sense, it did not narrowly refer to the emphasis of certain development of hardware or software technologies. It was the overall social context that we must focus. This policy forum was held at Wilton Gardom in March 19–25, 2001. Only limited number of staffs of the World Bank participated, and Dr. Carl Dalman of the Bank was responsible for the tasks all by himself. The structure of the forum included five modules: governance problems of political economy of knowledge economy; education and training; foundation of infrastructure of information; innovation system; strategic report of national knowledge. But there were limited readings provided, and there was hardly any exchange of information among the three teams. The World Bank generally was thorough in its activity planning and execution, and this forum might be the only exception. One pleasant event was that my dearest English friend Adrian Wood came to Wilton to meet me and took me to his home to have lunch with his wife. He left the World Bank and taught in a university. He was appointed by the government of UK to work in the Department of International Development. He sent me back to London by train as he had to travel on official business outside UK in the same day. His hospitality and friendship touched me deeply.

9.10 Served as National Consultant on the Mid-Term Review of the United Nations Development Assistance Framework I served as National Consultant of UN Country Team (UNCT) for 6 months since December 2002 for the United Nations Mid-term Review (MTR) of the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) for China. I felt the current UN system has improved much as it has done many concrete works to assist the

9.10 Served as National Consultant on the Mid-Term Review …

315

Fig. 9.6 Schedule for UNDAF mid-term review

developing countries and the global society. China’s first UNDAF was signed by the Resident Coordinator and the Chinese government in October 2000 for the period 2001–2005. The document was based on the Common Country Assessment (CCA) which was carried out as well by the UNCT as the backdrop for the UNDAF. The UNDAF must be reviewed in 2003 as agreed at the time of its signing. Because China was changing so quickly, it was important for the UN system to keep up and offer timely assistance and up-to-date framework. UNDAF is an essential part of the new UN machinery by the UN Secretary General in July 1997 reform programme for the UN. The New UN seeks a more effective coordination of cooperation programmes across the agencies of the UN system, and in closer cooperation with other international, bi-lateral, as well as private sector and civil society institutions who are potential partners in realizing the UNDAF goals as well as those of international conferences and conventions. The UNDAF was a planning framework, for the purpose of harmonizing the development cooperation work of all UN agencies aiding China. Based upon the UN regulation related to MTR of UNDAF, there should be both an international consultant and domestic consultant to be responsible for MTR. But the UNDP resident mission appointed Mr. Edward A. Wattez to be international consultant of this MTR. He was Director of Residence Mission of UNDP at Vietnam by that time and could not come to Beijing to fulfill his responsibility as an international consultant before May 2003, and he was going to retire from his official position in May 2003. In February 2003, I extended my domestic consultant function for one more month. I read all the files and documents related to MTR. I found the delayed arrival of international consultant conflicted with the schedule for UNDAF Mid-term Review which is shown in Fig. 9.6.

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9 Work and Activities Before My Formal Retirement (2000–2009)

Then I discussed with Ms. Miko Maekawa, an UN coordination analyst, who was quite familiar with the MTR of UNDAF. There were five groups of stakeholders involved in the UNDAF reviewing process, which the UNDP Beijing Residence Mission had setup. The first, the six theme groups, which were generally the concern of the global society, such as Basic Education and Human Resource Development; Environment and Energy; Gender; Health; HIV/AIDS; Poverty Alleviation and Food Security; Rule of Law and UNDMT. It can be seen from Fig. 9.7 that nearly all UN organizations were included. The Chinese government mirroring team with ten lineministries were also established. I told her that I would be willing to perform the role of international consultant to send questionnaires (UN had standard form of questionnaire, refer to below Boxes 9.1 and 9.2) to relevant UN agencies and to

Fig. 9.7 Composition of UN inter-agency theme groups and task forces

9.10 Served as National Consultant on the Mid-Term Review …

317

make interview with responsible persons. When the international consultant arrived in May, I would transfer all information collected to him. Ms. Kerstin Leitner, the UN Resident Coordinator in China, was very much in agreement with my suggestions to change the implementation schedule of the project and to perform my own role of national consultant independently. She requested Maekawa and the logistic department to support my activity independently. Maekawa sent the standard form of questionnaire to more than 30 UN agencies in Beijing. Cars were arranged to take me to various UN agencies to interview their leaders. I prepared a thorough progress report with detailed records of information collected and interviews performed. Box 9.1 Standard Form of Questionnarire S1 of MTR of UNDA

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9 Work and Activities Before My Formal Retirement (2000–2009)

Box 9.2 Standard Form of Questionnarire S2 of MTR of UNDAF

In June 2003, the MTR report The Way Forward, jointly completed by Wattez, I and Miko Maekawa, was submitted to the UNDP. This mid-term review of the first UNDAF in China intended to essentially examine the “process” after more than two years of the formal launch of the UN joint document (October 2000) and determine what had accomplished and what improvements were needed. An in-depth substantive assessment would be conducted during 2005, its last year in the cycle.

9.10 Served as National Consultant on the Mid-Term Review …

319

The review concluded that in China, the CCA/UNDAF process proved to be beneficial in several areas as stated below: • It brought more cohesion among UN agencies, in terms of vision, common country analysis and understanding, a broad planning framework, a sharing of goals, objectives, and indicators of success…. • It provided collective institutional memory (nearly all the UNCT has changed since October 2000), serving as a briefing and a “team-building” tool, bringing a “cross-fertilization” within UN agencies and between their respective staff. • It layed, to a varying extent, a common base for more effective advocacy, dialogue, selection of projects and joint fund-raising. • The above positive aspects to a certain extent, filtered into the multi-bi ODA community, for which the UN document and process proved to be useful at several occasions. • Finally, the CCA/UNDAF process clearly constituted a “window of opportunity” for multi-purpose discussions with Chinese counterparts. The review also pointed out that the UNDAF process in China was still “work in progress”, and could be improved and amended, starting within the next six months along the following lines: • Objectives should be significantly reduced in number made more concrete and prioritized • Strategies should also be fewer and more focused • Supporting “Theme Group” should be in certain cases, reshaped and include systematically Chinese counterparts • CCA/UNDAF “indicators of success” should be streamlined in order to make them usable and realistic for the UN activities • The above actions should progressively transform the UNDAF into a government/UN “Business plan” for the longer term, the UNCT should seize entry opportunity to make UNDAF better known at different levels of the Chinese government including the provincial ones. Broadly speaking, this was the “way going forward” for UNDAF in China, as seen by the mid-term review mission. The mission would like to conclude this summary by emphasizing the quality of the first generation of CCA/UNDAF documents produced in China by the UN and the government “Mirroring Team”.

9.11 Participated the “Preparatory Meetings for the World Summit” I was invited to participate the Conference of East Asian and Pacific Nations held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in July 9–11, 2001, which was a preparatory meeting for the “Global Summit on Sustainable Development 2002” to be held in South Africa in 2002. The purpose of the summit was reviewing the global sustainable development in the decade after the “Global Summit on Sustainable Development 1992”, the

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regional meeting in Kuala Lumpur was therefore held to collect related information and materials. I gave a speech “Sustainable Development in a New Millennium” at the meeting and provided nearly 40 pages of written manuscript “Sustainable Industrial Overview of China-Current and Future Perspective”. With this opportunity, I received a great deal of information from the United Nations on the 2002 Global Summit on Sustainable Development, including the statement to be made by the UN Secretary-General at the 2002 Summit. The statement included that in the decade following the 1992 Global Summit on Sustainable Development, the processes, status and issues of sustainable development were implemented in all regions of the world, and several relevant recommendations were made. It put forward especially the production and consumption patterns of sustainable development separately, especially does not advocate developing countries to learn the consumption patterns of developed countries.

9.12 Attended the “Macroeconomics of Poverty Reduction Project Organizing Meeting” I was invited to participate the “Macroeconomics of Poverty Reduction Project Organizing Meeting” by UNDP in New York in March 29–30, 2002. The UNDP circulated a summary of global poverty alleviation work and some ideas for future work at the meeting. After the meeting, I lived in my younger daughter Wang Ping’s home, which was not far from the United Nations headquarters in New York. At that time, my grandson was just about one year old and very cute. But my daughter and son-in-law had to work during the daytime and sent their son to a nearby daycare center. One day, Xuehai Ye, my son-in-law said to me, “Dad, I don’t have time to pick up the baby today. Can you pick him up for us?” In the afternoon, I went to the daycare center and picked up my grandson. But I found that the teachers in the center did not take good care of the children at all. Instead, they let the children crawling around and picking up dirty food on the floor. Considering that my daughter and son-in-law were busy with their careers and had no time to take care of their baby, I suggested them to send the boy to China for better care. Since my wife and I were too old to take care of our grandson, they sent the baby to Xuehai’s brother and sister-in-law in Nanjing who took care of him for a period.

9.13 Participated the “International Symposium …

321

9.13 Participated the “International Symposium on Computable General Equilibrium Models 2012-Urbanization and Sustainable Development” This international symposium on Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) Models was organized by Li Shantong. With the support of the former leader Ma Hong, the DRC has devoted itself to the application of mathematical models in macro-economy and micro-economy. Before the 1990s, DRC did general research of all kinds of mathematical models in the economic field. After the 1990s, it gradually turned to the research and application development of CGE model. With the cooperation and support of international experts, Li Shantong has developed a practical DRC-CGE model, and continuously improved it through the application. In March 2006, she organized and hosted the first seminar on CGE model, which I attended. In 2012, Li Shantong held the second seminar on CGE model, and I was invited to attend again (Fig. 9.8).

Fig. 9.8 Group photo of the international symposium on CGE model. From left to right: Front line: 1st Hou Yongzhi, 4th Lou Jiwei, 5th Wang Huijiong, 9th Li Shantong Back line: 5th Guo Jingning (working secretary of I and Li Shantong), 8th E.C. Hwa (former chief economist of the China Representative Office of the World Bank), 10th He Jianwu

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9.14 Other Activities My participation in all kinds of activities was very beneficial to my process in exploring Social Systems Engineering. However, since I was involved in too many events and activities, it is impossible to describe them in detail. In addition, the nature of quantitative and qualitative explorations is different. To keep my activities and roles in order and to demonstrate how they have helped me explore and learn about Social Systems Engineering, I have prepared Table 9.1 to list the activities I participated in this period, which are classified based on the location and the nature of hosting organizations, the four categories are: D for domestic; DI for domestic issues or actions but efforts were organized by international organizations or with international expert participation; ID for international actions or activities for China but organized by domestic organizations; I for international only. Participation of all such activities had assisted me greatly to get raw information inputs in the exploration of social systems engineering.

9.15 Summary By early 2009 when Director Zhang Yutai at DRC informed me that my official retirement would commence in June of that year, I had nearly another decade of productive and meaningful engagements domestically and internationally. This chapter encapsulates the major activities that enabled my exploration and cumulation of knowledge in social systems engineering. The highlights of these engagements include: (1) I was actively involved in the UNIDO and NDRC joint project “Research on Industrial Policy for Sustainable Development” during 2001–2003 and co-authored the English main report with Van Der Tak, a Dutch expert; (2) I undertook the Project “Yantian International Development and Railway Freight with a team of Chinese experts and colleagues, completed the field survey and a sub-report, and served as a consultant for Yantian International Container Terminal Co., Ltd; which afforded me the opportunity to expand my learning and hands-on experience into the arena of transportation, container, port and terminal management, and logistics; (3) I served as a consultant for the NDRC project “Research of Main Functional Regions of China” and wrote the first chapter of the final report; (4) I assisted the UN affiliated agencies to launch their annual reports or publications, such as UNDP’s Human Development Report 2005, UNESCAP’s “Flagship” Publication Economic and Social Survey of Asia and Pacific; and (5) I served as the national consultant on the Mid-term Review of the United Nations Development Assistance Framework and co-authored the MTR report The Way Forward for UNDP.

Time

1984.1

1986, 5

1986, 7

1986, 10

1986, 12

1987

1987, 2-3

Serial No.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

The Economic Development Institute of World Bank (EDI)

The Chinese Association for Science and Technology

Beijing Hong Kong Academic Exchange Center

The Chinese Academy of Science, Northwestern University of USA, and The State of Economic Commission

Beijing Hong Kong Academic Exchange Center

State Science and Technology Commission

The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

Host organization

Table 9.1 Other activities in this period (Before 2009)

I

DI

I

DI

D

DI

DI

Category

Bombay

Pennsylvania

Hong Kong

Beijing

Xiamen

Beijing

India

Place

International Symposium on international Seminar on Technology Policy, Finance and Project Planning

Participation of the international conference

A few experts participated Second Seminar: Investment Environment in China

International Symposium for International Technology Transfer

First Seminar: Investment Environment in China

International Conference of Science and Technology

Investigate and understand the situation of India

Theme

(continued)

Learning head of the participants

Speaker to introduce China’s achievements in science and technology from a macro point of view

A book edited by Wang, Huijiong, Ming Jianshu, Li Boxi, Xue Fengxuan in Chinese was published in Aug. 1987

Section head of discussion on section “Policy Change”

One of speakers: Some aspects of S&T System in Modern China

Member of the delegation

My role

9.15 Summary 323

Time

1987, 7

1987, 12

1988.6

1988.8

1988, 9

1988, 11

Serial No.

8

9

10

11

12

13

Table 9.1 (continued)

East West Security Institute

Chinese Enterprise Management Association and UNCRD

The Chinese Society for Futures Studies

DRC

UNESCO

China Enterprise Management Association

Host organization

I

DI

DI

DI

I

DI

Category

Chicago

Beijing

Beijing

London

Paris

Wuxi

Place

International Economic Change, East West Security Structure Change

Beijing Seminar on Regional Development Strategy and Enterprise Modernization of China and Japan

Annual Meeting

Official visit to the United Kingdom

Project: Reflection of Future Research on Word Problems

Training in Regional Planning Responsible by UNCRD(United Nations Center for regional development)

Theme

(continued)

Speaker: China’s Perspective of International Economic System and East West Security in the 1990s

Speaker: Introduction to China’s Socio-Economic Development Policy

Head of high-tech discussion group, met and built a good friendship with Yehezkel Dror, the founder of Israeli policy research

Member of the delegation, and built a good cooperation relationship with some international organizations and experts

Submit my paper Perspective of World Problems

Requested from the leader of the project, Professor Shinichi Ichimura

My role

324 9 Work and Activities Before My Formal Retirement (2000–2009)

Time

1992.1.21

1992.5.5

1992. 5.12-14

1992.10

1993.3.4

1993. 8.29-9.1

Serial No.

14

15

16

17

18

19

Table 9.1 (continued)

Southeast Asian Institute of Singapore

World Bank and Harvard International Institute

Korea Development Institute

Club of Rome (Japan)

ENI Group

People’s Bank of China

Host organization

I

I

I

I

I

DI

Category

Singapore

Sejong-si

Fukuoka

Rome

Beijing

Place

Challenges in the 21st Century

Seminar on China’s Economic Reform

High-level Policy Forum with theme “Private Sector Led Development” sponsored by Korean Development Institute

Global Environment and Local Action

Whether ENI Group Should Continuous its investment in China?

Reception of Delegation of IMF Introduce development of non-state-owned enterprises and state and non-state-owned TVEs in the period from 1980–1999

Theme

(continued)

Commentator to Keynote Speaker Ross Garnaut

Speaker: China’s Economic System Reform and Enterprise Reform

Speaker: Introduction to the Historical Background and Current Situation of the Development of Chinese Township Enterprises

Speaker (paper published both in English and Japanese by local organizer)

One of consultants (other two were a French and Nicholas Lardy), my role was to give speech on political and economic situation of China, and answer questions.

Responsible persons (I, Li Shantong & Wu Zhengzhang)

My role

9.15 Summary 325

Time

1994.7

1994. 9.14-16

1995. 2. 8-9

1995.4

1995.10.31-11.1

1996

Serial No.

20

21

22

23

24

25

Table 9.1 (continued)

Development and Research Center

China Enterprise Management Association and the Davos Forum

The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific

Japanese Society of Technology and Economics

Center for Information and Development Studies Indonesia

State Scientific and Technological Commission and other 7 central agencies

Host organization

D

DI

I

I

I

D

Category

New Delhi

Tokyo

Jakarta

Beijing

Place

Cross-century Coordinated Development Strategy of China (Chinese version)

15th International Conference of Business Leaders

Expert meeting on Strengthening Asia-Pacific Regional Economic Cooperation for the 21st Century

Achieving Global Productivity-Future Scenarios in East Asia (Launch of publication Made in Japan)

Human Resources Development within the International Framework of Partnus

National Soft Science Working Conference

Theme

(continued)

Researcher; Author of Sect. 3.1 in Chap. 3

Speaker of the closing ceremony: Political and Strategic Impact of China’s Economic Growth on the Asia Pacific Region and the World; Answering questions raised by commentators

Assisted Hashem, senior economic affairs officer, in drafting the relevant documents for the conclusion of the meeting

Panelist

Speaker: Poverty Eradication and Development

Formal delegate, speaker and paper presenter

My role

326 9 Work and Activities Before My Formal Retirement (2000–2009)

Time

1996.4.23

1996.11

1997.1

1997.3

1997.3

Serial No.

26

27

28

29

30

Table 9.1 (continued)

State Planning Commission

People’s Bank of China

Ministry of Civil Affair

Yonsei University, Korea

Peregrine Investment Group

Host organization

Category

DI

DI

D

I

I

Beihai

Beijing

Changsha

Seoul

Tokyo

Place

The First International Seminar on “China towards 2020”

Reception and discussion with IMF delegation including its deputy representative of IMF’s Beijing Office Jonathan Anderson

National Conference of the Directors of the National Civil Affairs Bureau

International Conferences on Economic Cooperation in Northeast Asia: Building Capacity to Improve Policy Research and Development Management

International Seminar on Finance

Theme

(continued)

Responsible to write one chapter for the publication in September 1997; Speaker: Changing Trend of China’s Industrial Structure

Responsible by I and Li Shantong

Invited participant, and I became the adviser of the Ministry of Civil Affairs post this conference

My speeches given on the second and third meeting were collected into the final book Building Capacity to Move Towards Northeast Asian Economic Cooperation: Comparative Views

Gave a general introduction to China’s economic development and reform

My role

9.15 Summary 327

Time

1997.6

1997. 6

1997.9

1997.10.16-17

1997.10

1997.12

Serial No.

31

32

33

34

35

36

Table 9.1 (continued)

Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development

The International Council for Science Policy Studies (ICSPS), the Institute of Policy Research of the Chinese Academy of Science and the DRC

UNIDO

Asian Development Bank

Economic Research Institute of Finland (ETLA)

The World Bank and Government of Canada

Host organization

I

DI

I

I

I

I

Category

Hanoi

Manila

Helsinki

Toronto

Place

Technology for the 21st Century: Balancing Economic, Social and Environmental Goals

The International Conference of “Science and Technology Policy and Innovation Policy at the Turn of the Century-Experience and Prospect”

Seminar on New Trends and Challenges in Industrial Policy

Launch Event of Emerging Asia

World Economic Outlook-China topic

The Global Knowledge Forum 1997

Theme

(continued)

Invited by Mr. Wolfgang Michalski, and introduce this series of meetings as a case study in my book Methodology of Social Systems Engineering

Chief of the organizing committee; delivered a speech on “China’s SS&T System and its Development” co-authored by me, Li Boxi and Li Shantong

Commentator on the third topic “supporting active industrial policies for small and medium-sized enterprises”

Speaker

My role

328 9 Work and Activities Before My Formal Retirement (2000–2009)

Time

1998.3

1998.4

1998.5

1998.6

1998.7

1998.12.13-15

Serial No.

37

38

39

40

41

42

Table 9.1 (continued)

Iran Government

Brilliance Career Promotion Association and the UN

State Planning Commission

Asian-Europe Foundation and the French Center for International Economic Research

Chinese Academy of Engineering and the Hong Kong Academy of Engineering Science

The DRC and UNCRD

Host organization

I

DI

DI

I

DI

DI

Category

Huangshan

Paris

Beijing

Place

International Experience Exchange Meeting for the third Five-Year Plan of Iran

International Conference on “Social Poverty Alleviation”

International Conference

The Conference “Asia and Europe: A New Agenda After the Crisis”

The International Seminar of “Industrialization of High Technique”

Seminar on Transition from a Centrally Planned Economy to a Market Economy

Theme

(continued)

Speaker: The experience of development planning in China

Delivered a speech in closing ceremony

Gave a speech in English related to Chinese economy and trade, and began to cooperate with Yantian International Container Terminal Co. to carry out marine development research

Speaker:Economic Growth of China in the 90s and the Impact of the Asian Crisis, and contributed a paper in the final publication

Invited Speaker: Giving Full Play to the Complementary Advantages in the Mainland to Jointly Promote Sustainable Development

Co-author of Prospects for and Issues on the Chinese Economy in Transition with Li Boxi

My role

9.15 Summary 329

Time

1999

1999.5

1999.6

1999. 7. 15-16

1999.9.23-24

1999.11

2000

Serial No.

43

44

45

46

47

48

49

Table 9.1 (continued)

State Scientific and Technological Commission

The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific

UNIDO and the Government of Thailand

University of Melbourne

Wuhan Municipal Government and UNIDO

The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific

State Scientific and Technological Commission

Host organization

D

I

I

I

DI

I

D

Category

Beijing

Bishkek

Bangkok

Melbourne

Wuhan

Beijing

Place

Sustainable Development of Transportation (Chinese version)

Seminar on Tax Reform in Central Asian Economies

Forum on Industry in Asia-Pacific

China in the World Economy

International Seminar

Interregional Seminar on the National and Local Social impact of the Asian Financial Crisis

Sustainable Development and Economic Structure (Chinese version)

Theme

(continued)

Principal Researcher, Author of Chap. 1

Speaker to introduce the situation of China’s tax system and the progress of its reform

Speaker to the third topic “Strategic Vision and Industrial Policy for the New Millennium”

Speech on: China in the World Economy: Economic Development Prospects and Some Social Issues

Author of the report Evaluation of Investment Environment in Wuhan

Speaker

Principle Research; co-author of four chapters with Li Shantong

My role

330 9 Work and Activities Before My Formal Retirement (2000–2009)

Time

2001.2

2001.10.21

2001.11.1-2

2002.2

2002.10

2002.5.8

2002.5.31

Serial No.

50

51

52

53

54

55

56

Table 9.1 (continued)

National Planning and Reform Commission & People’s Press

Asian Development Bank & Asian Development Bank Institute

Korea Development Institute and World Bank

Korea Finance Institute

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China and UNDP

China Central Television

China Energy Technology Program (CETP)

Host organization

D

DI

I

I

DI

DI

DI

Category

Beijing

Shanghai

Seoul

Seoul

Beijing

Beijing

Beijing

Place

Development of service industry to promote employment

Seminar on “Financial Liberalization Procedures and Their Implications for the Trade of China”

International Seminar on “Strategy for knowledge based economy in China and Korea”

the Discussion Meeting on South Korea’s Financial Restructuring

International Seminar on New economy and Development

Tripartite Program of China, U.S.A. and Japan Ninth Informal Meeting of APEC Leaders

The Third Advisory Panel Seminar on China Energy Technology Project

Theme

(continued)

Speaker: The Views on the Development of Service Industry to Promote Employment

Participants

Speaker: Government policy challenges in a knowledge economy

Speaker: Comments to financial restructuring in Korea

Made a report on the knowledge economy

Speaker of Triparty Program

I was a member of the advisory panel of ABB’s CETP from 1999–2001

My role

9.15 Summary 331

Time

2002.7

2002.9.26-27

2003

2003.3

2003.3

2004

Serial No.

57

58

59

60

61

62

Table 9.1 (continued)

Macao Research Center in University of Macau

Former Ministry of Culture of China

Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Organization for Knowledge Economy and Enterprise Development

Maeil Business Newspaper

Association of Chinese Mayors, Nanjing Municipal People’s Government, and the World Bank

Asian Development Bank Institute

Host organization

DI

I

I

L

D

I

Category

Macao

Malmo

Seoul

Nanjing

Bali

Place

Seminar on “Innovation of thinking in economic development”

Give reports for the establishment of Chinese cultural exchange organizations

Eurasian Conference on Information and ICT

The Fourth World Knowledge Forum

Conference on Knowledge and information sharing among Chinese Cities

Seminar on Economic Policy

Theme

(continued)

Speaker: Innovation of concepts and economic development in contemporary world

Speaker: China’s Economic Development and Policies

Made a report based on the theme of “E-Governmence and human resource development”, which was collected into the conference proceedings edited by the organizer and published in Sweden

Speaker

Speaker: China’s Urban Development Strategy in the 21st Century

Participant

My role

332 9 Work and Activities Before My Formal Retirement (2000–2009)

Time

2004.2

2004.7

2004.10.1

2005

Serial No.

63

64

65

66

Table 9.1 (continued)

China Investment Association

Asian Development Bank Institute

The UNESCO Branch in South Korea

The United Nations Support Facility for Indonesian Recovery

Host organization

D

DI

I

I

Category

Beijing

Seoul

Jakarta

Place

The Emergence of China: Opportunities and Challenges for Latin American and the Caribbean

Culture and Innovation Conference

Conference on Lessons from the Indonesian Transition: Setting a Future Reform Agenda

Theme

(continued)

I was the consultant of China Investment Association from 2005, and made report Views on the Current Investment Situation for its professional proceedings 2006 and Investment and Economic Growth, a Comparison of International Experience for its professional proceedings 2008

Speaker: Latin America and China

Speaker: From Knowledge Economy to A Culture of Innovation-Change in the Nature and Practice of Knowledge

Participant

My role

9.15 Summary 333

Time

2006.12.7-8

2007.10

2008.8

2009.10

2010.1.9

2010.11

Serial No.

67

68

69

70

71

72

Table 9.1 (continued)

Government of Iran

China Central Television Channel 5

China Fuqiang Foundation

Initiated by Professor Walter Isard and organized by the Japanese Institute of Economics and Industry

Government of Kazakhstan

CPPCC National Committee

Host organization

Category

I

D

DI

I

I

DI

Place

Tehran

Beijing

Hong Kong

Bali

Astana

Beijing

Theme

The Fourth National Conference on Technology Management

Development Report of China’s Sports Industry

Symposium on the Road to Wealth and Strength in China

International Conference on Environmental Institution Building and Peace Science

10th Anniversary Celebration of “Kazakhstan 2030 Strategy”

The 21st Century Forum

My role

(continued)

Speaker: Development of Management of S&T of China, and Management and Development of Technology and Energy

Attended the release ceremony of the report

Speaker: China’s Industrial Development and Structural Transformation—Domestic Demand and Strategic Balance

Speaker: Institution building for environment and resource governance

Invited by the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan

Speaker: Motivations, Challenges, Strategy and Prospect of China’s Pursuit of Regional Trade Agreement

334 9 Work and Activities Before My Formal Retirement (2000–2009)

Time

2011.5

2011.10

2011.12

2012.10

2012

2012.11

Serial No.

73

74

75

76

77

78

Table 9.1 (continued)

EU Representative Office in China

China Association for Management of Technology (CAMOT)

East China University of Science and Technology

China Association for Management of Technology (CAMOT)

Shandong Technology and Business University

Tianjin University

Host organization

I

D

DI

D

D

D

Category

Shanghai

Shanghai

Hong Kong

Yantai

Tianjin

Place

Annual Meeting of CAMOT

International Conference on Technology Transfer

Annual Meeting of CAMOT

Theme

(continued)

Had a dialogue with the EU High Commissioner for Science and Technology on “Some Opinions on EU-China Cooperative Dialogue”

Speaker: The Growth of Think Tanks and their Impact on Development of Science and Technology

Speaker: International Technology Transfer and Sustainable Development

Speaker: China in the World Economy, Growth Performance of Economy and Technology in Past and Future Prospects

Speaker: Review of China’s Economic Development and the Outline of the 12th Five-year Plan, and served as a special professor

Speaker: Economic Development and the 12th Five-year Plan in mainland China

My role

9.15 Summary 335

Time

2013.1

2013.9

2014.5

Serial No.

79

80

81

Table 9.1 (continued)

China Association for Management of Technology (CAMOT) and Tsinghua University

China’s Ministry of Finance and the World Bank

Ryder Securities

Host organization

DI

DI

DI

Category

Beijing

Beijing

Hong Kong

Place

The Fifth International Academic Conference of CAMOT

Seminar on “China-World Bank Knowledge Sharing: Scientific Practice in Urban Delivery”

Theme

Speaker: Introduction to Social Systems Engineering: An Emerging Discipline for Macro-Management and Sustainable Development

Co-authored the report Economic Development of China and Creation of Science of Delivery with Li Shantong for her keynote speech

Speaker: Some Aspects of Future Development and Economic Reform of China

My role

336 9 Work and Activities Before My Formal Retirement (2000–2009)

Reference

337

Reference Wang, H. J., & Li, S. T. (2018). Introduction to Social Systems Engineering (pp. 580–710). Singapore: Springer.

Chapter 10

Exploration of Social Systems Engineering and My Recent Life

10.1 Introduction We come to the last chapter of this book. This book has two themes: explorations in social systems engineering and the life of an intellectual of China (1925 to the present). These two themes are closely connected. To be an intellectual, one must be educated, must work and learn throughout one’s life, and must explore or devote oneself to explore something. With myself as an example, nearly eight chapters of this book cover my work and continuous learning, which are part of the exploration process. Learning from jobs or readings, the raw materials we receive must be processed via a variety of in-depth exploration to form useful output or meaningful results. Therefore, it is correct to say that I have devoted my whole life towards exploration of Social Systems Engineering. In 1987 after I worked in TERC for more than six years and completed my charge of two large national organized research projects: Comprehensive Planning of the Construction of Shanxi Energy and New Heavy Chemical Base and China toward the Year 2000, I thought the time was right to start another chapter of intellectual exploration. It so happened that Zhu Guanxin, then editor of a Shanxi Provincial journal Technic Economics and Management Studies approached me asking me to write something for his magazine.

10.2 Process of Exploration 10.2.1 Start from the Exploration of Policy Science By then, I had written 12 papers for the preliminary exploration of policy science. Zhu’s request was consistent with my concept and experience of exploration. I felt we did have ample opportunity to learn and practice with DRC’s unique function © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 H. Wang, Explorations in Social Systems Engineering, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-3390-7_10

339

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10 Exploration of Social Systems Engineering and My Recent Life

Table 10.1 The series of 12 papers written for preliminary exploration of policy science S. No.

Name of papers

1

General description of policy science and its relationship with social economic system

2

Case study of reform of socio-economic system and policy package of industrialization

3

Social system

4

Economic system and spectrum of strategic policy

5

Science and technology system

6

Planning theory and policy science

7

Planning works of South Korea-planning theory and case study of policy science (Part 1)

8

Planning works of South Korea-planning theory and case study of Policy Science (Part 2)

9

Organized research—One methodology of study of policy science

10

Case study of regional planning (Part 1)

11

Case study of regional planning (Part 2)

12

International experiences of regional development polices

amidst China’s opening to the outside world. Learning and cumulating knowledge and experience from daily work to be transformed into organized systematic theories and expressions takes time. Take my personal experience in writing the Chinese version Introduction to Systems Engineering as an example, my rough idea on the topic emerged around the year 1965, by the time the book was published in 1980, much of the content was the result of 15-year of exploration and refinement. So, my formal exploration of social systems engineering started with my first paper General Description of Policy Science and Its Relationship with Socio-economic System published in Technic Economics and Management, Vol.5, 1987. Then, I wrote a series of 12 papers for this magazine up to 1990. The names of the 12 papers are shown in Table 10.1.

10.2.2 Publication of Technical Progress of Firms: Policy/Institution This was a joint research project sponsored by the World Bank and the IDRC. The purpose of this study was to better realize the role of technic institutions to national firms to improve their competitiveness. Both DRC and NRCSTD (National Science and Technology Development Research Center) were responsible for carrying out the project. The Chinese country report was published in 1996, I was the principle writer of Chapter One—Overview-Industrial Technological Progress Policy and Institutions. I found the linkage of our works and learning cumulated in past fifteen years to

10.2 Process of Exploration

(a) book cover

341

(b) table of contents (first page)

Fig. 10.1 The book industrial technological progress: policy and institutions (Chinese Version)

the theoretical nature and expression of social systems engineering. Therefore, I wrote formerly for the first time in Sect. 1.4 “Survey Questionnaires of Firms—the Exploration of Methodology of Social Systems Engineering” which was included in a Chinese book Industrial Technological Progress: Policy and Institutions (I was one of the book editors). Figure 10.1 shows the scanned images of the book cover and its table of contents.

10.2.3 New Industrial Revolution and Information Highway Then I strated to write “Social Systems Engineering” relatively systematically in the book New Industrial Revolution and Information Highway. This book was influenced by two different groups of people. One group consisted of ICT professionals led by two academicians of natural science, Mr. Luo Peilin and Mr. Wu Youshou. The other group to which I belonged were researchers engaged in national long-term development and policy studies. I believed that a nation must have enough resources to study the trend of development plan for society, economy, science and technology and ecological environment. And such a plan should have multiple goals prudently designed and should not be influenced by catchy slogans without substance. Figure 10.2 shows the scanned images of the book cover and its partial table of contents with Part IV (which I wrote) listed.

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10 Exploration of Social Systems Engineering and My Recent Life

(a) book cover

(b) table of contents (second page)

Fig. 10.2 The book new industrial revolution and information highway (Chinese Version)

In this book, my chapter on social systems engineering and information highways was about 15 pages. For illustration purpose, I present my chapter structure with section titles in below Box 10.1. Box 10.1 The Structure of the Paper Theme of Paper: Social Systems Engineering and Information Highway (1) Introduction (2) Social System Engineering • What is social Systems Engineering • Features and Difficult points of social Systems Engineering • Preliminary exploration of “elements” of Social Systems Engineering (3) Exploration of Features: From Hard Systems Theory to Soft Systems Theory (4) Information and Society • Information • Postindustrial society and information society

10.2 Process of Exploration

343

• Some basic views related to information; information highway and social system (5) Apply the views of social systems engineering to promote the development of information technology and socialist market economy • Information technology and social system • Information technology and market economy • Apply the concept of social systems engineering to develop information highway

10.2.4 Integrated Study of China’s Development and Reform This English book was published by Foreign Language Press, Beijing, China, in 2003. It contains my 18 selected papers and speeches published or delivered domestically or internationally. Themes of papers were suggested by host organizations. This book has promoted my thought in formulating social systems engineering. Attached with this publication were publisher’s “notes” indicating the conferences where the papers were presented and the introduction of the author. Figure 10.3 contains the scanned images of the book cover and the first page of the table of contents. To illustrate how my scope of study of social systems engineering has expanded through my works and learning over time, I herein present the publisher notes in Box 10.2, the complete table of contents of the book in Box 10.3, and the introduction chapter of the book in Box 10.4. Box 10.2 Notes1 of Integrated Study of China’s Development and Reform The author had the chance to participate in many designing and construction projects in the engineering field, especially in the power system and power plant field over the past 33 years before 1980. He spent 20 years in producing a book titled An Introduction to Systems Engineering, which summed up his experience gained in more than thirty years. The book was published in 1980 (in Chinese). Then, he has the chance to work in the Development Research Center of the State Council, focusing on strategic planning and policy studies. He has taken part in several large domestic and international joint research projects on integrated economic development planning and policies and other aspects.

1 The

Notes are put at the end of my original book. These show the request of domestic and international conference from me (1992–2003).

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10 Exploration of Social Systems Engineering and My Recent Life

(a) book cover

(b) table of contents (first page)

Fig. 10.3 The book (Brief Explanation: This book published by Foreign Language Press at Beijing in 2003, which included a collection of 18 papers, of them 16 were speeches which I given in various international and domestic conferences by their invitation. The subheading used in this book is Preliminary Exploration of Social System. It is better to be modified into Preliminary Exploration of Social Systems Engineering) integrated study of china’s development and reform

He has been invited by many international organizations and academic personages to give speeches and present his papers abroad. Some of these speeches and papers have been published in books and journals overseas. The author thinks it is feasible to select eighteen papers in different disciplines to form this An Integrated Study of China’s Development and Reform—A Preliminary Exploration of Social System (Engineering). The author is hesitated to use the word “Engineering” in social systems in order to avoid academic debate, as there may need much to say and much to be explored further. The papers collected here were written in different styles, as they were presented and written in different years. To unify them in a certain style requires lot of editing work. Therefore, every paper in this book keeps its original form and content to show that policy study should be forward-looking with a sense of retrospect. Only a very minor part is supplemented (wherever necessary, the author has put a note). There may be duplication in some of the papers although they make up d very minor share. The papers selected in this book as a whole is integrated

10.2 Process of Exploration

345

to form a preliminary exploration of a social system and an integrated study of China’s development and reform. The author holds it is useful to international and domestic readers because the papers selected cover a span of around 50 years of the development process and 20 years of the experience of reform and the lessons there. The original source of each paper in each part is given below: Part I Overall Perspective of Development of China 1. System Concept of Sustainable Development—Sustainable Development of the Mode of Production and Consumption and the Impact of Social Culture (Speech given to national scientific and engineering academicians, 1998) 2. The Experience of Development Planning in China, Oct. 1998 (Speech given at the National Planning Conference of Iran) 3. Redefining Regional Development Strategy: the Chinese Experience— Toward a Framework of Study of Regional Development Strategy of China (Speech given at Global Forum on Regional Development Policy held in December 1–4, 1998, Nagoya, Japan. Abstract published in UNCRD Proceedings, Series No. 37, July 1999) 4. Two Decades of Policy Modeling of DRC (Paper presented to the International Conference of Economic Modeling in Beijing, China, Nov. 2001) Part II Development of Science and Technology of China 5. Chinese Experience of Technological Independence (Published in Technological Independence—The Asian Experience, edited by Saneh Chanarik and Susanlta Goonatilake) UNU Press, 1994 6. Technology Innovation and Enterprise Management and a Case Study in China (Published in International Journal of Technology Management 1994, Vol. 9, No. 5/6/7, edited in chief: Dr. M.A. Dorgham. Publisher: Inderscience Enterprise Ltd. Switzerland) 7. Some Issues of Technology Management in China: A Challenge Towards the 21st Century (Published in International Journal of Manufacturing Technology and Management, Vol. 3, No. 1/2, 2001), chief editor: Dr. M.A. Dorgham. Publisher: Inderscience Enterprise Ltd. U.K. Part III Economic Development and Reform of China 8.

Industrialization and Economic Reform in China, Feb. 1993 (Speech given in Vargas Foundation)

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10 Exploration of Social Systems Engineering and My Recent Life

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

Published in: A Economia mundial EM Transformacao, Fundaco Getulio Vargas, 1994 (in Portuguese) Foreign Direct Investment Policies and Related Institutions – Building in China (Published in Foreign Direct Investment in Selected Asian Countries: Policies, Related Institutions—Building and Regional Cooperation), ESCAP Development Papers, No. 19, 1998 Experience with Tax Reform in China (Speech given in Kyrgyz Republic on Nov. 1999, jointly sponsored by Ministry of Finance of Kyrgyz Republic and ESCAP. Published in ESCAP Development Papers) Corporate Governance—Challenge to East Asian Countries in the Process of Globalization (Speech given to an international conference for foreign visiting students at Beijing University, Beijing, China, Aug. 2000) Comments on: “Rethinking the East Asian Miracle” (Speeches given at the launch of the Publication of the World Bank Rethinking the East Asian Miracle in Tsinghua University, March 2002) E-Governance and Human Resource Development (Paper presented at the ASEM Conference and ICT, March 10–12, 2003. Sweden)

Part IV Some Social Aspects of China 14. Social Security System and Alleviation of Poverty in China (Published in Toward Social Security for the Poor in the Asia-Pacific Region), UN, ESCAP, 1996 15. Urban Poverty Alleviation and Development (Published in Regional Development Dialogue, Vol. 20, No. 1, Spring 1999, UNCRD, Nagoya, Japan) Part V Some Environmental Aspects of China 16. Toward a Sustainable Development Society: A System Approach (Speech given in the Club of Rome Conference in Fukuoka, Kyusu, May 1992. Published both in English and Japanese, titled “Global Environment and Local Action” by Club of Rome, Japan) 17. Economic Development and the Environment in China (Published in Economic Development & Cooperation in the Pacific Basin, edited by Hiro Lee and David W. Roland-Holst, Cambridge University Press, 1988) 18. Sustainable Development in a New Millenium (Paper presented to the expert group meeting of UN in July 2001, Malaysia, for the preparation of World Summit in 2002)

10.2 Process of Exploration

347

Box 10.3 Table of Contents of Integrated Study of China’s Development and Reform Introduction Part I Overall Perspective of Development Strategy of China 1. System Concept of Sustainable Development—Sustainable Development of the Mode of Production and Consumption and the Impact of Social Culture 2. The Experience of Development Planning in China 3. Redefining Regional Development Strategy—The Chinese Experience— Toward a Framework of Study of Regional Development Strategy of China 4. Two Decades of Experience of Policy Modeling of DRC Part II Development of Science and Technology of China 5. Chinese Experience of Technological Independence 6. Technology Innovation and Enterprise Management and a Case Study in China 7. Some Issues of Technology Management in China -A Challenge Towards the 21st Century Part III Economic Development and Reform of China 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13.

Industrialization and Economic Reform in China Foreign Direct Investment Policies and Related Institutional-Building in China Experience with Tax Reform in China Corporate Governance—Challenge to East Asian Countries in the Process of Globalization Comments on: “Rethinking the East Asian Miracle” E-Governance and Human Resource Development

Part IV Some Social Aspects of China 14. Social Security System and Alleviation of Poverty in China 15. Urban Poverty Alleviation and Development—The Chinese Experience Part V Some Environmental Aspects of China 16. Toward a Sustainable Development Society: a System Approach 17. Economic Development and the Environment in China 18. Sustainable Development in a New Millennium Conclusions Notes

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10 Exploration of Social Systems Engineering and My Recent Life

Box 10.4 Introduction of Integrated Study of China’s Development and Reform China’s reform, opening-up and its development over last two decades since the late 1970s have achieved an extraordinary success; it has attracted wide attention from the global society. It can be seen from the fact that, the famous research project of the World Bank, “The East Asian Miracle”, which was published in 1992, had not taken China’s development into account. But the recent study “The Emerging Asia” of Asian Development Bank launched in 1997 and the study “Rethinking the East Asia Miracle” of the World Bank published in 2001 both have focused on China and treated it as a crucial component of the study of the experience of Asia’s development. There are also several special studies focused on China recently, such as OECD’s publication in 2002 “China in the Global Economy: Challenge of Domestic Policies”, IMF’s publication in 2003 “China: Competing in the Global Economy”. In fact, there are enormous amount of publications and literature from various research institutions of different countries, developed or a few of developing countries, which focused on the experience and issues of development and reform of China in recent years. Many studies on China have been done by large international organizations. They are generally carried out by assembling large numbers of experts from abroad. Sometimes, Chinese experts are also invited to participate in these studies. Generally speaking, most of these studies are of a relatively good quality, which had observed and summarized the experiences, lessons and issues of China’s development and reform correctly in the relative sense; some useful suggestions have also been raised. They are deserved to be studied and learned seriously by the relevant institutions, organizations and professionals in China. They can also provide useful references for the developing countries as well as background information about China to developed countries. From the academic point of view, they represent a new accumulated pool of knowledge for the newly emerging disciplines since World War n, the development economics, policy science and policy analysis, and also the transitional economies emerged in recent years. Those disciplines have been continuously improved and developed. New experience have been provided by them. But it is regretted that there are relatively few publications, written directly in English by Chinese scholars to introduce systematically the experiences of and issues in China’s reform and development. The enormous amount of economic and social construction since the founding of the PRC, and particularly in past more than twenty years of reform and opening, have provided a rare good opportunity for the author who has done all sorts of practical work and plunged head and tail into the study of theory. Especially in the recent twenty years and more, the author worked in one branch of the Development Research Center of the State Council, formerly called “Technical Economic Research Center”, my colleagues and I made use of the chance to engage in the study of macro and micro issues of development and reform of China, and made wide connections and exchanged views with

10.2 Process of Exploration

349

various international organizations and academic professionals, and accumulated a fair amount of experience in doing joint research projects with them. In the recent ten years and more, I have been invited by various international organizations and academic institutions on more than 100 occasions to give speeches abroad, most of which had been published in publications of international organizations or academic institutions, some of them were translated into Japanese, French and Portuguese. Of them, I have selected fourteen papers, the other three papers are selected from international conferences held in China, and one is a report given at the National Conference of Academicians of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering in 1998. The author has rewritten them into English with some supplements. These above eighteen papers are collected in this book titled Integrated Study of China’s Development and Reform. The purpose is to provide a relatively overall picture of the development and reform of China as well as some other issues in a comprehensive perspective. On the other aspect, former PRC President Jiang Zemin had mentioned in his report to the Twelfth National Congress of Communist Party of China that the target of China’s economic restructuring is to establish a system of socialist market economy, which is a very complicated social system engineering. Therefore, on the part of this author, this book is a very preliminary exploration in the study that ranges from engineering systems engineering to social systems. This book is divided into five parts. Part I is an overview. Four papers are collected in this part. The first paper “System Concept of Sustainable Development—Sustainable Development of Mode of Production and Consumption and the Impact of Social Culture”. This paper was originally a speech the author was invited to give at the National Conference of Academicians of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering in 1998. The content in this paper reflects the authors overall academic perspective on China’s development and reform. In fact, the basic concept is expressed nearly throughout all chapters of the book. The original speech is given in Chinese. It is rewritten into English based basically on the original speech, but is supplemented with some new materials. The second paper is titled “The Experience of Development Planning in China”. This was a speech delivered by the author on the invitation of the United Nations. It was presented in the National Planning Conference in Iran in October 1998. Planning and market had been a major subject of debate in the domestic economic field at the initial stage of China s reform and opening-up. It is also a focus of debate among scholars of international political economy. In reality, as the development of the contemporary world is related to the interaction of many factors, political, social, economic, technological, and environmental, it is fair to say that nearly all countries (include large corporations or large cities) of the world need to prepare a national (corporate or regional) development planning to certain extent, especially the strategic planning. It

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10 Exploration of Social Systems Engineering and My Recent Life

is well known that two famous economists, the Nobel Prize Winner Dr. Tinbergen of Netherlands, and Arthur Lewis of the United States had contributed to the study of development planning. It is necessary to have a “vision” or certain “target” to be achieved, and make preparations to take actions in implementation. This is true both for a nation or even an individual. But, it is also necessary to emphasize that the function, the process the content and the techniques of planning are evolving and developing internationally as times goes on. In this national planning conference of Iran, there were large numbers of participants coming from governments, corporations and enterprises and academic institutions. Three experts from China, the Republic of Korea and USA were invited to give speeches on their countries’ experience. This can show the general trend of the study of development planning in contemporary world takes. In the report presented by the author, a brief introduction of international experience on development planning was given in the very beginning, a relatively detailed explanation of the history, achievements and issues confronted at different stages of development planning of China since the founding of the PRC was presented, the methodology which was designed and applied in the important national project “China Towards the Year 2000” sponsored by the former Technical Economic Research Center of the State Council was also introduced in brief. The third paper, “Redefining Regional Development Strategy, the Chinese Experience-Toward a Framework of Study of Regional Development Strategy”, was written for the Global Forum on Regional Development Policy and the International Symposium towards Sustainable Urban and Regional Development jointly sponsored by UNCRD and UN/DESA on December 1–4, 1998, Nagoya, Japan. This paper explained that China was in transition from a former centrally planned economy to a socialist market economy. The gap between the regions in terms of economic, social and cultural development will diminish during this process. This paper gives the historical perspective on regional development of China, stating that new regional development strategies will be defined within the context of globalization and multi-polarization to tackle issues unique to different regions of china Taking into consideration of the huge population and size of the country, the author holds the view that it is not sufficient to study the development strategy of China as a whole; it must be supplemented with the understanding and study of regional development strategies. This is one of the reasons that the center where I had worked had set up a Bureau on Development Strategy and Regional Development. The content in this paper represents a complement to the study of paper 2 in this part. This paper was abstracted in UNCRD Proceedings Series No 37 in July 1999. It is incorporated in this book in its original English draft.

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The fourth paper is “Two Decades of Experience of Policy Modeling of DRC”. This paper is jointly written by me and two of my colleges, the two successive directors of the Bureau of Development Strategy and Regional Development of our center, based on the working experience our unit gained. This paper was written and presented at an International Conference sponsored by the China Association of Quantitative Economics. The major difference of contemporary economics and its traditional study is that a large number of mathematical tools are employed in statistics, projections, analysis and policy simulation of economic phenomena. The application of mathematics of the natural science to the study in social science, and particularly economics, represents an extension of the application of mathematics. This is also the natural result of the emergence of many new “interdisciplinary studies” to meet the necessary demand of complexity of the “object” to be studied. But it should be warned that people should have a clear understanding that there is difference in basic nature between the application of mathematics to natural science or engineering and to the study of social science. The basic definition of social science is “A general label applied to the study of society and human relationships.” Generally speaking, it is difficult to quantify human behavior, social behavior and the relationship between them. There is not enough experimental data to support this type of study. With the precondition of recognizing this, a right approach may be found to the policy modeling. We have not discussed the mathematical details of various models and their appropriate area of application. This paper is simply a retrospect and summary of lessons and experiences of policy modelling of the DRC (including the former Technical Economic Research Center of the State Council). It can be seen from this paper that the policy modelling of the center is developed in the past two decades relying not only on the cooperation of Chinese experts from other ministries and academic field, it also has been improved gradually through extensive international cooperative effort, thus illustrating greatly the necessity of opening-up and international cooperation. Although this paper summarized that the most important experience in the following: “The quantitative analysis should be applied in combination with qualitative analysis and sound judgement in policy modelling”, we have been making continuous exploration for the improvement and application of quantitative method, in order to adapt to the requirement of policy studies to achieving the target to establish a better-off (xiaokang) society in China by 2020. This should be the basic concept in exploring the objective world of the mankind. The second part of this book focuses on study related to science and technology. Strictly speaking, science and technology are two related terminologies with different meaning. Three papers collected in this part are based more on summary and exploration of China’s technological development. There is no argument on the fact that science and technology are the engine of growth and development of the economy and society. On the other hand, science and

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technology are developed within the environment of specific socio-economic system; their development is promoted or constrained also by factors of their socio-economic environment. In the realm of micro-economics technological innovation is inseparable with enterprise management. While under the market economy system, enterprise should be the major actor of technological innovation. Therefore, the issue of current technological innovation of China cannot be studied without the reform of the economic system. It is also necessary to keep in mind the following views: innovation is a process, the life cycle of a product is also a process. Technological innovation is not only occurred in the value chain of research, development, design, testing, engineering and production, it is also existed in the process of marketing planning and market development. Due to the influence of traditional centralized mandatory planning, China has relatively strong macro-capacity in technological management. But, the micro-management and the technological innovative capacity of the enterprises, which are the major actors in the market, are waiting to be further improved and strengthened. These are the major messages expressed in the three papers of this part. One of these three papers “China’s Experience of Technological Independence” was completed in 1986. This is a paper written for an international joint research project, “Self Reliance of Science and technology in Development, “sponsored by the United Nations University with the participation of six Asian countries (China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the Philippines, Thailand and India). The twenty Chinese participants came from three units, with Madam Li Boxi and me as the heads. The major English report was written by me. This research was not published at that time. The emergence of East Asia, especially the publication of a World Bank Policy Research Report titled “The East Asian Miracle” in 1993, had attracted the worldwide attention on the experience of development of East Asia. This research report was published by the United Nations University Press in 1994 titled “Technological Independence-the Asian Experience”. The report, written by the author on behalf of the Chinese team, had presented a relatively detailed retrospect of the history of development of science and technology at different stages since the founding of the PRC; this study of development of S&T is linked closely with the development of the socio-economics as well as the social culture of China. Thus, the international society can understand better what is the potential of competitiveness of China in global manufacturing activities. The issues faced by China on S&T development are also pointed out in this paper. The other two papers collected in this part, “Technology Innovation and Enterprise Management and a Case Study in China” and “Some Issues of Technology Management in China: A Challenge towards the 21st Century”, were both written on the request from Professor Bela Gold, the guest editor of the International Journal of Technology Management, which changed its name into International Journal of Manufacturing Technology and Management in

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2001. The two papers were published in the journal at different times. Part of economic and technological data in the later paper are mainly those of the 80s and 90s, which can complement the first paper “China’s Experience of Technological Independence”. The contents of all three papers are mutually supplementary. All three papers expounded on role of the system concept to the development of science and technology in China at different depths. This is especially evident in the first paper of this part. The third part of this book focuses on China’s economic development and reform. Economics is a relatively matured discipline in international social science; it has developed continuously from qualitative study to quantitative study; and the areas studied are expanded continuously in depth and in breadth. For example, the growth rate of GDP, its demand (or expenditure) side includes investment, consumption and net export (export minus import); its supply side (or output) includes primary, secondary and tertiary sectors. All of them can be analyzed and predicted with simple arithmetic operation on the precondition that the available statistics are accurate. Along with the development of the financial market of the developed economies and the various ways to apply advanced mathematics in this field, there is now emerging the new discipline of “financial engineering” abroad, which is defined as the following: “The use of financial instruments, such as derivatives, to obtain a desired mix of risk and return characteristics. More broadly, the application of financial technology to solve financial technology problems and exploit financial opportunities.” Also emerging is the new occupation “financial engineer”. In the field of economics, a new branch, the “development economics”, had also emerged during and after World War II; it deals with the problem of growth of developing countries. Even this new discipline has undergone considerable change in recent years. On the theoretical side, the relevance of neo-classical economics to developing countries has been questioned and there has been increasing emphasis upon institutions. With the termination of the cold war, many economists working in some large international organizations (such as the World Bank and IMF) are exploring a new field of study, the transitional economics. For example, The World Economic Outlook published by the IMF in May and October of 2000 respectively focused on the study of transitional economies of Eastern European countries. Large amount of data was collected and statistical analysis was done, policy recommendation was given on the transition of the Eastern European countries and on their membership in European Union. Again take the organization and management theory in the microeconomics for example. It has been subjected to a five-generation change within nearly one century since the term “scientific management” of the first generation was raised in 1910, coined after the view of Taylor who focused primarily on increasing worker’s efficiency. The theory on management is now entering into the stage of “knowledge management”. Furthermore, thanks to the separation of the right of ownership and operation, there have emerged large numbers of corporations

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and salaried professional managers or directors, who have acquired substantial powers in respect to the affairs of the corporations. They are paid to run the corporations or enterprises on behalf of their shareholders but not always had the best interests of shareholders in mind when performing their managerial functions. Thus, a series of issues occurred. The Cadbury Committee Report (1992) recommended a “Code of Best Practice” related to the appointment and responsibilities of executive directors, the independence of non-executive directors and tighter internal financial controls and reporting procedures. Then corporate governance became the new area studied by some economists. But in the real world there are one after another news of scandals in USA in recent years. Enron is one of them. It is worthwhile for us to do further research of all facts of the real world and study the related theoretical study. One point can be further discussed, i.e., the issue of reform. China launched its economic reform in the late 70s. But we must be aware that ‘reform’ is not an issue unique only to the former central mandatory planning economies. It is also an issue existing in the entire process of economic development that countries of the world must face. We must have a sense of its complexity. Paul E. Atkinson of OECD wrote a paper “The Experience of Economic Reform in OECD-APEC Countries”; it was presented at a conference for preparation of the APEC meeting in New Zealand. In the paper, he pointed out, “Economic reform is usually a difficult and wrenching process. It involves substantially changing the way a society thinks about whatever it is that is being reformed and often dismantling of existing institutions and arrangements.” The above quotation is to emphasize the point that the rapidly changing society would result in a trend of rapid change of economics theory and that the complexity of the reform should be fully recognized. It is expected that people working in the economic field of China strengthen their cooperation and exchange with people working in the economic field abroad, because it is necessary to absorb useful lessons abroad and combine them properly with the concrete domestic conditions. Discovering and solving problems are by no means a simple task. Therefore, the six papers collected in this part cover only a limited scope of the study of economics. Their selection has the following considerations. The first paper in this part is titled “Industrialization and Economic Reform in China”. This paper was a report given in Brazil on Feb. 1993, when the author was invited by the Vargas Foundation. This report is divided into four parts: Overview; industrialization of China in the pre-reform era (1949–1978); development strategy of industrial economy in the 80s the period of economic reform; China’s economic strategy in 90s and recent policy of economic reform, issues and measures The report discussed also the sectoral aspects, therefore it can complement the contents of part I of this book. The oral presentation was translated into Portuguese and published by the Vargas Foundation in 1994. The version collected here is the original draft in English.

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The second paper is “Foreign Direct Investment Policies and Related Institutional Building in China”. It was written at the request of ESCAP. Detailed descriptions of the development, policy and institutional building regarding the use of foreign direct investment are given in it. It is published in a symposium titled “Foreign Direct Investment in Selected Asian Countries: Policies, Related Institution-Building and Regional Cooperation” by ESCAP. The third paper in this part is “Experience of Tax Reform in China?” It was written at the request of ESCAP for a speech given to officials of the Ministry of Finance in Kyrgiz Republic on Nov. 1999. Both Kyrgiz and China were formerly centrally planned economies. From the author’s perspective, the priority on the reform agenda should be given to fiscal reform in the transition from a former centrally planned economy to a market-oriented economy. In the reform of the banking sector in the financial system, due to its unique state owned enterprise nature in the former centrally planned economy, all difficulties faced in the reform of SOEs also exist in the reform of banking sector, which is even more difficult and complex, because monetary policy is essentially macro-economic policy of the government. While the reform of the fiscal aspect is related not too closely to the development of the market, it is, however, more closely related to the political issue. The author had discussed this point with one of the former vice presidents of the World Bank (an Israelite who has died). We both hold the same view. This paper has not explored the fiscal reform of China extensively. It simply lists the facts of evolution and reform of the fiscal system of China, evolution and reform of the tax system of China and major lessons of tax reform and future prospects. The issue of the central-local fiscal relationship and the extra-budgetary system are also discussed. The author had been asked by the ESCAP to publish this paper on their Development Papers. In the above three papers, there are relatively detailed national statistics and analysis done by the author. All statistical data are currently easily available for economists abroad. Possibly, the author may understand better the history of China, its development and the cultural tradition. Therefore, his analysis based on the same statistical data may provide a new perspective for the international economic community to better understand the reform and development of China. So it is the part related to the institutional reform for the utilization of foreign direct investment. The fourth paper is “Corporate Governance -Challenge to East Asian Countries in the Process of Globalization”. This paper was a speech given to visiting students (includes post graduate students) at the invitation of Beijing University which was responsible for that activity. The author deeply felt that although “Corporate Governance” is a hot issue within the domestic economic circle. Yet, it is a product of separation of the right of ownership from that of operation, and the emergence of stock companies. Based on the specific conditions of China, it seems to be a necessity to integrate the study of corporate governance

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with the development of the financial system (one of its component is stock market) of China. The international financial system is, in general, composed of three components: the banking system, the bond market and the equity market. The Asian Development Bank and ESCAP have summarized the lessons and experiences after the East Asian financial crisis. They both recognized that the share of the bond market is too low for most of the financial systems of East Asia-China has a similar situation regarding the share of bond market in the financial system. This is an issue that deserves to be studied. The fifth paper is “Comments on Rethinking the East Asian Miracle”. This is a speech given by the author in Tsinghua University at the launch of World Bank publication Rethinking the East Asian Miracle in China on March 2002 when the author was invited by the World Bank to give comments on that activity. The publication of the World Bank The East Asian Miracle in 1993 had received worldwide response. Most of the response is confirmative and positive. But there were also different voices, particular so after the East Asian financial crisis. Dr. Joseph E. Stiglitz (former vice president of the World Bank, a Nobel Prize winner) and Dr. Shahid Yusuf (former chief economist of China) have organized many scholars to take a fresh look at the regional experience during the 1990s and to extend and revise as necessary the findings of the former publication. Three papers related to China and Vietnam are added. Although this is only a paper of comments, the author has expressed a number of views related to development and reform. I have endorsed highly the perception that “in the light of market and government failures, there are two alternative strategies; to focus on one and ignore the other or to try to address the weakness in both, view the public and private sector as complementary.” This is an idea that China should learn seriously in its development and reform. Dr. Yusuf has also pointed out the universal weaknesses of corporate governance in East Asia, such as ineffective boards of directors, weak internal control, unreliable financial reporting, lacking of adequate disclosure, lax of enforcement to ensure compliance and poor audits, etc. All the above weakness also exist in corporate governance of China. I do expect the related authorities take care of all the above weaknesses in policy making on corporate governance. In my comments to that book, I also stressed the role of social and cultural factors in development. This perception can remedy the insufficiencies of part four of this book. The sixth paper is “E-Governance and Human Resource Development”. This is a report presented to the ASEM Conference on Globalization and ICT on March 10–12, 2003 in Malmo and Helsingborg Sweden. This paper will be included in a collection of papers presented at the symposium by IKED Sweden. The author stresses in this paper that globalization is a process, a brief retrospect of the history of the process of industrialization is given, both positive and negative lessons of the process are summarized. It is emphasized in this paper that the developed countries, take the lead in marching toward

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establishing an information society (or knowledge-based society) should learn lessons from history. The second part of this paper explores e-governance, with a broad definition of governance. The author has prepared a comparative study of government organizational structure to the traditional hierarchical structure of enterprises, e-governance to the improvement of organizational structure is explored, a system concept of organizational structure in management theory is also described. A brief description of current status and prospect of e-governance is also presented. Difference between human resource development and traditional personnel management is clarified in Part Three of this paper; the strategy in application of ICT to human resource development and upgradation of skills in continuity is also emphasized. And finally, some recommendations on cooperation between Europe and Asia are raised. The author would like to mention here that there will be a world summit in 2004 and 2005 on “Information Society”. People should keep abreast of changes at international level in the process of globalization. In domestic development, people must be sensitive and adaptable to global changes. Part four of this book are related to some social aspects of China. It should be emphasized here that the study of contemporary society can cover very broad areas, far broader than that of economics. They may include: family, race, class, strata, poverty and welfare, institutional structure, work and economic life, government and politics, education, religion, mass media and culture. Contemporary study of development economics has also taken “cultural factor on development” to be a specific subject. In fact, one cannot isolate economic policies with the social and cultural aspects. Early in the mid 80s, some economists from the World Bank had exchanged views with me on the progress of economic reform of China. They think that the process of China’s reform seems to be too slow. I told them that the process of China’s economic reform cannot be pushed too fast, because the established social welfare system cannot be changed overnight. Large and small countries differed in social rigidity. The failure of the shock therapy approach applied to the reform in the former Soviet Union is due to its neglect of the social aspects by Western economists. Social aspects are very complicated issues if they are studied in depth and breadth. An initial study has been done on social aspects in this book, only two papers are selected, i.e., the social issues that the Chinese government had, and it is continuous to be dealt with full effort. The first paper is “Social Security System and Alleviation of Poverty in China”. This report is written by the author at the request of ESCAP. It was completed in April 1995, the contents of this paper cover poverty and current status, trend of social security policy framework and current system of social security; financial resource of social security system and future strategy. This paper also gave a brief description of “8–7 Poverty Alleviation Program of China”. It was published in Toward Social Security for the Poor in the Asia-Pacific Region by UNESCAP in 1996.

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The second paper in part IV is “Urban Poverty Alleviation and Development”. Poverty and poverty alleviation is a dynamic process. Prior to the reform and opening-up, poverty was mainly a rural phenomenon in China. There are emergence of urban poverty and human settlement in urban area due to large amount of immigrants and industrial restructuring. This paper has discussed in general the process of change of urban poverty and human settlement in China before the 90s; the emerging issue of urban poverty and strategy to deal it; a new initiative for poverty alleviation in China, the “Brilliant Cause” (relevant institutions of UN show great interest in that initiative) is introduced briefly. And the final part of this paper concludes with a section titled “Poverty Alleviation and Improving Human Settlements, A Human Development Challenge”. This paper is written at the request of UNCHS (United Nations Conference on Human Settlement) for e conference jointly sponsored with UNCRD (United Nations Center for the Regional Development). It is published in Regional Development Dialogue by UNCRD in 1999. Part V of this book focuses on some environmental aspects. The author has a relative detailed description of sustainable development in paper 1 of part I. Therefore, there is no need to give extra space to theoretical introduction in this part. Three papers are collected here. One paper is “Toward a Sustainable Development Society: A System Approach”. This paper is a pilot study of paper 1 in Part I. It is written for the Club of Rome Conference in Fukouka, Japan in 1992 prior to the World Summit held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Declaration of Fukouka was raised at that conference and sent to the World Summit. The speech given by the author was published, both in English and Japanese, at the symposium; it was titled “Global Environment and Local Action”. The paper collected in this book is the original draft in English. The second paper in part V is “Economic Development and the Environment in China”. The co-author of this paper is Madam Li Shantong of our center. The contents of this paper includes, economic achievements of China, economic development and its impact to environment, economic development and energy demand, industrialization of China and its impact to environment, China’s policy to environment, etc. This paper differs from most other papers included in this book in that relatively detailed technical aspects are discussed and analyzed. There are sectoral data on output and the amount of discharge of waste water, waste gas, and sulfur dioxide. This paper was written in 1995. It was published in a book titled Economic Development Cooperation in the Pacific Basin by Cambridge University Press in 1998. The third paper is “Sustainable Development in a New Millennium”. It is written for an “expert groups meeting” sponsored by United Nations held in Malaysia in July 2001. This meeting was to make preparations for the World Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa 2002. The speeches delivered by all the experts were collected by the staff of UN to become internal references. The author has given a brief speech called “China: Agenda 21”, which analyzed the

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issue and constraints of its implementation, new opportunities and challenges of East Asia and Pacific Region, ventured the prospects of the new millennium and put forward some recommendations. Conclusions in the last part briefly discuss the challenges in and issues related to the “integrated approach”, and some documents of international organizations on China’s planning and development are introduced to provide a wider sharing of information with the readers. This is a brief introduction of all parts of this book. It is expected that this brief introduction will give a bird’s-eye of the contents of the book. The academic perspective of the author is also expressed briefly in this introduction. Is should be emphasized that China’s reform and opening is a mega social systems engineering. This book is a very preliminary exploration of it. The author expects that, better explorations can be made of this gigantic project in my life-long learning and pooling of large amounts of domestic and international knowledge, through continuous summary of experience of the ever-changing real world.

10.2.5 Integrated Study of China’s Development and Reform (Chinese Version) 1. Publication of the book. This book Integrated Study of China’s Development and Reform-Preliminary Exploration of Social System (Chinese version) was published by Intercontinental Press in Beijing in December 2004. Figure 10.4 portrays scanned images of the book cover and its first page of the table of contents. 2. Reasons for the publication. The reason for this Chinese version publication was due to the English edition Integrated Study of China’s Development and Reform published by Foreign Language Press. The English edition contains 14 of my papers or speeches presented abroad to which the domestic readers had no access. Thus, the publication of Chinese edition is to remedy the deficiency. In addition, fourteen more papers are included in the Chinese version book.

10.2.6 Writing and Publishing the Book “Methodology of Social Systems Engineering” (Chinese Version) After more than 25 years of hard explorations started from the 12 papers published in Technical Economics and Management from 1987 to 1990, I made some headways in the exploration of social systems engineering. For example, I applied system approach to study the social systems engineering, which can be seen from Box.

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(a) book cover

(b) table of contents (first page)

Fig. 10.4 The book integrated study of china’s development and reform (Chinese Version)

10.3 that terms such as “Environment Aspects”, “Social Aspects” and “Science and Technology” were used in my 2003 book. But I was not satisfied. After accumulating more information about its current development compared to systems engineering, I knew there were rooms for further development and refinement. So, in 2011, I started to write Methodology of Social Systems Engineering (Chinese version). It contained many soft explorations through my learning and works in the social policy consultative service and from attending more than 100 international conferences of various themes. The book was published in 2015. Figure 10.5 shows scanned images of the book cover and the first page of its table of contents. In Box 10.5, the complete table of contents of the book is presented. Box 10.5 Table of Contents of Methodology of Social Systems Engineering (Chinese Version) Chapter 1 Introduction Section 1 Introduction Section 2 Social System Section 3 Social system Engineering Section 4 Summary

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(b) table of contents (first page)

Fig. 10.5 The book methodology of social systems engineering (Chinese Version)

Chapter 2 General System Theory and System Engineering Section 1 Formation and development of foreign system theory Section 2 Some key points of system and general system theory Section 3 System Engineering Chapter 3 Social System Section 1 Social Science and Social system Section 2 Development of social sciences and the emergence of the concept of social system in the 20th century Section 3 Individual and Group behavior and Social Environment Section 4 Social system and Parsons’ AGIL functional analysis framework Chapter 4 Summary of Social System Engineering Section 1 Development of social system engineering Section 2 Design of social system engineering Section 3 Two cases of social system engineering as a national overall design Chapter 5 General Introduction to Methodology Section 1 Introduction to methodology

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Section 2 Framework of the overall design methodology of the national system Section 3 Methodology of national overall design coordination Section 4 Methodological system of this book Chapter 6 Planning System Section 1 Introduction Section 2 Evolution of national planning development. Section 3 Cases of foreign medium-term national plans Section 4 Case and scenario analysis of foreign long-term planning Section 5 Territorial Planning Section 6 China’s plans Chapter 7 Cultural System Section 1 Introduction Section 2 Development of foreign cultural theory Section 3 Culture and development Section 4 Interpretation of cultural system theory by sociology and anthropology Section 5 Development of Chinese cultural system Section 6 Views on the development of China’s cultural system Chapter 8 Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis System Section 1 Introduction Section 2 Engineering logic Section 3 Hierarchical structure of scientific knowledge and its discussion Section 4 Index system Section 5 Models and mathematical models Chapter 9 Analysis and Evaluation of Public Policy System Section Introduction Section 2 Nature and basic theory of public policy Section 3 System theory and types and analysis of public policy Section 4 Analytic hierarchy process of policy system Section 5 Policy analysis Chapter 10 Development of Think Tanks Section 1 Introduction Section 2 Development and construction of foreign think tank Section 3 Case study of global think tank Section 4 Development of global think tank Section 5 General situation of the development of Chinese think tanks and the development research center of the state council

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Fig. 10.6 Photo of the discussion meeting

After the publication of Methodology of Social Systems Engineering (Chinese version), Mr. Long Guoqiang, the Deputy Director of DRC suggested to organize a new book launching event. This seminar, held at DRC on April 17, 2015, was chaired by Zhang Junkuo, the Deputy Director of DRC, and participated by some senior and junior researchers. I made a brief speech at the event, which included four sections: (1) the definitions and main concepts of social systems and social systems engineering; (2) the explorations of social system and social system engineering at home and abroad; (3) the introduction of the contents and my writing process; and (4) the shortcomings of the book. After listening to my speech, the researchers attending the seminar actively discussed my book and its related contents. Figure 10.6 is the photo of the discussion meeting.

10.2.7 Writing and Publication of Introduction to Social Systems Engineering Due to limited publications related to this emerging discipline, I wrote a proposal with co-author Li Shantong to Springer proposing to write a new English book about the discipline, Introduction to Social Systems Engineering. My proposal was accepted, and the book was published in March 2018. Figure 10.7 contains the scanned images of the book cover and the first page of its table of contents.

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(a) book cover

(b) table of contents (first page)

Fig. 10.7 The book introduction to social systems engineering

After the publication of this book, the relevant department of our center organized a small-scale seminar, and invited me to introduce the writing process and main content about my book. Figure 10.8 shows some participants of this seminar.

10.3 Some Thoughts in Exploration 1. Exploration—Further Classified. Nearly all intellectuals are engaged in learning and work throughout their lives. Some of them may also be successful in their respective exploration in a chosen field or subject. However, further classification of exploration is necessary. When an intellectual learns something, such as simple figures and facts that can be easily mastered, this type of exploration without creation of new knowledge can be classified into the stage of hard exploration. If the exploration can lead to the creation of new concept, theory or activities, they are defined as soft exploration. Hard exploration is a pre-requisite towards achieving soft exploration. 2. Use of systems approach. Although I did not use system approach to study social systems engineering as it is a traditional method, which is already applied in my

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Fig. 10.8 The seminar of my book introduction to social systems engineering

book described in Sect. 10.2.4. In fact, all social systems are generally composed of four subsystems, social, S&T, economic and ecological. Many new elements related to the basic nature of social systems engineering are be explored. Parsons’ AGIL framework of action is nearly universal for all human actions, it has goals and actions constrained or encouraged by culture, and actions should be coordinated (integration) and adapted to various environment. Many new elements, planning, indicators, boundary, environment, regulation and think tanks, therefore, are identified as important elements. Although system approach can be applied to study social systems engineering, such an approach may face difficulty in the stage of integration to pursue a balanced development.

10.4 Relationship of Academic Principles to Exploration Every intellectual may have their own academic principles. But for me, I have adhered to the three academic principles in my exploration.

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1. Study the original literature. Although I had spent nearly half of my life exploring social systems engineering and wrote something related to it in 1966, I was hesitant to write a complete book on social systems engineering because I did not read and studies the original works written by Parsons. Until around 2010, my colleague Gao Shiji got me some important original books of Parsons, such as The Social System, and Economy and Society. After studying the original literature thoroughly, I start to write my Methodology of Social Systems Engineering (Chinese version) and Introduction to Social Systems Engineering. 2. Cumulative experience counts. I am convinced that although China may lag western developed countries in many ways, its long history and rich culture have paved solid foundation in social science which can be shared with the global community. In our exploration of Social Systems Engineering, the Chinese experience is included for the purpose of promoting human progress and prosperity for the global society. 3. Attach importance to quantitative analysis. Mathematical model or quantitative analysis should be a part of exploration. The purpose of exploring social systems engineering is to have better coordination between the mankind and its environment qualitatively, as well as quantitatively.

10.5 My Life After Retirement The theme of this book is exploration of social systems engineering, and the life of an intellectual of China from 1925 to the present. It can be seen from the previous nine chapters that during nearly all my life, learning and work have consumed me. Do all intellectuals live the same lifestyle as mine? Of course not. Many intellectuals enjoy different lifestyles. However, because the theme of the book has two different but related aspects, i.e., exploration of social systems engineering and my life, and because social systems engineering is a complex and broad subject, its learning and work has taken a lifetime. Hence, more coverage on my work and learning occupy most of the book volume with little room to describe my other activities. Below, I would like to encapsulate some important events in my life to conclude the book. 1. My health has been on a decline since 2002. I have lived a healthy life, to fit my rigorous learning and work patterns. I never smoke or drink alcohol and follow a routine for bedtime like a robot—sleep by 9 p.m. and rise by 6 a.m. daily. My mental state is stable and balanced as I do not let worldly things such as money and position to bother me. I was very satisfied with my work. Unfortunately, in 2002, I was diagnosed with prostate cancer and underwent a surgical operation at Union

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Medical College Hospital. The operation went smoothly, and I recovered very quickly. However, since then my health system has declined which I attributed to the operation as I believe that it had negatively impacted the balanced operation of the major organs (the heart, the liver, the lung, the kidney, etc.). In 2006, I was diagnosed with lung cancer; and in 2007 I suffered a compression fracture. Despite these health issues, I still have energy and confidence to complete my work. My family. The three children, both at home and abroad, are accomplished in their respective careers through their own efforts. Wang Li, the eldest son, is an executive deputy general manager of a software development company. Wang Qi, the elder daughter, is a tenured full professor of business and IT in the United States. Wang Ping, the youngest daughter, is one of the partners of Andrews Kurth Kenyon LLP, Washington, a famous law firm in the US. I am very proud of each of their achievements. After my formal retirement. I have had more time to enjoy my personal life. My wife and I traveled to USA often to live with Wang Ping’s family. In 2016, we celebrated the Chinese New Year—the Spring Festival with our two daughters and their families in US. Wang Ping and Xue Hai visit China often and we have went on family vocations to Hangzhou, Nanjing, Yangzhou and other places. Wang Qi visited us in China too and we went on a family cruise to Japan. There is another happy event is that my wife, Niu Fangming, won the Commemorative Medal of “Celebrating the 70th Anniversary of the Founding of the People’s Republic of China” on October 1, 2019, because of her outstanding contribution to the education cause of our country (Fig. 10.9). Visiting childhood friend and schoolmate in Dalian. Shi Jizhi was my schoolmate and best friend when we attended Li Da Academy Junior Middle School. I am one year older than him. We were competitors in class examinations but close buddies otherwise. We have kept a lifelong friendship in good times and bad. Figure 10.10 is a scanned photo of us when I visited him and his family in Dalian. Contact with “young” friends. Zuo Xuejin was the Former Vice President of Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, and assisted me with the project “Analysis of the Reasons for the Rapid Growth of China’s Coastal Regions” and other projects. We knew each other when he was studying in America, and then I was impressed by his high level of intellectual ability in the many subsequent cooperation and exchanges. I have built a deep friendship with this “young” fellow-townsman. Of course, in such a long time of study and work, I have met many other “young” friends (Fig. 10.11). Optimistic attitude. Despite my declining health, I am still optimistic. There is a Chinese saying “Happiness consists in Contentment”, I will follow it and keep a positive attitude so that I can keep my health, to make more contribution to the development of related disciplines and the construction of my motherland!

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Fig. 10.9 My wife with her commemorative medal

Fig. 10.10 Photo of Shi Jizhi and I in Dalian

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Fig. 10.11 Photo of Zuo Xuejin and some other young friends having lunch with me in 2019. From left to right: Front row (seated): 1st Li Shantong, 2nd I, 3rd Zuo Xuejin. Back row (standing): 1st Wang Zhonghong, 2nd Wu Zhengzhang

Appendix

Only English books and papers are listed

Books (English Version) Wang Huijiong, Li Boxi (1989). China toward the Year 2000. Beijing: New World Press. Wang Huijiong, Li Shantong (1995). Industrialization and Economic Reform in China. Beijing: New World Press. Wang Huijiong (2003). Integrated Study of China’s Development and Reform— Preliminary Exploration of Social System. Beijing: Foreign Language Press. Ichimura Shinichi, Wang Huijiong (2003). Interregional Input-Output Analysis of the Chinese Economy. Singapore: World Scientific Publishing Co Pte Ltd. Wang Huijiong, Li Shantong (2018). Introduction to Social Systems Engineering. Singapore: Springer.

Articles Edited in Books Wang Huijiong, Li Shantong, Hong Yan (2012). Entrepreneurship of Innovative High-tech Development in China: Two Case Studies. In C. Petti, M. Ederer (Ed.) (2012), Technological Entrepreneurship in China-How Does It Work? U.K.: Edward Elgar Publishing. Wang Huijiong (2005). Innovation of Concepts and Economic Development in Contemporary World. Wang Huijiong (2004). E-Governance and Human Resource Development. In Andersson Thomas, Engvall Anders and Göransson Bo (Ed.) (2004), Globalisation and ICT: the Role of Government, Private Sector and Civil Society in an Information © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020 H. Wang, Explorations in Social Systems Engineering, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-3390-7

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Appendix

Society for All. Sweden: IKED (International Organization for Knowledge Economy and Enterprise Development). Wang Huijiong, Casper van der Tak (2003). Country Reports—China. In Ralph A. Luken, Paul Hesp (Ed.) (2003), Towards Sustainable Development in Industry? U.K.: Edward Elgar Publishing. Wang Huijiong, Li Shantong (1998). Economic Development and the Environment in China. In Hiro Lee and David W. Roland-Holst (Ed.) (1998), Economic Development and Cooperation in the Pacific Basin—Trade, Investment, and Environmental Issues. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Wang Huijiong (1998). Economic Growth of China in the 90s and the Impact of the Asian Crisis. In Jean-Claude Berthélemy, Tomony Koh (Ed.) (1998), The Asian Crisis—A New Agenda for Euro-Asian Cooperation. Singapore: World Scientific Publishing Co Pte Ltd. Wang Huijiong (1998). The Experience of Development Planning in China. Wang Huijiong, Li Shantong, Godfrey Linge (1997). Regional Planning Developing an Indigenous Framework. In Godfrey Linge (Ed.) (1997), China’s New Spatial Economy: Heading Towards 2020. Hong Kong: Oxford University Press. Wang Huijiong (1994). Industrializacao E Reforma Economica NA China. In A Economia Mundial Em Transformacao. Fundacao Getulio Vargas. Wang Huijiong (1992). Toward a Sustainable Society: A system Approach. In Global Environment and Local Action. Published by the Club of Rome Conference in Fukuoka, Kyuska May 12–14 1992, Fukuoka, Japan. Wang Huijiong (1999). Redefining Regional Development Strategy: The Chinese Experience. In Global Forum on Regional Development Policy, UNCRD, UN/DESA UNCRD Proceeding Series, No. 37, 1999. Wang Huijiong, Li Shantong (1998). Prospects for and Issues on the Chinese Economy in Transition. In Kempe Ronald Hope, Sr, (Ed.) (1998), Challenges of Transformation and Transition from Centrally Planned to Market Economy. UNCRD Research Report Series No. 26. Wang Huijiong (1996). Trade of Northeast Asia in a Global Perspective and Foreign Direct Investment in China: Implication to the Northeast Asia Regional Cooperation. In Kap-young Jeong, Ku-Hyun Jung, Gu Ho Eom (Ed.) (1996), Building Capacity for Economic Cooperation in Northeast Asia—A Comparative Perspective. Institute of East and West Studies Yonsei University. Wang Huijiong (1996). Social Security System and Alleviation of Poverty in China. In Toward Social Security for the Poor in the Asia-Pacific Region. UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific. Wang Huijiong, Li Boxi (1994). China: Technological Independence, In Saneh Chamarik and SusanthaGoonatilahe (Ed.) (1994), Technological Independence—The Asian Experience. The United Nations University. Wang Huijiong (1993). Globalization and Regional Development. In Peter Hall, et al. (Ed.) (1993), Multilateral Cooperation for Development in the Twenty-First Century—Training and Research for Regional Development. United Nations Center for Regional Development.

Appendix

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Wang Huijiong, Li Boxi (1987). An overall introduction to the study ‘China by the year 2000’. In Fu-chen Lo (Chief Ed.) (1987), Asian and Pacific Economy Towards the year 2000. Asian and Pacific Development Centre. Wang Huijiong (1986). New Energy Technology and Systems. In Ann Johnston and Albert Sasson (Ed.) (1986), New Technologies and Development.

Journal Articles Wang, H., Li, S., & Wang, Q. (2013). China’s Ten Years in the WTO: Review and Perspectives. Journal of Chinese Economic and Foreign Trade Studies, 6(2): 53–69. Wang, H., & Hong, Y. (2012). Globalization and its Impact on China’s Technology Innovation System. Journal of Technology Management in China, 7(1): 78–93. Wang, H., & Hong, Y. (2009). China: Technology Development and Management in the Context of Economic Reform and Opening. Journal of Technology Management in China, 4(1): 4–25. Wang, H., Tak, C. (2004). Integrated Policies for Sustainable Industrial Development. Evaluation and Adjustment of China’s Sustainable Industrial Planning and Policies, Vol. III. Wang, H. (2001). Some Issues of Technology Management in China: A Challenge Towards the 21st Century. International Journal of Manufacturing Technology and Management, 3(1/2): 170–182. Wang, H. (1997). Some Aspects of Economic Reform in China: A Case Study of an Economy in Transition. Regional Development Dialogue 18, UNCRD Nagoya, Japan. Wang, H. (1999). Urban Poverty Alleviation and Development: The Chinese Experience. Regional Development Dialogue, 20 (1), UNCRD Nagoya, Japan. Wang, H. (2014/1994). Technology Innovation and enterprise management and a case-study in china. International Journal of Technology Management, 9(5–6): 564– 574. Wang, H. (1993). Technology Management in a Dual World. International Journal of Technology Management, Vol. 8, No. 1/2 Wang, H., Li, B. (1988). La Chine en L’an 2000 (French version). Futuribles n’120avril, 1988.