Shenzhen seeks to stay special as it marks a coming of age
He Huifeng and Fiona Tam
Aug 27, 2010
It's called the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone.
It was established 30 years ago as one of the mainland's first special economic zones - the others being Zhuhai and Shantou in Guangdong and Xiamen in Fujian .
Shenzhen officials regard the 30th anniversary as important because people at age 30 are expected to be able to stand firmly on their own two feet, according to Confucius.
That is the issue for city officials as people await a new date for the celebration: how to keep Shenzhen special. By many accounts, the city has lost its way, and the road map back to that status, as well as moving forward, is still uncertain.
Shenzhen Mayor Xu Qin said on Wednesday that the city would invest 105 billion yuan (HK$120 billion) in 60 huge projects to celebrate the anniversary, including cheap housing, schools, hospitals, infrastructure and industrial parks.
The city is pronouncing today a public holiday for about 14 million residents, and 15 million phone cards, valued at 100 yuan each, will be given free to the residents. There will be month-long activities, including a seminar on political reform, exhibitions, concerts and a choral competition.
Yesterday's celebrations were cancelled as Hong Kong was mourning the victims killed in the hostage crisis in Manila on Monday.
The incentive for city leaders to keep the momentum going came from Premier Wen Jiabao when he made a study tour of the city last week. Wen pledged his support for Shenzhen to continuously develop and "do an even better job".
"The special zone should ... keep being special, being good, being innovative, being one-up and being the doer," he said.
The central government provided a boost in June by approving the expansion of the special economic zone from 395 sq km to 1,948 sq km, or nearly twice the size of Hong Kong. City authorities saw that as a big gift, allowing them more power and opportunity for reform.
They are eagerly expecting more such special policies and support from Beijing. They were the key to transforming Shenzhen from a small fishing village three decades ago into a modern city with almost nine million people.
Guo Wanda , of the Shenzhen Development Research Centre, a government think tank, said the way to maintain its special status was to adjust strategies and become pioneers in political and civil reform. "Shenzhen is no longer special in economic terms, as the central government is seeing more and better replacements, such as Shanghai, Beijing or even Tianjin ," he said.
"The GDP-only standard is no longer enough to make Shenzhen a special zone. We must realise this and find out ways to keep our uniqueness. In the past, it was easy for Shenzhen to be the model across the country. Its aim was simple - to learn and copy from Hong Kong to set up a market economy. Every simple simulation brought big success in economic growth. But it doesn't work any more now."
Guo Zhongxiao , an independent researcher, said Shenzhen had had chances to use political and civil reforms to maintain its special status but had not done well.
For example, in May last year, the city vowed to streamline government institutions by more than 30 per cent and separate administrative power into three independent branches - policy formulation, execution and supervision. This "separation of powers" was meant to be the mainland's first attempt at administrative structural reform.
But one year later, the reform seemed to have failed, Guo Zhongxiao said. Internet users complained that the city's administrative departments had too much bureaucracy when they saw one director and 20 vice-directors in charge of a department.
Another example is a draft of Shenzhen's reform programme in May 2008, which proposed direct elections for some district-level officials and People's Congress deputies - the latter an attempt to strengthen the representation of the public in the legislative body. Local media and scholars praised it as an attempt to formulate a systematic reform of the national political structure that would gradually provide for the direct election of Communist Party leaders. More than two years later, the draft had come to nothing definitive, Guo Zhongxiao wrote in his blogs.
Becoming a world-class metropolis by 2020 should be the top priority for Shenzhen to keep leading the country, Guo Wanda said, but it depends on the local leaders' determination.
"Shenzhen already has the best market system on the mainland and a big middle-class population," he said. "The government must improve its transparency and efficiency in urban management and services. We also must reform our legal system and improve democracy among the middle class to set up a true civil society in China.
"Only by constantly trying new reforms in these fields can Shenzhen stay ahead of others."
He Huifeng and Fiona Tam
Aug 27, 2010
It's called the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone.
It was established 30 years ago as one of the mainland's first special economic zones - the others being Zhuhai and Shantou in Guangdong and Xiamen in Fujian .
Shenzhen officials regard the 30th anniversary as important because people at age 30 are expected to be able to stand firmly on their own two feet, according to Confucius.
That is the issue for city officials as people await a new date for the celebration: how to keep Shenzhen special. By many accounts, the city has lost its way, and the road map back to that status, as well as moving forward, is still uncertain.
Shenzhen Mayor Xu Qin said on Wednesday that the city would invest 105 billion yuan (HK$120 billion) in 60 huge projects to celebrate the anniversary, including cheap housing, schools, hospitals, infrastructure and industrial parks.
The city is pronouncing today a public holiday for about 14 million residents, and 15 million phone cards, valued at 100 yuan each, will be given free to the residents. There will be month-long activities, including a seminar on political reform, exhibitions, concerts and a choral competition.
Yesterday's celebrations were cancelled as Hong Kong was mourning the victims killed in the hostage crisis in Manila on Monday.
The incentive for city leaders to keep the momentum going came from Premier Wen Jiabao when he made a study tour of the city last week. Wen pledged his support for Shenzhen to continuously develop and "do an even better job".
"The special zone should ... keep being special, being good, being innovative, being one-up and being the doer," he said.
The central government provided a boost in June by approving the expansion of the special economic zone from 395 sq km to 1,948 sq km, or nearly twice the size of Hong Kong. City authorities saw that as a big gift, allowing them more power and opportunity for reform.
They are eagerly expecting more such special policies and support from Beijing. They were the key to transforming Shenzhen from a small fishing village three decades ago into a modern city with almost nine million people.
Guo Wanda , of the Shenzhen Development Research Centre, a government think tank, said the way to maintain its special status was to adjust strategies and become pioneers in political and civil reform. "Shenzhen is no longer special in economic terms, as the central government is seeing more and better replacements, such as Shanghai, Beijing or even Tianjin ," he said.
"The GDP-only standard is no longer enough to make Shenzhen a special zone. We must realise this and find out ways to keep our uniqueness. In the past, it was easy for Shenzhen to be the model across the country. Its aim was simple - to learn and copy from Hong Kong to set up a market economy. Every simple simulation brought big success in economic growth. But it doesn't work any more now."
Guo Zhongxiao , an independent researcher, said Shenzhen had had chances to use political and civil reforms to maintain its special status but had not done well.
For example, in May last year, the city vowed to streamline government institutions by more than 30 per cent and separate administrative power into three independent branches - policy formulation, execution and supervision. This "separation of powers" was meant to be the mainland's first attempt at administrative structural reform.
But one year later, the reform seemed to have failed, Guo Zhongxiao said. Internet users complained that the city's administrative departments had too much bureaucracy when they saw one director and 20 vice-directors in charge of a department.
Another example is a draft of Shenzhen's reform programme in May 2008, which proposed direct elections for some district-level officials and People's Congress deputies - the latter an attempt to strengthen the representation of the public in the legislative body. Local media and scholars praised it as an attempt to formulate a systematic reform of the national political structure that would gradually provide for the direct election of Communist Party leaders. More than two years later, the draft had come to nothing definitive, Guo Zhongxiao wrote in his blogs.
Becoming a world-class metropolis by 2020 should be the top priority for Shenzhen to keep leading the country, Guo Wanda said, but it depends on the local leaders' determination.
"Shenzhen already has the best market system on the mainland and a big middle-class population," he said. "The government must improve its transparency and efficiency in urban management and services. We also must reform our legal system and improve democracy among the middle class to set up a true civil society in China.
"Only by constantly trying new reforms in these fields can Shenzhen stay ahead of others."
