Guo Shuqing is a scholar-turned-official, who has been working in the provincial policy research department in the early years, and has been well received by the provincial leaders for his keen thinking and outstanding writing.

Although he has never done actual work at the grassroots level, Guo Shuqing is no stranger to the rules of conduct of grassroots governments. He knows that cities and counties have long regarded economic development as the most important task in government work, and it has become a common practice in officialdom to evaluate the performance of a secretary or mayor by how much capital they have introduced, how many enterprises they have established, and how much output value they have created during their term of office.

Guo Shuqing did not want to be confused with these colleagues, he hoped that he could become a maverick official, and only in this way could he stand out from the crowd of bureaucrats at the same level. The position of secretary of the municipal party committee is unattainable in the eyes of many people, but for Guo Shuqing, he does not feel satisfied. A secretary is just a department-level cadre, and there are nearly 50,000 department-level cadres in various departments and bureaus under the central ministries and commissions, various departments and departments in the province, and more than 300 prefecture-level cities across the country. If what he does is no different from everyone else, how does he show his presence among these 50,000 people?

After more than 20 years of rapid development, China has initially shaken off poverty and solved the problem of food and clothing for the people. After the question of having enough to eat ceased to be a problem, the discussion of the development path became more and more popular. Recently, there have been frequent statements in newspapers such as "opposing the cult of GDP" and "pursuing GDP that will do more harm than good," and Guo Shuqing has keenly perceived this trend and realized that it is not enough to get ahead by doing a good job in the economy alone.

With this in mind, after he took office, he did not develop the economy as drastically as other secretaries. Instead, they are trying to find different development paths. He thought about the idea of rejuvenating the city through culture, tourism, livability, leisure, and even religion, but all these ideas had difficulties in concrete implementation, so it was difficult to introduce them as a policy for a while. Gusev had just thrown him the concept of a post-industrial city, claiming that it was more than 50 years ahead of his time, which made Guo Shuqing quite excited.

In China, one criterion for evaluating the quality of a thing is "foreign atmosphere". The so-called "foreign atmosphere" is different from China's local things, and it is stained with a little Western fairy spirit. You don't see, when real estate developers develop real estate, they often have to take a name such as "Aoxiang", "Maple Leaf", "Provence", etc., which makes people feel that the place they live in has a strong exotic style; There are also some consumer goods merchants who obviously produce stinky tofu and chili sauce, but they want to have a trademark of "Napoleon" or "Elizabeth", as if foreigners have eaten it and become much more noble. Even the non-mainstream teenagers on the street. You should also dress up in a European style, with a one-foot-long copper ring on your nose, and you won't be too troublesome when eating.

At the level of experts and scholars, the performance will not be so cheesy, but the essence is the same, that is, we must use Western theories as the basis, and don't talk about Confucius and Laozi, which seems too earthy. Guo Shuqing himself has such an experience. When writing a speech for a leader, if you quote a few ancient poems such as "Hanging on the clouds and sailing into the sea". It will inevitably make people laugh, and if you can add a few words "Aristotle once said" or "Laplace has a famous saying", it will immediately appear high-end and atmospheric, which is the role of the so-called foreign atmosphere.

The best way to come up with a new concept of urban governance and build a different city is to learn from foreign countries. It would be even better if you could use ideas that seem ahead of your time even abroad. The term "post-industry" is not unfamiliar to Guo Shuqing, but it still makes him feel that the connection between post-industry and the city still makes his eyes shine. He had a hunch that Gusev's visit would bring him an unexpected gain.

"Mr. Gusev, can I understand that you think that cities should be freed from industrial functions, so as to avoid the alienating effect of industry on people. But how can we achieve full employment and social development in cities if we abandon industry? Guo Shuqing asked shamelessly.

"A city should be a center of wealth accumulation, not a center of wealth production, which is the consciousness that a city manager should have." Gusev said loudly, without waiting for Guo Shuqing to question, he changed his words and said: "Of course, for a country like China, complete deindustrialization is still difficult to achieve at present, and your government needs GDP as a political achievement, is that so?" ”

Guo Shuqing felt a little hot on his face, and he said: "I am extremely opposed to the cult of GDP, and I don't think GDP can promote the welfare of residents. However, if there is no GDP, then the financing needed for urban development will not be enough, and how can we provide a high level of services to citizens? ”

"In our west, there are many small quiet cities, they don't have a prominent industry, and the income of their residents has not increased for many years, but they live very comfortably, and the living environment is very beautiful, don't you think this is a very good model of development?" Ekin, who chimed in.

"It's true." Guo Shuqing nodded, "I have been to some small cities in Europe, where the environment is very good, but there is no local industry, I have never known how they do this. ”

"Through finance, information services, etc., it can also promote economic development. Moreover, this model of development is closer to the needs of citizens, and in the post-industrial era, people have given up the endless pursuit of money, and they prefer to have leisure and the dignity of work. Gusev said.

"I feel the same way." Guo Shuqing said, "However, to do this, I'm afraid it's not easy, right?" ”

Hearing Guo Shuqing say this, Gusev and Ejin exchanged a look, and they both realized that Guo Shuqing had been successfully introduced into the pit, and the next step was how to fill the pit. Didn't they come to China thousands of miles to bring the Chinese into the pit?

"It certainly takes some effort to transform an industrial city into a post-industrial city." "We came to Yiping City today to introduce this path to Mr. Guo and your government officials. ”

"I want to hear about it." Guo Shuqing sat up straight, and took a notebook, ready to record. This is still a habit he developed when he was the director of the political research office in the province, but he must record every word of the leader's speech.

"We've looked at more than 200 cities around the world, from post-industrial cities to cities that haven't started to industrialize, mainly in poor countries like Southern Africa and South Asia, of course. We believe that there are three steps that an industrial city needs to go through to transform into a post-industrial city. The first step is the transformation of the industrial form, from heavy industry to light industry, from mainly relying on the investment of resources and capital to relying on the investment of technology. ”

"Well said." Guo Shuqing nodded.

"The second step is to reduce the proportion of industry in the economy, increase the proportion of finance, science and technology, culture, life services and other industries, and finally achieve deindustrialization. Then there is the third step, which is to shift the city's function from economic development to humanistic care, to achieve convenient life, clean environment, and political democracy, which are the characteristics of a post-industrial city. Ekine continued to flicker.

"De-industrialization......" Guo Shuqing chewed on the words translated by Xu Yang, with a solemn expression on his face.

Xu Yang said: "Secretary Guo, I think what Mr. Ai Jin said is right. Last time, an expert came to Yiping to give a lecture and said that in today's world, first-rate countries do brands, second-rate countries do technology, and third-rate countries do products. A superpower like the United States no longer develops industry, they only do brands and technologies, and only we in China are proud of OEM. If we want Yiping to stand out from the crowd, we should gradually realize deindustrialization and transform into a truly first-class city. ”

"That's a shocking idea." Guo Shuqing said with a smile.

"This is because Secretary Xu, you are a shocking leader." Xu Yang lost no time in slapping a sycophant.

"Xiao Xu, you are a technical person, how can you learn to pat on the back?" Guo Shuqing pretended to be critical, but his tone was clearly saying: Young people are skillful and comfortable to shoot, I like it.

Xu Yang said: "Secretary Guo, I think the concept of Mr. Gusev and Mr. Ejin is very good, and our cadres and citizens in the city need to learn such a concept. I suggest that the two of them give a training to the city officials, and preferably to the general public, a few times, so that you can implement the new policy. ”

"Well, that's true, I don't know if Mr. Gusev and Mr. Ekin's time will have it." Guo Shuqing said.

Xu Yang translated Guo Shuqing's words, and Gu Shev said with a bright smile on his face: "We are very willing to do such a thing, which in itself is the purpose of our organization. ”

"In that case, then your Science and Technology Bureau will be responsible for implementing this matter." Guo Shuqing commanded.

"Understood!" Xu Yang straightened his chest and said happily.

Guo Shuqing didn't know that in fact, Xu Yang and Gu Xie Fu and his party were singing a double reed in front of him. Long before arriving at the municipal party committee, Gusev had already explained to Xu Yang the purpose of his trip, that is, he hoped to have an opportunity to preach the concept of deindustrialization to the citizens. He asked Xu Yang to help him create such an opportunity, and in exchange, he could ask the Blue Sky Organization to help Xu Yang contact the opportunity to go to Europe to gild. (To be continued......)