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As one of his country's major economic planners, Wan is very aware of the pitfalls ahead. Says he: "We have the manpower. We have the raw materials. The biggest problem is that we are lacking qualified technicians and qualified managers." Yet quick results will be needed to maintain the confidence of the people. Says Wan: "There is pressure. We have made mistakes in the past. If we make any more mistakes, it won't be very good."
THE COMMUNE LEADER. "Most members of the brigade (work unit) have no fear of me at all. I do my work by trying to reason things out But if any brigade members do bad things, then they might be afraid of me." So says a smiling Teng Jiayun, the lean Communist Party secretary of the Tsao Kang production brigade of the Yun Men Kou People's Commune near Chengdu capital of Sichuan province. At 29, Teng is the ranking authority in this vegetable-growing operation. Last year the 450-household brigade increased its income by 35% to a total of 1-2 million yuan ($816,000). Says Teng: "There are basically two reasons for this First, we put a lot of effort into developing our sidelines and setting up workshops [these include shops to make carpets and sulfuric acid and to repair farm machines]. Second, we've given more power to the production teams and are following the principle of more pay for more work." The brigade has a very strict system for measuring who does "more work." Teng, who is married and has a two-year-old daughter, earns 900 yuan ($612) a He built his new brick home himself at a cost of 2,000 yuan ($1,354) a portion of which he borrowed, interest-free, from the brigade's credit association. "I spend a lot of time working in the fields, says Teng, but as party secretary, a post for which he receives a small salary ($22 a month), he must also mediate conflicts, punish misdemeanors and even try to persuade couples to have only one child, in accordance with Peking's hope of limiting population growth. Teng thus knows how many brigade marriages ended in divorce last year (one), how many women had abortions (twelve) and how many crimes were committed (a dozen cases of minor theft). "Whenever the leader talks to the offender, usually that is sufficient," Teng says. "But if the leader chooses he may also call a meeting to criticize the offender in public. If the person does not work hard, it is very easy to penalize him because of the new system of more pay for more work."
With a ready market in nearby Chengdu (pop. 3.4 million), the Tsao Kang brigade is richer than farther outlying farming Teng believes that the new incentives will raise incomes higher. Says he: "We need a consistent policy, and that can now be assured. In fact, more pay for more work was first tried out by Zhao Ziyang here in Sichuan, and now that he is Premier, I'm sure the policies will continue. Before, if you did something to increase your income, you would have been called a capitalist reader."