'We must push forward economic transformation, but that's not as easy as strolling in the park,' Standing Committee member says

In the eyes of his colleagues, Yu Zhengsheng is a man who does not follow routines.

He will avoid prearranged inspections and then make sudden visits. He is not interested in listening to subordinates' lengthy work reports, but likes to go straight to questions.

Now, the trained missile engineer has made his way into China's top leadership.

Yu, 67, was elected last month as a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee with Xi Jinping, also newly elected general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, Li Keqiang, Zhang Dejiang, Liu Yunshan, Wang Qishan and Zhang Gaoli.

They were elected at the first plenum of the 18th CPC Central Committee following the 18th Party Congress.

Man of the people

An official in Shanghai remembered that once when Yu, the municipality's former Party chief, made an inspection visit to Huangpu district, he told his driver to go directly to a community behind the high-rises, without telling district officials.

It was a shanty community, where Yu saw plastic bags hanging from the ceilings of every home to catch leaking water when it rained, the official said.

This sudden inspection resulted in the accelerated transformation of unlivable old residential communities in the metropolis.

The style of Old Yu, as Shanghai residents addressed their Party chief, was welcomed by local people. And Qin Ling was one of them.

In February, the teacher complained to Yu via his micro blog that his cancer-afflicted father had been rejected by several hospitals.

To Qin's surprise, Old Yu, a regular Internet user, responded using the municipal government's account on Sina Weibo, a popular Chinese micro-blogging site, and said he understood the son's plight.

"I cannot guarantee that all our problems can get prompt solutions, but we all feel your pain, and I'm sure our common understanding, including that of the comrades at the hospitals, will push things forward," Yu wrote.

Yu's response was forwarded nearly 10,000 times within two hours.

"I never, never imagined he would give me a response and the problem could be solved," Qin said. His father was eventually accepted by a hospital.

Yu always took a laptop on tour. He surfed the Internet every day to keep informed of daily news and learn what the online community was talking about.

"The Internet offers us a good platform to check and improve the government's work. It's also a very important tool to respond to public's concerns," Yu said.

For some Shanghai officials, however, Yu was a tough boss. In front of the inquisitive Party chief, they had to be well prepared to answer his questions about work. Any vague response would probably result in criticism from a cold-faced Old Yu.

When he served as minister of construction, Yu made the quality of projects the foremost task of the ministry.

"Buying an apartment may cost a family all of its savings. If we do not prioritize quality control as our top concern in work, or hesitate to stamp out quality risks, how can we be worthy of our roles?" Yu told his colleagues.

Dedicated to reform

A year after Yu arrived in Shanghai from Hubei province, the economic hub of China began to feel the bite of the global financial crisis. The city also faced challenges in economic transformation, as required by the central government.

Economic growth in Shanghai saw a drop from previous double-digit increases during his five-year tenure in the city. Old Yu, however, asked local officials to remain calm and not be envious of other regions.

"We must push forward economic transformation, but transformation is not as easy as strolling in a park or sunbathing on the seashore," he told local officials.

"We should throw away the concern of our personal gains and losses and have courage to endure temporary days without the spotlight. We must break through barriers one by one to facilitate transformation."

Despite the economic slowdown, the transformation strategy began to work as the city saw increases in fiscal revenue, tertiary industry's proportion of gross domestic product, and other indices that are taken as symbols of economic quality.

Now Shanghai is making efforts to build an international financial center and an international shipping center, both part of the national development strategy.

The city also piloted the reform of replacing turnover tax with value-added tax, seeking a breakthrough in the most significant finance and taxation reform in two decades. This reform was launched in a bid to lower the overall tax burden and boost certain sectors, such as service industries.

As the city's top official, Yu received another big test in Shanghai with the World Expo in 2010. The event lasted six months and attracted more than 73 million visitors from home and abroad, with record daily arrivals of 1.03 million.

Thanks to Yu's instruction of "check and improve our work every day", the Expo ended up being an "astounding success", despite disorder during its trial operation. It won applause from Jean-Pierre Lafon, president of the International Exhibitions Bureau, at its closing ceremony.

When leaving Shanghai upon his election into the top leadership, Yu encouraged officials of the metropolis to always maintain "unwavering confidence, pioneering spirit" to build a better future for Shanghai.

Yu's reform campaign began in Yantai, where he initiated one of the country's first housing reform projects as mayor of the coastal city in Shandong province in the 1980s.

He won the nickname of "mayor of brands" in Qingdao, another coastal city in Shandong. His strategy of brand image building made quite a few brand names in the city, including Haier and Hisense, two electronic home appliances manufacturers well known at home and abroad.

His brainchild of building Qingdao into an international metropolis brought an influx of foreign investment to the city, one of 14 coastal frontiers the central government decided to open to the world in 1984.

As Party chief of Hubei province, Yu greatly boosted the development of the provincial capital Wuhan and its adjacent cities. He also extended the province's development focus to counties as a way of seeking new growth momentum.

Yu was born in 1945 in Yan'an, the cradle of the CPC, into a revolutionary's family. His parents became ministerial-level officials after New China was founded in 1949.

Yu still remembers his parents' teaching: "Seek personal integrity but never privilege".

He received his higher education at Harbin Military Engineering Institute in Heilongjiang province. He worked at a radio factory in Zhangjiakou, Hebei province, as a technician for a few years after graduation. He was minister of construction before he was appointed Hubei province's Party chief.

Yu's wife, Zhang Zhikai, has retired. They have a son.

(China Daily 12/26/2012 page6)