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The Southern Weekend mentioned in this article. Image source: Kongfuzi Old Book Network. Distributed by CDT editors.
The top leader cares about the people of Wuhan in the besieged city and cares about their lives, so he personally went to inspect.
As a result, the lower-level officials activated the emergency plan and sent volunteers to deliver vegetables, oil, and meat to the residents. Look, the people of Wuhan are living a good life, right? Many people have gained weight and have been calling the mayor's hotline, asking if they can send less meat?
Unexpectedly, the people of Wuhan did not cooperate this time. Under the cheers and support, the top leader stood downstairs and shouted loudly. The residents upstairs did not respond as the leader expected, saying "Thank you for your concern," but instead exposed the truth on the spot: "It's fake! It's all fake!"
I don't know what the top leader was thinking at that time, but the accompanying junior leader must have felt embarrassed. In his heart, he cursed fiercely in Wuhan dialect, "You son of a bitch, see how I deal with you!" A few times, when some of our media people were chatting, someone asked naively, "Do you think the leaders above know it's fake?"
Seeing this scene, I remembered the two investigations into fake incidents when I was a reporter for Southern Weekend. One was in Danjiangkou City, Hubei Province. A "deep throat" provided reliable evidence that the local GDP was seriously falsified. Danjiangkou is a county-level city under the jurisdiction of Shiyan City. All six counties and one city under Shiyan City are national poverty-stricken counties (cities), and the economy is very backward. It is not easy for local officials to achieve political achievements, and falsification is the easiest way.
However, the falsification in Danjiangkou City was too obvious. When I went there in August, the December report was already available. I selected several villages with relatively large industrial output value to investigate. One of the villages had an output value of over 40 million yuan. I crossed mountains and arrived there, found the village party secretary, and he said the report was filled out by a clerk. I called the clerk over and asked him, "Your village has an industrial output value of over 40 million yuan. What industries do you have?" He hesitated and said that the village had a barber shop, a bicycle repair shop, and a tofu workshop, but there were no other industries.
I held back my laughter and took out a stack of reports. I asked seriously, "It's only August now, why are the reports for December already filled out?" He realized that I knew everything and couldn't hide it, so he had to tell the truth: "We have no choice. The numbers were assigned by higher-ups. Our village has no industries, but we were assigned over 40 million yuan. I can only divide it by 12, and there is a slight increase each month. By the end of the year, we just meet the target."
After several days of investigation at the grassroots level, I returned to Danjiangkou City and went straight to the Municipal Party Committee. The Secretary of the Municipal Party Committee and the Mayor were both present, and the tape recorder was placed there. I reported the falsification problem I discovered during the investigation to the Secretary of the Municipal Party Committee and the Mayor, and asked straightforwardly, "Are these problems true?" The Secretary of the Municipal Party Committee's answer was straightforward, "What you saw is all true. I can only say that we are unlucky to be caught by you. Which place in the country doesn't falsify?"
The Secretary of the Municipal Party Committee's counter-question really left me speechless. Not far from Danjiangkou, there is another typical case in Fang County, which is also under the jurisdiction of Shiyan City. Shortly before I went there, "Focus Interview" aired an episode: "Achievements of 'Sheep' in Fang County." It talked about large-scale sheep farming in Fang County and the heroic deeds of leaders and the masses in fighting poverty and getting rich. Hubei Province held an on-site meeting in Fang County and vigorously promoted Fang County's experience. During the on-site visit, a farmer pointed to his wife, who was standing next to him, and enthusiastically introduced her to the leaders, saying, "This is my wife. Our family is getting rich from raising 'sheep,' and we will build a villa next year..."
It was all fake. Some scattered sheep farmers in the area didn't have large-scale cattle and sheep farming at all. The "husband" was actually a police officer from the local police station, and the sheep were borrowed temporarily. In order to let the leaders see the scene of sheep grazing leisurely along the way, all the sheep from various households were gathered together, with different numbers marked on their ears, and a light saltwater spray was applied to the grass (sheep like to lick saltwater). There was even news that when the leader's convoy passed by, they saw "cows and sheep grazing in the wind and low grass" on the hillside from a distance. In fact, they were people wearing white plastic sheets, shaking them to create the effect.
Another even bigger case is the fake seepage irrigation project in Yuncheng City, Shanxi Province. The problem was initially reported to "Focus Interview," but they had concerns and didn't report it. Many years later, I met the producer Xia Jun, who confirmed to me that after receiving the materials about the fake seepage irrigation in Yuncheng, he suggested passing them to Southern Weekend. If we reported it first, they would follow up. At that time, we were like two clueless people who didn't know how to be afraid. When we saw such a clue, it was like finding a treasure. I immediately rushed to Yuncheng.
Seepage irrigation, also known as drip irrigation, is an agricultural water-saving irrigation technology invented by Israel for areas with severe water shortages. Its principle is to bury a network of pipes under the soil and drip water at the roots of crops through small holes in the pipes to reduce evaporation. It saves water and serves the purpose of irrigation. Yuncheng City, located on the southern edge of the Loess Plateau, is also a water-scarce area. However, instead of earnestly studying Israel's water-saving irrigation technology, local officials used the excuse of constructing water-saving irrigation projects to falsify and deceive higher-level funding.
When I arrived in Yuncheng, an insider took me around. In fact, there was no need to spend too much effort on a secret investigation. Along both sides of the road, there were concrete pools like watchtowers (normally, water is brought into the pools and connected to the underground network). Because the National Agricultural Field Meeting was about to be held in Yuncheng, the entire Yuncheng area was too large. The original intention was to deceive higher-level funding, but it was necessary to let the leaders from the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Water Resources, and various provinces and cities see the grand water-saving irrigation project in Yuncheng when they visited. The effect proposed by the main leaders of Yuncheng was "visible along the road, with a depth of one line." All those pools were half-circular, with a few dozen meters between each one. Only the half-circular side next to the road was built, and the other side facing the farmland was actually empty and overgrown with weeds.
As a result, the leaders and experts of the National Agricultural Field Meeting were taken to a "model room" to visit a water pool with tiles and connected pipes. Then, the convoy drove through the road lined with half-circular water pools, which was a huge farce!
After my report was published on the front page of Southern Weekend (the report on Danjiangkou was also on the front page), "Focus Interview" followed up and did another episode of "News Investigation." It is said that when Mr. Zhu saw "Focus Interview" during his inspection in another place, he angrily slammed the bowl on the table and didn't know who to call, saying, "I give you money, and you deceive me like this?"
This is actually not surprising at all. Just like the counter-question from the Secretary of the Municipal Party Committee in Danjiangkou, "Which place doesn't falsify?" It should probably be followed by another sentence, "Which official doesn't falsify?"
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