Yu Lao's experience is legendary, and it also reflects the arduous course of China's reform and opening up. The most legendary nature is the history of his participation in the establishment of Shenzhen Stock Exchange. The story begins with an old Japanese man, Kaheita Okazaki.
Kaheita Okazaki, a Japanese diplomat in China, was persecuted for opposing Japan's invasion of China. After the war, he devoted himself to the business world and always devoted himself to Sino-Japanese friendship, occupying an important position in the history of normalization of diplomatic relations between China and Japan. He visited China more than 65,438,000 times in his life, and Premier Zhou personally received it for 39 times, forming a profound friendship. 1976 when premier Zhou died, Mr okazaki was very sad and determined to do something for China as a memorial to premier Zhou.
1978, China began its reform and opening up. Kaheita Okazaki contacted Liao Chengzhi, then vice chairman of China People's Congress, and said that he had contributed. China sent two people to Japan to learn about securities. It should be said that Mr. Okazaki is very discerning. He clearly saw that China must develop its capital market in the process of reform and opening up. But in China at that time, the ten-year catastrophe had just ended, people's minds were still very conservative, and the capital market was a typical capitalist thing. Who dares to plan this? So Liao Chengzhi declined Mr Okazaki's kindness several times.
However, Kaheita Okazaki was stubborn and said to Liao Chengzhi: Whether you can get the capital market is your business, and whether to teach or not is my business. Find two people to learn. Why? Seeing that the old man was in a hurry, the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League selected two young people from all over the country to study securities knowledge in Japan. It was 1982.
The first round of selection was held in Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai, and the criteria were proficiency in Japanese and knowledge of financial securities. Unexpectedly, none of the three municipalities directly under the central government was admitted. So the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League conducted a second round of selection in Guangdong. Yu Guogang was working in Shenzhen Aihua Electronics Company. Because he knew Japanese, he was chosen to take the exam. As a result, he successively passed the Japanese written test, oral test and financial securities knowledge test, and became one of the two talents selected by China in the past two years.
It can be seen from this selection of overseas students in China that at the beginning of reform and opening up, Japanese talents were scarce. Ten years of catastrophe has made a whole generation of professionals in China. To say these two conditions: proficient in Japanese and knowledge of financial securities, there may not be many in China today, but the number is definitely tens of thousands. But in the early 1980s, it was difficult to find two people in China.
Young people from China went to Japan to study securities, which attracted great attention in Japan at that time. Asahi Shimbun wanted to interview Yu Guogang, and Yu Guogang went to the embassy for instructions: If a reporter asked Xue Cheng what he would do after returning to China, what would he answer? The answer is, we can't say it's useless to go back, and people will criticize us for wasting public funds; You can't say that going back is useful. After all, it is capitalism. Finally, Yu Guogang answered the reporter like this: There is an old saying in China, you can't learn in vain. The title published in Asahi Shimbun is "China people who study securities knowledge in the capitalist center have outstanding theories, but can they come in handy after returning to China?"
Today, 40 years later, the market value of China A shares has exceeded 10 trillion US dollars. Looking back at the beginning of reform and opening up, whether to issue stocks or not is still a restricted area, which makes people feel deeply moved.
Closer to home, Yu Guogang returned to China after studying, but it was really useless in the policy environment at that time, and he returned to work in Aihua Electronics Company. However, the reform and opening up has made rapid progress. 1988, Shenzhen issued the first share of Chinese mainland-Shenzhen Development Bank. There was no stock exchange at that time, but it was traded on the counter. Li Hao, then secretary of the Shenzhen Municipal Party Committee, decided to set up the first stock exchange in Shenzhen, and Yu Guogang naturally became the expert leader of the preparatory group. He led the team to translate more than 2 million words of English materials and drafted more than 300,000 words of "Compilation of Preparatory Materials for Shenzhen Stock Exchange" to prepare for the opening of the exchange. Later, the Shanghai Stock Exchange was also prepared on the basis of this compilation.
1990, everything was ready. Yu Guogang went to the financial supervision department of the People's Bank of China to apply for opening a business, and the answer was no-opening a capital market was still too sensitive before that. In the end, Li Hao, Party Secretary, made the final decision. Shenzhen Stock Exchange 1990 12 1 officially opened, and Shanghai Stock Exchange 18 days later opened. As a matter of fact, both stock exchanges do not have birth certificates, and the People's Bank of China officially approved them in 199 1, but the upper level is still controversial.
Yu Guogang's thought is very avant-garde. Shortly after the establishment of Shenzhen Stock Exchange, he planned with the most advanced ideas of the global securities industry at that time, and realized the four modernizations in just three years: computerized trading, paperless delivery, satellite communication and lobby-free operation. Shenzhen Stock Exchange became the first stock exchange in the world to realize the "four modernizations", which reserved sufficient space for the rapid development of China's capital market.
The above is the story of Mr. Yu Guogang's participation in the establishment of Shenzhen Stock Exchange. The old man's life is wonderful. It is not easy for young people nowadays to replicate his success. After all, it has its special historical background. But in the lecture, I deeply realized several characteristics of the old man, which is the real foundation of his success and something that everyone can learn.
One is diligent and studious. How can you choose two people from all over the country? Japanese is easy to understand, because Yu Guogang graduated from Xi 'an International Studies University majoring in Japanese, but where did he learn the knowledge of financial securities? At that time, the recruiter also asked him this question. Yu Guogang said that his biggest hobby is learning, learning everything and reading all books. He borrowed textbooks on financial securities from the library after work and taught himself seriously. I didn't expect it to come in handy this time. The old gentleman told us in the lecture that opportunities only favor those who are prepared. Everyone knows this, but he seldom misses it. Listening to the old man talk with his own experience is really convincing. The old man still maintains his enthusiasm for learning. He said that he learned to swim at the age of 66 and recently learned to play the Russian accordion.
The second is pioneering and innovating. It is very telling to build a new exchange into a leading exchange in the world within three years. However, another thing in the lecture was even more touching. Although Mr. Yu Lao graduated with a major in Japanese, in fact, when he went to college at 1964, Xi International Studies University did not have a major in Japanese. At that time, the whole country was learning Russian. However, Sino-Soviet relations deteriorated rapidly and people began to switch to other languages. Yu Guogang has a unique vision and is determined to learn Japanese (he didn't say why, but I'm sure he will consider it).
However, there was no Japanese major at that time, and the principal was very open-minded, saying that as long as he could find a teacher and mobilize several students to study together, he would give a major. Yu Guogang traveled all over Xi 'an University, and finally found a Japanese teacher in Xi 'an Highway College, and persuaded several students. In this way, he helped the school set up a major of its own. It's very courageous to change majors in college. He even suggested setting up a new major. Isn't this spirit of daring to think and do "pioneering cattle"? The success of Shenzhen Special Economic Zone is not accidental. It is precisely because thousands of people who dare to think and do things like Yu Guogang have come to Shenzhen to make a living that they have achieved the glory of the 40 years of reform and opening up in special economic zones.
The third is to be brave. The old gentleman teaches young people eight words: patriotism, diligence, erudition and innovation. The first is patriotism. He has a famous saying: don't be a big official, do great things. To do things from a national perspective, for example, when the Shenzhen Stock Exchange was established, there was a great dispute between society and capital, which involved the route. Maybe we should devote the rest of our lives to it. From the perspective of personal risks and benefits, it is safest not to do it, but from the perspective of the country, it must be done. Cross the sea, and you will show your true colors. At the historical juncture, Mr. Yu Lao stepped forward.
Kissinger once said: China is always well protected by the bravest among them. Yu Guogang is one of them. His experience cannot be copied, but his spirit can and should learn from us.