1991April, Shantou finally realized its wish-the State Council agreed to expand the scope of Shantou Special Zone to the urban area, covering an area of 234 square kilometers. However, at that time, the population of Chaoshan area had exceeded10 million, and the development level was uneven. All parts of the province are adjusting their administrative divisions, and the adjustment of Chaoshan area is also imperative.
This adjustment process is quite tortuous.
According to the regulations of the central government at that time, the first four special zones in China must be a special zone, and one county must be connected with a special zone (Zhuhai is connected with Doumen, Shenzhen with Baoan, Xiamen with Haicang and Shantou with Chenghai). But for Shantou, there are seven counties besides Chenghai. These counties are essentially divided on both sides, because the special zone is in the middle. The management of these counties is a headache for the politicians-they are neither managed by the special zone nor directly controlled by the provincial government, and may be in an unattended state.
In order to solve the zoning problem, Lin Xingsheng led a team to stay in Beijing for 19 days that autumn, but there was still no reply.
Therefore, Li Peng, then Premier of the State Council, led a team to Shantou to solve the problem of administrative division. At that time, the central entourage said that it might be divided into two parts, namely, Shantou Special Economic Zone, Chenghai and South Australia merged into one city; The rest are separately listed as prefecture-level cities. However, Lin Xingsheng said the plan was unacceptable. "In addition to Shantou City, there is no way to manage other places in Shantou."
Li Peng went on to say that Shantou can't solve this problem for the time being, and we should discuss it with the Guangzhou Provincial Party Committee before making a decision.
Early the next morning after returning to Guangzhou, Dojicai, then Minister of Civil Affairs, returned to Shantou and made a special trip to Jieyang, Puning and Chaoyang for investigation. Lin Xingsheng expressed two plans of Shantou's leading group: first, the special zone will take eight counties and cities; If the Central Committee does not agree, we can only try the second scheme-"one divided into three", that is, Shantou Special Zone will win Chaoyang City in addition to Chenghai and Nan 'ao; Chaozhou City and Raoping County merged into one city; Jieyang, Jiexi, Puning and Huilai jointly set up a city. Dojicai Jean immediately said that he would convey his opinions to the Prime Minister.
That night, Lin Xingsheng telephoned Xie Fei, secretary of Guangdong Provincial Party Committee, and Xie Fei also agreed to the plan of "one divided into three". 19911February, the State Council officially issued a document and approved this plan. Since then, Shantou, Chaozhou and Jieyang have been officially separated and listed as prefecture-level cities.
However, the separation of Chaoshan mountains immediately caused controversy.
"The resources for building a special zone were originally small. After' one divided into three', the resources were dispersed." Liu Feng said. At that time, there were also many opponents from overseas-Zhuang Shiping, a well-known overseas Chinese, said: "Don't have a three-legged party in Taoyuan." .
At that time, the consideration of "one divided into three" was that a prefecture-level city managed tens of millions of people, and the financial distribution system could not keep up; The resources used to build the special zone were dispersed. "At that time, the SAR should constantly help surrounding counties and cities. After separating these counties and cities, the burden on the SAR has been reduced. " Lin Xingsheng said that some areas that have benefited from the SAR for a long time are not even willing to be separated.
So far, this issue is still of great concern. At the 30th anniversary seminar of Guangdong Special Economic Zone in July this year, Chen Huayi, deputy secretary-general of the Standing Committee of Guangdong Provincial People's Congress, thought that the three cities were suffering from internal friction and suggested that Shantou, Chaozhou and Jieyang should be re-integrated to form sub-provincial cities.