Chapter 62: Change the brake pads
Banners fluttered beneath a cloudless sky in Suizhong, a prefecture-level city in the province. Stirring music rang out from the platform erected for the ribbon-cutting ceremony marking the official launch of the economic development zone. Behind it stood an enormous red backdrop, with numerous tower cranes faintly visible beyond it. The ceremony was being held in the new development district of Suizhong, one of the province's key industrial base cities. Newly completed development zones stretched all around, covering a vast area, their factory buildings set among landscaped greenery-an impressive sight.
Vice Governor Guo Jiangtiao led a delegation of officials from the provincial government's General Office, the provincial Economic and Trade Commission, and the Development and Planning Commission on an inspection visit and to cut the ribbon. Suizhong's Municipal Party Committee secretary, the director of the Standing Committee of the Municipal People's Congress, members of the Municipal Party Committee Standing Committee, and the executive vice mayor accompanied them for the ceremony.
Below the platform stood a vast crowd of development-zone workers, more than a thousand strong, their voices filling the air. Guo Jiangtiao cut the ribbon and applauded as countless pieces of confetti fluttered down.
Next, Guo Jiangtiao met with the heads of several major corporate groups that served as the economic development zone's flagship enterprises. They included the chairmen and executives of Zhongfan Group, Daping Energy and Chemical, Zhongke, and other leading businesses in the zone's industrial, energy, information, and agricultural sectors.
In a lavish reception room occupied by just the two of them, Zhongfan Group chairman Yi Jiashun gave Guo Jiangtiao a thumbs-up. "Everyone has seen your recent moves, Governor Guo. You've been taking some very bold steps. That takes courage! It looks like quite a few people are going to be tearing