Transformation of the Local State

On August 8, 1987, the Hangzhou Consumers’ Association set 5,000 fake and shoddy shoes (jiamao liezhi) made in Wenzhou on fire in the Wulin plaza, in Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang. Twelve years later, on December 15, 1999, in the same place, 2,000 fake Wenzhou branded shoes (jiamao Wenzhou) made in other regions were set on fire by a Wenzhou shoe entrepreneur. In the late 1980s and late 1990s, thousands of entrepreneurs, officials, journalists, and intellectuals swarmed into Wenzhou from all corners of China to learn the Wenzhou model, as shown in chapter 2. Starting in 2003, the Wenzhou government organized tens of visits for officials and entrepreneurs to learn about the experiences of other places, particularly Sunan and Shanghai. Before the twenty-first century, both governmental projects and foreign direct investment (FDI) were minimal in Wenzhou. However, after 2003, the Wenzhou government began to aggressively attract FDI, develop heavy industry, and support the merger of enterprises, and Wenzhou saw a sharp increase in the foreign capital actually used, heavy industry, and large and medium-sized enterprises.