Section 2 Dissolution and Restoration of the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications

In November, 1969, the State Council and the Central Military Commission endorsed the report on the system reform of posts and telecommunications submitted by the military control commissions of the Ministry of Railway, Ministry Of Communications and the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications as well as the Department of Signal Corps of the Headquarters of the General Staff, and decided to dissolute the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications and establish the General Post Office of the People's Republic of China and the General Administration of Telecommunications of the People's Republic of China to implement posts and telecommunications business independently from the highest organization down to the grass roots. The Ministry. of Communications was in charge of the General Post Office after it was amalgamated with the Ministry of Railway and the Ministry of Communications. The postal sectors of every Province, city and Prefecture were handed over to local authorities to establish provincial, prefectural (city), county postal offices. Provincial and lower level postal services were subject to the dual leadership of provinces, prefectures, cities and the new Ministry of Communications, giving priority to provinces, Prefectures and cities. The new management system came into effect on January 1, 1970. In May, 1971, the Ministry of Communications submitted to and approved by the State Council a report on resolution of postal issues in which postal management jurisdiction is identified as follows: 1) Postal plans of capital constructions, finances, materials and labor salaries of every province, autonomous regions or municipalities were subject to the management of the Province, autonomous region or municipality instead of being handed over to the local authorities. 2) Policies, long-term plans, management and control of postal route, postage standards and nation-uniform rules and regulations that had to do with postal services were still subject to the management of the Ministry of Communications. 3) The postal expenses that needed to be paid in a nation-uniform way should be taken in certain proportions from the provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities that had postal surpluses and used together.

After the Department of Transportation took charge of the post business, many measures were adopted to intensify the construction of the post, enhance the quality of communications and improve the post services. On July l, 1970, the General Bureau of the Post put forward the suggestion of the post development plan during the forth Five Year Plan and the year of 1970. The essence of this suggestion was to entirely intensify the construction of the post and quickly change the backward situation of the post in order to meet the demand of the situation and catch up with the nation's economic development. The contents of the suggestion were: first, greatly intensifying the constriction of the trunk post lines; second, realizing the motorization on the post lines in the major areas of the countryside; third, realizing the mechanization of post transiting, loading and unloading at the major key post stations, forth, gradually realizing the automatic process of the post in large and medium-sized cities; and the last, popularizing the post network in the countryside and doing a splendid job in the post transferring. The post industry must be developed and the technical improvement of the post must be accelerated in order to build a modem post network that extended in all directions both in cities and in the countryside as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, the Department of the Post invested more in the constriction and the Department of Transportation invested money to the post construction in provinces every year. From 1971 to 1972, it was calculated that the number of the post compartments increased 32 percent, that of post trucks increase 84 per cent. More than 200 mink post lines of trains and thucks, which were 250000 km long, had been built. Additional 1000 service agencies had been established in the countryside. Besides, a special post motorcycle factory and a machinery factory were set up.

At the same time, post sectors paid great attention to the enhancement of the post communication quality. In 1971 and 1972, the Ministry of the Transportation held national management meetings on the post communication quality in Jinan and Dalian. In the meetings, experiences of the quality management of the post communication were exchanged. Regulations and rules must be resumed and completed. And the post communication quality must be assured. Meanwhile, after the Ministry of the Transportation took charge of the post, the General Bureau of the Post made great efforts in the post communication. Since 1972, those operation regulations and rules that had been discarded previously were trimmed and revised. The post enterprise management became effective again to some extent.

After the post branch and the telecommunications branch operated separately with the telecommunications branch led by the military, the expansion of business and the exchange with foreign partners became inconvenient. The services for the social economic construction were weakened. Due to the separation of the post branch and the telecommunications branch, personnel increased and inconvenience was caused to the masses. In March, 1973, after careful study of the State Department and the Military Committee of the Central Government, the Central Government of the Communist Party approved and decided to resume the original post management system. On May 23, the State Department and the Military Committee of the Central Government sent out the notice of the adjustment of the post management system. On May 23, the Militia stopped its leadership of the General Bureau of Telecommunications and the General Bureau of the Post no longer belonged to the Ministry of Transportation. On June l, the Ministry of the Post and Telecommunications was set up again. Soon, the post bureaus and the telecommunications bureaus in provinces, cities and autonomous regions were combined into post and telecommunications management bureaus. Those post bureaus in districts, cities and counties were all merged into post and telecommunications bureaus, but the municipal governments maintained their own post branches and telecommunications branches.

In 1974 and 1975, under the direction of Premier Zhou En-lai and Vice Premier Deng Xiao-ping on organization rectification, the Ministry of the Post and Telecommunications paid much attention to the basic construction, post line and equipment maintenance and business operation management. It made some achievements. Shortly after, the Gang of Four stirred up trouble and started a movement against the Leftist Rehabilitation in the whole country. They criticized the Theory of Productivity. The operation of the post and telecommunications was plunged into disorder. The extremely leftist policy of the Gang of Four greatly affected the determination and confidence of the leaders at different levels. These leaders dare not strictly administer the communication business so that the problems caused at the early stage of the Great Cultural Revolution could not be solved in time.