Lin Min

    linmin67@hotmail.com

    SHENZHEN’S first Party chief, Zhang Xunfu, who was among the special economic zone’s pioneering reformers, died Wednesday. He was 96.

    Shenzhen’s Party chief, Xu Qin, visited Zhang’s relatives and expressed condolences over Zhang’s death Thursday.

    Zhang was born in Laiwu, Shandong Province, in 1921. He was appointed Shenzhen’s Party chief in 1979, when the city of Shenzhen was established on the basis of Bao’an County. In the following year, China’s first special economic zone was established here.

    In 2008, the Shenzhen Daily published a feature paying tribute to Zhang’s contributions to the city’s reform and opening up.

    The story told of the thorny issues that were facing Zhang when he took the helm in Shenzhen, including the illegal immigration rush which every day saw hundreds of people trying to sneak into Hong Kong to make a better living.

    Under Deng Xiaoping’s reform and opening-up policies, Zhang and other officials of the new city government piloted farm reform and introduced investors from Hong Kong.

    City leaders instituted bold moves to allocate farmland to each household to revitalize agriculture and boost the income of farmers.

    He left Shenzhen in 1982 to become vice director of the Guangdong Provincial Planning Commission and retired in 1989.