For those who are studying Chinese in China, the most frequently-spoken and famous national heroes of China will be Lin Zexu and Zheng He, among whom the former was a warrior of opium control while the latter was renowned for his voyages to the Western Seas. Once, the Chinese language school referred another pioneer whose contribution was of the equal importance like Lin Zexu and Zheng He. The pioneer was Zheng Guanying, the first person to propose the idea of Sino-foreign joint cooperation. He was an ideologist for the reformism of the capital class. He was born in Xiangshan Mountain County and had a lot of practical experience. His had a gift for the management of the modern industry and commerce. His contribution to the society lied on the proposal of Sino-foreign joint cooperation.

Those who have had the intensive Mandarin course in China may happen to know to find Zheng Guanying was a person during the period of Chinese-Japanese War in 1894. During that period of time, the imperial powers were eager to have a part of the controlled land of China. Under this circumstance, Zheng Guanying thought that China had to strenuously fight for its own interest and become strong to strive for its own benefit. In the practice of his modern management of industry and commerce, he proposed the idea of Sino-foreign joint cooperation.

Faced all kinds of disadvantages caused by the enterprises of the society, Zheng Guanying boldly put forward the idea of changing the enterprises which were conducted by the bureaucrats to ones which were organized by the merchants themselves. This was the first time when he put forward the idea.
Why should China adopt the idea of Sino-foreign joint cooperation? Zheng made it clear that China should depend on the techniques of the foreign engineers to develop the industry and commerce of China and that the number of the ships of foreigners was great to attract business. Moreover, it was a contributing effect to make full use of the foreign capital. The advantages of cooperating with foreigners were helpful for the excellent techniques, the convenient transportation and the large amount of capital.

Zheng Guanying always referred to the sovereignty of the idea of Sino-foreign joint cooperation and he thought the initiative was in the hand of the Chinese people. In fact, the thought was impractical for the circumstance. However, the significance of the idea was positive and help to boost the industry and commerce at that time.