The tasks of Chinese political economy
Since the reform and opening up, China has undoubtedly made great achievements in economic development; today, China is undoubtedly faced with many economic problems.
Whether it is to explain China's economic achievements or to provide solutions to China's economic problems, it is the task of China's political economy.
However, the current state of China's political economy is worrying.
Chinese academia has failed to explain China's achievements well, let alone provide effective solutions to the problems facing today.
No one would deny that China has a political economy.
Economics and business studies in Chinese universities have always been the most popular subjects in society.
If Marxist research is also regarded as a part of Chinese economic research, then China also has the largest number of Marxist research institutions and the largest number of researchers.
In addition, I also observed a very interesting phenomenon. There are many research institutions in China that spontaneously study a Nobel Prize winner in economics.
The United States is the country that has won the most Nobel Prizes in economics, but this phenomenon is rare in the United States and common in China.
However, what I want to emphasize is that the economics in China are all economics from abroad, and there is no Chinese economics based on the practical experience of China's economy.
Take a look at our economics textbooks and you will know how much content is related to China in mainstream economics textbooks?
Most textbooks are written by Western scholars and do not involve Chinese experience at all.
Even if it does, it is seen as an example, not part of economic theory.
Although China's economy is an organic part of the world economy, although China is now the second largest economy in the world, and although China has contributed more to world economic growth than any other country since the reform and opening up, based on China's economic concept and theories are still outside of Western economics.
I think most of us scholars would agree with such a basic judgment.
Since modern times, economic science was born in the West and was constructed and constructed by Western scholars.
We must admit this.
We must also study Western economics hard, but it is not enough just to study.
If we only stay at the stage of learning Western economics and spreading Western economics knowledge, it will be our greatest regret in the academic circle in the long run.
In fact, we face two big problems.
First, our practical experience has not been integrated into economics and has no intellectual contribution to the field of study.
Second, as mentioned earlier, our lack of economics based on Chinese experience can neither explain our achievements nor come up with feasible solutions to China's economic problems.
Zheng Yongnian, Chairman of the Guangzhou Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Research Institute and Dean of the Qianhai Institute of International Affairs, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen).
(Hong Kong 01)
In order to explain China's economic phenomena and solve China's economic problems, we urgently need to build Chinese economics based on China's practical experience, put forward China's propositions and give China's solutions for China's problems.
Over the years, there have been many discussions in China's economic circles on how to achieve sustainable economic development, and the government has also introduced many relevant measures.
Discussions have become heated recently, and from top to bottom, all parties are striving to achieve sustainable development of China's economy.
Whether it is the economist's diagnosis or the relevant department's solution, it is necessary to face the real problems of the Chinese economy, but in these respects, the situation is also not optimistic.
The reason is very simple. Once the diagnosis of the problem is wrong and the wrong prescription is prescribed, it will not solve the problem, but will worsen the problem.
Western propositions and Western solutions cannot solve China's problems
Today, the three economic idols admired by Chinese economic circles, Marx, Friedrich August von Hayek and John Maynard Keynes, were born in Western economic history. Their theories are aimed at Western issues and they propose Western propositions give Western solutions.
Correspondingly, the prescriptions prescribed by the Chinese economic circle can basically be divided into three schools—traditional Marxist political economy, Keynesian economics, and neoliberal economics (including monetarism).
Traditional Marxist political economy believes that the essence of capital is disorder, and capital will expand indefinitely as long as it is profitable. The root of all economic, social and political problems lies in the expansion of capital based on private ownership. Therefore, private ownership is eliminated and public ownership is established. , you can solve the problem once and for all.
According to this theoretical logic, some people blame China's private enterprises for economic problems, and believe that as long as private enterprises are managed well, the world will be peaceful.
Marx put forward these views against the West at the time, because the prevailing concept in the West in modern times was that "private property is sacrosanct."
Marx is a great Western economist, but his understanding of Chinese history has flaws common to Western scholars.
His "Asian Mode of Production" is also based on a Western perspective to analyze Eastern societies, including China.
China's economic fundamentals have not undergone fundamental changes, and it is still necessary to have confidence in the future.
(Getty Images)
Today, once we make Marx's view bookish and dogmatic, it has a fundamentalist character.
These views, amplified through social media and combined with populism, have greatly increased the uncertainty of the business environment and the insecurity of private enterprises, resulting in confrontations between the government and private enterprises, and between society and private enterprises.
In fact, the Chinese Constitution has long recognized that my country is a country with mixed ownership: state-owned enterprises, private enterprises and state-owned capital, and private capital are all in line with the constitution and are protected by law.
Keynesians believe that the market itself is difficult to achieve equilibrium, and when the market fails, state intervention is required.
In China, whenever economic growth slows down, Keynesian believers advocate increased government spending and large-scale public works construction.
Indeed, infrastructure construction not only directly drives economic growth, but also lays the foundation for long-term economic development.
The question is, do we still need large-scale infrastructure construction in China today?
Since the reform and opening up, the country has repeatedly promoted large-scale infrastructure construction. Today, China's large-scale infrastructure construction has almost been completed. In many aspects, it has the most modern infrastructure in the world, and some economically developed areas are even ahead of schedule. .
In the future, infrastructure construction will continue, but it will be a strong support for high-quality economic development only if it is transformed from a quantitative type to a quality and benefit type.
Not by increasing the scale of expenditures, but by improving the efficiency of expenditures.
If large-scale infrastructure construction is carried out by increasing fiscal expenditure, it will become an economic activity of "demolition and construction, construction and demolition".
Although such economic activities will continue to generate GDP, this is what people call "blooded" GDP, which will not only cause huge waste, but also hardly bring practical benefits to people's livelihood.
Neoliberalism can be described as market fundamentalism, the supremacy of the free market, and opposition to any form of government intervention in the economy.
Hayek, adored by Chinese scholars, is a typical representative, and he sees government intervention as "the road to slavery".
"Government intervention" here refers not only to the planned economy of the Soviet Union at that time, but also to the "welfare society" of the United Kingdom and other Western countries at that time.
The rise of neoliberalism since the 1980s was an opposition to the adoption of Keynesianism in the West after World War II.
Neoliberals prescribed the so-called "privatization" in response to the stagflation of the Western economy at the time, relaxing or even abandoning financial controls.
Although neoliberalism has led to economic globalization and created huge wealth worldwide, it has also led to huge differences in the distribution of wealth and income and a high degree of social differentiation.
Neoliberal economics can be said to be the backdrop for the rise of populism in the West today.
Therefore, both at the theoretical level and at the policy level, the criticism and attack on neo-liberalism in Western society is becoming more and more serious.
Today, although there are still many people in China's economic circle who worship neoliberalism, the "prescription" of neoliberalism neither conforms to China's national conditions, nor is it constitutionally reasonable.
In the 1980s, neoliberalism became the fundamental economic ideology of the American and British groups, and at the same time it was transformed into a set of philosophical concepts combining politics and economics.
(Getty Images)
For example, the core of neoliberalism is that "private property is sacred and inviolable", but China's constitution stipulates that in the primary stage of socialism, the basic economic system that insists on public ownership as the main body and multiple ownership economies develop together is actually a mixture of public ownership as the main body. ownership.
More importantly, neoliberalism is the product of the "separation of politics and economy" in the Western modern times, that is, based on Western practice, it demonstrates the irrationality of government intervention in the economy, but China's economic philosophy is different.
Since ancient times, in Chinese economic philosophy, politics and economy are inseparable, and managing the economy is part of the government's responsibility.
Since modern times, the responsibility of the government has added "development of the economy" to the "management of the economy".
It can be said that in China, neoliberalism has neither theoretical rationality nor policy feasibility.
In a word, whether it is traditional Marxist economics, Keynesian economics or neo-liberal economics, they are all Western propositions and Western solutions around Western economic problems.
We can all learn the methods of diagnosing problems, forming propositions, and proposing relevant solutions in these doctrines, but if these theories are mechanically applied to Chinese practice, it will be a big mistake.
The measures now taken by authorities resemble a mix of Keynesianism and neoliberalism.
In terms of Keynesianism, we continue to carry out large-scale public construction projects, while ensuring employment through state-owned enterprises and restricting capital flows; in terms of neoliberalism, we will engage in quantitative easing and expand currency issuance.
But on a practical level, these measures have the potential to create a vicious circle that worsens the economic situation in the medium and long term.
The climax of massive infrastructure construction is over.
The negative effects of other methods cannot be ignored.
For example, restricting the flow of capital will actually make capital more fearful and further exacerbate the loss of capital.
The nature of capital is to flow, and only in the flow can profits be generated. Once the flow of capital is restricted, the nature of capital will be changed.
Another example is that after quantitative easing, a large amount of funds flowed to state-owned enterprises through the state-owned banking system. Although to a certain extent, the employment of state-owned enterprises can be preserved, which in turn has a certain effect on social stability, but the effect of ensuring employment and social stability is very limited.
Private enterprises absorb more than 80% of China's employment. If the funds released by the central bank cannot flow to small and medium-sized private enterprises as expected, the overall effect of stabilizing employment will be very limited.
Moreover, the use of state-owned enterprises to ensure employment is only a temporary help for employment, and does not contribute to the improvement of overall productivity; what's more, the flow of capital to state-owned enterprises will inevitably lead to the expansion of state-owned enterprises, and the monopoly position of state-owned enterprises will be further strengthened, thereby further reducing the private sector. enterprise's living space.
Judging from past experience, the unemployment caused by the closure of private enterprises cannot be absorbed by the expansion of state-owned enterprises, but can only be solved by the development of private enterprises themselves.
On September 27, 2018, Li Keqiang inspected the world-class large-scale comprehensive petrochemical industry projects under construction here on Yushan Island, Zhejiang Province, which are invested and controlled by private enterprises.
(Xinhua News Agency)
Faced with difficulties in economic practice, we urgently need to build a Chinese political economy based on Chinese experience.
We often say that theory guides practice.
Economics can be said to be the most basic theory, or way of thinking, of an economy's economic policy.
I personally think that if we cannot establish Chinese economics based on China's practical experience, then we will continue to be incapable of explaining our economic phenomena, diagnosing our economic problems, and finding feasible solutions to problems.
From this point of view, it is very urgent for us to build an "autonomous knowledge system" today.
How to construct China's political economy?
Here, I would like to offer some preliminary opinions on how to construct Chinese economics for your criticism.
First, we need to learn the Western methods of constructing economic science, instead of copying the concepts and theories of Western economics.
Traditional Marxism, Keynesianism, neoliberalism, etc. are all Western knowledge systems based on Western problems, Western propositions and Western solutions. China can learn from their reasonable methods and concepts, but what is more needed is to define Chinese problems and establish Chinese proposition, find Chinese solution.
Any scientific theory consists of two parts: first, the method of thinking research; second, the results of this method of thinking research, namely concepts and theories.
Therefore, Western economic concepts and theories are the result of Western economists applying their thinking research methods to observe and explain Western economic phenomena.
What we should learn is their method of forming concepts and theories, not their results.
But even the method cannot be copied, because the methodology is often limited by time and space.
Second, integrate the three major traditions of Chinese political economy, that is, the big tradition that has lasted for more than 2,000 years, the Chinese tradition since modern times, and the small tradition since the reform and opening up.
Although China's political economy does not have the same academic chemistry as in the West, it has rich practical experience.
We can look for wisdom from Guanzi and Salt and Iron, and we can look for wisdom from Mao Zedong's On the Ten Major Relationships.
These classics of economics, "Our Way is Consistent", all reflect the core of Chinese economic philosophy, namely "heavy", "level" and "balance".
These theories are of great enlightening significance for understanding the economic problems facing China today, putting forward China's economic propositions, and finding solutions to China's economic problems.
Moreover, these theories are more in line with China's reality than any economic theory derived from the West.
At the same time, we must also see the reality that China's economy has been influenced by the world market since the beginning of modern China's contact with the West.
Since the reform and opening up, we have become a part of the world economy.
That is to say, constructing economic theory must accept the fact that China is connected with the world.
We must accept the lessons of the dystocia of the Qing History and establish a correct view of history.
It is a great pity that the historians have not yet written the "History of the Qing".
One of these challenges is a more complex history since China's engagement with the West.
In constructing economics, this must be noted from the outset.
Shortly after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Deng Xiaoping toured the south, and China has since firmly embarked on the road of reform and opening up.
(Visual China)
Third, the continued Sinicization of Marxism.
In the past century, whether in the period of revolution or construction, China's success was the result of the sinicization of Marxism.
Today, if we want to effectively solve the economic problems we are facing, we need to continue to promote the Sinicization of Marxism.
Fourth, sort out and sort out the impact of Western economics on China's economic practice.
Since modern times, it is an indisputable fact that Western economics has influenced China's economic practice.
Since the reform and opening up, the impact of Western economics on China's economic practice has become more profound, so that our economists have no desire to surpass Western economics.
If we do not systematically sort out and review the influence of Western economics, it will be difficult to see where the problem lies, and it will be difficult to get out of the current economic dilemma, that is, it will neither explain the achievements nor solve the existing problems.
Fifth, sort out, sort out and review the experience of economic development of Asian economies.
The phenomenon that exists in the Chinese economic circle is not only a Chinese phenomenon, but a general phenomenon in Asia.
Both the East and the West know that the Asian experience is different from that of the West, and that new economic theories are needed to explain the Asian economy, but everyone is still comfortable within the existing Western economic framework.
In 1993, the World Bank released a landmark study, The East Asian Miracle, which analyzed why East Asian economies are growing faster than emerging markets in Latin America, Africa and other regions.
The study points out that these East Asian economies have successfully achieved high growth by strengthening the foundation, promoting investment, developing human capital, and opening up the development of export manufacturing.
But that's not the whole reason.
The World Bank reluctantly acknowledged at the time that, in East Asian countries, multiple channels of government systemic intervention had boosted development, including through subsidies, tax incentives, and financial repression for specific industries in specific regions.
In fact, the Asian experience is much more than that.
Asian economies, at least those belonging to the traditional Confucian civilization circle, actually have their own economic philosophy, concepts, theories and policies, but we have not been able to develop into a systematic and holistic economics like Western economics.
That is to say, we have various conditions to construct political economy or economics based on our own practical experience, which is also the original intention of our seminar.
Today's symposium is the beginning. We plan a series of symposiums through which we will focus on like-minded scholars and form an academic network and platform to jointly do something useful for the construction of Chinese political economy.
(This article was originally published on the WeChat official account of the Greater Bay Area Review. The author is Zheng Yongnian, chairman of the Guangzhou-Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Research Institute and dean of the Qianhai Institute of International Affairs, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen). ——The opening speech at the 2022 Symposium on Marxist Political Economy, Western Political Economy and Chinese Practice” was compiled.)
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