According to the news on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China on November 21, at the invitation of General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and President Xi Jinping, Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party and President of the Republic of Cuba, will Pay a state visit to China from November 24th to 26th.
Although they are both countries in the socialist camp, most Chinese people's understanding of Cuba stays at the symbolic level, such as Che Guevara, classic cars, cigars, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and Jay Chou's mojito.
In 2018, Fang Ning, the former director of the Institute of Political Science of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, led a delegation to visit Cuba. "Hong Kong 01" interviewed Fang Ning, bringing his first-hand observation and thinking about Cuba.
This is the second part of the interview.
Interview with Fang Ning Yi｜The Supreme Leader of Cuba will soon visit China and explore the two worlds on the beautiful island
01: In July 2018, Cuba began a new round of reforms. At the political level, it attempted to amend the constitution and set the term system to two terms, a total of ten years.
Cuba has made great reform moves.
How do you comment on this reform in Cuba?
Fang Ning:
Cuba is undergoing reform, but in Cuba, it is called "renewal".
The word "reform" in Cuba is not yet a positive word, but a negative one.
Back then, Cuba criticized the reforms of China and Eastern Europe, calling them a betrayal of socialism, so Cuba now uses "renewal".
But the actual meaning is reform, to change Cuba's political and economic system.
First of all, Cuba's reforms at the level of political power transfer have been relatively successful.
Castro, the first generation leader of Cuba, has been in power for more than 50 years and successfully completed the handover at the Eighth National Congress of the Cuban Communist Party.
Fidel Castro has passed away, and his younger brother Raul Castro is now relegated to the second line. The man who grew up after the revolution is now the President of the Council of State Miguel Diaz-Ca The new generation of leaders represented by Nell successfully and peacefully realized the transfer of power, which is of great significance to Cuba and is also a manifestation of political civilization.
Secondly, Cuba has also made reforms at the political system level. Although in China's view, Cuba's reforms are not strong, it is already a big breakthrough for Cuba.
Specifically, there are two points.
Cuban President Diaz-Canel Bermudez.
(AP)
First, proper decentralization of power.
This is the most important.
In Cuba's previous system, the highest state authority was the Cuban Congress of People's Power, and the Council of State was its permanent body.
The difference between this institution and the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress in China is that it is not only responsible for the work of the National People's Congress when it is not in session, but more importantly, it is the highest decision-making body in Cuba. The former heads of the State Council were successively held by the Castro brothers.
During the Castro era, he served as the general secretary of the Cuban Communist Party, chairman of the Council of State, chairman of the Council of Ministers, and supreme commander of the army.
The change today is to turn the Council of State into a standing body between the Cuban Congress of People's Power, similar to China's Standing Committee of the National People's Congress.
The Chairman of the Council of Ministers will be renamed the Prime Minister.
Such a change separates the chairman of the Council of Ministers (or the prime minister) from the chairman of the State Affairs Council, which has a taste of "party-government division of labor".
It can be said that the previous situation in which Cuba's legislative, administrative, party, and military powers were vested in one person has gradually changed.
Second, Cuba will begin to implement the tenure system. This change is also very important for socialist countries.
A very important and high-risk issue in the political system of socialist countries is political handover, or political succession in an academic sense.
The level of institutionalization of political succession in socialist countries is low, and political succession is irregular, unstable, and highly accidental.
This results in a weak power base for new leaders and a lack of authority, which often further leads to policy deviations and even regime instability.
From the first political handover of the Soviet Union, the first socialist country—the handover between Lenin and Stalin, it led to brutal struggles and bloody purges within the CPSU.
Since then, problems have continued and disadvantages have abounded.
In the end, the disintegration of the Soviet Union was also related to political succession.
The tenure system is an important basis for institutionally solving the political succession problem in socialist countries.
In general, Cuba's reforms have made strides in the political system.
From the perspective of reform measures, Cuba's reform emphasizes the role of the government, that is, the role of executive power.
Generally speaking, administrative agencies need to face more practical problems.
According to China's experience, reform will make the government more pragmatic.
From a long-term perspective, this Cuban political system reform has also provided preparations for future reforms in the three senses of thinking, methods, and organization. The core essence is to use institutionalized methods to redistribute power.
Under the previous system, power was concentrated in the hands of individual people.
Power is concentrated in individuals, and the operation of power may be affected by personal preferences.
Deng Xiaoping even said that the movement of power may be affected by changes in personal attention.
In that case, the regime will lack predictable policies and behaviors, and a well-run society cannot lack expectations, and cannot always change according to the will of the leaders; in that case, social enthusiasm, initiative, and creativity will be impossible to talk about.
The reform of the political system in socialist countries will emphasize the rule of law.
In a socialist country, the fundamental significance of emphasizing the rule of law is to provide a predictable relationship and establish a contract between politics and economy, the regime and the people.
Only in this way can the social initiative in a socialist country be mobilized.
Therefore, this is where the substantive meaning and importance of political system reform in socialist countries lies.
The rule of law forms a restrictive relationship between the state and the people, and between social groups. The regime uses this to give the people a signal and a rule, so that the people can have positive and positive expectations, so that the people can work hard and invest in real estate.
Now Cuba is also aware of this problem. Although it is only the beginning, it has already taken a big step.
The business district of Havana, the capital of Cuba.
(Reuters)
The above are all talking about Cuba’s reform at the level of rules, and at the level of specific policies:
First, Cuba allows private individual businesses, which is like the situation at the beginning of China's reform and opening up, which reminds people of Yiwu's "four permits".
(Editor's Note: The "Four Permissions" refer to allowing farmers to engage in business, allowing long-distance trafficking, allowing open urban and rural markets, and allowing multi-channel competition)
China broke the previous taboo back then. First, farmers could sell their surplus products in the market, whereas in the past they could only hand them over to supply and marketing cooperatives.
For example, eggs from my own family must be handed over to the supply and marketing cooperative, and then bought back.
Secondly, farmers are allowed to do business, which means that they can not only sell their own products, but also traffic them.
This kind of behavior was called speculation in China before, and it is absolutely not allowed.
During my research in Zhejiang, I learned an interesting thing. At that time, there was a well-known organization in various places called "Daoban", that is, "Office for Cracking down on Speculation".
At that time, the Chinese central government had a SAIC, but the local governments did not.
The predecessors of today's local industry and commerce bureaus are these "fighting offices".
Daban in Zhejiang has set up locations in various places, the most famous of which is the Daban in Linhai, Taizhou, Zhejiang.
When it was slightly opened up in the early 1980s, merchants from Wenzhou and Taizhou in Zhejiang were allowed to sell goods in Jiaojiang, Huangyan and other places, but they were not allowed to cross Linhai.
This is because the "Document Office" located in Linhai will conduct investigations, and trade in Ningbo is not allowed.
Now Cuba is the same, you can do business and open restaurants, but currently Cuba only allows individuals to run self-employed businesses, not factories.
Now that Cuba has amended its constitution, it seems that it is open to private and foreign investment in enterprises, but there is still a long way to go from the constitution to the law, from the law to the policy, and from the policy to the reality!
There is another detail. Now Cubans going abroad are the same as the Chinese going abroad in the past. They can bring back several "big items".
Although the "opening" is small, some people have already organized such trafficking, that is, the "carrying bag clan" has appeared.
The Cuban government was aware of this behavior, but allowed it by default.
This is the origin of Cuba's "Taobao.com".
In the early stage of China's reform and opening up, Yiwu, Zhejiang Province became the pioneer and pioneer.
The picture shows footballs produced by a sports manufacturer in Yiwu, which will be exported to overseas countries such as Russia and Brazil.
(Getty)
Second, Cuba implements a dual-track price system.
Cuban society has always been a planned rationing economy. They use the household as the unit. According to individual calculations, every household has a book called "food supply certificate" (Spanish translation).
It was the same in China before. At the most complicated time, there were multiple certificates such as grain book and non-staple food book.
The supply certificate for Cuban residents basically guarantees that everyone can eat. The planned supply price is very cheap. Each person only needs 10-15 pesos per month to buy all the things in the supply certificate, of course, meat is not included. , eggs, milk.
01: So what should people do if they want to eat meat?
Fang Ning:
Yes, then you have to go to the market to buy.
The Cuban free market or "red peso market" is very rich in supply, it's just a matter of whether ordinary people can afford it or not.
By the way, I actually saw a chain store of a small American supermarket CVS pharmacy on the streets of Havana, which shows the purchasing power of the "Red Phi Clan" in Cuba!
01: Are there many people who go shopping there?
Fang Ning:
Yes.
People don't have to worry about the people who open the shop, it will be closed if there are no customers.
Pharmacy mainly sells medicines and daily necessities, as well as a small amount of food and beverages, which is different from the Seven-eleven small supermarket that mainly sells food.
In general, Cuba is a country with two prices, two currencies and two markets.
One is state-owned stores represented by supply and marketing cooperatives, and the other is new stores, including pharmacy and supermarket, as well as self-employed stores.
Use soil pesos at state-owned stores and red pesos at new and various stores.
Of course the red peso is also available in the state market.
Take eggs as an example. The government supplies five eggs to each resident every month, which is about a few cents in peso, and an egg is only a few cents, which is very cheap.
But the price of eggs on the free market is very expensive. Buying 2 dozen eggs costs 70 pesos, which is about 30 times the price of the original supply.
It is precisely because of the existence of two prices, two currencies, and two markets that Cuba has gradually formed two major classes, which I call the "Tupi" and "Red Pi", that is, those who still work in state-owned enterprises and institutions. The working class, they mainly use the local peso; the other is the new class engaged in self-employment and foreign business, they mainly use the red peso.
Interview with Fang Ning Yi｜Cuban’s top leader visits China and visits the two worlds on the beautiful island. Not wearing a mask, teaching Trudeau the signal released by Xi Jinping’s first foreign visit after the 20th Congress. , Shijiazhuang sample significance The most difficult part of Chinese-style coexistence is to coexist with the weak