Zheng Yongnian: Measure the coordinates of 40 years of changes in China

Zheng Yongnian column

This year marks the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening up.From 1978 to 2018, there was a lot of changes in all aspects of China, dazzling.How to measure and evaluate changes is a question that can be discussed.In some people's eyes, it is positive, but it seems to some people as negative; to some people, it is a positive change, but it seems to some people as negative; to some people, it seems that it isThe changes in progress are retreat to others.

This is not difficult to understand. The answers in the minds of everyone and every social group are different. Everyone and every social group will make judgments based on their own life experience.

So why is there such a contradiction?The factors here are complicated, and there are three aspects of factors that can be considered.First, people's subjective goals, moral factors, and values recognition are different, leading to different evaluations, that is, the commonly known people's heart coordinates.These individual factors are complicated and affect people's evaluation of changes.

Second, the objective world, especially the development of the material world, is often not transferred by people's will, or objective laws. People can call it material coordinates.At this level, many development is difficult to not happen even if people don't like it.

For example, although economic development will inevitably affect the environment and will also lead to the expansion of the differences between the rich and the poor of society, in addition to the rare number of people who can not pursue, most people will still pursue it.If people agree with this objective law, evaluation will tend to affirm; if people cannot agree with this objective law, evaluation will tend to deny.Third, more importantly, there is an institutional coordinate between the coordinates of human heart and material coordinates.

This is to regulate people's heart coordinates and material coordinates.Without a system, it is difficult for people to coexist with the material world.Therefore, people regard the system seriously regardless of any society.

In an academic perspective, institutional coordinates involve two levels of problems.The first level of the question should be, that is, what kind of system should the Chinese system change through?The second level of the problem is actually, that is, what kind of changes and systems will the Chinese system actually happen?

Those who answer questions in the first way can be called an idealist, and those who use the second method to answer questions can be called realists.But the result of actual changes is often as ideal as idealists nor as realistic as realists, but a mix of the two.The impact of idealists on changing reality, and the impact of subjective intentions on the objective environment cannot be ignored, otherwise it is difficult to explain historical progress.

At the same time, idealism is subject to the real environment, so that ideals will not be realized as the original imagined.Such a result is definitely not a great joy, neither in line with idealism nor realism.This is the case for China's reform in the past 40 years.

The mixed system of 40 years of reform and opening up

In the early 1980s, the reform had just begun, and China's idealists set the goals of two reform and opening up, namely economic liberalization and political democratization.Simply put, the reference of the idealist at that time was developed western countries, that is, market economy plus democratic politics.Forty years have passed, and China has neither maintained the status quo nor to become the West.

Whether it is economy or politics, China has become a hybrid system.Economically, officials also define this as a mixed economy or a socialist market economy; politically, it is also a hybrid system. It is neither the autocracy of the West, nor the democracy called the West.

As far as the economic system is concerned, the mixed economy is not just a mixture of multiple ownership, but also a mixture of traditional and modern.The West regards China as national capitalism. In fact, national capital is only part of this hybrid economy, in many aspects or even less important parts.For thousands of years from the Han Dynasty to today, it can be said that I have been in the same way, and there has always been such a hybrid economy.

People call it capitalism or its market, there are at least three levels of markets, or three layers of capital.The top level is always national capital, the bottom is free folk capital, as well as the intermediate level, which is the part of the country and the people's interaction.

This is the beginning of the Han Dynasty. In some fields, countries must monopolize and dominate, but a large number of spaces must be put to the people; the middle economic space, industries such as salt and iron, are important to the country, but even if they are in the country, they are very important for the country.Important space can also be called privately.In modern times, the economic forms such as official office, government supervision and business offices, and commercial offices have been generated.It can be seen that the hybrid economy is actually a very old economic practice in China, not modern creation.

In such a long history in China, only four periods have gone to extremes and become economic nationalism. The country has completely dominated.period.In these four periods, the state and the market were completely unbalanced.Except for these four periods, China's countries and markets are basically relatively balanced.From historical experience, China will be these three capitals and third -level markets in the future.

This system has its disadvantages. Compared with the Western market economy, the efficiency is a little efficient. Compared with the Western system, the advantage of the Western system is that it can prevent a large economic crisis.

Western capitalism, as analyzed by Marx, will explode a periodic economic crisis, such as Great Depression in the 1930s, the Asian financial crisis in 1997/98, and the global financial crisis in 2007/08.China has basically no economic crisis in the past 40 years, which has something to do with the government's regulatory ability and has something to do with this institutional mechanism.

Chinese state -owned enterprises with regulation

Since modern times, there have been two main methods of adjustment in the Western economy, one is monetary policy and the other is fiscal policy.However, when interest rates tend to zero, monetary policy is difficult to have a role.The West is now frequent quantitative loose (QE), but this is not an effective way to solve the problem.As far as Western fiscal policies are concerned, when the government's fiscal deficit is too large, the fiscal policy is not used.In addition to financial and monetary policy, China also has the economic department of state -owned enterprises that can be adjusted.

As globalization continues, the economy will become more and more fluctuating in the future.It is foreseeable that China will not give up the state -owned sector anyway.However, between the three -story capital, where the border is, each era is adjusted, and each era is changing to obtain the balance between the government and the market.

The political system is also a hybrid system. This system is characterized by: open one -party system, with party leading politics, and internal three divisions of labor.When it comes to the political system, the benchmark in many people's minds is the separation of the three powers in the West, that is, the mutual balance between legislation, administrative, and judicial power, but many people may not realize that the political system in China has internal three internal three years.The division of power cooperation with mdash; MDASH; decision, execution, and supervision.This system was established in the Han Dynasty and did not change until the late Qing Dynasty.

People cannot say that this system has no vitality.When people say that Chinese civilization has not interrupted for thousands of years, they must think about, what are not interrupted?The dynasty was interrupted. The emperor came and went, and even the Chinese race changed. Chinese Han is not a racial concept, but a cultural concept.So what are the changes in China?That is, the economic and political system mentioned here has never changed, and only some small changes have taken place.

In the 1980s, China began to reform the political system. At that time, I still wanted to develop in the direction of the West and advocated the separation of the party and government.This is normal, because many people have hoped to develop in this direction in modern times.Sun Yat -sen made a five -power constitution, based on the three powers of the West, coupled with the traditional Chinese test rights and supervision rights.However, Sun Yat -sen is basically a theorist and has no chance to practice.

Judging from the practice of Taiwan, there are different logic behind the two systems of Chinese and Western systems, either the three powers in the West, or in ChinaMainly, the two systems are difficult to operate effectively.Taiwan is basically a three -right mechanism in the West now. The test rights are basically useless. The supervisory court is still there, but basically it does not work.

Politics to take the division of work of the party and government

Today, China has embarked on the road of cooperation between the internal three powers.In the 1980s, the party and government were advocated, and the division of labor of the party and government is now advocated.The road of party and government separation has been unable to go in the late 1980s.If the party and the government is separated, if there is contradiction between the party's supervisor and the government's supervisor, it will become a contradiction between the two organizations of the party and government, and it will produce the division of the party and the government.

Therefore, in 1992, the 14th National Congress of the Communist Party of China opened a three -in -one system, that is, the General Secretary of the Party, the President of the State, and the Chairman of the Military Commission was held by one person.This system is actually a direct negation of the separation of party and government.Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao are both this idea.

The political system based on the multi -party system was based on the multi -party system, which can be called external diverseism.In the process of western historical development, there are national society and then there are countries, and different political forces. A country can have several political processes. The final institutional expression is the separation of multi -party systems and three powers.But China is not.China has been the imperial power for thousands of years, and Qin Shihuang has always had a country and a society.

Because the emperor can only have one, there is only one political process.But what can we do to make rule more effective?That is to divide a political process into three sections, the first paragraph is decision, the second paragraph is execution, and the third paragraph is supervision.

The current three -power division of labor cooperation system is a bit similar to the traditional system.What must be explained is how the traditional imperial power has evolved into the current party power?What do you think of this party?The Communist Party of China is not a political party in the West.Structurally, party power is an imperial power of organizationalization.The former emperor was an individual, a family, and the party is now an organization.

In this transformation, some concepts in the West have provided effective tools, such as nationalist sovereignty and Leninism.The Sinicization of Marxism is exactly at the institutional level.

A royal power based on individual families has been converted into party power based on an organization.In the past, the imperial power was divided into three stages, and the current party power was divided into three stages of MDash; mdash; decision -making power, execution and supervision rights.But people cannot say that this is a simple return to tradition, because the party is now a collective, and the emperor used to be a personal family.

Once this system is established, it cannot underestimate its vitality.However, although the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China has officially established an internal three -right system, the effective operation of this system needs further reform.For example, the decision -making power was mainly in the hands of the emperor and his ministers, the emperor and the emperor, and the emperor and brother, but now it is different.

The Central Committee of the ruling party, the National People's Congress, the CPPCC, the important social groups (Communist Youth Women), and various think tanks can all become part of the decision -making power.The problem now is how to make decision -making power more democratic?There was no need for democracy before, but now with the concept of democracy, democracy must be reflected at the institutional level.The right to supervise is important for anti -corruption, but the right to supervise cannot be abused.

The Han Dynasty stipulated that it was not possible to monitor everything without any details. There were only six areas that can be monitored, otherwise there was no way to exercise the execution right.At this stage, the right to supervise is facing this issue.

This system is contradictory with the democratic system in the West, but it is not contradictory with democracy itself.It is not difficult to observe that China's internal three -power division of labor cooperation system can absorb many of the democratic elements in the West, but it will not become a Western system.

From historical experience, human heart coordinates and material coordinates change with the changes of the times, but the changes in institutional coordinates seem to be more constant.It is not difficult to understand that there will always be tension and contradictions between the system and the human heart and material, and people will never be completely consistent with the evaluation and identification of the system.

However, it is these tensions and contradictions that constitute the motivation of institutional progress.For governors, what is needed is the balance between the system and the other two.

The author is the director of the East Asia Research Institute of the National University of Singapore

The article only represents personal point of view