A brief review of "Research on Major Economic Issues in China in the New Century"

Cheng Enfu

("Economics Trends"2010Year10Issue)

w88 casinoGuo FeiThe book "Research on Major Economic Issues in China in the New Century" written by the professor has been published by the Economic Science Press. This book is a brand-new result of his research on major issues of my country's economic system reform and economic development in recent years. Looking at the whole book, I think it has three characteristics:

1. Be brave in theoretical innovation and have many bright spots.For example, the author clearly proposed and demonstrated the fundamental criteria of "three benefits" proposed by Deng Xiaoping, which are the basic theoretical basis for establishing and improving the ownership structure at the current stage in our country. He believes that the core of the "three favorable" fundamental standards proposed by Deng Xiaoping is the productivity standard, but it also inherently contains the objective requirements for adhering to the basic nature of a socialist society, that is, the basic social system standards, and runs through and embodies the highest value standard of socialist society, "people's interests above all else." He used the fundamental criteria of "three benefits" to conduct a detailed analysis of the two aspects of my country's current ownership structure that are compatible with and contradictory to it, providing new ideas for our in-depth study and continuous improvement of the basic economic system in the primary stage of socialism. For another example, the author made a new theoretical summary of the particularity of China's economic layout in the socialist market economy based on the use of authoritative data for horizontal comparison. He believes that under the conditions of market economy, there are significant differences in the layout of state-owned economies between capitalist countries and socialist countries. The fundamental reason is that the state-owned economies of the two have different nature, proportion and functions. The layout of the state-owned economy in capitalist countries is relatively narrow and is generally limited to non-competitive fields (the so-called "market failure" fields); while the layout of the state-owned economy in socialist countries is relatively broad, including not only non-competitive fields, but also a wide range of competitive fields. The rational layout of my country's state-owned economy includes both areas where the state-owned economy needs to occupy a controlling position (including three basic types of complete control, absolute control, and relative control) (including non-competitive fields and a considerable number of competitive fields such as economic security industries and development of strategic industries), and areas where the state-owned economy does not need to occupy a controlling position. This provides a new theoretical basis for the relevant departments of the Chinese government to rationally plan the layout of the state-owned economy. In addition, the author's discussion and demonstration of innovative Marxist political economics research objects, demonstration and elucidation of the categories of ownership of production factors, discussion of the connection and difference between contemporary international investment and the capital export investigated and analyzed by Marx and Lenin, summary and analysis of the characteristics of distribution according to work in the socialist market economy, and summary and elaboration of the basic characteristics of my country's current unemployment are also quite in-depth and obviously new.

2. Actively offer suggestions and practical suggestions.For example, the author conducted an in-depth study on the issue of my country's long-term implementation of super-national treatment for foreign direct investment enterprises, comprehensively and fairly discussed the pros and cons of my country's implementation of super-national treatment for foreign-related taxes, and put forward countermeasures and suggestions to speed up the implementation of the "two taxes into one" for Chinese and foreign corporate income taxes and to still implement certain tax preferences for original foreign-invested enterprises during the transition period. The author's papers were not only reprinted by "Chinese Social Sciences Digest", but were also translated into Japanese by Japanese scholars and published in foreign academic journals. Driven by many factors at home and abroad, the countermeasures and suggestions proposed by the author have become a reality. For another example, the author puts forward the idea of ​​"moderate employment" in view of the polar phenomena of overuse of labor force ("over-tired people") and excessive idleness ("over-idle people") that have obviously existed in China's cities and towns in recent years. He gave a new definition to the concept of "moderate employment" and believed that moderate employment is a concept that is people-oriented, respects labor, and creates harmony together. It should also become a principle guiding the practice of economic management and economic system reform, and can also be reflected as a state of good employment for workers. To this end, he also put forward some more specific countermeasures and suggestions (for example, by strictly implementing the national regulations on employee working hours, Chinese enterprises can increase their work hours by nearly 10%).200010,000 jobs, etc.). For another example, in view of the bias of my country's long-term policy of "exchanging market for technology" and the weak situation of independent innovation, the author proposed that my country should strive to build a five-in-one basic path pattern of technological progress based on independent innovation: (1) Obtain technology through innovation; (2) Obtain technology through competition; (3) To introduce technology; (4) Exchange market for technology; (5) Exchange discounts for technology. In addition, the author also expressed profound and original insights on the issue of restricting the compensation of state-owned enterprise executives, which is of great concern to the society today. He analyzed from the perspectives of economic system, fairness principle and labor productivity, and proposed that the upper limit of the salary of state-owned enterprise executives should be clearly stipulated based on my country's national conditions, and should maintain an appropriate proportional relationship with the average annual salary of state-owned enterprise employees in the previous year. The above countermeasures and suggestions are forward-looking, overall, scientific and operable, and have important reference value for the relevant departments of the Chinese government to make correct decisions.

3. Rigorous scholarship and thorough argumentation.For example, the author conducted in-depth research and careful demonstration on the concept of assets in the "preponderance of public assets" proposed in the report of the 15th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and whether public assets have an advantage in total social assets in my country in recent years. It is clearly stated that: the concept of assets in the report of the 15th National Congress of the Communist Party of China has two basic dimensions, one is from a macroeconomic perspective, and the other is from the perspective of ownership of production means; when understood in a broad sense, it should include operating net assets and resource assets, and in a narrow sense, it only refers to operating net assets, and its core should refer to operating net assets. Using relatively detailed and authoritative data, he came to the conclusion that in a broad sense, my country's public-owned assets have an absolute quantitative advantage in total social assets, and in a narrow sense, my country's public-owned net operating assets still have a quantitative advantage in social net operating assets. He also investigated from the two aspects of productivity and production relations, which are closely related to public operating net assets, and significantly expanded the connotation of the nature of public operating net assets. On this basis, he further proposed: The advantage of public-owned operating net assets should be concentrated in the fact that the socialist economy associated with it can create higher labor productivity than the capitalist economy. These arguments and views are quite innovative and persuasive, and have had a great impact on the domestic academic community. For another example, around the principle of participation in the distribution of production factors according to their contribution proposed in the report of the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, there are divergent opinions in the domestic economic circles, and there is no consensus. The author focuses on the main crux of his argument, closely connects it with the objective reality of my country's current market economy, and profoundly reveals the connotation of "contribution" in the principle of participation and distribution of production factors according to their contribution from the perspective of distinguishing different ownership economies. He believes that in the socialist public ownership economy, the "contribution" in the distribution principle refers to the contribution made by workers in creating value; in the non-public ownership economy, the "contribution" in the distribution principle refers to the role (or contribution) of various production factors in the creation of social wealth (or use value). He used the determinism of ownership of production factors, the labor theory of value and the "factor wealth theory" to make new arguments and explanations on the principle of participation in distribution of production factors according to their contribution, which has received attention and praise from domestic academic circles. For another example, on the basis of carefully studying and absorbing relevant excellent results at home and abroad, the author refined and summarized the main problems existing in my country's current personal income distribution into six major issues, and conducted in-depth discussions based on new data and examples. He also systematically put forward insightful countermeasures and suggestions to improve my country's personal income distribution.

In short, the treatise "Research on Major Economic Issues in China in the New Century" written by Professor Guo Fei is a masterpiece that keeps pace with the times and has high academic level and application value. I would like to recommend this book to readers who have an understanding of or research interests in China’s economic theory and practice, so as to continue to push forward the vibrant and great cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

(Author’s affiliation: Institute of Marxism, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)