Chapter 13 Chapter 12 Overturning the "Commodity Economy"

The travel-worn Wu Jinglian returned to China, and as soon as he stepped into his home in Beijing, Ma Hong, the president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the director-general of the Technical and Economic Research Center of the State Council, came. Ma Hong (1920~2007) is a very legendary figure in the history of contemporary reform.He joined the Communist Party of China at the age of 17, and won the trust of Gao Gang, Secretary of the Northeast Bureau, at the age of 29, he became the director of the Policy Research Office of the Northeast Bureau and the deputy secretary-general of the Northeast People's Government.At that time, there was a young cadre named Zhu Rongji (1928~) under his command. After graduating from Tsinghua University in the autumn of 1951, Zhu worked under Ma Hong. director. In 1952, Gao Gang was appointed as the chairman of the State Planning Commission, which was in charge of economic work and was known as the Second Government Administration Council. The 32-year-old Ma Hong was appointed as the director of the Policy Research Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the secretary-general of the State Planning Commission.

Two years later, in 1954, Gao Gang and Rao Shushi were identified as a counter-revolutionary group, Gao Gang committed suicide, and Ma Hong was dismissed from all positions inside and outside the party.Later, he was recruited by Bo Yibo to work in the Research Office of the State Economic Commission, and he often participated in the activities of the Industrial Economics Research Group of the Economic Research Institute, and he had many contacts with Wu Jinglian since then. At the end of 1977, Ma Hong participated in the establishment of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and served as the vice president and director of the Institute of Industrial Economics at the beginning of the following year.Soon, he transferred Zhu Rongji, an old subordinate who worked in the Pipeline Bureau of the Ministry of Petroleum, to the Institute of Industrial Economics as the director of the Domestic Office of the Institute. In July 1979, the Finance and Economics Committee of the State Council led by Chen Yun was established, and four investigation groups were formed, namely the system group, the structure group, the foreign economic relations group, and the theoretical method group. Ma Hong was in charge of the structure group, and Wu Jinglian was a member of it.Later, based on the structural group, the Technical and Economic Research Center of the State Council was established.

Ma Hong is very skilled in macroeconomic management and industrial economics, and has participated in the formulation of several central economic documents and strategic plans.The book "China's Socialist Industrial Enterprise Management" written in the early 1960s (editor-in-chief Lu Feiwen, Ma Hong, and Gui Shiyong, the three share a pen name "Ma Wengui") was the most widely circulated book on industrial economics during the "Cultural Revolution". textbook. In 1982, he published the monograph "China's Economic Adjustment, Reform and Development".It was also in June of this year that Ma Hong became the president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and concurrently served as the deputy secretary-general of the State Council. Since 1985, he has been the director-general of the Technology, Economic and Social Development Research Center of the State Council. In fact, he has become one of the important think tanks for the central economic decision-making. one.

This time, when he visited Wu Jinglian, he invited him to go to the Northeast to participate in a seminar on development strategy planning. Zhou Nan was worried that her husband's jet lag hadn't reversed yet, and wanted him to rest at home for a few days.But Ma Hong looked very urgent, and then came to the door twice, saying that the trip is not tiring, and he can take a rest while having a meeting.Unable to withstand Ma Hong's repeated invitations, Wu Jinglian went north with Ma Hong to the northeast on the seventh day of his return. Once on the road, Wu Jinglian realized that the situation was far from being as simple as attending a few seminars.Ma Hong took out a stack of manuscripts from his file bag, entitled "Rethinking on the Socialist Planned Commodity Economy", and Wu recognized the handwriting at a glance. These were two of his old friends who had worked as economic managers. The first draft written by Zhou Shulian, the deputy director of the Institute, and Zhang Zhuoyuan, the director of the Finance and Trade Institute.

Ma Hong said: "I pulled you out for this matter. It must be changed immediately, because the Third Plenary Session of the Twelfth Central Committee will be held in three months." Behind this stack of manuscripts, there is a raging tide. This actually involves a very sensitive and important "term interpretation" dispute in the history of reform: how to define the goal of China's economic system reform? In general, it is mainly the choice of two nouns: A. Planned economy, B. Market economy. Whether it is A or B, it seems that there is a clear distinction, either one or the other.However, due to the gradual nature of China's reforms, the actual situation is far more complicated.We know in the future that from A to B, we have walked for 15 years.During this period, there have been many fierce debates and repetitions, and there have been many staged and cross-cutting "intermediate nouns".From these repetitions and nouns, we can read the difficulties and twists and turns of China's reform.

In the traditional classic expression, the market economy is synonymous with the capitalist economy, which should be resolutely opposed and criticized. If it is advocated, it will be a revisionist line.According to textual research, whether it was Deng Xiaoping, Chen Yun, or Li Xiannian, they all used the term market economy in the late 1970s.Still, they're talking about how parts of the economy work, not the overall goals of the reforms.For example, Deng Xiaoping used this term as early as 1979. When he met Gibney, vice chairman of the editorial board of the Encyclopedia Britannica Publishing Company, and others in November of that year, Deng Xiaoping said: "It is said that a market economy only exists under capitalism. It is definitely not true that there is only a capitalist market economy in society. Why can’t a socialist society have a market economy? This cannot be called capitalism.

We have a planned economy with a combination of a market economy, but this is a socialist market economy. "However, Deng's speech was not disseminated and conveyed as an important and mature thought at that time. For a long time—until 1992, the term "market economy" was still a "forbidden zone." .In order to avoid unnecessary controversy caused by "abandoning things for the sake of name", when discussing the goal of reform, the reformers made a compromise and changed it to "commodity economy". According to the textual research of experts from the Central Compilation Bureau at that time, in In all the works of Marx and Engels, there is neither the term "market economy" nor the term "commodity economy", which is a peculiar term "invented" by Russian theorists after the 20th century. Use "commodity economy" As the goal of China's reform, the ideological obstacle of "market economy equals capitalism" can be avoided, so it is understandable to adopt such rhetoric at that time.

In September 1980, Xue Muqiao, then an advisor to the Economic System Reform Office of the State Council, drafted a document entitled "Preliminary Opinions on Economic System Reform" for the Office of Economic System Reform, in which he wrote: "my country's current socialist economy, It is a commodity economy in which public ownership of the means of production dominates and multiple economic components coexist.” He explained this document at the meeting of the first secretaries of provinces, cities, and districts. The question of what form of socialist economy should be established on the land", he believed that putting forward the commodity economy "is a challenge to the dogmatism that has been dominant for 30 years".

Xue Muqiao's formulation was supported by Hu Yaobang and most of the participants, but also opposed by others.From 1981 to 1983, a series of articles critical of this view appeared.They all opposed the "theory of socialist commodity economy" and "theory of socialist planned commodity economy" on the grounds that "commodity economy is capitalist economy" and "socialist economy can only be planned economy". In April 1981, the Research Office of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued a document titled "Several Views on Planned Regulation and Market Regulation", which divided domestic economists into four categories: the first category insisted on planned economy the second category is not so firmly in favor of a planned economy; the third category is not so firmly in favor of a commodity economy; the fourth category is advocating a commodity economy.Among them, Deng Liqun and others are listed in the first category, and Xue Muqiao and Lin Zili are classified as the fourth category.

In the process of drafting a political report for the Twelfth National Congress scheduled to be held in September 1982, the "planners" had an absolute upper hand.Members of the drafting group Wang Renzhi, Yuan Mu and others said in a letter: "In our country, although commodity production and commodity exchange still exist, our economy must not be generalized as a commodity economy. If we make such a generalization, Then it will describe the joint ownership and joint labor relations among people under the conditions of socialism as the exchange relations of commodity equivalents; and it will be determined that what governs our economic activities is mainly the law of value, rather than the basic economic laws and effective laws of socialism. The law of planned development. This will inevitably blur the boundary between a socialist economy with planned development and an anarchic capitalist economy, and blur the essential difference between a socialist economy and a capitalist economy.” Hu Qiaomu, the leader of the drafting team, wrote this letter The letter is used as a conclusion, and it is wholesaled to the units to which the propaganda outlet belongs.

Correspondingly, a large number of articles with similar views were published in the media. The Red Flag Publishing House of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China also compiled a collection of essays on planned economy and market regulation (the first series). Sexual planning is the basic symbol of the socialist planned economy, and it is an important embodiment of the organization and management of my country's socialist ownership by the whole people. Completely abolishing mandatory planning... canceling the direct command of the state to key enterprises... cannot avoid social and economic life. If there is disorder, we cannot guarantee that our entire economy will advance in the direction of socialism.” In the view of this school of scholars, Xue Muqiao’s formulation is to “put the foothold on the commodity economy and remove the planned economy.”Some more extreme people go on to oppose the idea that "the macroeconomy is regulated by the plan, and the microeconomy is regulated by the market", thinking that "in this way, the macroeconomy is likely to be emptied and become a 'gentleman on the beam', which will weaken the socialist planned economy as a result." . Under such circumstances, Liu Guoguang, vice president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was severely criticized by his superiors for writing an article on the eve of the opening of the "Twelfth National Congress" in support of the idea of ​​emphasizing the expansion of the "guidance plan".In the final report of the Twelfth National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the target mode of China's economic reform was expressed as "planned economy as the main body and market regulation as the supplement".According to the report, "my country implements a planned economy on the basis of public ownership. Planned production and circulation are the main body of our national economy. At the same time, it is allowed to allow the production and circulation of some products to be regulated by the market without planning, that is to say, according to The specific situation in different periods is planned by the state to delineate a certain range, and the law of value plays a regulating role spontaneously. This part is a supplement to planned production and circulation, which is subordinate, secondary, but necessary , beneficial.” In the future, Wu Jinglian believed that this was undoubtedly a setback. After the "Twelfth National Congress", Xue Muqiao had to conduct a self-criticism at a symposium on system reform theory he hosted. He recorded his painful feelings at that time in his memoirs: "I felt quite embarrassed...this discussion If I want to do the mobilization report, I have to express my opinion. Do I agree with the combination of planned regulation and market regulation and give full play to the role of market regulation? Or do I agree with the planned economy as the mainstay and market regulation as a supplement? On the one hand, I tend to think The former formulation, on the other hand, I am obliged to abide by the relevant regulations of the central government documents in public." At this moment, the manuscript in front of Wu Jinglian is a test balloon released by the reformists trying to overthrow the "conclusive conclusion" in 1982 and "reversal" the commodity economy. Ma Hong and others dared to "adventure" at this time, which was also inseparable from the macro atmosphere at that time.Since 1984, China's economy has been recovering from consolidation.Shortly after New Year's Day, Deng Xiaoping, who had been sitting in Beijing except for going abroad in recent years, suddenly decided to visit the south. This was the first of two famous southern inspections in his life.At that time, China was engaged in a big debate on the issue of opening up to the outside world. Shenzhen and Zhuhai Special Economic Zone were suffering from controversy. Some conservatives believed that "except for the five-star red flag, socialism has disappeared."Deng Xiaoping traveled all over the special economic zone non-stop. On February 1, he wrote "Shenzhen's development and experience prove that our policy of establishing a special economic zone is correct", publicly affirming the special zone model, and this news spread throughout the country , the debate on the SAR has come to an end.In the second month after he left Guangdong, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China made a major decision, announcing the "opening of 14 coastal cities and Hainan Island to foreign investors."Since then, China's opening to the outside world has gradually expanded from point to area, and finally formed a pattern of opening up the entire coastal area. On March 23, 55 factory directors and managers in Fujian Province jointly wrote a letter to Xiang Nan, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, and Hu Ping, Governor of Fujian Province, under the title "Please Untie Us".The factory directors wrote in the letter: "We believe that decentralization should not be limited to the transfer of power between the upper departments, and more importantly, the power should be implemented to the grassroots enterprises. For this reason, we boldly ask you for power We know that it is impossible to make major changes to the current system, but it is possible to loosen our ties and give us some necessary powers." This letter was published in a prominent position on the headline of the second page of "People's Daily", and it caused a sensation all over the country. The voice quickly became a consensus. On May 10, the State Council issued the "Interim Regulations on Further Expanding the Autonomy of State-owned Industrial Enterprises". It was under such a good situation that the main person in charge of the State Council instructed Ma Hong to send a tentative article to the "old revolutionaries" who had promised themselves, to see if it was possible to hold the Twelfth National Congress in October. The "commodity economy" was brought up again at the Third Plenary Session. Ma Hong immediately organized Zhou Shulian and Zhang Zhuoyuan to complete the first draft. This time, Wu Jinglian happened to be returning to China. How could Ma Hong let him go.So, a few of them participated in strategic seminars in Shenyang and Changchun during the day, and spent time during breaks and evenings to scrutinize and revise the manuscript.According to the speculation of later scholars, the reason why Ma Hong relied heavily on Wu Jinglian was that he believed in his academic quality and hoped that he could integrate the modern economic theory brought back from Yale into the manuscript. Ma Hong and Wu Jinglian wrote from Shenyang to Changchun, and then from Changchun to Dalian, and basically revised the manuscript in a few days along the way.Ma Hong said decisively: "I will not leave for the next few stops, and I will return to Beijing immediately." Wu Jinglian said goodbye to him, and continued to go to Harbin for the meeting on Ma Hong's behalf. As soon as he returned to Beijing, Wu Jinglian hurried to Ma Hong's house to inquire about the situation and understand the reaction.He knows that this is a big matter, which is related to the path of China's economic reform.Ma Hong was very happy and told him that the article had been distributed to several old comrades and there was no objection.What pleased Ma Hong the most was that Wang Zhen also wrote him a personal letter, saying that this article is well written, and we should not just say what our ancestors said, but should be creative.Only one theorist called Ma Hong and said that he agreed with the basic point of view, but don’t look for the reason for the existence of the commodity economy from within the ownership by the whole people, or from the relationship between the two types of ownership and the existence of the two types of public ownership to say that there are commodities in socialism The reason for the economy, the implication, is still to go back to the framework set by Stalin in his book "Economic Problems of Socialism in the Soviet Union".Ma Hong rejected his opinion, and showed him Wang Zhen's letter. Wang was the theoretician's old superior, so he said nothing more. After learning that no influential "veteran comrades" raised any objections to this "Rethinking on the Socialist Planned Commodity Economy", on September 9, the main person in charge of the State Council wrote a letter to the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee entitled The report "Opinions on Three Issues in the Reform of the Economic System" officially stated that "the socialist economy is a planned commodity economy based on public ownership. Planning must be realized through the law of value, and the law of value must be used to serve the plan." On September 11th and 12th, Deng Xiaoping and Chen Yun successively gave approval.Immediately afterwards, at the insistence of the General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee and the leadership of the State Council, the political report drafting group for the "Twelfth National Congress" re-drafted all the statements after personnel adjustments. Wu Jinglian also recalled a detail. In mid-September, he accompanied Ma Hong in Shanghai for investigation and research. One night, he found that Ma Hong was writing at his desk again, so he asked him what he was writing. There is still no mention of "commodity economy" in the latest draft.He revealed that on September 9, the main person in charge of the State Council wrote a letter to the leaders of the Central Committee using the meaning of our article. Write a letter to the main person in charge of the State Council, requesting that it be included. On October 20, 1984, the third plenary session of the Twelfth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was held in Beijing. The plenary session unanimously passed the "Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Economic System Reform" (hereinafter referred to as the "Decision"), clearly stating: " It is necessary to break through the traditional concept of opposing the planned economy with the commodity economy, and clearly understand that the socialist planned economy must consciously base and apply the law of value. It is a planned commodity economy based on public ownership. The full development of the commodity economy is the key to social and economic development. It is an insurmountable stage and a necessary condition for the realization of our country's economic modernization." The Third Plenary Session of the Twelfth Central Committee is considered to be one of the most influential meetings on reform and opening up after the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee in 1978.Deng Xiaoping said at the plenary meeting that the "Decision" is "a new political economy that combines the basic principles of Marxism with the practice of socialism in China."He also said at the meeting of the Central Advisory Committee on October 22, "The document of this economic reform is good. It explains what socialism is. Some are words that our ancestors did not say, and some are new words." It is impossible to write such a document, and it is impossible to write such a document without the practice of previous years. It is not easy to pass it.” (See "Selected Important Documents Since the Twelfth National Congress", People's Publishing House, 1986 edition ) During those few days, the happiest person was Xue Muqiao. "Decision" actually "vindicated" his review two years ago, and October 25th was his 80th birthday. What made him even more happy was that at noon on this day, his youngest daughter gave birth to him. Had a little grandson.The Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Research Center of the State Council, and the State Planning Commission jointly held a tea party in the Great Hall of the People to congratulate him on "50 years of economic theory and practice." .Four joys come to the door, he is naturally smiling. So far, after several years of great debate, "commodity economy" has been identified as the goal of reform in the central document for the first time.What we are about to see is that there will be a new big back and forth in the future, and finally, the dust of the new controversy will be settled in 1992.Wu Jinglian played a certain role in this debate in 1984, and in the big debate a few years later, he will fight alone and become famous for it. After finishing his trip to Northeast China, in September, Ma Hong arranged for Wu Jinglian to participate in a survey in Shanghai.At that time, Shanghai was in the most difficult time in history. The city’s industrial economy was sluggish, there was no room for development, and the finances were exhausted. Chen Yun, who was born in Qingpu, a suburb of Shanghai, once said with distress that if he made a movie in the 1930s in Shanghai, he would not need to set a scene. .Therefore, the central government formed a research team for the revitalization and transformation of Shanghai. Each ministries and commissions sent at least one ministerial-level cadre to participate, led by Song Ping and Ma Hong, to design a new development strategy for Shanghai. This high-level research team consisted of more than 30 people. They lived in the Xingguo Hotel, held meetings with cadres at all levels in Shanghai, held dozens of symposiums, and gradually sorted out some ideas. Shanghai was built into China's commercial center, financial center, trade center and information center. This plan was quickly approved by the State Council, and Shanghai's revival began at this time. During the survey, scholars such as Xue Muqiao and Xu Xuehan of the Economic Research Center put forward many important suggestions. One of them is that the establishment of a national joint-stock bank is best to restore a brand from the old bank that was closed at the beginning of liberation. What was determined was to restore the Bank of Communications.After several years of preparation, in March 1987, Bank of Communications was established in Shanghai.Later, during the 10th anniversary celebration, the staff of the Bank of Communications found out from the archives that the earliest suggestion was put forward by the research team in 1984, and Wu Jinglian was specially invited to write a commemorative article. In addition to co-writing the strategy of revitalizing and transforming Shanghai with the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee, the research team also wrote a separate report to the Party Central Committee and the State Council, and put forward two suggestions: First, establish a special city in Shanghai and give all preferential policies for opening up to the outside world. Shanghai; the second is to increase Shanghai's fiscal revenue capacity. At that time, Shanghai's annual fiscal self-retention ratio was only 13%, and experts suggested increasing it to 23%, an increase of 10%.The latter suggestion was adopted by the central government.The cadres in Shanghai are very grateful for that survey. Wu Jinglian himself was very satisfied with the work during that time.He said in his dictation in his later years that he originally thought that being an economist was just sitting around and discussing politics, which was far away from actual policy formulation. He "reversed the verdict" for the commodity economy and the research in Shanghai made him discover that theoretical research can also contribute to the country's development. Major decisions play an important role, and a policy proposal can change the growth of a region or an industry so significantly. After returning from Shanghai, Ma Hong put forward a motion to Wu Jinglian: to be transferred to the Technical and Economic Research Center of the State Council as an executive officer. Wu Jinglian was very surprised by this, he went back and thought about it for a few days and replied, yes. Regarding why he left his beloved theoretical research work to work in a government department, Wu Jinglian expressed his thoughts frankly in his article "In the Years of Reform": "Some people say, why do you want to be a government economist? I said this is not because you have low morals if you become a government economist. So what are you doing? Don’t you want to change this society? Don’t you want to benefit the people? You are in a government agency, and you have all the conditions Do better." The office of the Technical and Economic Research Center of the State Council was in Zhongnanhai, the heart of central decision-making.It was a small I-shaped building.A few days after Wu Jinglian arrived at work, he was discovered by Xue Muqiao, director-general of the Economic Research Center of the State Council who worked in the same building, and discussed with Ma Hong to transfer Wu Jinglian to the Economic Research Center as the executive director. In 1985, the State Council decided to merge the three consulting agencies of the State Council: Economic Research Center, Technical Economic Research Center, and Price Research Center into the State Council Economic, Technological and Social Development Research Center—later renamed the State Council Development Research Center, with Ma Hong as the director-general and Xue Muqiao as the The honorary director-general, Wu Jinglian, also entered the Development Research Center and continued to serve as the executive director. In this way, after working in the Institute of Economics of the Academy of Social Sciences for 30 years, Wu Jinglian "accidentally" played another role - from a pure study scholar to a "policy consulting expert". Suddenly a path opened up that was never expected.