Chapter 15 Chapter Fourteen
Before talking about this unsolved case, let’s talk about another debate that also happened around 1985 and has a causal relationship with it. Its theme is the overall design of China’s economic reform.
After the Third Plenary Session of the Twelfth Central Committee in 1984, the market orientation of the reform had become the consensus at that time. However, what path the market reform should take and how to introduce the market mechanism under the condition of public ownership became the next step. focus of controversy.Some people put forward that "the key is the reform of the price system, and other reforms should be carried out around the price reform", while others put forward that "reform should focus on enterprise reform."
The reason why the "reform of the price system" was so valued was related to a special price system implemented at that time - the "dual-track system".Under the planned economic system, the material distribution system uses administrative instructions as a means, and the price is completely controlled by the relevant state departments. As a result, enterprises are controlled to death, and the efficiency and effectiveness are extremely low.Since 1981, the state has allowed enterprises to self-sell some products on the premise of completing the plan, and the price is determined by the market.This creates a "dual-track system" in which the products of the national mandatory plan are uniformly allocated according to the price stipulated by the state, and the prices of the products sold by the enterprise are determined by the market.In the economic environment of unprecedented shortage of materials, the "dual-track system" opened a gap in the planning system on the one hand, created space for the revitalization of enterprises within the system and the acquisition of raw materials for township enterprises outside the system, and on the other hand formed a rent-seeking and The soil of corruption, especially when the economy is overheated, the contradiction between supply and demand is sharp, and there is a huge gap between the planned price and the market price, some criminals engage in power-for-money transactions and take advantage of the loopholes of the "dual-track system" to profit from it and make a fortune. its wealth.Therefore, after entering the mid-1980s, "merging reform" of the distorted and dual-track price system has become a very important proposition.
In the "Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Economic System Reform", there is a programmatic text: "Enhancing the vitality of enterprises is the central link of economic system reform...the reform of the price system is the key to the success or failure of the entire economic system reform." Then, Is there a priority between "center" and "key", and if so, who has priority?This document is not clearly defined.Taking this as a point of view, the central decision-makers still have very different opinions. Correspondingly, two schools of tit-for-tat have formed in the theoretical circles, one is the "enterprise subject reform school" and the other is the "overall coordination reform school". The views of the two factions differed from each other, and for a while there was a chaotic situation. The main generals of the two sides were Li Yining and Wu Jinglian.
Among Chinese economists, Li Yining was one of the first to propose that enterprise reform must follow the road of joint-stock system, so he was called "Li Shares". ②As early as April 1980, at the symposium on labor wages jointly held by the Research Office of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee and the State Administration of Labor, he proposed that the traditional state-owned system should be replaced by a "new type of ownership system" - the joint-stock system. In August, at the labor and employment conference held by the State Council, he mentioned the implementation of the joint-stock system again.According to Lu Hao's book "Li Yining", at that time, economists who held the same view as him included Yu Guangyuan, Tong Dalin, Dong Fu, etc.
In China's economic reform, "enhancing the vitality of enterprises" has always been placed at the center.Until the early 1990s, many people still firmly believed that, on the premise of not changing the nature of property rights, as long as state-owned enterprises were given power and profits, enterprise reform could be successful.Li Yining's shareholding system plan is undoubtedly a challenge to this view.
Therefore, when designing the overall idea of reform, Li Yining believes that the reform of the enterprise system should be the main line.
In March 1986, the person in charge of the State Council put forward a plan for the reform of supporting prices, taxes and finances, and ordered the establishment of an economic reform plan design office to be responsible for the plan design of supporting reforms for prices, taxes and finances. In April, Li Yining explicitly opposed the proposed price reform for three main reasons.First, what China is currently facing is not a market equilibrium system, enterprises are still not truly independent commodity producers, the price mechanism is distorted, the market system and functions are not sound, and the total social demand exceeds the total supply, resulting in commodity shortages. The future reform plan cannot use price as a breakthrough.Commodity prices are based on the factors of production, and the prices of the factors of production are based on the ownership system. Therefore, in the final analysis, the price is the transaction condition for the transfer of ownership between market parties. It is impossible to have a truly reasonable price system because of the constraints of the property rights relationship.Second, it is unrealistic to try to stimulate stable economic growth by liberalizing prices under the condition of relatively large quantity quotas in the shortage economy. This has been proved many times by the practice of reform in Eastern Europe and the operation of Western economies.Third, the price system under the commodity economy is not so much given to enterprises by the central government as it is created by enterprises themselves after they truly become commodity producers.
Therefore, in Li Yining's view, the realization of the market pricing system can only be the destination of enterprise reform, not the breakthrough point of enterprise reform.As the core of all economic system reforms, it must be the remodeling of the enterprise system itself, that is, "establishing enterprises owned by the whole people that are truly responsible for their own profits and losses."
From these expositions, it can be seen that Li Yining's "disequilibrium theory" and his advocacy of the shareholding system are complementary and self-contained, and have internal theoretical logic.
After clearly expounding his point of view, Li Yining went on to explain the specific methods of enterprise reform, that is, through "contracting shares first", "stocks first and then contracting", "stocks and then contracting", or "only shares without contracting", etc. The method is to transform state-owned enterprises into "public-owned enterprises that are truly responsible for their own profits and losses."Later, in 1988, the research group of Peking University under his leadership submitted to the State Economic Reform Commission a "Outline of Reform of my country's Economic System from 1988 to 1995", which put forward a clearer timetable for reform and suggested that the primary task of reform is to use It will take about 8 years to clarify the property rights relationship of the enterprise and realize the corporatization of the enterprise.The reform of the enterprise management mechanism should be linked with the reform of the property right relationship of the enterprise, and the non-standardized contract should be linked with the standardized property right reform. From 1988 to 1990, the enterprise contracting system was improved and developed, and the joint-stock system continued to be piloted; from 1991 to 1992, the contracting system was transitioned to a joint-stock system; from 1993 to 1995, enterprises implemented a more comprehensive joint-stock system, and generally established holding enterprise groups.During these eight years, the focus of enterprise reform should gradually shift from the contract system to the joint-stock system, from the reform of the low-level management mechanism and property rights relationship to the high-level reform of the management mechanism and property rights relationship.
In the camp that supports the overall supporting reform, the situation seems to be a little more complicated than that of Li Yining.One can also get a glimpse from the name of the school. Li Yining called it the "price reform main line school", while Wu Jinglian called himself the "overall coordination reform school".
During Wu Jinglian's time at Yale, he gradually formed the idea of overall reform.In his view, the market economy is a complete institutional system. Therefore, the distinction between administrative decentralization and economic decentralization proposed by him is a certain embodiment of the overall market-oriented reform concept.After returning to China, his thinking became more firm.He believes that China's economic reform cannot be fully achieved by relying on the "single-soldier" enterprise reform, so it must be considered as a whole and carried out in a coordinated manner. Based on this, he discussed "The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Formulating the National Economic and Social Policy" in July 1985. Proposals for the Development of the Seventh Five-Year Plan (Draft) put forward the idea of supporting the reform of the three links of enterprises, market system and macro-adjustment system.He has stuck to that claim ever since.
In his conception, reform is not only a profound revolution to destroy the old system, but also a systematic project to build a new economic system.This system is mainly composed of self-managed enterprises responsible for their own profits and losses, a competitive market system and a macro-management system mainly regulated by the market.These three aspects are interrelated and inseparable.Only when these three pillars are preliminarily established can this economic system function effectively.Therefore, economic reform must be carried out simultaneously in these three aspects.Wu Jinglian emphasized that the so-called supporting reform does not mean that reforms in all aspects must be carried out in parallel.In view of the complexity of the problem, the transition from the old system to the new system must be carried out in stages, and reforms in all aspects also have a gradual process.Based on this, he believes that it is possible to design a reform implementation plan that is not only divided into steps, but also roughly synchronized at each stage.
Like Li Yining, Wu Jinglian also clearly expressed his different opinions on invigorating enterprises by "delegating power and transferring profits". On July 15, 1985, at the symposium on the "Suggestions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Formulating the Seventh Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development (Draft)", he delivered a speech on "single-item promotion or supporting reforms". He said that strengthening The vitality of enterprises is undoubtedly a very important task in the reform of the economic system. However, it is doubtful whether revitalizing enterprises is all the basic requirements of the reform, and whether "simplification of administration and decentralization of power" alone can revitalize enterprises.Judging from the experience of carrying out comprehensive economic system reform in the past year, the effect of single-item emphasis on "relaxing and delegating power" and "enlarging enterprise autonomy" seems to be unsatisfactory.
When analyzing this level, we can see that Wu Jinglian and Li Yining have the same views. They both believe that the reform of delegating power and transferring profits implemented since 1978 cannot establish an economic system that can allocate resources. Surpassed Sun Yefang - the fact is that in the next 20 years, they are all staunch supporters and defenders of the property rights clarification movement.Then, a fork in the road appeared in their logic. Li Yining believed that although decentralization of power and benefits was not enough, the direction of enterprise reform as the main line was correct, so the establishment of a joint-stock system could also be compatible with enterprise contracting; Wu Jinglian’s opinion was, Enterprise reform alone, no matter what kind of plan, is not enough, because, "If the enterprise does not carry out business activities under the constraints of a competitive market, there is no pressure from competition, no matter what kind of enterprise system is established, the enterprise cannot be truly dynamic. .In the mid-1980s, the output value of private enterprises accounted for more than one-third of the industrial output value. In this case, if the price distortion of the dual-track system does not change fundamentally, unequal competition between state-owned enterprises and private enterprises will form. Power rent-seeking and corruption will inevitably breed, and the establishment of a market-oriented environment is out of the question.”
This is the point of disagreement. Li Yining thinks that the enterprise itself needs to be changed, while Wu Jinglian thinks that the enterprise's living environment needs to be changed.
There are three key points in Wu Jinglian's overall reform theory:
——The fundamental feature of the old system is that scarce resources are allocated through administrative orders and mandatory plans. This resource allocation method cannot be efficient because it cannot overcome the major defects in the information mechanism and incentive mechanism.Attributing the ills of the traditional mechanism to "over-concentration of power" is a superficial conclusion. If the resource allocation method of the plan is not changed, it will not be effective to try to use "decentralization of power and transfer of profits" to achieve fundamental changes in economic operation.
——The only resource allocation method that can replace the administrative order is the resource allocation method based on the market mechanism, which overcomes the shortcomings of the command economy in the information mechanism and incentive mechanism, and enables the most effective allocation and utilization of economic resources.
——The commodity economy is an organic system consisting of self-management and self-responsible for profits and losses, a competitive market system and a macro-management system mainly regulated by the market, and the above three aspects are interrelated and inseparable.Economic reform must be carried out synchronously in these three interrelated aspects.
His theory has been recognized by many scholars and decision-makers.At the discussion meeting on the first draft of the "Suggestions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Formulating the Seventh Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development", Wu Jinglian disagreed that the reform should simply be attributed to expanding the autonomy of enterprises. Suggestions for the Seventh Five-Year Plan for Social Development".
In the future, Wu Jinglian reiterated this opinion many times. On January 25, 1986, the main person in charge of the State Council listened to the report of the "Seventh Five-Year Plan" reform proposal seminar.At the meeting, Song Guoqing, Xu Jingan and Wu Jinglian made reports on behalf of three different "schools".Before the meeting, Wu Jinglian discussed with Zhou Xiaochuan, Lou Jiwei, Li Jiange and others, and formed a report outline. Wu Jinglian gave a lecture at the meeting, explaining the idea of this overall coordinated reform.
The first link: Enhancing the autonomy and economic responsibility of enterprises.Small state-owned enterprises can open up reforms, and large enterprises will gradually realize marketization. In the next few years, administrative companies will be abolished, and a joint-stock system and asset management responsibility system will be implemented.
The second link: the establishment and further improvement of a competitive market.Establish an economic entity that operates large-scale wholesale business; rationalize market parameters as much as possible, distinguish between different products, adopt multi-price linkage, price and tax linkage methods, and carry out "adjustment or release" and "combination of adjustment and release" reforms on prices; Grasp the legislation against monopoly and protection of competition, and prevent the development of market segregation.
The third link: building a new macro-control system.Including, improving the fiscal and taxation system, successively introducing new taxes such as land use fees and capital taxes; advancing the current fiscal system of "dividing food into different kitchens" to a new stage of "dividing tax categories and verifying revenue and expenditure"; reforming the financial system and accelerating the implementation of grassroots The bank's business operation mode; strengthening the management and regulation of the central bank; rectifying and utilizing the private financial institutions that have emerged.
After the report meeting, the main person in charge of the State Council asked the State Restructuring Commission to comprehensively report what each company said at the report meeting and formulate a formal reform plan.However, the main person in charge believed that the conditions for large-scale reform were not available at that time, so this plan was not adopted.
In mid-March, the main person in charge of the State Council had a new idea.He said at the Central Financial and Economic Leading Group of the Communist Party of China and the executive meeting of the State Council that there are currently many contradictions, frictions, and loopholes in the economic field. The root cause is the "stalemate" between the old and new systems. During this period, the state of balance of power between the two systems should be ended as soon as possible, and a new system will be the main stage. "Specifically speaking, next year's reform can be designed and studied from the following three aspects: the first is price, the second is taxation, and the third is finance. The reforms in these three aspects are interrelated," "The key is The reform of the price system, and other reforms revolve around the price reform.”In other words, the opinions of the "overall coordination reformers" were adopted in principle by the decision-makers.
To this end, the State Council formally established a State Council Economic System Reform Program Discussion Group Office (referred to as the Program Office) in April. There are about 30 people in total, all of whom are elite backbones drawn from various departments under the State Council. The leading group is headed by the State Council. Deputy Prime Minister Tian Jiyun is in charge, the office director is Gao Shangquan (directly led by An Zhiwen, director of the State Restructuring Commission during Gao’s overseas inspection), Yang Qixian, Fu Fengxiang, Jiang Xi and Wu Jinglian are the deputy directors, and the office is located beside the Beihai Bridge in Zhongnanhai Wu Jinglian is one of the main designers of the project in the I-shaped building.Objectively speaking, since the reform and opening up more than 30 years ago, among Chinese economists, Wu Jinglian is indeed one of the people with the most ability to structure reform plans.His systematic thinking about the economic system and his ability to design various reform measures are outstanding.
In his recollections in his later years, Wu Jinglian repeatedly emphasized that the debate on the general idea of reform in the mid-1980s was not a dispute between Wu and Li, but actually a manifestation of different reform ideas at the decision-making level.The program formed by the program office was drawn up in accordance with the spirit of the speech made by the leaders of the State Council in mid-March. Tian Jiyun, the leader of the program discussion leading group of the State Council and vice premier, directly led the discussion and design of the program, and put forward many important opinions. The plan formed has been repeatedly negotiated by the main person in charge of the State Council, the leaders of various ministries and commissions, and the staff of the plan office.Soon, on April 30, the Planning Office came up with a detailed plan for supporting reforms, which involved multiple aspects such as price, taxation, finance, finance, trade and enterprise reform.On the same day, the plan was sent to the State Council.
On June 11th and 12th, under the auspices of the main person in charge of the State Council, the Program Office and relevant functional departments of the State Council held a two-day symposium in Yuquan Mountain, Beijing.On the first day of the meeting, Wu Jinglian made an emotional speech, saying: "There are so many problems in the economy now, and the only way out is reform. I am not a very rash person, and I tend to look at problems pessimistically, but Now, I don't see much danger, we have the ability to reform."
According to Wu Jinglian's recollection, "the atmosphere of the meeting that day was very good."After the meeting that day, he and some scholars rowed in the lake.Deputy Prime Minister Tian Jiyun came from afar, called him ashore, and said to him, I think the leader has been persuaded today, prepare well tonight, and be the first to speak tomorrow, and you may pass the test.
The next day, the meeting continued.Several ministries and commissions were the first to speak, questioning that the pace of price reform was too large.As a result, the direction of the wind changed subtly, and the overall supporting reform plan failed to pass at this meeting, and was required to continue to revise it.
The reasons for the difficulties in the price, tax and fiscal reform are very complicated.
In the theoretical circles, Li Yining expressed a clear opposition.In May, shortly after the program office submitted the supporting reform plan, Li Yining participated in the "May 4th" scientific seminar at Peking University. Facing thousands of listeners and many media reporters, he said, "The failure of China's economic reform may be due to the The failure of price reform, and the success of China's economic reform must depend on the success of ownership reform."
In order to illustrate his thesis more clearly, he also compared price reform and ownership reform in 10 aspects.He said, "Enterprises are forced to get involved in price reform, but they are likely to voluntarily join the pilot of ownership reform." "Ownership reform actually does not require economic costs, or the cost is very low." levels of reform” and so on.Li Yining seems to have always limited the policy topic of his opponents in the debate to "price reform"—many years later, he still referred to the opponent as "the main line of price reform". He did not challenge Wu Jinglian's overall supporting plan, but said that "price reform is very It is difficult to complement other economic reforms."
There are also voices of opposition in government decision-making consulting agencies and administrative functional departments.
Some people believe that this plan is not feasible either economically or politically, because supporting reforms in price, taxation, finance and finance require a relatively relaxed economic environment, which China does not currently have.At the same time, complementary reforms mean a huge adjustment of interest relations, which cannot bring benefits to everyone, and thus may encounter social resistance and political risks.Others said that this plan was unrealistic and idealized. It was something that a group of scholars hid in their studies and figured out from books, so it was not feasible.In other words, quite a few people worry that the risk of reform is too great.
In addition to the above-mentioned points of view, a bigger question comes from the discussion of corporate reform strategies.
Due to the great success of the joint production contract responsibility system in rural areas, it was considered as the most important experience in China's reform throughout the 1980s. Many people believed that the reform was "one contract and everything works", as long as the contract system is introduced into enterprise reform In the middle, it will surely be successful. Some people even put forward that "the contract system is the fundamental system of the socialist commodity economy".It also has a big market at the decision-making level.Even within the planning office, there were disagreements. According to Wu Jinglian’s oral history, after the first plan for the overall supporting reform was formed, it should have been signed and submitted to the State Council by An Zhiwen and Director Liu Gao Shangquan of the Economic Reform Commission. At that time, Gao Shangquan is not in the country, while An Zhiwen tends to give priority to corporate reforms, and has reservations about the tax and fiscal reforms. Therefore, he signed and submitted the first draft of the plan.
In addition, voices opposing the abolition of the dual-track price system also surfaced in both the business community and local governments.
At that time, Zhou Guanwu, general manager of the Capital Iron and Steel Company, who was regarded as a representative of state-owned enterprise reform, wrote a letter to the Party Central Committee, arguing that the reform should be "based on contracting". The reforms being carried out are "counter-reforms."According to Wu Jinglian's recollection, at that time many state-owned enterprises supported the contract system and the dual-track system, and opposed price reform.Once, the planning office held a research meeting in Shanghai. Several factory directors of large state-owned enterprises said that if the price is liberalized, we will not be able to get raw materials at the allocated price, and the cost will go up, and the company will lose money. Therefore, the price cannot be adjusted. put.
The opposition of local governments is mainly aimed at the tax-sharing system.Because once this system is implemented, local fiscal and tax autonomy will obviously be reduced.Wu Jinglian recalled that at first he thought that the coastal areas would object, but Tian Jiyun came up with an idea of "protecting the base", that is, ensuring vested interests. Unexpectedly, the mainland government also opposed it, because their discretionary power would be greatly restricted.
It was against this background that the situation changed suddenly on the second day of the Yuquanshan Symposium.At the beginning of the meeting, when Wu Jinglian was about to make the first speech according to Tian Jiyun's order, some leaders of ministries and commissions first picked up the microphone and expressed their concerns about the plan one after another. These speeches continued like thunder one after another. Finally, the State Council The leader announced that the plan needs to be revised and will be discussed after maturity.
Wu Jinglian was very depressed.After the meeting, several young people in charge of the plan blamed him, saying: "Why don't you use the spirit of grabbing the microphone to make the plan pass without success."
In this way, at the symposium in Yuquanshan, the main person in charge of the State Council did not make a final decision on the overall supporting reform plan.The Planning Office revised the original "big plan" and retracted many aspects. For example, in terms of price reform, the original design was to adjust the price in an all-round way. Later, it was changed to only adjust the price of steel products, because the price of steel products was fired at that time. Best selling.
In August, a meeting of the Central Financial and Economic Leading Group of the Communist Party of China and an executive meeting of the State Council were held in Beidaihe, and this revised plan was approved. On September 13, the main person in charge of the State Council reported the plan to Deng Xiaoping. Deng said, this is very good, and I think this is the way to do it.
However, in October, the reform suddenly took a turn, and the enterprise reform with the joint-stock system and the contract system as the main form became a new breakthrough, and the overall supporting reform plan was completely abandoned.
This is the famous policy debate that took place between 1985 and 1986.
In the future, we will see the fact that the overall supporting reform plan that Wu Jinglian participated in designing has been "frozen" for 6 years. At the end of 1987, he compiled and published the book "The Overall Design of China's Economic Reform". In 1993, this plan was re-adopted by the central government, which completely changed the path of China's economic reform.
Many years later, both Li Yining and Wu Jinglian declared that in this great debate, their views were finally proved to be correct.
Li Yining said that the failure of price “breakthrough” in 1988 (we will describe this failure in detail in the next chapter) was the catastrophe caused by the “main line faction of price reform”.If the shareholding system had been resolutely promoted in 1986, China's reform would have been different.Wu Jinglian believes that it was precisely because of the abandonment of the positive overall supporting reform plan that China lost the opportunity to advance reform in a big way, which led to the passive reform in the next few years, so that the severe inflation in 1988 occurred.He said in his oral history that Tian Jiyun later "told me more than once, saying that if it had been done in the past, many things would not have happened later, because the reform conditions in 1986 were quite good."In Wu Jinglian's view, the deeper meaning of this debate is the struggle between two reform routes, the core of which is to maintain, strengthen or eradicate the basis of rent-seeking activities.
The focus of their debate, in the eyes of future generations, is already a lesson plan in the classroom.China's economic reform is like a great chess game that cannot be regretted. No one can go back to the past and repeat the game. Changes and public expectations have lost the meaning of reality.
However, this debate also made Wu Jinglian and Li Yining successful in a certain sense.Among the contemporary economists, they were the first to consciously reflect on the reform from the institutional level, although their views sometimes differed.They all have profound academic accomplishments and are outstanding representatives of the second generation of economists in New China. During the era of over 30 years of major reforms, they can be regarded as the most influential and well-known masters of the generation.
This "war" between two "Jiangsu people born in 1930" was a battle for their fame as leaders in China's economic theory circle.