Chapter 17 Chapter 16 Origin of "Wu Market"

During the spring and summer of 1989, a great turmoil occurred in China.At the Fourth Plenary Session of the 13th CPC Central Committee that ended on June 24, 1989, 62-year-old Jiang Zemin was selected from the post of Shanghai Party Secretary and elected as the new General Secretary. In the whole year of 1989, the speed of economic development dropped to the lowest point since 1978. Money was tightened, consumption cooled, factories were underoperated, enterprises closed down on a large scale, unemployed people increased, and capital circulation was not smooth, presenting a depression. The turmoil in the economic situation has made ideological debates very sensitive. Some people worry that the expansion and development of private enterprises will eventually cause a "discoloration" of socialist China. Questions about reform policies are coming from all directions. "People's Daily" reporters Ma Licheng and Ling Zhijun recorded in the book "Confrontation", "Those intensive criticism articles are flying all over the sky. This is a very rare phenomenon after the end of the 'Cultural Revolution'."

It was in such a general environment that the dispute between the "commodity economy" and the "planned economy" that had been settled a few years ago was once again put on the table. When the boat is in the middle of the stream, it suddenly encounters a whirlpool and wanders back and forth, which is extremely dangerous. In this big debate, which is full of gunpowder and determines the direction of China's economy, the gentle Wu Jinglian played the role of a lonely soldier. From the very beginning, Wu Jinglian made himself a "target" to attract attacks. He not only defended "commodity economy", he even went so far as to propose that the new term "market economy" should be used.

As early as the beginning of 1988, Guangdong Province and the Guangzhou Economic Research Center held a seminar, proposing to use "market economy in the primary stage of socialism" to justify the name of "socialist planned commodity economy".After seeing the relevant report, the central leadership asked Ma Hong to organize a discussion with the staff of the Development Research Center of the State Council, and the task fell to Wu Jinglian. In March, Wu Jinglian and his colleague Hu Ji wrote a special report "Several Opinions on "Commodity Economy" and "Market Economy"", which made a multi-faceted analysis of these two concepts.They believe that "commodity economy" is an economic form opposite to natural economy, while "market economy" is a concept opposite to "command economy" or "control economy", and "market economy" allocates resources through market mechanisms , "command economy" allocates resources through administrative orders, and the essence of China's economic reform is to replace the latter with the former. Therefore, it can be called "socialist market economy".The leaders commented on this opinion, saying, "This is a theoretical issue that can and should be discussed in depth." discussion. On July 15, the "People's Daily" published the report by Wu Jinglian and Hu Ji under the title "The Socialist Commodity Economy Is a Type of Market Economy." noun.

However, with the failure of price "breakthrough", the research on market economy not only stagnated in an all-round way, but even completely opposite theoretical trends appeared. On October 28, 1989, "Guangming Daily" published an article "China Cannot Completely Implement Market Economy", which stated, "If we... let the market become the main resource allocator, do not pay attention to or even weaken and deny the importance of the planned economy. It will inevitably lead to the disintegration of the socialist public ownership economy.” His views are completely opposite to those of Wu Jinglian and Hu Jiyiwen more than a year ago.

Ten days later, on November 7, Wu Jinglian received a notice from Sun Shangqing, deputy director-general of the Development Research Center, asking Wu to accompany him to a meeting in the West Building of Zhongnanhai Central District to summarize the experience and lessons of the "70 days" in 1989.It was at this meeting that the planners and the marketists launched their first tit-for-tat debate. According to Wu Jinglian’s oral history, as soon as he entered the venue, Deng Liqun said, “Wu Jinglian, we haven’t seen each other for a long time.” Wu replied, “Is there a five-year plan?” Deng said, “No, there is Two five-year plans." In other words, the two haven't met each other for 10 years.At the beginning of the meeting, Xu Yi, the former director of the Research Institute of the Ministry of Finance, was the first to speak. He used to be the deputy director of the East China Taxation Administration. After being transferred to Beijing, he was once very familiar with Wu Jinglian.He spoke eloquently for an hour and a half. The central idea was that the root cause of inflation and social turmoil was that something went wrong in economic reform. What should have been planned was oriented, but it was market-oriented, which led to redundant construction, inflation, corruption and vassalism. The economy and so many other issues.

Then Wu Jinglian spoke, and he also spoke eloquently for an hour and a half.He said that his views on many phenomena are very similar to those of Xu Yi, but the analysis of the causes of these phenomena is far from him.For some problems that have emerged in China's reform, we really need to think calmly. People have gained a lot of benefits in the ten-year reform, so why are they still dissatisfied?Then, he analyzed the root causes of the three major social problems of inflation, unfair distribution and rampant corruption.He believes that the main root cause is a problem with the development strategy and reform process.The problem in the development strategy is that we are eager for success and use various means to support the high speed. The problem in the reform is that it is not clear what to change from the original system and what kind of system to change into. The specific path of reform is not clear. clear.In the early stage of the reform, the way of delegating power and giving up profits was taken, and methods such as the contract system were used to "mobilize enthusiasm". These practices were practiced as early as the 1950s.New methods should be used to expand the role of the market, but if it is carried out according to the idea of ​​delegating power and transferring profits, there will be very serious consequences.

Wu Jinglian disagrees with the view that corruption and other phenomena are caused by market-oriented reforms.Commodities, he says, are inherently egalitarian, according to Marx.Therefore, the fair competition legislation of market economy countries stipulates that there should be no price or other discrimination. It cannot be the same as under the dual-track price system. The prices of those with approval and those without approval, and those with rights and those without rights are not the same. That is not a market economy. in principle.The economy under the dual system is both a monetary economy and administrative control, and power has a price, so a large number of rent-seeking behaviors have occurred, which is the reason for the current spread of corruption.Finally, Wu Jinglian also recommended an article by an economic expert from HSBC Bank in Hong Kong. This article argues that a joint-stock company is just a form of management, and it can be established on the basis of public ownership or private ownership.At this point in his speech, Xu Yi interrupted him and said, I am absolutely opposed to you on this point.

That day, only the two of them spoke in the morning meeting, and most of the people next to them did not participate in the debate. Wu Jinglian's views are undoubtedly very "dangerous" in the eyes of many people, and he has isolated himself from the "mainstream".At the same time when he and Xu Yi started the debate, a campaign to rectify the private economy was being launched across the country.According to the "Economic History of the People's Republic of China", in the second half of 1989, the number of self-employed registrations nationwide decreased by 3 million, and the number of private enterprises dropped from 200,000 to 90,600, a reduction of more than half.The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China also issued a special document, clearly stipulating that "private business owners cannot join the Communist Party of China." Those who were originally party members may not consider persuading them to quit the party for the time being.The political message revealed by this policy is self-evident.

In the open press, all kinds of voices opposing market-oriented reforms are loud and clear. In January 1990, Beijing's "Contemporary Trends of Thought" published "Using Four Basic Principles to Guide and Standardize Reform and Opening-up." The article said, "If the private economy and individual economy...are allowed to develop freely, they will impact the socialist economy." On February 22, authoritative magazines and newspapers in Beijing published a long article "On Opposing Bourgeois Liberalization" by a politician and theorist. The author raised a question: Do those who engage in bourgeois liberalization have economic roots?Is there an economic force to support them?The answer is yes, private enterprise and self-employment are the economic roots of bourgeois liberalization.The article said that the reform of bourgeois liberalization "in the final analysis, one is to abolish public ownership as the main body and realize privatization, and the other is to abolish the planned economy and realize marketization."

The danger and passivity of Wu Jinglian and the reformists at this time are not only due to the pressure of domestic ideological trends, but also challenged by the international turbulent situation.It was during this period that startling "dramatic changes" took place in the camp of socialist countries in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. In October 1989, the political situation in Hungary changed drastically. The ruling Socialist Workers' Party was transformed into a Socialist Party, and Hungary began to implement a multi-party system. On November 9, the GDR and the Federal Republic of Germany announced their merger, and the Berlin Wall, which had existed for 28 years and 3 months, was torn down.On December 22 of the same year, a new political party "National Salvation Front" emerged in Romania. Three days later, General Secretary Ceausescu of the Romanian Communist Party, who had been in power for 24 years, was arrested and shot after a military trial. In December 1990, the Communist Party of Poland lost its leadership in the election, and Lech Walesa, the leader of the Solidarity trade union, was elected president of Poland.

At the same time that Eastern European countries "changed their colors" one after another, the Soviet Union, the largest socialist country in the world, also began to disintegrate rapidly. In February 1990, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union held a plenary session of the Central Committee, at which General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev's new idea of ​​"humane and democratic socialism" was officially turned into the program of action and basic policy of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. In March, Lithuania took the lead in declaring independence; in July, Moscow Mayor Yeltsin announced his withdrawal from the Soviet Communist Party. On December 25, 1991, Gorbachev delivered a nationally televised speech announcing his resignation from the presidency of the Soviet Union. The red flag with sickle and hammer was lowered from the sky above the Kremlin. The "upheaval between the Soviet Union and the East" brought great shock to China, which is also a socialist country.In addition to being horrified, the ideological circles have formed several completely different conclusions. Some people believe that it is precisely because the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries gave up the planned economic system and the theory of class struggle that led to the loss of today's political power.Of course, this trend of thought created unprecedented political pressure on Wu Jinglian and other reformers. In the spring of 1990, Wu Jinglian and Zhou Nan went to Oxford University for visiting research. When returning home, they passed through the newly merged Federal Republic of Germany, Czechoslovakia, and the Soviet Union.On the way back to Beijing by train from Moscow, his mood became more and more pessimistic. The changes in domestic and international situations made him think more deeply about China's way out. Wu Jinglian believes that the deepest reason for the "upheaval in the Soviet Union and the East" is the flaws in the system and the policy mistakes based on this system.In the past few decades, although some countries attempted to reform this rigid system and establish a vigorous and dynamic socialist economic system, they failed to achieve success due to unclear goals or wrong methods.In this way, the economic situation is getting worse and worse, and the masses of the people have lost confidence in socialism and the leadership of the party.His final conclusion is: China can only ensure social progress and long-term stability of the country by carrying out reform and opening up. On the afternoon of July 5, 1990, shortly after Wu Jinglian returned to China, General Secretary Jiang Zemin held a symposium on economic issues at the Qinzheng Palace in Zhongnanhai. More than a dozen economists were invited to attend, including Xue Muqiao, Liu Guoguang, Su Xing , Wu Shuqing, Yuan Mu, Xu Yi, Wu Jinglian, etc. Premier Li Peng and Politburo Standing Committee Qiao Shi were present.Wu Jinglian and the "planners" fought face to face again. As in the previous year, Xu Yi took the lead and insisted on opposing the market orientation.Wu Jinglian was the second to speak. He said that all the phenomena you mentioned exist, but the reason is not that the market orientation of the reform is wrong and the reform is "eager to achieve success", but that the market-oriented reform is not firm enough and thorough enough. The slogan of "combining planned economy with market regulation" is inappropriate, and the reform orientation of "market economy" should be clarified. At this time, Yuan Mu followed Wu Jinglian's words and said that the central government has never talked about "market economy"!Wu Jinglian reminded him that in 1981 Chen Yun used the phrase "combination of planned economy and market economy", and Deng Xiaoping also talked about "planned economy and market economy" when meeting the martial law troops. Why can't this term be used?Yuan Mu also said that in the official document it was changed to "combination of planned economy and market regulation". Since it is not in the official document, it cannot be used.Wu Jinglian said, everyone has watched the video of Deng Xiaoping's speech, since he can say that, why is it outrageous for us to say that?In the meantime, some people interrupted Wu Jinglian several times, saying that the formulation of "combining planned economy and market regulation" had been decided by the central government, and we could only discuss how to combine it, not the formulation itself.But with the permission of the meeting host, Wu Jinglian insisted on finishing his speech. At this symposium, Xue Muqiao and Liu Guoguang also stood on the side of market-oriented reforms, emphasizing the need to adhere to the reform line since the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, maintain the correct direction of market orientation, and restore the Third Plenary Session of the Twelfth Central Committee and The reference to the "Thirteenth National Congress".On the other side of the debate, besides Xu Yi and Yuan Mu, You Lin, deputy secretary-general of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and former editor-in-chief of "Seeking Truth" magazine, is also one of the most active people. For a while, the two sides refused to give in to each other. The 86-year-old Xue Muqiao was so emotional that he couldn't even speak clearly at one point.After the meeting, he wrote a long letter to Jiang Zemin and other leaders of the central government, saying that he "due to his advanced age, his thinking is not as quick as it used to be. What needs to be said has been said a lot, and I have not expressed my opinion, and I feel very uneasy about it.” So he explained his views in detail again, thinking that he must recognize the situation and carry out market-oriented reforms decisively. In the letter, Xue Muqiao also talked about his views on the "upheaval in the Soviet Union and the East". He wrote: "Recently, there has been a lot of talk about the "upheaval in Eastern Europe". The explanation is not enough. The main reason for the setbacks of the Soviet Union and the East is that they have not carried out thorough reforms, and they have not been able to get out of the circle of chaotic prices, soft finance, and soft credit. At best, the reform approach can only delay the outbreak of contradictions and lead the national economy into a chronic crisis, but cannot achieve a fundamental improvement in the economic situation.” Xue Muqiao recorded in his memoirs, "This letter received great help from Comrade Wu Jinglian during the drafting process, and he made many revisions and additions to the original manuscript I wrote." In order to echo Xue Muqiao, Wu Jinglian also continued to stubbornly counter-criticize.In November 1990, he wrote the article "Prospects for China's Economic Development in the 1990s", in which he gave a strategic reflection on reforms in the next 10 years. In response to the difficult situation, Wu Jinglian summarized the solutions proposed by various political forces at that time into the following three solutions. The first plan is to implement administrative re-centralization, abolish the administrative decentralization system implemented in the past few years, such as "financial contracting", etc., cancel the dual-track price system, strengthen the centralized control of scarce resources by the central government, and turn the national economy The production of important departments, important products, and major investments are under the control of mandatory plans, and administrative means are used to reallocate resources, optimize the structure of the national economy, and achieve stable economic development. In other words, a return to a centralized planning model.He judged that "if this method can be realized, it will be able to achieve short-term economic stability."However, China's changes will be very slow from now on, "it cannot be expected to rely on it to achieve the grand goal of modernization." The second option is to promote market-oriented reforms, cancel the "dual system" as soon as possible, and initially establish a "socialist commodity economy", that is, an economic system in which "the state regulates the market and the market guides enterprises." While controlling the total amount, make full use of the power of market competition to overcome various problems in the existing economic structure and economic operation. The third option is to roughly maintain the existing dual system of planning and market and the systems of "financial contract", "foreign trade contract", "credit contract", departmental contract and enterprise contract, etc., and only make some changes in two aspects The first is to appropriately strengthen the power of the central administrative authority and the planning agency, and increase the proportion of mandatory plans; the second is to make some adjustments to some unreasonable prices, and to revise and improve the contract base and methods. Wu Jinglian believes that the second option is desirable, but he believes that the probability of being adopted is very low. He wrote, "Although some economists, including the author of this article, firmly believe that this is the way for China's economy to get out of the predicament and move towards prosperity. , but due to ideological reasons and the pattern of interests that have been formed in the past 10 years, this idea may be difficult for people to accept.”Therefore, he almost reluctantly believes that the third method-"Politically speaking, it may be more desirable. However, it is difficult to solve the problems existing in China's economic reality. If the tight macroeconomic policy continues, the It is impossible for the medium-term economy to have a big improvement, and if the method of loosening monetary control is adopted to stimulate economic recovery, it is easy to have a new round of expansion-expansion-contraction-depression fluctuations." At the end of the article, he wrote quite expectantly that if China’s modernization is to be truly successful, “the way out lies in promoting the fundamental reform of the economic system and establishing a market economic system with macro-adjustment relatively quickly. In the future development, there will be More and more economic experts and leaders are aware of this, so a new situation of reform and opening up has emerged.” Wu Jinglian who wrote this article did not expect that the "leader who will appear in the future" he was looking forward to would appear soon.More than two years later, among the three proposals he gave, the central government finally adopted not the third one that was a compromise, but the second one that had the most market-oriented characteristics. These, of course, are for later.At least from the perspective of public opinion around 1990, Wu Jinglian, Xue Muqiao and others were still lonely. On November 3, 1990, just four months after the symposium at the Palace of Qinzheng, "Beijing Daily" published an article titled "China's reform is by no means a complete implementation of a market economy." Its core point of view goes straight to market orientation sent away. In April 1991, "Contemporary Trends of Thought" published "Can Reform and Opening-up Disregard Surnames of "Community" and "Capital"?" "One article, said "If you don't ask the surname 'she' or 'capital', it will inevitably lead the reform and opening up to the road of capitalism and ruin the cause of socialism". In July, the "Pursuit of Truth" magazine published "Revisiting Surname "She" and Surname "Capital", saying that "all Chinese who are unwilling to be double slaves have the responsibility and the right to ask their surnames when they are advancing on the road of reform." The surname of 'community' is 'capital', and we must always be careful not to deviate from the direction of reform."A newspaper in Beijing published "Three Issues in Current Reform", pointing out that "some of our comrades are also obliterating the distinction between the two views of reform, avoiding the surname 'she' and the surname 'capital', what's more, in the After the clamorous calls for 'comprehensive and rapid privatization' have been suppressed, those who argue for 'privatization stealth' are still sneaking." One day at the end of 1990, Wu Jinglian's old friend Wu Jiapei called him.After exchanging pleasantries, Wu cautiously asked, "Do you know what nicknames have been given to you recently?" Wu Jinglian said blankly, "I don't know." Wu said, "Someone from the Planning Commission said that the current Beijing There are three representatives in the field of economics, one is 'You Ji' (referring to Youlin), the other is 'Wu Market', and the third is 'Yang Chengbao' (referring to Yang Peixin)." That is, from then on, the nickname "Wu Market" spread like wildfire.Wu Jinglian said many times in interviews later, "'Wu Market' is not a good name for me at all. It was a very derogatory term at the time: 'not consistent with the central government'".