Chapter 58 Section 5 Unstoppable Economic Takeoff

Chiang Kai-shek is a dictator, politically superior, unsatisfied, and wants to be in every family.Since he himself has something good to say, his subordinates will naturally send up their hats one by one.As long as we grab our hands, we can come up with a lot: According to Gu Zhenggang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Kuomintang Central Committee, "Jiang Gong is a great military strategist, thinker, and statesman in the history of our country" (Youth, November 1, 1986) According to Dong Xianguang, the "ambassador" of the Kuomintang to the United States, "the leader of our nation, Chiang Kai-shek, is the greatest military statesman in modern times" ("President Chiang's Biography"); Inventing and practicing philosophy" is a "great philosopher" ("Research on the Philosophical Thoughts of Former President Chiang Kai-shek", page 1), according to the Kuomintang theorist Lin Guipu, "Jiang Gong is a great political thinker in the contemporary world" ( "Research on the Political Thought of the Former President Jiang Gong", p. ("Research on the Thoughts of the Former President Jiang Gong on Culture and Education", p. 87); according to Hong Tong, an expert on Kuomintang discipline, "Jiang Gong was a great thinker and a successful educational practitioner" ("The Former President A Study of Jiang Gong’s Thoughts on Culture and Education”, p. 71); According to Wei Yong, an upstart of the Kuomintang, and Miao Quanji, a professor of the Kuomintang, “Mr. "Youth Daily" on October 29, 1986); according to Zhang Jianbang, the "Chairman of the Taipei City Council" of the Kuomintang, "Mr. Jiang is an urban management expert and futurist" ("The New Life Newspaper).In addition, according to Xiu Zelan, Chiang Kai-shek is no different than an artist; according to Jiang Fucong, Chiang Kai-shek is no different than a calligrapher; according to Yu Bin, Chiang Kai-shek is no different than a religious man; according to Jin Kehe, Chiang Kai-shek is no different than an economist ... Among the various families listed above, Chiang Kai-shek can only be regarded as a politician and military strategist, and he is not yet a politician and military strategist above the standard.The most disproportionate is undoubtedly the top hat of "economist", there is no indication that he has a decent knowledge of economics.However, Taiwan's most commendable thing is the economic take-off after the 1960s. For Chiang, it can be said that he had no intention of planting willows and willows, because Chiang Kai-shek was focused on "anti-communism and restoring the country" rather than "economically building Taiwan."The flowers of "anti-communism and restoration of the country" planted intentionally have long since become yesterday's flowers; the "willows of economic construction" planted unintentionally are full of shade everywhere.

At the beginning of Taiwan's recovery, devastation was everywhere, which is the appearance after the war, and Japan is also like this.Japan has been operating Taiwan for 50 years. In order to make a profit, Japan built a lot of economic infrastructure in the colony, especially the development and increase of agriculture, as well as the north-south railway transportation, rural hydropower and so on.In addition, large factories such as aluminum factories, sugar factories, etc. were left behind.In short, Taiwan, where Chiang Kai-shek withdrew, has a good material foundation, which is far beyond the imagination of Yan'an, where Mao Zedong withdrew.

Chiang Kai-shek's great retreat brought nearly 2 million people from other provinces, increasing the population of Taiwan to 8 million.Generally speaking, with this population increase, "wealth" is more than "burden". Most of the military, public and educational personnel are exactly what Taiwan lacks, and a large number of technical personnel will directly contribute to economic construction.Don't forget that Chiang also used illegal means to transport all of China's treasury gold to Taiwan, stabilizing Taiwan's finances. In addition, there is another extremely important key is the American factor.Americans do not like Chiang Kai-shek, and even loathe him.However, in order to prevent the expansion of communism, after the outbreak of the Korean War, it took the initiative to send the Seventh Fleet to protect Chiang Kai-shek's Taiwan and blockade Mao Zedong's mainland.In order to make Taiwan an "unsinkable mother ship" in the Western Pacific, the United States resumed providing Chiang with a large amount of military and economic aid.Economic aid from 1951 to 1965 averaged $100 million per year.All constructions that cost a lot of money are paid for by U.S. aid, such as the US dollar part of the fertilizer industry, the Shimen Reservoir, transportation facilities, agricultural rehabilitation projects, cultural exchanges, education and health care, and so on.Yin Zhongrong, a major contributor to Taiwan's economic construction, acknowledged the great effectiveness of US aid:

On the one hand, U.S. aid solves part of the long-term shortage of construction funds, and on the other hand, it makes up for the deficit in the balance of payments.If there is no US aid, not only some economic construction cannot be carried out, but also the internal and external values ​​of the Taiwan dollar cannot be stabilized... US aid has become the main pillar of economic development and economic stability. (Yin Zhongrong, "Review and Prospect of Taiwan's Economic Development in the Past Ten Years", p. 282) What Yin Zhongrong did not mention here is that the huge amount of military aid from the United States has borne the huge military expenditure of the Jiang government and reduced the fiscal deficit without seriously affecting economic construction.The United States has also provided indispensable technologies and markets for Taiwan's economic construction.Not only that, even in the ten years after the cessation of U.S. aid, international financial organizations led by the U.S. continued to provide loans to Taiwan of more than 6.5 billion U.S. dollars (according to the official figures of the government). All played a positive role.

Based on the foundation left by the Japanese colonial era, with the strong assistance of the United States, coupled with a large number of cheap and hardworking labor, Taiwan began to enter the period of economic take-off in the early 1960s.Industrial production surpassed agricultural production for the first time in 1963, established an export-oriented trade economy, earned foreign exchange, introduced more advanced technology, increased employment opportunities, sustained rapid economic growth, got rid of poverty and became rich, and became one of the four Asian tigers List. Jiang's father and son are completely amateurs to economic construction, and their contribution should be measured by the resistance to economic construction.As far as Chiang Kai-shek is concerned, he "dedicated himself wholeheartedly to the counterattack and restoration of the country" (see Chiang Kai-shek's "Mastering the Opportunity of Rejuvenation and Restoration of the Country"), and did not put economic construction first.His knowledge of economics is shallow, and he has to regard himself as a follower of Sun Yat-sen, and is subject to the Three People's Principles behind closed doors.Even if the Three People's Principles are not communism, they are at least a kind of socialism. They will definitely not be capitalism that makes Taiwan's economy take off. As a result, they are often full of conflicts and contradictions. When necessary, even Chiang Kai-shek has to secretly misinterpret the unworkable Three People's Principles. .On June 7, 1967, Chiang Kai-shek presided over the opening ceremony of the 12th Party Affairs Conference of the Kuomintang, and in a "confidential" document - "Instructions on the Party Affairs Work of the Party Implementing the Three People's Principles", said: "Implementing the Three People's Principles is the priority task. People's Livelihood. The central task of People's Livelihood is the equalization of land rights and the control of capital. According to my understanding of the prime minister's usual instructions, the meaning of the so-called equalization of land rights is, first, in places with well-developed transportation and For urban land, where the price increases, the method of collecting value-added tax is used to achieve the purpose of "returning the price increase to the public". The intention is to eliminate the inequality between the rich and the poor. Secondly, it is the general practice of modern urban governments such as land purchase at the price, section expropriation, land rezoning, acquisition of excess land, and urban renovation (such as illegal buildings). The government can issue urban land bonds to raise funds for implementation. If this kind of good law can be implemented in cities, it will not only equalize land rights, but also eliminate inequality between the rich and the poor. The foundation of urban construction. Third, where the transportation is undeveloped and the land is undeveloped—that is, rural land, such as farmland and mountain land, where the fluctuation of land price is less, land tax or in kind can be levied, and land value tax can be exempted, so that It is necessary for the implementation of the policy of 'land to the tiller'." If we are more careful, we will find that the argument of this "secret" precept is not only very different from the "equal land rights" in the principle of people's livelihood, but also different from Chiang Kai-shek's previous discussion. There are great discrepancies in the words listed as "average land rights".Just look at the thirty-two years before this "confidential" precept—in September 1935, Chiang Kai-shek gave a lecture on "Summary of the Father's Legacy" at the Emei Military Training Corps, and pointed out: "Due to the development and progress of society, land prices will inevitably increase. Already, if the price increase of the land is owned by private individuals, the social and public efforts will not benefit, and the landlords will sit back and enjoy the benefits without working. There is nothing more inequitable in the world. Therefore, the Prime Minister said:' It is necessary to determine the land price first, and then engage in public management. ... The method of determining the land price... should be determined by the landlord himself. The law uses one percent of the land price as the fund for local self-government. ... …Afterwards, all public purchases of land shall be based on this price, and shall not be increased or decreased....The price that will increase in the future will all belong to the public ownership of the local organization. In this way, the society will prosper, and the more the land price increases, the richer the public will be....Injustice Land monopoly and capital dictatorship can be avoided, while social revolution and strikes can all be eliminated. The matter of setting land prices is a fundamental plan for our people's livelihood. Regardless of local self-government or central management, we must start with this. This method is the implementation of "equal land rights" in the principle of people's livelihood. The equalization of land rights is the greatest creation of the Prime Minister, and it is also the most important knowledge in our politics and economy. At the same time, it is the most important to solve people's livelihood a way."

According to Sun Yat-sen's "creation", forty years ago, the land price in the East District of Taipei, declared by the landlord, was no more than one hundred yuan per ping. One hundred yuan is tantamount to robbing the land and playing tricks on the landlord, which of course will not work.Chiang Kai-shek finally knew that Sun Yat-sen's "equal land rights" would not work.Therefore, in his "confidential" precepts, he insisted on replacing all "value-added" with "value-added tax", and said that "value-added tax can also be described as one of the means of 'returning prices to the public'".As everyone knows, Sun Yat-sen's appetite is not limited to "value-added tax", but the whole of "increased price".It is obvious that Chiang Kai-shek had to violate the teachings of the premier.Obviously, of course, they still refused to openly violate it, and followed the same path, so that Sun Yat-sen called the Three People's Principles all over the sky, and Chiang Kai-shek countered the Three People's Principles on the spot. ideological barriers.

In addition to "returning prices to the public", the "control of capital" as the trump card of the people's livelihood is also unfeasible because it involves fantasy.The Kuomintang members below Chiang Kai-shek refused to blatantly call it a fantasy, so they still had to secretly misinterpret it.On June 7, 1967, Chiang Kai-shek presided over the opening ceremony of the 12th Party Affairs Conference of the Kuomintang, and issued a "confidential" document - "Instructions for Implementing the Party Affairs Work of the Three People's Principles to the Party", stating: "As for the control of capital, Also, I can’t just think about restricting the development of private capital. I think that the festival of restraint is actually the festival of regulation; The capital of its domestic public and private operations. This is actually the prime minister’s ideal of equalizing land rights and controlling capital, so that the society can be equally rich and there will be no disparity between the rich and the poor. This kind of implementation of people’s livelihood is also socialism with social equality, not like the Communist Party Under the pretense of socialism, implement the communism of the monopoly and property collection of large private owners." Then, Chiang Kai-shek went further: "As for what the Premier said: 'Any enterprise run by the state is monopolized and cannot be run by private power. , Such as railways, air routes, minerals, etc., should be managed by the state." He also said: "If we want to develop large industries, we can't do it according to our Chinese capital, knowledge and experience, so we have to rely on foreign capital." We want to use foreign capital to create socialism for our people’s livelihood.” Judging from this passage, we can know that the purpose of the capital restraint mentioned by the Prime Minister is the capital of developed countries, not to restrict private capital and prevent the people from participating in the country. I think the Prime Minister’s intention is not only to reward people’s private capital to invest in national enterprises, but also to reward foreign capital to invest in our country’s enterprises, with the capital of developed countries. However, private capital should be regulated and controlled by the government. To prevent its excessive and deformed development, so as to avoid the unevenness of the rich class, this meaning is very obvious. I used to say capital control, not to restrict private capital, but to regulate and control private capital by the government so that it can be planned. development, and reward private investment in national enterprises. So as long as the national capital is developed, private capital must also go through the stage of restraint, and can make it develop, but it must always be regulated and controlled by the government. Therefore, it can be seen that the prime minister’s restraint of private capital The original intention of capital is not only to regulate and control, but also to imply protection." Chiang Kai-shek also said: "This is the true meaning of capital control, and it is even more important in the development of our country's economy today. Because the large enterprises run by the state, Except for a very small number of special needs of the country, which must be operated solely by the government, most of the other enterprises can organize joint-stock companies, let private shareholders participate, and be operated by the state (even foreign capital can be accommodated, which is very important for domestic enterprises) Naturally, there is no reason to exclude private capital.) At that time, the Prime Minister pointed out that railways, aviation, and mining were all managed by the state. I thought that the times would change in the future, and the experience and knowledge of our people are no worse than foreigners. Therefore, This kind of national enterprise, on the one hand, can organize a public-private joint venture company to start, and on the other hand, it can also use all the experience and knowledge of our people to manage the company. It is a reasonable and timely move with the capital of developed countries. Misunderstood with a sticky and persistent mentality, the cause of the revolution and nation building has been hindered, so that it has been frustrated as in the past. "

Chiang Kai-shek's "secret" document fully demonstrates that Sun Yat-sen's Three Principles of the People were actually "revisionist" by his followers. In fact, Sun Yat-sen's original intention was definitely not the case? All the deductions and explanations derived from this, except for the use of foreign capital, are all inconsistent with the "premier's legacy".At that time Sun Yat-sen publicly said: "The reason why we are people's livelihood advocates is not to oppose capital, but to oppose the election of capitalists." Now Chiang Kai-shek secretly said that "the times will change in the future", and we should not "use glue pillars to seduce and insist on one thing. Come to misunderstand "the Prime Minister's good law and good intentions", so he defied the name of Sun Yat-sen's "capital control" and made a fool of himself.Although it is still possible to sell dog meat under the guise of a sheep, it is still not as good as a real big business.

Due to limitations in knowledge and beliefs, it is impossible for Chiang and his sons to take the initiative to promote political liberalization, and they are also very passive in economic liberalization.These more or less have a negative or negative impact on Taiwan, where the capitalist economy is taking off.