Chapter 14 Calling for the National Rights Fund of 1.3 billion people

According to calculations from official data, the total value of state-owned land is about 50 trillion yuan, and there are more than 110,000 central enterprises plus local state-owned enterprises, with an asset value of about 29 trillion yuan.Can these state-owned assets worth 79 trillion yuan be implemented on every Chinese citizen? ◎Reporter: In the current situation of "the country is rich and the people are poor", you put forward a proposal to reform the private ownership of state-owned assets. Please talk about your specific thinking and ideas. Chen Zhiwu: The main reason is that in the past 30 years, especially in the past ten years, China's economic growth model has mainly been driven by investment, relying on the export market, rather than relying on the growth of domestic consumer demand.Of course, I know that in the past decade or so, both academic circles and government decision-makers have had a strong desire to change this model, reduce the dependence of the Chinese economy on the export market, and reduce the dependence on investment.But the actual effect is limited, but the dependence on investment and exports has increased.

It is impossible for any economy to permanently change the lives of ordinary people by investing, building more infrastructure, and building more manufacturing plants.When the investment in infrastructure reaches a certain level, if the income of ordinary people cannot increase, in the end, with so much production capacity and so many transportation networks, where can we ship things?To whom?Producing so many things, especially when the demand in the export market is seriously declining, if the consumption of ordinary people in China cannot keep up, there will be serious waste in the final production of so many things, which actually paves the way for the economic crisis.

◎Reporter: Judging from these problems, do you think the democratization of state-owned assets is a solution? Chen Zhiwu: Over the past 50 years, land and many other means of production have been monopolized by the state.Under the state-owned system, "concentrating power to do big things" has been relatively successful in the past 30 years, accelerating China's industrialization and infrastructure construction.However, looking back today, we also know that the original model of “concentrating power to do big things” through the state-owned system is very costly. One of the very important costs is the slow growth of ordinary people’s income and the inability to keep up with the consumption needs of ordinary people.

In the final analysis, the reason is very simple. Originally, in a country with private ownership, such as the United States, Japan or Brazil, for ordinary people, their main income includes two aspects: first, labor income rises with the rise of GDP; The first channel is to allow ordinary people to share the benefits of economic growth through property income and asset appreciation.They have two avenues to share in the benefits of economic growth. However, in China, under the state-owned system, the second channel for ordinary people to share the benefits of economic growth is basically blocked and blocked.Because the property rights of these means of production, land, and state-owned enterprises belong to the state, not directly under the names of ordinary people.Wealth belongs to the state, and its value-added is in the hands of the state. It has not been returned to the people, and has not played a role in the consumption of the people.

According to calculations based on some official data, the total value of state-owned land is about 50 trillion yuan, and there are more than 110,000 central enterprises plus local state-owned enterprises. The total asset value of these 110,000 state-owned enterprises is almost 290,000 yuan. 100 million.That is to say, if the land value is 50 trillion plus the remaining state-owned enterprise assets of 29 trillion, there will be a total of 79 trillion state-owned asset wealth.If it is distributed to 1.3 billion people, almost everyone has 60,000 state-owned assets.It turns out that our idea is ownership by the whole people. In fact, the 79 trillion yuan is owned by the entire Chinese people, but the current owner of the ownership by the whole people is actually false and unreal, so the 60,000 yuan was not given to any ordinary family or individual Bringing any consumer demand has no effect on people's "sense of wealth".

◎Reporter: Is this phenomenon what you call "the country is rich and the people are poor"? Chen Zhiwu: The state-owned system is a very important institutional basis for the situation of "the country is rich and the people are poor". Another reason for this situation is the unrestricted fiscal and taxation.If the government wants to increase private consumption, what it should do now is to distribute state-owned assets to the 1.3 billion Chinese citizens through the "National Equity Fund".In this way, the owner of the system of ownership by the whole people is implemented from "virtual" to every Chinese citizen. Through this reform of private ownership, ordinary people will not only have labor income, but also some property income.These property incomes are mainly through the future appreciation of the shares of the National Equity Fund and the profits earned by state-owned enterprises, through which the National Equity Fund distributes dividends to more ordinary people, so that ordinary families can also have property income other than labor wages.In this way, the potential for private consumption growth will be even greater.

◎Reporter: Do you think this suggestion is likely to become a reality? Chen Zhiwu: It may become a reality in the end.Of course, considering many aspects, the timing may not be ripe for 2008, but maybe in 2009 when we see that other macro-control or economic stimulus programs play a role and the effect is not very good, I hope more people will see The reason why China's private consumption is difficult to grow is that a very important reason lies in the arrangement at the institutional level.Because of this kind of institutional arrangement, through the state-owned system and the expansion of unrestricted taxation power, it eventually leads to a situation where the country is rich and the people are poor.As long as the country is rich and the people are poor, even if the government wants to change China's economic growth model from relying too much on exports to relying more on domestic private consumption, it will be difficult to realize this wish.

◎Reporter: Professor Chen, I feel full of hope for the feasibility of your suggestion.You have been studying China's economic issues, and you should be very familiar with China's current political system.Under the current political system, do you think that if this system continues, there may be good policies for many problems we are facing now.But in the implementation process, especially involving each of the 1.3 billion people, is it difficult to implement it? Chen Zhiwu: It is man-made. All systems are man-made.Since it can be established one day, it is not uncommon to find that some aspects should be adjusted on another day.Because the reform of ownership by the people I mentioned does not actually mean abandoning the original concept of ownership by the whole people, nor the original idea of ​​ownership by the whole people.

◎Reporter: It means to make it concrete. Chen Zhiwu: Change the owners in the system of ownership by the whole people from imaginary and non-existent to actual existence, and implement it to each of the 1.3 billion Chinese citizens.In this sense, this is not a reform that changes the nature of China's socialism, but just clarifies and implements the owners of these state-owned assets and property rights.According to my other statement, it is to really invite these owners out to know who the owners are. ◎Reporter: Under such circumstances, where do you think the main resistance will come from?

Chen Zhiwu: It will be some administrative departments, such as the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission and the Ministry of Finance.It may also be the management of some companies.But it's hard to say, because from the perspective of the company's management, they may be more willing to be constrained and supervised by the management of the National Equity Fund in the future, rather than being constrained by the SASAC and other departments as they are now. ◎Reporter: Has there been similar successful experience in the world? Chen Zhiwu: An example is the resource equity fund in Alaska, the full name of which is The Alaska Permanent Fund. It mainly comes from oil income in Alaska, because Alaska has a lot of oil and natural gas reserves.In 1977, the Alaska Legislature created a Citizens' Rights Fund based on revenues from oil rights.The total value of the fund is now more than 40 billion U.S. dollars. Alaska has a population of more than 500,000 people. This year, each citizen can get a dividend of more than 3,000 U.S. dollars.

◎Reporter: Is it true that the government directly distributes dividends to citizens? Chen Zhiwu: The dividends are not distributed by the government, but by the annual income of the civil rights fund.I think this model can be realized in China. ◎Reporter: Does it mean that the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission has become the management agency of the fund? Chen Zhiwu: Alternatively, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission can be changed into a National Equity Fund. The ideal situation is that the board of directors and management of the National Equity Fund can be decided by 1.3 billion people, that is, fund holders or shareholders, and can be replaced or replaced through voting rights. Appointment of new board members, etc. ◎Reporter: Is it possible to trade with each other?Fund interests I own. Chen Zhiwu: The ideal situation is that the shares of the National Equity Fund can be traded among different people. ◎Reporter: According to Professor Chen's description, the current global economic crisis may bring about an opportunity for reform. Exports, which once supported China's rapid economic development, are now facing serious problems due to the global economic crisis.Is this the global economic crisis you mentioned may be a positive opportunity for China? Chen Zhiwu: Yes, this is a very important aspect.As we just said, without the pressure brought by this crisis, the reform of the democratization of state-owned assets may have no motivation in a practical sense.As long as the economic growth rate is as fast as last year and the year before, everyone will feel prosperous and have a good life, and will not think of changing the status quo. There will be no pressure to change the existing system structure, and people will not see the coffin without crying. of.This crisis may provide a good impetus for the government to make some fundamental institutional changes that will benefit China's sustainable development in the long run. ◎Reporter: Professor Chen, you hope that by constantly communicating your thoughts and suggestions on different occasions and different objects, you can influence the decision-making level, and finally solve the situation that China is currently facing, such as the country is rich and the people are poor, so that it can have a better The solution, is that so? Chen Zhiwu: I would like to emphasize one point. For those of us who do this kind of learning, our responsibility is to explain the truth and give some suggestions based on our research, academic knowledge and understanding, so that people can better understand the consequences of different decisions. What will happen. Our responsibility to society or the role we should play in the social division of labor is to speak out.If you do this, what will the result be like, if you do that, what will the result be like, explain those reasons.As for those specific decision-makers and politicians whether to choose option A, option B, or option C, that is not our business, but theirs. What we want to do is to let more people understand that besides the 4 trillion yuan economic stimulus package we have seen so far, there are other options, and other options may be better than this.