Chapter 30 too slow is not socialism

There is also the issue of speed.This was one of the issues that Deng Xiaoping was particularly concerned about during his lifetime. On March 2, 1990, he talked with Jiang Zemin, Li Peng and others, and the discussion was about speed.He said: "At present, we must pay special attention to the problem of the decline in the speed of economic development. I am worried about the decline. A speed of 4 percent or 5 percent will be fine for a year or two. The comparison between countries and regions is also called a landslide. Fundamentally speaking, the problems in some countries in the world are due to the lack of economic growth, no food to eat, no clothes to wear, wage growth offset by inflation, and the decline in living standards. Living tight. If the economic development always stays at a low speed, it will be difficult to improve the standard of living. Why do the people support us now? It is that there has been development in the past ten years, and the development is obvious. Suppose we do not develop for five years, or the speed is low Development, for example, 4 percent, 5 percent, or even 2 percent, 3 percent, what impact will it have? This is not just an economic issue, but actually a political issue. Therefore, we must strive to To achieve moderate development earlier."

There are two problems here.The first question is the reasons and lessons of the upheaval in the Soviet Union and the East, and the second is that the speed issue is a political issue.When it comes to the causes and lessons of the upheaval in the Soviet Union and Eastern China, some people say "peaceful evolution", thinking that the upheaval in the Soviet Union and Eastern China proved the correctness of Mao Zedong's theory of continuing revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat in his later years.However, what Deng Xiaoping said was: "The problems in some countries in the world are fundamentally due to the fact that the economy is not going well, there is no food to eat, no clothes to wear, wage growth is offset by inflation, living standards have fallen, and long-term tightness In fact, the drastic change in the Soviet Union and the East was not caused by a few conspirators who seized power in a coup, but because millions of people, including the working class, took to the streets to peacefully express their wishes, and through the "free vote" of the whole people, the Communist Party lost power.Although this is a tragedy, although in essence, the broad masses of the people, especially the working class, have made wrong choices that seriously damage their fundamental and long-term interests, but this is a harsh fact.Therefore, only when the lives of the people continue to improve and move toward a moderately prosperous life will the people feel hopeful.The people will believe in the superiority of the socialist system only when the speed of socialist economic development and the improvement of people's lives exceeds that of capitalism.Only when socialism surpasses capitalism in an all-round way can we truly achieve a long-lasting red country.That being the case, how can we underestimate the speed issue?Once slow, how do you catch up with capitalist countries?If the rate is lower than 8%, it will not only fail to catch up with developed countries, but also it will be difficult to solve a series of livelihood and employment problems, and political problems will arise.Why was China not influenced by "Su Dongbo"?Because after the restoration of capitalism, the economy has been sluggish, and China's socialist reform and opening up has made great achievements, "the scenery here is unique."However, there have been changes in recent years. Now Russia’s development rate exceeds 9%. Once Russia’s development rate exceeds ours, their resources are more abundant than ours, and the improvement of people’s lives will surpass ours. Then the Chinese people will ask why we practice socialism?Why not learn from Russia to restore capitalism?There will be troubles in the world.

And India has also risen. If India develops faster than us, it will be troublesome.It is a big country with a population of 1 billion, and it is also a developing country. The situation of the two countries is similar, but it is capitalism.If socialist China can't handle capitalist India, then the Chinese people will question the Communist Party, and if you can't do it well if you are given a historical opportunity, then you can only let capitalism do it.In short, if we fail to manage Russia and India, our common people will make new historical choices.The ruling foundation of our Communist Party will be shaken.Therefore, we must find a way to maintain rapid and long-term development, which requires maintaining a certain speed.

If we want to make it faster, will we encounter resource problems? Now is the era of globalization, what is resources?What is excess production capacity?must be considered in a global context.Human beings are setting off a new technological revolution and the climax of the "scientific and industrial revolution". We must find resources from here and continuously develop new production capabilities.First of all, Japan has excess production capacity, and it has the least natural resources. How can it become an economic power?After the war, Japan first established itself through trade and then technology.In other words, if you only use domestic resources, of course there will be a bottleneck.But if you mobilize resources from all over the world and take advantage of the global market, it is another situation.You are still developing labor-intensive industries that consume high resources, and the production methods are backward, so of course you will fall into a bottleneck.But if you work hard and are good at using modern science and technology, it will be another situation.What's more, China is a big country, and there are still many resources that have not been discovered and developed!

Some people say that global resources are also limited. I said why do you think so much?Our 1.3 billion people have not yet become rich. If you start to talk about the 6 billion or 7 billion people, aren’t you asking for trouble?One generation does what one generation does.Let's get things done for our own generation first.Of course, this does not mean that we do not pay attention to this issue and resource protection.On the contrary, our emphasis on sustainable development, on not sacrificing the interests of the next generation, and on transforming the growth mode is to attach great importance to these issues, including environmental protection.

When it comes to environmental protection, have you ever heard the saying that the scientific concept of development was put forward to correct deviations, to correct Deng Xiaoping's "development is the last word"? Some people say that the scientific concept of development is a new concept of development, and Deng Xiaoping's "development is the last word" is an old concept of development, which is wrong.Did Deng Xiaoping talk too little about environmental protection?As far as I know, he has spoken on environmental issues at least three times.But if you want to eradicate poverty first, you can only develop first while paying attention to pollution control.With the improvement of economic capacity, more attention should be paid to environmental protection. This is materialist dialectics.In the future, we can pay more attention to and emphasize environmental protection, and if we have the money to manage environmental protection, don't forget that we spend the money earned by Deng Xiaoping's 20 years of reform and opening up!Today China has more than US$1 trillion in foreign exchange reserves. We can import advanced environmental protection equipment, but in 1978 China only had several billion US dollars in foreign exchange. What do you import?People must have a conscience.You can't spend Deng Xiaoping's money and scold Deng Xiaoping!

Deng Xiaoping especially liked to talk about dialectics. In September 1978, he "falls three times and rises three times". Not long after he returned to work, with the assistance of Hu Yaobang and others, he launched a discussion on the "criteria of truth", and pointed out sharply: "There is still controversy over such issues. , It can be seen that the thinking is rigid. The fundamental problem is still... It violates Comrade Mao Zedong’s thought of seeking truth from facts, and the principles of dialectical materialism and historical materialism. It is actually a reflection of idealism and metaphysics.” At the beginning of 1992, in Shenzhen, I heard someone say “ The more foreign investment, the more capitalism", he also criticized them for "not even having basic common sense".

In June 1992, the United Nations held a conference on environment and development in Rio de Janeiro, the capital of Brazil. Leaders from more than 80 countries around the world participated, and adopted the "Declaration on Environment and Development" to propose a "sustainable development" strategy.Li Peng, then Chinese Premier, attended on behalf of the Chinese government.Deng Nan also went there at that time. She is the daughter of Deng Xiaoping, Vice Minister of Science and Technology.After she came back, she took the lead in making a report on China's sustainable development.So Deng Xiaoping understood the issue of sustainable development very well. He knew that economic growth alone was not enough, and replacing growth with development was a historic change.That's why he mentioned that development is the last word, but he didn't say that growth is the last word. Development itself is a scientific concept.