Chapter 59 The KMT's Economic Proposition

Compared with the Beiyang government, the biggest difference between the Kuomintang government is that it has doctrine and belief, and it has systematic thinking about national governance and confidence in morality.As far as economic propositions are concerned, the Kuomintang has been a believer in nationalism since its birth. Developing the state-owned economy and restraining private capital are its consistent basic economic propositions.In terms of economic growth model, the national government pursued a firm strategy of giving priority to the development of state-owned enterprises. The planned economy thought of the Kuomintang government originated from Sun Yat-sen, the "Father of the Nation".He has always advocated vigorously developing the state-owned economy so that state capital can dominate the entire social economy.Similar expressions can be seen everywhere in "The Complete Works of Sun Yat-sen", "If you want to save its disadvantages, the only way is to put all large companies and organizations under the public ownership of the people of the whole country. Therefore, in my international development industrial plan, it is proposed to organize all industries into one Great companies are owned by the Chinese people”, “What is manufacturing national capital? It is the industry of developed countries”, “The people’s livelihood principle of the Chinese Kuomintang is the socialism of foreign countries”.

Among Sun Yat-sen's economic theories, the most prominent ones are the nationalization of land and the implementation of a single land tax. In 1902, "Min Bao" announced the revolution's six major principles, the third one was state-owned land, Sun Yat-sen also discussed it in connection with the "well field system", "Since three generations in China, there has been the righteousness of the well field, and the establishment of a democratic government after the revolution in our country , it should be possible to practice land nationalization with the help of the ancient doctrine.”In 1912, Sun Yat-sen still upheld this theory. He said: "Yu is an extreme socialist party, and he really wants to adopt the ideas of George H.E. The country has no assets, and the assets owned by the state are the assets of the people. The government of the Republic of China plans to change all domestic railways, shipping, canals, and other important businesses into state-owned."

After the establishment of the Nanjing Nationalist Government, it declared economic sovereignty externally and emphasized the intervention function of the central government internally, showing the basic characteristics of a centralized regime. In July 1928, the United States and the Nationalist Government reached an agreement, agreeing that China would be self-supporting in tariffs.Subsequently, Britain, France, Japan and other countries successively announced the recognition of China's customs autonomy. In 1931, the national government abolished the lijin system, which was deeply corrupted.These two major initiatives created crucial conditions for the establishment of a unified national economic system.

In terms of macroeconomic policy, Chiang Kai-shek advocated that "the policy of China's economic construction should be a planned economy."In the "Government Declaration During the Training Period" issued by the government, it is clearly written: "If the industry has an exclusive nature and is the basic industry of the country, it should not be entrusted to individuals, but should be run by the state. Such enterprises, It is the main goal of the government's future efforts to build, and will determine the steps to implement it. In terms of the urgent needs of the people, it is necessary to first develop the basic industries that the social economy depends on." Then, the so-called "basic industries" Which industries are included?There are detailed lists in the "Draft Construction Outline" accompanying the "Governance Declaration during the Tuning Period": "All transportation enterprises related to the whole country, such as railways, national highways, telegraphs, telephones, radios, etc.; Electricity, commercial ports, city streets, public utilities; basic industries and mining related to the future of the country, such as iron and steel industry, basic chemical industry, large coal mines, iron mines, kerosene mines, copper mines, etc., are all constructed and operated by the state.” The fields listed are all energy and resource-based upstream industries. Obviously, this line of thinking has similarities with the state-owned ideas of Li Hongzhang and Sheng Xuanhuai in the late Qing Dynasty, and even the economic policies of the Communist Party of China in the future.

However, around 1928, there was a fierce debate about nationalism and liberalism.After all, in the past 16 years, private capital has been greatly developed, and now it has changed its course, which is related to a major change of national policy and adjustment of interests.At the National Economic Conference in June of that year, there were differences in the discussion of various industrial issues. Some people advocated that "follow the Premier's (Sun Yat-sen) plan, nationalize steel mines, oil mines and various special mines, and benefit from the policy of equalization of interests." ", "Strictly implementing government-run management is actually a fundamental solution", while some people think that "if the railway is to be developed, the government should abandon the state-owned policy, except for a few important trunk roads, and entrust all commercial companies to run it", "implement mining liberalism, and practice Supervision and protection policy", there is another compromise plan is, "the government will insist on doing it, and once it is effective, it will be sold to the business."

Under the guidance of clear economic thinking, theories and slogans were quickly translated into tangible development plans and movements. After the "Draft Construction Outline", the government successively formulated the "Basic Industry Construction Plan" ( 1928), "Industrial Construction Program Case" (1931), "National Construction Initial Plan", "Industrial Four-year Construction Plan" (1933), "Heavy Industry Five-Year Plan" (1935), "China's Economic Construction Plan" " (1937), National Economic Construction Movement, etc.Many large metallurgical, fuel, chemical, electrical and military enterprises were established during this period, which constituted a peak period of rapid development of state-owned industries. The period from 1928 to 1937 is sometimes referred to as the "Golden Decade" in economic history.During these ten years, the average growth rate of the industrial economy reached 8.7% (some scholars calculated it as 9.3%), which was one of the fastest economic growth periods in the history of modern China.

If we look at the world, we must say that the reason why the Kuomintang’s nationalism became the mainstream choice is also related to the world economic situation at that time.In the late 1920s, severe economic crises broke out in both Europe and North America. Countries successively implemented the policy of state control of important industries, giving priority to the development of heavy industries, and "replacing butter with cannons".Among them, Hitler's achievements in Germany and Stalin's achievements in the Soviet Union are the greatest, and the two super military and economic powers have risen one after another.The United States also fell into the famous "Great Depression Era" in 1929, and the overall economic level fell back to 1913. After Roosevelt became president, he implemented the New Deal, which also adopted the strategy of state control and priority development of heavy industry, with a strong tendency of state interventionism.What happened in Germany, the Soviet Union, and the United States undoubtedly had a profound impact on China's reform thinking.