Chapter 26 3. Establish a virtuous circle mechanism

A virtuous circle mechanism should also be established between rich and poor areas.Take Shanghai Pudong as an example. The per capita GDP of Pudong has long exceeded 10,000 US dollars. Suppose that the per capita GDP of a certain area in Guizhou Province in China is 100 US dollars.If you look at it mechanically, the gap is too big, and the difference between the two regions is 100 times. I want to narrow it down, or even take the method of robbing the rich and giving to the poor, which is unwise.The key here is to look at the relationship between Pudong's economic development and the development of other parts of China.Take 2006 as an example, Pudong’s financial revenue in that year was 58.7 billion yuan, of which 51.4% was handed over to the central government, which means that nearly 30 billion yuan was used for the development of the whole country, and part of it may be used to help this area of ​​Guizhou Province up.If there is such a relationship between rich areas and backward areas, this is a virtuous circle, we don't have to worry too much, just make sure that Pudong's money flows to the backward areas and helps the people there get rich.Just like in a family, there is one member who is particularly able to make money. His income is higher than other family members, but he can use a considerable part of the money he earns to help the poorer members of the family temporarily. This is a virtuous circle. why not?

Pudong's current foreign-funded financial industry accounts for half of China's total.If the banking industry here is financing all of China, we don't have to worry about it.The added value realized per square kilometer of Lujiazui CBD is 23.5 billion US dollars, which is a manifestation of low transaction costs, abundant resources and strong value-added effect in an international metropolis.This effect is very important for the modernization of the whole country.For China, it has never been seen in a century, and it is hard-won. Negating it and engaging in egalitarianism will result in temporary happiness, which will only lead to poverty for everyone in the end.Pudong is a hen that lays golden eggs for the people of the whole country. If Pudong’s fiscal revenue can serve the whole country, and if Pudong’s financial industry can serve the whole country, then I think the fatter the chicken in Pudong, the better, because this is a virtuous circle. , Pudong is good, and the whole country is good.The difference between Hong Kong and the mainland is even greater. Is it good or bad for the mainland?The result turned out to be a good thing, because Hong Kong and the mainland also formed such a benign and interactive relationship.During most of the 30 years of our reform and opening up, Hong Kong capital was the largest source of foreign capital.Hong Kong is good, the motherland is good, the motherland is good, and Hong Kong is good, which illustrates this interactive relationship.

In the final analysis, regional differences are not as large as possible, nor as small as possible. To look at it dialectically and dynamically, the key is to see whether a mechanism for benign interaction can be established between richer and poorer regions. If it is benign interaction, this gap will bring more positive effects.Judging from international experience, it is difficult to narrow the absolute regional gap in GDP per capita in the short term, and it is even more difficult in countries with vast territories.Therefore, it is the most feasible method to establish a benign interaction mechanism between relatively rich and relatively backward regions.

We also need to put China's current changes in the context of a larger historical environment. In fact, China is experiencing its own industrial revolution.When a country undergoes its own industrial revolution, it is characterized by the mobilization of every cell in the society through the market economic mechanism, and everyone is fighting for their own interests and changing their own destiny. This has a positive side .It can be said that none of today's developed countries has not experienced such a stage, but the drive of interests will also cause various problems, especially when the system is not perfect.As I mentioned earlier, compared with some big countries in Europe, they can use various means to transfer social conflicts during their industrialization, while China has to digest various problems by itself.Comparing China's modernization process in the past 30 years with the industrial revolutions in Britain and France in the past, you will find that the gap between the rich and the poor in the industrialization process of the British Empire or the French Empire in the past was probably dozens of times that of China today. In such a cruel environment The primitive accumulation of capital was completed in a process that included the "sheep cannibalism" enclosure movement, the large-scale slave trade and many colonial wars. In April 1987, former Tanzanian President Nyerere visited China. Deng Xiaoping hosted a banquet for him. I was the translator.Nyerere said to Deng Xiaoping: "Germany ruled us, Britain ruled us, how many resources were taken away from us? But what left us? When I was independent, I asked my Minister of Industry, how many engineers we have now, he Say: 'Two.'" From this we can see the extent of the gap between rich and poor within the British Empire at that time.

Regardless of our subjective wishes, our industrial revolution today has indeed not been able to avoid many problems that occurred in Western countries at a similar stage of development, but now it seems that we have paid a smaller price than them, and we may still solve these problems. The negative effects are further reduced, and the time is further shortened.China did not engage in colonialism, did not build an empire, and avoided the large-scale conflicts and wars that occurred during the rise of other major powers.On the contrary, we have benefited the people of most countries in the course of our own rise.I even thought of an inappropriate analogy: If China today has a territory 50 times larger than its own territory and 100 times more resources than Britain did in the past, it can draw up all the rules of the game and realize it under such circumstances. With China's industrialization and modernization, our take-off will be many times easier than it is now.Of course, doing so today is impossible.

Under the extremely unfair conditions of the world economic and political order, China has blazed a path of peaceful development with its own unique courage and wisdom, completed the capital accumulation and various element preparations required for China's modernization, and realized the The vigorous development of modernization.It is from this horizontal and vertical comparison that we feel that China's achievements today are hard-won, and we need to cherish them all the more.From the perspective of historical development, we can establish a virtuous cycle mechanism between rich and poor areas, so that the benefits of reform and opening up can be distributed more equitably, and the gap between rich and poor and between regions can be dynamically narrowed, so that the middle-income class can become The main body of Chinese society has made all citizens generally prosperous, and eventually China has become the largest new developed country in the world.