Zhou Wen: The market economy should have a Chinese discourse

Source: Global Times

In the more than 40 years since the reform and opening up, China's economic strength, scientific and technological strength, comprehensive national strength and people's living standards have leapt to a new level.

Summing up experience, China's market economy is not simply transplanting and copying the Western market economy, China not only adheres to the development of market economy, but also unswervingly adheres to the socialist direction of market economy. The success of the socialist market economy lies in constantly promoting and opening up a new realm of market economic development, while at the same time ensuring and controlling the overall situation and direction of the socialist market economy.

In the past, in the process of understanding and understanding the market economy, there was a misunderstanding, that is, we fully agreed with the connotation and definition of the market economy in the West. According to the mainstream Economic Theory of the West, the real market economy can only be born from the economy based on private production, and the market economy and public ownership are naturally excluded. Historically, it is because of the surplus and exchange of products in economic development that private property has been formed, not private ownership that has led to the development of the exchange economy. Therefore, it is not capitalism that promotes the formation and development of the market economy, on the contrary, it is the market economy that allows capitalism to develop.

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The market economy is essentially an economy of exchange. The emergence of exchange stems from the development of the division of labor. There is a division of labor first, and then there is private property. Therefore, the market economy is not an economic system based on private ownership, but an economic system based on the division of labor. Whether it is a commodity economy or a market economy, it is only a conceptual difference, a difference in words. The commodity economy emphasizes the form of the exchange economy, and the market economy emphasizes the system of the exchange economy. The emergence and development of the market economy stems from the emergence and development of the division of labor, which is the result of the expansion of the division of labor and exchange, rather than the capitalist economic system and its private ownership. As an exchange economy, the origin is far earlier than capitalism, and the market economy is not born of capitalism. Therefore, the market economy is not a specific institutional category, and the market economy is not equivalent to the capitalist economy.

In fact, there is no standard definition of the so-called market economy, nor is there a one-size-fits-all standard model of the market economy, the Western market economy model is not a model of the market economy, and China's economic development does not need to follow the textbook of the Western market economy. Over the past 40 years of reform and opening up, China has worked hard to explore a market economy path that suits China's national conditions and has continuously made great achievements. It is precisely the socialist market economic system that has made China move from becoming rich to becoming strong, which is China's advantage from the West. In this sense, the fact that some people in the West declare that "the socialist market economy is not a market economy" is not essentially that China's market economy is not authentic and does not conform to the standards of the Western market economy, but reflects that they "cannot tolerate" the advantages of China's economic system.

It should be said that the early capitalist market economy emphasized the pursuit of laissez-faire. However, the laissez-faire market economy is only a primitive market economy, and the development of the market economy cannot only stay in the initial stage, but also needs to continue to develop and open up new realms. The modern market economy emphasizes more concentration of forces to do great things, and the atomized market economy only emphasizes atomic vitality and individual interests, while sacrificing collective interests and overall interests. The primitive market economy has only a partial view of efficiency, not overall efficiency. Therefore, the capitalist market economy achieves efficiency through individual differences, which will inevitably lead to polarization, and it is difficult to achieve and achieve common prosperity. The high-level modern market economy should give better play to the role of the government, and the low-level market economy is laissez-faire.

From the current point of view, the reform of the socialist market economy system is neither a benchmark against the Western market economy nor a dogmatic understanding of the theory of the classic writers of socialism, but a correct innovation of socialist economic theory. The ideal other side of the socialist market economy is not the market economy of the West, so there is no need for the West to measure and judge China's market economy by its own market economy.

At present, China is in a critical period of great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. In the face of more and more major issues, it is particularly necessary to carry out high-level discussions and propose effective countermeasures. In the economics community, some people believe that the market economy in the Western world is colorful, and China can only be a foil; others are only willing to follow behind the mainstream economics of the West to "parrot the tongue", accustomed to dancing in the cage, and constantly use Chinese materials to verify the proposition of the Western market economy. This kind of passivity and restraint is not in line with the current trend of world economic development, nor is it conducive to safeguarding China's national interests.

Reality is the best economics. It is based on this that today we should base ourselves on Chinese practice, refine China's experience, and use the Chinese discourse system to reshape the connotation of the market economy. It is time to rewrite the concept of market economy, and it is no longer necessary to take the definition of market economy in Western economics textbooks as the norm of economics. (The author is Distinguished Professor of Fudan University)