To prevent getting lost, the elevator goes directly to the safety island to report Liu Yadong A
CCP leaders Deng Xiaoping and Chen Yun at the Third Plenum
Wen Liu Yadong
As the New Year's bell is about to ring, we have just experienced a day of great historical significance. Forty-five years ago, on December 18, 1978, a conference to decide the future and destiny of the Chinese nation was held at the Jingxi Hotel in Beijing. The Third Plenary Session of the 11 th CPC Central Committee re-established the party's ideological line of seeking truth from facts, comprehensively corrected the mistakes of the past leftists, spoke highly of the discussion on the question of the criterion of truth, resolutely stopped taking class struggle as the key link, and decided to shift the focus of the work of the party and the state to economic construction and carry out reform and opening up.
From the convening of the Third Plenary Session of the 11 th CPC Central Committee to the establishment of the household responsibility system for the production of goods, from Xiaoping's speech on his southern tour to the proposal of establishing a socialist market economic system, from China's accession to the World Trade Organization to a series of principles and policies since the 18 th CPC National Congress...... Reform has a definite connotation and a clear main line in contemporary China, that is, the development and improvement of the socialist market economy. Once upon a time, market economy was a sensitive word that made people shudder. Again, Xiaoping said it well: A planned economy is not equal to socialism, capitalism also has a plan, a market economy is not equal to capitalism, and socialism also has a market. Planning and the market are both means of economic development.
PART 01
He uses a pencil
Milton Friedman was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 1976. If still alive, he is now 111 years old. He has visited China three times. One of our deputy ministers asked him: Who is in charge of the distribution of supplies in the United States? Today, this question seems superficial, but it is the right person. In the halls of economics, Friedman is world-renowned for his contributions and unique insights. An essay titled "I, Pencil" became his handy tool for exploring market forces. In fact, the author of this article is Leonard Reed, but Friedman has repeatedly quoted and explained its profound truth, making it a classic in the field of economics. So it has been said that Friedman explained the principles of economics with just a pencil.
A small pencil from Friedman needs to use Korean pine from California, graphite from Sri Lanka, clay from the Mississippi River, sulfide oil gum from the East Indies, pumice from Italy, and the lumberjacks, miners, farmers, drivers, and seafarers behind these materials, as well as the coffee they drink, the sausages they eat, and the water, electricity, and gas...... There may be millions of people involved. And such a large group of people, who don't know each other at all, don't actually need to know each other, just rely on a magical power, they can cooperate with each other to make this pencil in our hands. This magical power is the free-market economy that Friedman advocates. In addition, the people involved in the pencil industry did not touch the pencil at all, and they exchanged it for all kinds of information needed to make the pencil, which was money, and it was Friedman's main research object. "I, Pencil" uses an ordinary pencil to describe itself, showing the miracle of division of labor and cooperation in the market economy. Friedman, citing this article, emphasized the importance of decentralization and decentralized knowledge in a market economy. He noted that the process of making pencils involves resources, labor, and knowledge around the world, and that no central planner can understand and coordinate these complex relationships. It is the market mechanism that organically combines the interests and interests of all parties through the price system and free competition, so that the various participants unconsciously form an order, and then produce a seemingly simple pencil.
Friedman also further emphasizes competition and innovation in the marketplace. In a free market environment, companies must continue to pursue efficiency and innovation in order to survive and thrive. It is precisely because of the existence of competition that enterprises continue to seek technological progress, improve production efficiency, reduce costs, and improve product quality to form their own advantages. This kind of competition makes the market full of vitality and vitality, and also makes an ordinary pencil more and more useful. Friedman was a well-known scholar and an excellent communicator. He did it by telling a good pencil story and showing a real, three-dimensional, and comprehensive market economy system. To sum up, there are three main points in this story. First, compared with lithography machines or aero engines, pencils are a product that is too simple to be simple, and may not have any scientific and technological content at all. But no one in the world has all the knowledge needed to make a pencil! Still, pencils are easily made and delivered to every consumer who needs them. Second, the vast majority of people involved in the production of pencils are not aware that they are working hard to make this kind of writing gadget. Most likely, some of them have never used a pencil. Doing my job just to support my family. They may live in different corners of the world, and even hate each other, but that doesn't stop them from working together to produce batch after batch of pencils. Thirdly, although a pencil mobilizes resources from all over the world and embodies the efforts of countless people, you can buy it for less than the cost of a bottle of mineral water, and it is often refurbished and improved. All of this is a market force.
PART 02
An "invisible hand",
Turn "self-interest" into "altruism"
DeLong, an economist at the University of Berkeley, examines the history of human society over the past 2.5 million years, from the Paleolithic Age to 2000 AD. He concluded that in the 250 years from 1750 to 2000, humans created 97% of their wealth in 0.01% of the time. And the root of this miracle lies in the market economic system.
More than 300 years ago, Western countries began to move toward a market economy and achieved economic take-off, while China decided to establish a socialist market economic system more than 30 years ago and also achieved economic take-off.
Adam smith
Why can a market economy create enormous wealth? Adam Smith pointed out in his "The Wealth of Nations" that the market is like an invisible hand that transforms everyone's "self-interest" into "altruism." In the market economy, if you want to seek your own interests, you must first seek the interests of customers in the way of creating value. In the final analysis, market competition is the competition to create value for customers. Subjectively for oneself, objective for others – this is the wonder of the market economy.
A "Wealth of Nations" made Adam Smith the progenitor of modern Western economics. When the book was published in England in March 1776, the "invisible hand" was regarded as a god by those who admired free economics and market forces, and was revered as a model by economists of the Austrian and Chicago schools.
The "invisible hand" in the market economy is often transparent, while the "visible hand" in the planned economy is often opaque, and many problems caused by this have plagued our country and society for a long time.
Under the planned economic system, it is up to the administrative organs to tell the whole society what to produce, how much to produce, how to produce, for whom to produce, and how high prices to set. However, how can administrative organs obtain so much market information? Moreover, the market itself is changing rapidly! Therefore, blind decision-making and blind command have become inevitable.
During the period of the planned economy, ordinary people lined up to buy fish with tickets
In the market economy system, the decision on whether it is good or bad is decided by others, rather than by oneself, thus avoiding many unnecessary human errors. It is up to the entrepreneur to judge the market prospect of a product or industry, and its accuracy determines the size of the profit, and even determines the rise and fall of the enterprise. The process of market competition is the process of constantly discovering and processing information. Although this is a profit-seeking behavior and instinctive impulse, its effectiveness and success rate have been proven by countless economic practices. Only entrepreneurs know what products are popular in the market and what industries represent the future development direction. They are the most capable, the most qualified, and the most qualified to do this well, and others should not overstep their bounds.
Fundamentally speaking, high-quality economic development is a requirement for efficiency, and efficiency is the product of the market. Therefore, high-quality development can only be high-quality development in a market economy. The market requires that its participants must move from closed to open and from monopoly to competition, and in this process the optimal allocation of resources and the maximization of benefits have been realized. In this regard, the power of the market is unmatched by any kind of call, directive or executive order.
PART 03
Where is the "new" in the new national system
There is a lot of talk about China's new national system. What is new in the new type of national system? The new national system must play a role under the conditions of the socialist market economy, so that the market can play a decisive role in the allocation of resources and the government can play a better role.
First, we need to change the functions of the government. Major research projects generally have the characteristics of basic, public and general, so they are inseparable from the overall planning and layout of the government. However, the new national system should avoid the detours taken in the past, and in particular, it should solve the old and difficult problems such as blind launch, government contracting, and regardless of cost. The establishment of a scientific and democratic decision-making mechanism for goals and tasks is an integral part of the new national system. In the process of implementation, the government's methods and means of promoting the project should also be changed, and the role of the government should be changed from leadership to guidance, from command to service, and from planning to rule to a greater extent.
Second, deepen the reform of the scientific and technological system. Due to the emphasis on the integration of social resources and the integration of system capabilities, the new national system should be able to more effectively coordinate the forces of all parties and better meet the needs of technological innovation in a flexible way. Within the framework of the new national system, it is necessary to give R&D units independent and complete legal personality and autonomy; encourage new R&D institutions to explore various management models that conform to the law of innovation; combine the implementation of major projects with the capacity building of R&D institutions; and build a vigorous innovation community and strategic scientific and technological force system with "government, industry, academia, research and application" coordinated and linked by tasks, interests and projects.
Third, create an innovation ecosystem. As the target of the new national system, technology clusters or product clusters such as semiconductor chips and aero engines often rely on innovation ecosystems, which are usually built by hundreds of enterprises around the world in decades of competition and cooperation. For any country to improve the effectiveness of its innovation system, it must modernize its innovation governance capacity, including continuously optimizing its innovation ecosystem. Therefore, the new national system can only gain a more viable global competitive advantage if it has a positive exchange and interaction with the innovation ecosystem.
Fourth, give full play to the role of the main body, leading and leading role of enterprises. Key core technologies are highly innovative, develop and change rapidly, and face greater market uncertainty. Therefore, we must pay attention to creating value in the coupling with market demand, and use market demand to force front-end technological innovation. In this process, enterprises must play the role of the main body, the leading and the leading role. After 45 years of rapid development of reform and opening up, the mainland has a large number of outstanding high-tech enterprises. As the most dynamic and creative elements of the national economy, they should become the mainstay of the new national system.
Fifth, build an open platform. Guided by national policies and funds, we will widely attract the participation of various forces (including foreign forces), and encourage different market players to use market mechanisms to carry out cooperation. There is no doubt that state-owned research institutions and enterprises and institutions will continue to play an important role, but private enterprises, as the injection of fresh blood, will become a new engine for the new national system, and it is also the most conspicuous symbol that distinguishes it from the previous national system.
Sixth, diversification of investment and financing channels. The investment in major research projects is usually large-scale, long-term, and high-risk, and in the previous national system, all of them were borne by the government. However, a single model of spending money on finance is difficult to guarantee sustainable innovation and development today. With the continuous growth of social capital, the implementation of the new national system can now be completely implemented by the government instead of playing a one-man show, and the cooperation and participation of all social forces, including venture capital. Diversification of investment and financing channels is an inevitable choice for the new national system.
Seventh, protect intellectual property rights. In order to fully mobilize the enthusiasm of the participants, the new national system should establish a target assessment system and formulate an intellectual property incentive plan according to the laws and characteristics of innovation activities; explore the method of transferring patent rights to inventors or designers and small and medium-sized enterprises in government-funded projects, or a benefit distribution mechanism, so that investors and scientific researchers can share more of the benefits generated by the commercial transformation of R&D results; and strive to conform to the principles of market economy, national interests and international practices in the acquisition, ownership, distribution and transfer of intellectual property rights.
Eighth, promote high-level opening-up. The starting point and the end goal of the new national system are not to isolate oneself. Only by persisting in opening up to the outside world on a larger scale, in a wider range of fields and at a deeper level can we effectively respond to various risks and challenges and promote high-quality development. As the opening up to the outside world moves towards a new stage of a more comprehensive, in-depth and systematic approach, the relatively fragmented and fragmented opening up of the flow of commodities and factors can no longer meet the needs of economic development, and it is necessary to steadily expand the opening up of rules, regulations, management, standards and other institutions. Institutional opening-up is to take the initiative to benchmark and connect with international advanced market rules, and on the basis of cleaning up unreasonable and incompatible domestic laws and regulations, further form a standardized and transparent basic institutional system and regulatory model that is in line with the prevailing rules of international trade and investment.
The practice of the past 45 years since the Third Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee has fully proved that problems in development must be solved in the course of development, and only by deepening reform and expanding opening-up can China effectively respond to various risks and challenges and promote high-quality development. Let's walk into 2024 with this belief!
The author is a distinguished professor at Nankai University, dean of the School of Journalism and Communication, and former editor-in-chief of Science and Technology Daily