Zhu Jiamu: Terminate the planned economic system, but do not abandon the use of economic planning
Party building and governance
★★★★★
Today, after the 14 th CPC National Congress, especially after the 18 th CPC National Congress, we should undoubtedly stand on the high plane of understanding the socialist market economy and socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era, and use the new viewpoints that "planning and the market are both economic means" and "combining the decisive role of the market in the allocation of resources with the better play of the role of the government" to observe and analyze. However, we should not detach ourselves from the historical background of the time and say that the planned economy was useless, accusing us of proceeding from books and theories and blindly copying the models of other countries, which was a mistake and hindered economic development and the improvement of the people's living standards.
Transforming the planned economic system into a socialist market economic system is a major breakthrough in the practice of socialist construction and a major innovation in Marxist economic theory. It has greatly liberated and developed China's social productive forces, greatly enhanced its comprehensive national strength, and accelerated the historic leap in the people's overall living standards from subsistence and clothing to a moderately prosperous life. Any idea of nostalgia for the planned economic system lacks both theoretical and factual basis, and any attempt to restore a highly centralized planned economic system is not conducive to keeping up with the pace of the times and is contrary to the will of the overwhelming majority of the people. However, this by no means means means that it was wrong to choose the planned economic system in the first place, and the construction and exploration of the planned economy over the past several decades have been meaningless.
History has eloquently shown that if we had not chosen a planned economic system based on state needs for resource allocation, but a market economic system based on market needs, it would have been absolutely impossible for us to concentrate our limited human, material, and financial resources for large-scale industrialization, and it would have been absolutely impossible for us to establish the foundation for industrialization in such a short period of time. If we say that the selection and implementation of the planned economic system in those years was only based on theory rather than reality, that there were only the malaise that constrained economic vitality but did not play a positive role in promoting the productive forces, and that there was only the lesson of failure in acting on subjective will without the successful experience of acting in accordance with objective economic laws, then the brilliant achievements made in the era of planned economy are unimaginable and cannot be rationally explained.
After the victory of the revolution, both the Soviet Union and China were faced with their own economic backwardness and the military threat of imperialism, so they both needed to develop heavy industries that were intensive in capital, technology, and personnel as soon as possible, and to realize the industrialization of the country in a relatively short period of time, so as to lay a material foundation for enhancing national defense strength, consolidating the new political power, and then improving the people's living standards. However, in the face of the scarcity of capital, technology, and human resources, and the imperialist economic blockade of the Soviet Union and especially China at that time, it would be difficult to maintain even normal economic order if the method of market economy was adopted, not to mention giving priority to the development of heavy industry and rapid industrialization. The most effective way is to allocate resources through a unified and highly centralized national planning method to resolve the contradiction between accumulation and consumption under conditions of insufficient supply.
As far as New China is concerned, in addition to the needs of its own development strategy and the inspiration of Marxist theory, another important reason for the choice of the planned economic system in the first place is the exemplary role of the Soviet Union's implementation of the planned economy. China's economy was originally backward from the Soviet Union, and the victory of the revolution was 32 years later than that of the Soviet Union, so the Soviet Union only used two five-year plans to build itself from a backward industrial country to an industrial power in Europe, and finally defeated the invincible fascist Germany, which had a huge demonstration effect on China. In addition, the Soviet Union's promise to provide comprehensive assistance to the mainland in the construction of the "First Five-Year Plan" with a focus on heavy industry made it a natural choice for China to learn from the Soviet Union's planned economy.
It can be seen that New China's choice of the planned economic system was not based on books and theories, nor did it blindly copy the Soviet model, but mainly out of its own objective needs. At the same time, it should be noted that although New China consciously copied and copied some of the Soviet Union's construction and management experience in the early period due to its lack of experience in industrialization, it still paid attention to the light of its own actual conditions, and there were still some creations in some aspects, especially in the later stage of the construction of the First Five-Year Plan, and it placed greater emphasis on paying more attention to its own experience.
The implementation of a unified and highly centralized planned economic system has achieved tremendous success, but there are also some problems of one kind or another. For example, over a period of time, China's economy has undergone many major ups and downs, with such phenomena as too much input, too little output, tight market supply, and a single variety of commodities; especially after the "Great Leap Forward" movement, plans have become more and more unified, and the more unified they have become, the more rigid they become, the management of directive plans has been continuously strengthened, indirect plans and guiding plans have gradually disappeared, and the situation of plans being changeable and out of touch with each other has frequently appeared. If we put these problems under the historical conditions of the time and sum them up from today's perspective, we can see that the problems mainly lie in the single public ownership system and the highly centralized planned economic system. Although the planned economic system is conducive to concentrating the use of limited resources to the places where they are most needed and avoiding waste, it will inevitably bring about the disadvantages of inaccurate planning, weak vitality, and inefficient efficiency in some aspects under the conditions of poor information transmission, backward statistical means, and excessively high supervision costs.
In the early 90s of the 20 th century, the reason why the CPC Central Committee decided to change the economic structure from a planned economy to a socialist market economy was definitely one of the innate deficiencies of the planned system itself. However, the basic reason is not here, but lies in the fact that after the construction of six consecutive five-year plans and more than 10 years of reform and opening up, profound changes have taken place in the actual situation at home and abroad, and the planned economic system can no longer adapt to the economic situation in which the economic volume is constantly increasing, the market scope is constantly expanding, the situation of coexistence of various economies is constantly developing, and the door to the outside world is opening wider and wider.
First of all, the task of large-scale industrialization infrastructure construction has been completed, and an independent and relatively complete industrial system and national economic system have been established. Second, in the period of a highly centralized planned economy, the prices of the means of production and most of the means of subsistence were set by the plan, but after more than 10 years of reform and opening up since the Third Plenary Session of the 11 th CPC Central Committee, more than 90 percent of the retail prices of commodities and more than 80 percent of the sales prices of the means of production have been liberalized, the areas of direct management of the plan have been markedly reduced, and the role of the market in regulating economic activities has been greatly enhanced.
Finally, since the opening of Sino-US relations in the early 70s of the 20 th century, the main object of the mainland's foreign economy is no longer the socialist countries that practice the planned economy, but the Western capitalist countries that practice the market economy. If the planned economy is continued, it will obviously be detrimental to foreign trade and attracting foreign investment.
In short, the planned economy and economic planning, although linked, are not the same thing. Today, although we have terminated the planned economic system in economic operation, we have not abandoned the use of economic planning as a method. In our country, whether it is a plan, a plan (a plan is essentially a guiding plan), or the allocation of resources by the market, they are all means to achieve the ultimate goal of stable and rapid economic development and continuous improvement of people's living standards. As long as it is conducive to the stable and rapid development of the economy and to the continuous improvement of the people's living standards, we will use whatever means are best used. In this regard, we should not be vague and obscure, but should publicize it in a clear-cut and justifiable manner.
Needless to say, both the Soviet Union and China made the mistake of subjectivism and detachment of planning from reality in the process of implementing the planned economy because they exaggerated the role of subjective initiative. However, the fact that the planned economy has made the mistake of subjectivism and detachment from reality in history does not mean that economic planning will inevitably produce subjectivism and be divorced from reality.
[Zhu Jiamu: Speaker of the Chang'an Street Reading Club, Former Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences]
Note: Authorized to publish, this article has been selected and included in the "Chang'an Street Reading Club" theoretical learning platform (People's Daily, People's Political Consultative Conference Daily, Beijing Daily, Xinhuanet, CCTV, National Party Media Information Public Platform, Vision, Beijing Time, Surging Government Affairs, Phoenix News Client "Chang'an Street Reading Club" column synchronization), reprinting must be uniformly marked "Chang'an Street Reading Club" theoretical learning platform source and author.
Editor-in-charge: Liu Xingyue, preliminary review: Cheng Ziqian, Chen Jiani, re-examination: Li Yufan
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