Inscription: This year marks the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the Peking University Development Institute (formerly known as the China Center for Economic Research, abbreviated as CCER). Today, the Institute has been able to make achievements in teaching, scientific research, think tanks and other fields, and contribute to social progress, which is inseparable from the pioneering spirit of generations of teachers, students and alumni, as well as the care and support of all walks of life. On the occasion of the 30th anniversary, we specially launched the "I and the Peking University Development Institute (or me and CCER) theme essay call, welcome teachers, students, alumni and partners from all walks of life to contribute contributions, through your words, so that more people can remember and reminisce about the years that should not be yellowed."
This article is a reminiscence article by Mr. Zhang Weiying, co-founding professor of Peking University Development Institute. He said: I write about its birth process from a personal point of view, not only to commemorate the past, but also to hope that the National Development Institute will have a better future!
Origin
In December 1984, after graduating from Northwest University, I came to Beijing to work for the China Institute of Economic System Reform ("China Institute of Economic Reform") under the National Institutional Reform Commission ("CSRC"). In October 1987, I was sent to Oxford University in England for a 14-month training program. The training program is hosted by The Centre for Modern Chinese Studies at the University of Oxford, initiated by Sir Alec Caircross, a well-known British economist and former adviser to the UK Treasury, and directed by Mr. Lin Zhiren, a Chinese economist. Sir Caircross was a very influential figure in the UK, then a professor at the University of Oxford and honorary vice-chancellor of the University of Glasgow. At the invitation of the State Commission for the Reform of the State System, he attended the "International Symposium on Macroeconomic Management" (commonly known as the "Bashan Wheel Conference") held on the Yangtze River cruise ship "Bashan" from September 2 to 7, 1985, where he first came into contact with Chinese economists and became interested in China's economic reform. Sir Caircross is a Scotsman with a great sense of mission, and this conference made him feel that China's reform and opening up is very much in need of economists educated in modern economics, and Chinese economists generally lack understanding of modern economics, so they have the idea of training economists for China. His ideas were supported by the World Bank and the Ford Foundation, which led to the "Oxford Centre for the Study of Modern China". The main work of the center is to provide modern economics training for young Chinese economists, once a year, about 10 people per session, students from the State Commission for Economic Reform, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the State Planning Commission, selected by the work unit (need to pass an interview), registered at the University of Oxford as a "visiting student" (visiting student), to receive a 14-month economics course training (spanning four semesters at the University of Oxford). I am the second cohort of participants in this program.
It should be said that the trainees who can participate in this training program are all well-known young economists in China, but after entering Oxford, they immediately exposed that the foundation of modern economics is too poor. Many of the students graduated from Peking University, Renmin University, Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and other institutions, but it was difficult to take undergraduate microeconomics and macroeconomics courses at Oxford. Language is an obstacle, but the biggest obstacle is not the language, but the way of thinking. The "Western economics" taught in domestic universities is about various schools of thought and their views, rather than the basic principles and analytical methods of modern economics. Although I was able to provide some extracurricular tutoring to other students because I learned the basic principles of economics through self-study during my graduate studies at Northwestern University, I was still exposed to new fields such as game theory and information economics for the first time. After returning to China, I used this analogy: there is a hole in the door or window, and when we see an eye, we think that there is a person standing outside the door, and when we open the door, it turns out to be a dog! This was the main reason why I decided to return to Oxford for my PhD. I feel that if I don't get a PhD at a good university abroad, I will have no future in continuing to engage in economics research! Domestic scholars know too little about modern economics!
In mid-December 1988, I returned to Beijing after completing my training programme at Oxford. At that time, the lack of theory had become a serious challenge for the reform. At my suggestion, the Institute set up a theory room, which I presided over. One of the first things I did was to teach microeconomics and macroeconomics to 20 or so young scholars at the institute twice a week until April 27, 1989. This is also the only thing that the Theory Office of the Institute of Structural Reform has done since its establishment.
In October 1990, after a two-year hiatus, I returned to Oxford University to begin my PhD. When I went abroad, I didn't plan to return to China to work after I got my Ph.D., given the political atmosphere in China at the time. But Deng Xiaoping's 1992 Southern Speech changed China and my thinking. My college classmate Feng Lun ran a company in Haikou and quickly became a big boss. He told me on the phone that the opportunities in China are very good, and you should get your degree and come back! Even if you don't go to sea and continue to do research, we can let you live like a professor abroad! Of course, he himself has never been abroad, and he does not know how professors abroad live. But his words inspired me. In this way, by the spring of 1993, I had the intention of returning to China to work after graduation.
Of course, I don't want to go back to the government to be an official, nor do I want to make money in business, and I feel that I am neither an official nor an entrepreneur. My hobby is to do academics. I want to teach at a university and change economics education in China. During my first study at Oxford and my second PhD at Oxford, I accompanied the visiting Chinese economists, and I found it difficult for Chinese economists to communicate with Oxford economists. There was a very famous Chinese economist who gave an academic lecture in Oxford, and the audience did not know what to do, and as a Chinese, I felt very uncomfortable sitting in the audience. Economics education in China needs to change urgently! Another reason why I want to go to university is that I think being a university teacher is sacred. Before I went abroad, my colleagues who graduated from Peking University often told me the stories of old professors at Peking University, such as Chen Daisun, Du Du, Chen Zhenhan, and Li Yining, which made me so envious!
But I don't want to go back to a traditional economics department. In that environment, I was either ostracized or assimilated. The only way to do this is to gather like-minded people and create a new, relatively independent institution in an existing university, creating a small environment conducive to high-level economic research and teaching.
In May 1993, I wrote a letter to President Zhang Xiaowen of Tsinghua University, suggesting the establishment of an economics department (or research institute) at Tsinghua University. My basic idea is that the teaching and research backbone of this new Department of Economics is composed of returnees who have obtained doctorates in economics from first-class overseas universities, and they are interested in taking academic research as a lifelong career, and at the same time hiring a group of part-time staff as auxiliary forces; All positions are open for recruitment; The school-running model basically imitates the general model of economics education in world-class universities, and completely abandons the economics school-running model that has been used in China for 40 years. The Faculty of Economics has a consulting company or investment fund, which is run by full-time staff, and all profits are used for the development of the Faculty of Economics, ensuring that "pure" academic staff can concentrate on teaching and research; The Department of Economics will establish professorships, scholarships, and special research funds named after donors.
A copy of the letter written by Zhang Weiying to President Zhang Xiaowen
Regarding the motivation for the establishment of the new economic research institute, I made three points in my letter to President Zhang Xiaowen.
First, economics is the first university subject of social sciences today, and a world-class economics department is an important symbol of a world-class university, but due to ideological and institutional reasons, for a long time, China's economics has been basically out of touch with modern mainstream economics, and China not only does not have world-class economists, but it is even difficult to find economists who can communicate and dialogue with foreign economists. This plan can be seen as a step towards making China's economics world-class, with the specific goal of having a world-class economist in China within 10 to 20 years, and Tsinghua University has a world-class economics department.
Second, in recent years, hundreds of Chinese students studying economics abroad have obtained PhDs, some of whom have made a name for themselves in the academic world, but only five or six have returned to serve them. As far as I know, many people intend to return to China to engage in economic research, but they are unable to make up their minds, one of the reasons is that people who have received a formal education in modern economics not only find it difficult to find a "common language" to communicate with their counterparts in China after returning to China, but are also easily "assimilated" by traditional economics. This program hopes to form an academic circle and create a good academic atmosphere through the method of "collective return to China", so as to attract a group of first-class talents to return to China to engage in economic research.
Third, Chinese society is currently in a stage of transition, and people in various professions are making new choices. An unavoidable problem is that because it is difficult to raise the basic salary of research personnel for the time being, many economists who are interested in academic research are forced to "go to the sea," and those who do not go to the sea have to subordinate their research to the purpose of making money, and real economic research is almost non-existent, and this is one of the reasons why some people want to return to China but dare not return to China. There is a saying among international students that "make money to return to China and study abroad". In the long run, a country as big as China should be able to afford a group of economists who are "academically first". This project hopes to use the method of "learning by business, and business learning is relatively independent", so that a group of people who have the potential to become world-class economists will not be forced by life to concentrate on research and teaching.
The reason why I wrote to Tsinghua University, instead of Peking University or the National People's Congress, was because I thought that Tsinghua University did not have an economics department and that it was easy to draw on a blank sheet of paper, and that the economics departments of Peking University and the National People's University were too old and too strong in traditional forces to establish a new economic research institute. Of course, I later learned that Tsinghua University actually already has a Department of Economics (in the School of Management and Economics) and an Institute of Economic Research. However, President Zhang Xiaowen quickly replied to me through Zhao Chunjun (Executive Vice Dean of SME), saying that he would invite me to dinner and discuss my proposal when I returned to China in early July.
From June 14 to 28, 1993, I participated in a delegation organized by the American Economic Society (CES) and visited Taiwan for two weeks. At that time, Yi Gang was the president of the American Economic Association, and he organized this visit to Taiwan. During my visit to Taiwan, I talked to Yi Gang about the idea of setting up a new economic research institute in China, and Yi Gang was very excited after hearing this, and said let's do it together! He believes that if a suitable institution can be established, it will definitely attract enough overseas students to return to China. He also said that being a professor abroad has a high salary and a stable life, but the future is at a glance, and it is more meaningful to return to China to do something spectacular. Yi Gang's willingness to work together is very encouraging! He had already secured tenure at Indiana University at the time, and I was still doing my Ph.D., so his choice was more exemplary than mine.
Group photo during the visit to Taiwan (from left: Tian Guoqiang, Tian Jun, Yi Gang, Zhang Fan, Zhang Weiying)
After our visit to Taiwan, we attended the "International Symposium on the Theory and Reality of China's Market Economy" in Haikou from July 1 to 3. This international conference was jointly sponsored by the American Economic Association, the British Economic Association, and the China (Hainan) Institute of Reform and Development. As the president of the American Economic Association, Yi Gang is responsible for inviting American economists; As the Vice-President of the Economics Society in the UK, I am responsible for inviting economists from the UK and Europe; As the executive vice president of the China (Hainan) Institute of Reform and Development, Chi Fulin is responsible for inviting domestic economists and organizing the conference. The theme and schedule of the meeting were agreed upon by us. Internationally renowned economists attending the conference included Zhang Wuchang, Zou Zhizhuang, Jeffrey Sachs, Dwight Perkins, Barry Naughton, Derek Morris, David Newbery, Adrian Wood, etc. Yang Xiaokai, Wang Yijiang, Tian Guoqiang, Wen Guanzhong, Wei Shangjin, Hai Wen, Chen Ping, Xiao Geng, Tian Jun, Jin Lizuo, Qin Duo, Liu Minquan and many other economists in the United States and the United Kingdom attended the meeting. Haiwen also went to Haikou ahead of schedule to help coordinate some of the meetings. Lin Yifu, who was working at the Rural Development Research Center of the State Council at the time, was an important guest at the meeting.
Group photo of some participants during the Hainan conference
At the Hainan International Conference, Yi Gang and I shared with you the idea of establishing a new economic research institute composed of returnees from overseas studies, which aroused widespread interest, and many people also put forward very valuable suggestions. What is even more exciting is that Lin Yifu told us that in 1988, he and Sun Laixiang proposed the establishment of a self-funded economic research institute composed of young economists under the School of Economics of Peking University, and the proposal was drafted by Ping Xinqiao, supported by Dean Shi Shiqi, and officially approved by President Ding Shisun, and was delayed in 1989 when it was about to be established. In the summer of 1992, when Haiwen returned to Peking University to teach the Scholastic Summer School, the two of them regained this idea and were discussing with the School of Economics of Peking University to establish a new institution in the School of Economics (called the "Peking University Center for Economic Reform and Development").
Yifu's idea can be said to coincide with my and Yi Gang's thoughts! Through in-depth exchanges, the three of us reached a basic consensus that: first, such an organization is worth doing; Second, in view of the limited number of people who can completely return to China and the limited funding that can be raised, we can only concentrate on one institution, either at Peking University or at Tsinghua University, and cannot do two institutions at the same time at Peking University and Tsinghua University. Third, this new institution must be affiliated at the university level, independent of the current School of Economics and the School of Management, and not at the college level. The three of us agreed that after returning to Beijing, Yifu would talk to Peking University first, and Yi Gang and I would talk to Tsinghua first, and finally see which one was the most positive, and we would do it in whichever one.
Peking University!
On the afternoon of July 7, 1993, Lin Yifu went to Peking University Hospital to visit Wu Shuqing, the president of the hospital, accompanied by Shi Shiqi, dean of the School of Economics of Peking University. Yifu made an oral report to President Wu Shuqing on the proposal to establish a China Center for Economic Reform and Development at Peking University. According to Yifu's records, President Wu Shuqing had a very positive attitude and said that he would build the center into a first-class scientific research and teaching institution in China and the world, and contribute to the policy research of China's economic reform and development and the further improvement of the teaching level of economics at Peking University. President Wu Shuqing also promised to allocate five sets of two-to-three-bedroom houses for the use of returnees within one or two years, and also said that there is an ancient building that has yet to be restored, which can be used as the office location of the center in the future, but the repair cost is self-raised, and the center can have relatively independent autonomy in terms of personnel, finance, and materials.
Two days later, on the morning of July 9, Yi Gang and I went to Tsinghua University to meet with Dean Zhao Chunjun and exchange ideas for establishing a new research institute. At noon, Vice President Yang Jiaqing of Tsinghua University hosted a banquet for us (a month ago, President Zhang Xiaowen had been transferred to the post of Vice Minister of Education). Both Dean Zhao and Vice President Yang were positive about the establishment of a new economics research institute at Tsinghua University, and Vice President Yang designated Dean Zhao as the contact person, but did not provide specific comments on housing and offices, and hoped to wait for more detailed plans to be discussed further.
On the morning of July 10, Yi Gang and I went to meet Dean Shi Shiqi. Dean Shi Shiqi agreed that the new research center would be independent of the School of Economics and the School of Management. In the afternoon of the same day, we went to the university hospital to meet with Principal Wu Shuqing. At an academic conference in Wuhu in 1985, I lived in the same room as Wu Shuqing, who was a teacher at Renmin University at the time. During this meeting, President Wu's opinion was similar to that expressed to Yifu three days ago, and he hoped that we would write a written document. After meeting Principal Wu, we went to visit Teacher Li Yining again. At that time, Peking University had planned to establish an independent "Peking University School of Business Administration" on the basis of the Department of Economics and Management of the School of Economics and the Peking University Management Science Research Center. Prof. Li also agreed that the new institution will be independent of the School of Economics and the School of Management, and said that we are very welcome to open courses for doctoral and master's students in the School of Management.
The three of us discussed, and I drafted a "proposal". Jeff flew to Sydney on 10 July for a two-month visit to the Australian National University. On July 15, the "Proposal on the Establishment of the "China Economic Research Center" (Draft for Comments)" drafted in the name of the three of us was completed and submitted to President Wu Shuqing of Peking University and President Zhao Chunjun of Tsinghua University. When this proposal was drafted, I lived in the Poly Building, and my handwritten manuscript was typed out by Feng Lun's secretary on a Sitong typewriter. During the drafting process, Feng Lun provided me with some very valuable suggestions.
As far as I can remember, I first proposed the name "China Economic Research Center", which was recognized by Yifu and Yi Gang. The name has a double meaning: it is an economic research center rooted in China, and it is also a research center focused on the Chinese economy. The English name is determined to be China Center for Economic Research, abbreviated as CCER. Because of the name, an interesting thing happened later. At the end of August 1994, when Zhang Jiali went to engrave the official seal, the public security department did not approve it, saying that the word "China" could not appear on the official seal, and I had to explain it specifically, and I told them that we were the research center of "China's economy", not the research center of the world economy or foreign economy, and that the four words "China's economy" were a whole.
The Recommendation consists of nine parts, namely: (1) basic assumptions and motivations; 2. Functions; 3. Management system and board of directors; 4. Research organization and institutional setting; 5. Treatment of research teams and researchers; 6. Research facilities; 7. Methods of cooperation; 8. Budget and sources of funds; 9. Preparatory work. The drafters who signed the last sign were Lin Yifu, Yi Gang, and Zhang Weiying. The "Proposal" also has three annexes, annex 1 to the list of some of the first candidates for full-time and part-time staff, annex 2 to the list of candidates for funders, and annex 3 to the budget. (I have the September 10, 1993 version, which only elaborates on some of the terms of the July 15 version.) The July 15 edition is preserved in the archives of Peking University. ）
First and last pages of the "Recommendation" for the establishment of the CCER (15 July 1993)
It should be said that this proposal is very ambitious and inspiring. In the section "Basic Assumptions and Motivations", it is written, "The basic assumption of this Proposal is to establish a world-class economic research institute that is the first in China and the world." "The center is affiliated to XX University, has the status of a business legal person, and the center implements the director responsibility system under the leadership of the board of directors, and is managed in accordance with the operation mode of foreign legal person research institutions." "The center integrates research, teaching, and talent training, and adheres to the simultaneous development of theoretical research, applied research, and policy research." "The research backbone of the center is composed of all outstanding economists who have obtained doctoral degrees overseas with excellent grades and are interested in returning to China to engage in research work, as well as outstanding economists who have emerged in China in recent years." The reason why "XX University" is written instead of "Peking University" in the proposal is that it was not yet determined whether the center would be located in Peking University or Tsinghua University.
After completing the "proposal", I left Beijing on the evening of July 15 and went to Zhengzhou, Xi'an and my hometown of Wubao for 20 days, and returned to Beijing on August 5. Before I returned to Beijing, Yi Gang had sent the "proposal" to President Wu Shuqing, received President Wu's recognition and support, and made an appointment to meet him again.
On the afternoon of August 6, Yi Gang and I went to the office of the president of Peking University to meet President Wu and Dean Shi Shiqi as scheduled. Gao Shangquan is my old leader, Wu Shuqing's old friend, and also the leader of the Hainan International Symposium in early July, and he is willing to help us. According to Yi Gang's records, during the conversation, President Wu expressed the following opinions: 1. Agree in principle with the "Proposal on the Establishment of the China Economic Research Center" drafted by Lin Yifu, Yi Gang, and Zhang Weiying, and said that education needs to be innovated in the management system to a new level, and the center will be an attempt in this regard. 2. Since several university leaders are not at home, President Wu Shuqing will discuss with them the preparatory work of the research center after their return, and can contact potential investors according to the content of the current proposal (text of July 15, 1993). 3. The school allocates five sets of 2-3 bedroom houses to the full-time staff of the center, which is guaranteed in time; The proposal calls for Peking University to allocate seven central offices, and the university is trying to find a way, but it has not yet been able to make a commitment. President Wu also invited Mr. Gao Shangquan to be a director or consultant of the center.
Minutes of conversation with President Wu Shuqing on August 6, 1993
In this conversation with President Wu Shuqing, the following consensus was reached: first, the China Center for Economic Research will be parallel to the School of Economics and the School of Management of Peking University, and will be directly under the leadership of Peking University; Second, in terms of teaching, the center should work closely with the School of Economics and the School of Management, and the full-time staff of the center should make a commitment to quality and quantity in teaching; Third, full-time researchers of the center should enter the official establishment of Peking University and enjoy the benefits of Peking University faculty members. The academic titles of full-time and part-time researchers of the center are those of Peking University; Fourth, the auxiliary staff (secretaries, etc.) of the center will not occupy the official establishment of Peking University, and will be openly recruited by the center in accordance with the principles of market mechanism and relevant national laws and regulations; Fifth, there is a unanimous preference for building the center's office building on the vacant land in the north of the Peking University campus. In the process of infrastructure construction, the logistics department of Peking University should be invited to actively cooperate, and the competition mechanism should be used to select the construction unit as much as possible; Sixth, as a supplement to the proposal, the director of the center should be nominated by the president of Peking University and approved by the board of directors.
After reaching the above consensus with President Wu Shuqing and receiving the above commitment from President Wu, Yifu, Yi Gang and I reached a consensus that the China Center for Economic Research would be located at Peking University, so there was no further communication with Tsinghua University. The preparatory group for the China Center for Economic Research at Peking University, composed of Lin Yifu, Yi Gang and Zhang Weiying, was formally established. President Wu Shuqing appointed Vice President Liang Zhu to represent Peking University as the coordinator of the center's preparatory work, and Dong Wenjun, Vice Dean of the School of Management, assisted Lin Yifu in communicating with relevant departments of Peking University. On August 8th, Yi Gang and I went to meet with Professor Mao Yushi, who was very supportive of our idea of establishing the "China Economic Research Center" at Peking University and expressed his willingness to help us as much as he could.
Preparation
There are two main tasks ahead: one is to raise funds, and the other is to lobby overseas economists to return home.
There is also a small episode in the matter of raising money. When I was returning to my hometown, the villagers came to me and said that the neighboring village had been connected to electricity, but our village was not connected to electricity because there was no one in the county, and they hoped that I could help the village find money for electricity. After returning to Beijing, I nagged Yi Gang about this. Yi Gang said, Wei Ying, don't worry about this little thing, let's just make up some by ourselves, you should focus on raising a lot of money for the center, don't lose a lot of money because of a small thing. In the end, Yi Gang, Jin Lizuo, and Liu An made donations, and I also made some advances myself, and our village was finally connected to electricity.
To raise money for the center, the first thing that comes to mind is the Ford Foundation. On the morning of August 9th, we visited the Ford Foundation's Beijing office and had a nearly two-and-a-half-hour conversation with Peter Harris, the director of the office, and Stephen McGurk, the project leader. We briefed the two of them on the idea of establishing a China Center for Economic Research at Peking University, and submitted to them the proposal drafted by the three of us and a list of overseas scholars who could return to China. Some of the issues discussed in this meeting with the Ford Foundation are of great value to understanding the original purpose of establishing the China Center for Economic Research and its uniqueness, so I would like to elaborate on the questions raised by Ford and our responses here.
Ford first asked why the new center was established, and why couldn't the same purpose be achieved in the School of Economics? We replied that, first, the center should be established as a research unit with a new system, which is reflected in management methods, funding sources, and personnel appointments. Second, in order to attract overseas scholars to return to China, the income of the research center should be relatively high, and it is difficult to balance the two income systems of one institute in the School of Economics. Third, the knowledge structure of researchers in the old system is very different from that of research centers, and if it is not handled well, it may cause a lot of trouble.
Ford asked, why choose Peking University instead of Chinese University? Ford's training center is at the National People's Congress, and in recent years, the National People's Congress has had a much greater influence on the central government's economic decision-making than Peking University. We replied that, first of all, our goal is to build the center into a world-class academic and policy research institution, and a relatively relaxed academic environment is essential. Peking University has a tradition of inclusiveness and academic freedom and a certain distance from the central government's policy research, which is exactly what we need. In the long run, keeping up with central government policy research is not necessarily the best research strategy, nor does it necessarily produce truly impactful and time-tested results. Secondly, Peking University is a comprehensive university, and economic research needs to be related to mathematics, computer science, statistics, operations research, optimization theory, etc., and in this regard, Peking University also has an advantage over Renmin University. Third, the National People's Congress is a bit like Taiwan's National Chengchi University, and Peking University has an advantage in attracting funding from funders at home and abroad. Finally, Peking University has accumulated a relatively complete set of foreign language books and materials on economics over the past few decades, which is unique in China.
Ford asked us if we had any contact with the National People's Congress. We replied that when we held a meeting in Haikou, we had talked with Professor Huang Da about how to attract international students to return to China, but we had not discussed the establishment of the center with the National People's Congress.
Ford said that Peking University seems to be a very sensitive place. We replied that the academic environment at Peking University is deep-rooted.
Ford asked us if there were any lower-cost options, such as through short-term exchange programs. We said that many of our friends and we have recently been actively promoting exchanges between overseas scholars and domestic scholars. The Chinese Economic Association in the United States has been teaching economics in China for three years, and has been well received by many universities and students. Recently, we have also organized an international conference in Haikou, one of the purposes of which is to promote academic exchanges between domestic and foreign scholars. But from these activities, we deeply realized that we need a position, and at least a few first-class scholars should make this their home, so that academic exchanges can be taken to a higher level. It is difficult to make short-term visits, exchanges, and meetings systematic.
Ford asked, will we return to China ourselves, in the long term or in the short term? We all said we were ready to come back, and for the long haul.
At the end of the meeting, Mr. Harris and Mr. McGurk both said that Ford was very interested in our idea of establishing CCER, and was willing to give us all the support we could. However, due to Ford's limited financial resources, the annual budget in China is only 6 to 9 million US dollars, and we hope that we will also contact the World Bank, UNDP and other major players to seek their help. They also told us that Ford's budget year ends in September and that they hope to receive our formal proposal in English in September so that they can give us an answer by the end of October.
In the afternoon after my exchange with Ford, I flew to Shenzhen and later to Shanghai to look for possible domestic funders. The potential domestic funders I list include: Meng Tian (Hainan Huitong International Trust and Investment Company), Feng Lun (Hainan Wantong Enterprise Co., Ltd.), Wang Gang (Hainan China Xingnan Group), Yang Bo and Zhang Shaojie (Zhuhai Hengtong Real Estate Co., Ltd.), Li Jun (Shenzhen Tianji Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd.), Tian Yuan (China International Futures Co., Ltd.), Yin Lantian (China Rural Development Trust and Investment Corporation), Zhang Xuejun (Hainan International Merchants Co., Ltd.), Liu An (Haikou Saida Property Co., Ltd.), Sun Fangming (Yalongwan Industrial Corporation), Zheng Hongqing (Wuhua Real Estate Co., Ltd.), He Daofeng (Beihai Zhonghui Real Estate Co., Ltd.), Wang Shi (Shenzhen Vanke Co., Ltd.), etc. This list was drawn up after discussion with Feng Lun, who were either my former colleagues or old friends from academia, most of whom had gone to sea to set up companies after Deng Xiaoping's talks in the south in 1992, when they were already wealthy. When I met with them or called them, most of them responded positively and expressed their willingness to support us in building a world-class economic research center. Among them, Meng Tian's reply excites me the most. He asked me how much I needed in total, and I said 40 million! He said he could come up with that amount alone. Meng Tian's original name was Qi Yonggui, Liu Hongru's eldest disciple in Wudaokou, and the former director of the Macro Research Office of the Institute of Physical Reform (Song Guoqing's predecessor), is my old leader! Of course, in the end, due to various reasons, I didn't follow up, and the matter was over. This incident also made me realize that although some wishes are not fulfilled in the end, their existence is still valuable for the realization of the ultimate goal. If it weren't for the promise of these friends in the business community, we would not have had the confidence to establish the China Economic Research Center.
In late August, Yi Gang and I left Beijing and returned to the United States and the United Kingdom. After returning to Beijing from the Australian National University in early September, Jeff met with Stephen McGurk of the Ford Foundation on September 9 to submit an English version of his proposal. When I returned to Oxford, I exchanged letters with Stephen McGurk, reporting to Ford on the progress of the center's preparations and explaining their concerns. After several months of repeated negotiations, the Ford Foundation finalized the budget for the funding center, which included two major parts: funding for the center's office equipment and subsidies for the living and research expenses of the returnees.
Letter from Lin Yifu to Yi Gang and Zhang Weiying (1993.10.5)
The preparatory meeting of the China Economic Research Center was held on December 23-25, 1993 in the Audio-visual Education Building of Peking University. In the three or four months prior to that, Yifu, Yi Gang, and I had communicated mainly by letter, fax, and e-mail, as well as through several international telephone calls. A total of 35 official delegates from four quarters attended the preparatory meeting, including (names are in Hanyu Pinyin order): :(1) Peking University: Cao Fengqi (Vice Dean of the School of Management), Dong Wenjun (Vice Dean of the School of Management), Liang Zhu (Vice President), Qiu Peiling (Professor of the Institute of Population Research), Shi Shiqi (Former Dean of the School of Economics), Wu Shuqing (President), Yan Zhijie (Dean of the School of Economics), Yang Mingzhu (Director of the Foreign Affairs Office), Zeng Yi (Director of the Institute of Population); (2) Representatives of domestic scientific research units: Cai Fang (Deputy Director of the Institute of Population Research, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences), Chen Xiwen (Director of the Rural Department of the Development Center of the State Council), Cao Yuanzheng (Director of the Institute of Physical Reform of the State Council Reform Commission), Du Ying (Deputy Director of the Rural Policy Research Center of the Ministry of Agriculture), Deng Zhenglai (Director of the Chinese Institute of Social Sciences), Fan Gang (Researcher of the Institute of Economics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences), Li Zhou (Associate Researcher, Rural Institute, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences), Lin Shaogong (Professor of Huazhong University of Science and Technology), Lin Yifu (Deputy Director of the Rural Department of the Development Center of the State Council), Mao Yushi (Director of Tianrule Research Institute), Pi Shenghao (Deputy Director of CITIC Research Institute); (3) Representatives of international institutions living in Beijing: Hua Cheng (Senior Economist, World Bank), Meng Zes (Program Officer, Ford Foundation); (4) Representatives of overseas scholars: Ge Zhili (Ph.D. candidate, Carleton University, Canada), Lu Mai (Researcher, Hong Kong Polytechnic University), Hai Wen (Assistant Professor, Forlewis College, USA), Qin Duo (Lecturer, Queen Mary, UK), Qian Yingyi (Assistant Professor, Stanford University, USA), Song Guoqing (Ph.D. Candidate, University of Chicago, USA), Tian Guoqiang (Assistant Professor, Texas A&M University, USA), Xiao Geng (Lecturer, University of Hong Kong), Yi Gang (Associate Professor, Indiana University, USA), Mingde Yu (Ph.D. candidate, University of Chicago), Fan Zhang (Ph.D., Wayne University, USA), Weiying Zhang (Ph.D. candidate, University of Oxford, UK), Qiren Zhou (Ph.D. candidate, University of California, Los Angeles, USA).
According to the minutes of the meeting, at this meeting, Lin Yifu, Zhang Weiying and Yi Gang, the initiators of the center's preparation, first introduced the initiation process and preliminary ideas of the center, and they believed that the center should have four main functions: (1) the center of modern economics in China; (2) a bridge between Chinese and foreign economists; (3) training centers for modern economics; (4) The center of the study of China's economy. The goal is to make the center the first and world-class scientific research and teaching institution in China. Lin Yifu particularly emphasized that the main purpose of holding this preparatory meeting is to discuss how to establish a good system and a system that can attract the best talent. The participants had a lively discussion on the purpose, system design, research and teaching direction of the China Economic Research Center, as well as the relevant matters related to the preparation of the center, and put forward many valuable suggestions. The preparatory meeting also discussed the Articles of Association of the China Economic Research Center of Peking University (Draft) and the Internal Management Rules of the China Economic Research Center of Peking University (Draft) and put forward suggestions for amendments, which were adopted after amendment.
At this preparatory meeting, representatives of scholars from overseas expressed their willingness to return to China, among which Zhou Qiren, Song Guoqing and several others made it clear that they would definitely come back and would choose to work in the center. The preparatory committee suggested that the members of the preparatory group of the center be expanded to seven on the basis of the original three Lin Yifu, Yi Gang and Zhang Weiying, and the four additional members include one university-level leader of Peking University, one leader of the School of Economics and one leader of the School of Management, and the other two were nominated by Lin Yifu, the leader of the preparatory group, and appointed by Peking University. After the meeting, the four members were identified as Liang Zhu (Vice President), Dong Wenjun (Vice Dean of the School of Management), Hai Wen and Zhou Qiren.
The preparatory meeting recommended that the establishment of the China Economic Research Center be set for August 1994.
After the preparatory meeting, Yifu was mainly responsible for the specific preparatory work, assisted by Dong Wenjun, vice president of the School of Management. On May 27, 1994, the preparatory group held a one-day meeting in Linhuxuan, which was attended by Vice President Liang Zhu (honorary team leader), Lin Yifu (team leader), Hai Wen, Zhang Weiying and Zhou Qiren. The Ford Foundation's Michael Mess and the Director of Peking University's Infrastructure Division attended the meeting. The meeting discussed the arrangement of the activities of the center and the division of labor among the members of the preparatory group, the date, activities and division of labor of the person in charge of the inaugural meeting of the center, the establishment of the advisory committee of the center, the establishment, treatment and selection of the administrative and scientific auxiliary personnel of the center, the housing allocation and rent standards of full-time researchers, the titles and related benefits of full-time returnees, and the arrangements for scientific research and teaching, and the architectural planning of the office building of the center.
At this preparatory group meeting, I was assigned to the teaching and learning affairs of the center. After the meeting, I communicated with Li Qingyun, Vice Dean in charge of teaching in the School of Economics, and Wang Qiwen, Vice Dean in charge of teaching in the School of Management, and completed the opening plan for doctoral and graduate students in the first semester of the 1994-95 academic year of the China Center for Economic Research on June 28, 1994, and faxed it to Vice Dean Li Qingyun and Vice Dean Wang Qiwen on June 29.
Open
On August 14, 1994, I returned to Beijing from the UK. Yi Gang had returned to Beijing before me, Yifu was also in Beijing, and Yu Mingde had returned. On the afternoon of August 15th, the four of us went to meet with Stephen McGurk of the Ford Foundation, where Jeff briefed him on the preparations for the center, and we each talked about our personal research plans. During the conversation, Yifu told us that he had found the director of the center's office and the accountant, the office director was Zhang Jiali, and the accountant was Xing Huiqing, and they would go to work immediately, so that the center could be opened. Yifu also told us that on Wednesday (17th) Principal Wu Shuqing wanted to meet us.
On the morning of the 17th, we went to the principal's office to meet with Principal Wu Shuqing, and Mr. Dong Wenjun was also present. Yifu reported some of the work of the center to President Wu, saying that some specific matters (including the nomination of the director of the center and the deputy director) had been submitted in writing, and President Wu said that they would discuss it at the president's office meeting in the afternoon. Indeed, as President Wu said, in the afternoon of the same day, the 347th meeting of the President's Office of Peking University decided to abolish the Preparatory Committee of the China Center for Economic Research of Peking University, establish the China Center for Economic Research of Peking University, and appoint Lin Yifu as the director of the center, and Yi Gang and Hai Wen as the deputy directors of the center (see Document No. 146 of Peking University (1994)). Because Yifu will be lecturing at Duke University next semester, he explained that Yi Gang will be in charge of the work of the center after he leaves, and Dong Wenjun will assist. In fact, in the first few years after the establishment of the center, Yifu worked at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology for half a year, and Yi Gang was equivalent to the executive director of the center.
Peking University's document on the establishment of CCER
On August 18, Lin Yifu flew to the United States, and Zhang Fan returned to Beijing in late August. In this way, in the first semester after the establishment of the center, four full-time faculty members (Yi Gang, Zhang Weiying, Zhang Fan, and Yu Mingde) were recruited, plus two administrative staff (Zhang Jiali and Xing Huiqing), a total of 6 people. The school gave three offices on the first floor of the old school building, one was an administrative office, the other two were the faculty offices, one of which was the director's and deputy director's offices, and me, Zhang Fan and Mingde shared the other room, and a year later, Song Guoqing also entered our office. In 1993, during the preparatory period, we made a request to the school leaders to open an e-mail address for our office, and this request was met. Of course, it didn't take long for all faculty members at Peking University to have access to e-mail, and our "privilege" became a universal right.
Before the start of school, Yi Gang took us to the Temple of Heaven furniture store to see the furniture, and also went to the "advanced" computer company to choose a computer, which was too expensive, and then transferred to other stores to buy cheap ones. At that time, we often went to a small restaurant to eat together, discussed things together, and even took care of each other for personal matters such as installing telephones and water heaters at home, and everyone had a sense of entrepreneurship and was very happy. We also go out to communicate with friends in academia, politics and business circles through attending conferences, participating in forums, visiting people, having dinners, etc., listening to their suggestions and enlisting their support and participation. At that time, Zhou Qiren was writing his doctoral dissertation in Beijing, and Xu Xiaonian took advantage of his academic leave to work as a part-time vice president of Liu Jipeng's "Beijing Standard Co., Ltd." Yi Gang and I had dinner with the two of them more than once, and they gave us great encouragement and put forward some valuable suggestions. I once met Wang Dingding at the Friendship Mall, and we persuaded him to join CCER! Three years later, he really came.
Principal Wu Shuqing said that according to the previous promise, the school allocated five houses to the center that year, Yi Gang and I were divided into Yanbei Park (three-bedroom), and Zhang Fan and Yu Mingde were divided into Weixiu Garden (two-bedroom). But there's a little story about getting the house. On the 29th, when I went to the real estate office of the university to collect the key, the person in charge said that if my spouse did not work at Peking University, the other party would have to pay a fund-raising fee of 10,000 yuan. This was not in line with the original contract, and my wife didn't have a job at the time. After the intervention of Vice President Liang Zhu, we were treated as "dual employees", and the 10,000 yuan was exempted. However, because Peking University generally provided a maximum of two-bedroom housing for returnees at that time, according to the contract, I also paid 18,000 yuan for the extra one-bedroom house.
After the start of the new semester, the faculty members of the center stepped onto the podium of Peking University. In the first semester, we offer four courses to graduate students in economics from the School of Economics and the School of Management, including: Advanced Microeconomics (Zhang Weiying), Intermediate Macroeconomics (Zhang Fan), Intermediate Econometrics (Yi Gang), and Development Economics (Yu Mingde). The courses offered in the second semester include: Special Topics in China's Economy (Lin Yifu), Advanced Macroeconomics (Yu Yongding), Money and Banking and Financial Markets (Yi Gang), Industrial Organization Theory (Zhang Weiying), International Trade (Haiwen), Regional Economics (Zhang Fan), and Population Economics (Yu Mingde). Among them, Advanced Microeconomics and Advanced Macroeconomics are for doctoral students majoring in economics, and we hope that the School of Economics will give us the best young lecturers as teaching assistants. In this way, Zhou Li'an became a teaching assistant for me and Yu Yongding. This is the first time that a doctoral student in economics at Peking University has a compulsory course in a class, which has changed the training method of doctoral students in economics at Peking University and greatly improved the quality of doctoral students.
At that time, the courses offered by CCER were a highlight, like a fresh breeze, which attracted some on-campus and off-campus audit students, and even some research students from other universities to take courses at CCER. The model we have pioneered has served as an exemplary model and has changed the way graduate students in economics are trained in Chinese universities. Fan Gang, who was then the deputy director of the Institute of Economics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the head of the Department of Economics of the Graduate School, decided to follow the example of Peking University and with the help of CCER, he invited several of us to teach their doctoral classes in the spring of 1995 as a compulsory course. With or without CCER, the education of economics in China will be very different!
It is necessary to talk about Professor Yu Yongding here. He returned to China after graduating from Oxford University with a PhD, where he taught advanced macroeconomics. His course was originally scheduled for the first semester, but was postponed to the second semester due to the large number of graduate students pursuing a PhD in economics at the time, and the pressure of taking advanced microeconomics and advanced macroeconomics at the same time. His lectures were very popular and made an important contribution to the good reputation of the China Center for Economic Research in its early days. It is a pity that Yu Yongding did not come to work at CCER.
The Advanced Microeconomics I teach covers both traditional microeconomic theory and modern game theory and information economics. It should be said that this is the first time that modern game theory and information economics have entered the economics classroom of Chinese universities. Coincidentally, when I was about to start teaching game theory, the 1994 Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded to John Nash, John Harsanyi, and Reinhard Selten for their pioneering contributions to game theory, which made game theory popular all of a sudden, and I also gave a public lecture on game theory: "New Developments in Mainstream Economics from the 1994 Nobel Prize in Economics". I wrote the book "Game Theory and Information Economics" based on the lecture notes, and the content of that public lecture was revised to become Chapter 0 "Introduction" of the book. My book Game Theory and Information Economics was published by the Shanghai People's Publishing House in 1996 and quickly became a bestseller in the economics textbook market, and it is still sold today.
Zhang Weiying lectures on game theory (autumn 1994)
In addition to its teaching activities, the China Center for Economic Research has also begun to hold high-quality academic exchange activities. In the initial stage, I was mainly responsible for these academic exchange activities. Soon after the establishment of the center, we began to organize the "Economic Theory and Policy Seminar Series", inviting well-known domestic economists as guest speakers, attracting many students and scholars from inside and outside the university. The content of each lecture will be edited into the "Bulletin of the China Center for Economic Research of Peking University", and Zhang Fan is mainly responsible for the editing of the briefing, and each issue prints 500 to 600 copies, which is very influential. The first English speaker at CCER was Professor Robert Mundell of the University of Chicago, who had not yet won the Nobel Prize in Economics! Hearing that he was visiting Beijing, Zhang Fan and Yu Mingde invited him to the Friendship Hotel where he was staying, and he was very interested in the newly established CCER, so he agreed. After Mundell, we have Professor Hirofumi Uzawa from the University of Minnesota and Professor Arnold Carl Harberger from UCLA, both of whom are great people in the field of economics! We were very impressed with the amount of beer that Professor Uzawa offered. These are all things that happened in the first year after the establishment of the center. In the same year, we also launched the Working Paper in both English and Chinese, which publishes unpublished academic papers.
In the first year of the center's existence, perhaps the most influential seminar was the debate between me and Lin Yifu on the reform of state-owned enterprises, which was the fifth in the series of economic theory and policy discussions, which took place on the afternoon of June 6, 1995. What is the core of the reform of state-owned enterprises? Lin Yifu stressed that the main problem of state-owned enterprises is the soft budget constraints formed under the conditions of unfair competition, and the core of enterprise reform is to create a level playing field. Starting from the theory of modern enterprises, I emphasize the importance of residual claims and control arrangements (i.e., ownership), and believe that the way out of reform lies in turning state-owned capital into creditor's rights and non-state-owned capital into equity. In this seminar, Yifu and I first presented our respective views (40 minutes each), followed by a discussion among the participants, and finally a 10-minute concluding remarks each. The content of this debate, compiled by Wu Youchang and Huang Shaoqing, master's students of the School of Economics, was published in the Bulletin of the China Center for Economic Research of Peking University No. 4 (July 8, 1995). At that time, the well-known "Economic News" edited by Gao Xiaoyong called this controversy "the 'firefight' incident of Peking University", which shows that CCER was an inclusive organization from the beginning!
The China Economic Research Center was established in August 1994, but the inauguration ceremony was held on March 10, 1995. The inauguration ceremony was postponed for two reasons: first, Yifu was not in China in the autumn of 1994, and second, it was too late to prepare for the ceremony. The highlight of the inauguration ceremony was the keynote speech by Nobel laureate economist Douglas North, who made the term "path dependence" popular in China!
Song Guoqing, Zhang Weiying, and Yu Mingde (from right to left) at the CCER inaugural meeting
After three years at the center, in September 1997, I was transferred from CCER to Guanghua School of Management. After working in Guanghua for 17 years, in May 2014, at the invitation of President Yao Yang, I returned to the National Development Institute. From CCER to CD, the name has changed, but the spirit has not changed, the mission has not changed, and the culture has not changed!
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the establishment of CCER, and I write about its birth process from a personal perspective, not only to commemorate the past, but also to hope that the National Development Institute will have a better future!