The economist Xiao Zhuoji died and was written into "China's High-Level Think Tank" with Wang Huning Lin Yifu and others.

Cover news reporter Ning Ning

On November 15, the School of Economics of Peking University issued an obituary that Xiao Zhuoji, a well-known economist and professor at the School of Economics of Peking University, died yesterday at the age of 84.

Because many of Professor Xiao Zhuoji's analysis and predictions of the market economy have been verified, he is known as the "forecaster" of China's economy in Yanyuan, and has also been written into the book "China's High-level Think Tank" together with Wang Huning, Lin Yifu, Li Yining, Wu Jinglian and others.

Professor Xiao Zhuoji's magical predictions always give people a kind of sorcery mystery and imagination, so some people call him the "wizard" of the economy.

"Lonely" Southerners

Xiao Zhuoji was born in December 1933 in Shantou, Guangdong Province. He has shown great understanding and analytical ability since he was a child, and when he was a student at Shantou Middle School, he served as the chairman of the study club. During his secondary school years, he read, studied, and had a wide range of hobbies. For Xiao Zhuoji, who was living in a motherland that was in ruins and waiting to be rebuilt, the ideal was to be a diplomat of new China and use his talent and enthusiasm to create conditions for the development of new China.

However, the economic construction of the first five-year plan at that time ignited the young heart of Xiao Zhuoji, who gave up his dream of being a diplomat and was admitted to the Department of Planned Economics of Chinese University in September 1953. During his college years, he was recommended to study political economy as a graduate student because of his character and superior to the third year, under the supervision of Professor Song Tao, a famous economist in China.

He is one of the earliest chinese economists to study, advocate and adhere to the commodity economy, market economy and shareholding economy. In 1989, he put forward in "Commodity Economy is the Basic Idea of China's Reform and Development" that a planned commodity economy is essentially a municipal commodity economy, and it is necessary to break through the theory that labor and state-owned enterprises are not commodities.

At that time, his views and theories caused an uproar in the theoretical circles, and some people valued them as heresies, and he fell into the loneliness of theory for a while.

But truth is always misunderstood. Years of practice have proved that his theory can stand up to verification. For this reason, his theory won the first Sun Yefang Economics Award and the first National Reform and Development "Golden Triangle" Award. People finally understood Xiao Zhuoji.

"Shaw Stock Market"

Xiao Zhuoji was also one of the first experts to study the stock economy and the securities market.

The China Securities Encyclopedia, edited by him, is by far the most comprehensive and systematic tool on the securities market. His "clever calculations" in the stock market have made him enjoy the reputation of "Xiao Stock Market" in the theoretical circles, while he himself calls himself a "stockman".

For example, in 1992, the Hong Kong stock market was in a long-term slump and people's panic, causing the entire economic environment to be dead. In response to the psychology of Hong Kong investors, Xiao Zhuoji boldly predicted that the Hong Kong stock market will not continue to slump for a long time and will rebound to more than 5,000 points in about two months.

Sure enough, it wasn't long before Hong Kong stocks began to rebound, and those who listened to his predictions made a big splash.

In July 1994, the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock market index fell from more than 1500 points to more than 300 points, and the stock market transactions were extremely cold. At that time, many economists were not optimistic about the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets. However, Xiao Zhuoji reversed the negative remarks of the crowd and pointed out that "now is by no means the back of the stock market, but a great opportunity to invest in the market." This was because he saw the abnormality of the long-term downturn in the stock market at that time and firmly believed that the stock market would soon rise.

By the end of July, the stock market had fallen to its lowest point, and when almost everyone was almost out of breath, Xiao Zhuoji insisted on his deduction. Sure enough, by August 1, the stock market rebounded sharply. His prediction shocked the entire stock market and earned a nickname "Xiao Stock Market".

In 2006, in response to the anomaly of a long-term downturn in the stock market with a good macroeconomic downturn, he proposed that "last year's GDP growth reached 9.5%, the fastest growth year since 1997, but under such good macroeconomic conditions, the stock market fell sharply, and the long-term downturn was really an abnormal phenomenon", and believed that "China's stock market has reached the brink of crisis and has experienced unprecedented difficulties."

In addition, in the 6 prescriptions he prescribed to the stock market, he specifically talked about "protecting the interests of shareholders, especially the interests of small and medium-sized shareholders".

For these "god predictions", Xiao Zhuoji only modestly said, "I just figured out the laws in them."

"Turtle Keeper"

Xiao Zhuoji is an economist and an educator. He taught at the School of Economics of Peking University and trained a large number of economics professionals. In 1988, Li Keqiang received a master's degree in economics with the article "Rural Industrialization: Choices in Structural Transformation", and the instructor was Xiao Zhuoji.

He once said, "Education is a consumption need, but also an investment need."

"The education industry is a new economic growth point in the new century. This is because people's consumption needs include both material needs and spiritual and cultural needs. Education, on the other hand, falls into the latter category. At the same time, education has the function of cultivating labor, labor is the most important factor of production, the more input, the greater the output. The more years a person observes education, the more education there is, and the corresponding increase in labor income. Therefore, I believe that education investment is the most valuable. Knowledge learned is not affected by price fluctuations," he said at a symposium in 1999.

In addition, Xiao Zhuoji, who has cultivated a large number of outstanding talents, also described himself as a "turtle breeder".

"Everyone knows the importance of talent competition, and the returnees are favored by everyone, and there may be another reason why foreign monks are good at chanting." But in fact, there may also be many local monks who can recite the sutra well. Different positions require different talents, not as long as the education is high, nor is it necessarily good to stay in school, the key is to see the effect."

His family also became an "economic family".

The eldest daughter Xiao Duan is an associate professor of economics at Jinan University, the second daughter Xiao Yang studied under Professor Li Yining and obtained a master's degree in economics, and the son Xiao Ling graduated from the Department of Investment Economics of Chinese University, and the whole family is devoted to the practice of economy.

Received "Star-Like Attention"

On the afternoon of March 4, 1999, the Second Session of the Ninth National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference was held. Like a movie star, at the east gate of the Great Hall of The People,

Economists such as Xiao Zhuoji were "encircled" by thousands of reporters with "long guns and short cannons."

On the steps of the Great Hall of the People, he was surrounded by reporters once every step he took; every time he moved a few steps, he turned back to answer several reporters' questions with witty words.

The reason why Xiao Zhuoji received such a warm attention was not only related to his reputation in the economic circles, but more importantly, because of his research results on the issue of western development.

According to the data, Xiao Zhuoji was indeed prepared at the Third Session of the Ninth CPPCC National Committee. His "Several Suggestions on Implementing the Strategy for The Development of the Western Region" expounded in detail how to carry out the development of the western region, and talked in detail about how to make the development of the western region really fruitful in terms of the system, economic components, environment and resources, education, science and technology, funds, and the construction of small towns. In addition to the western issue, he also made wonderful speeches on such issues as "utilizing foreign capital" and "promoting the economic growth of non-state-owned countries."

Reference: China's Top Think Tanks: People Influencing China's Development Process, Volume II