Since the reform and opening up, the Chinese government has established and improved the socialist market economy system, giving full play to the strengths of the market economy. /CFP
Since the reform and opening up, the Chinese government has established and improved the socialist market economy system, giving full play to the strengths of the market economy. /CFP
Editor’s Note: Zhang Junshen is a senior professor of liberal arts at Zhejiang University, and Zhang Chuanchuan is a researcher of School of Economics at Zhejiang University. The article reflects the authors’ opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.
Over the past 40 years of reform and opening up, China’s economy has been growing at a rapid pace. The people’s life has achieved a historic leap from insufficient food and clothing to a well-off society in an all-round way. This has propelled the Chinese nation from standing on its feet to becoming rich. It is an “economic miracle” in human history.
How did this miracle happen? Western mainstream economic theories cannot provide satisfactory answers. We believe that China’s success lies in its independent exploration of a path of socialist development with Chinese characteristics. From the perspective of economics, we preliminarily concluded that a “trinity plus two wings” development model was formed on the basis of respecting market rules and on China’s national conditions. The so-called “trinity” means respecting the dominant position of the government, enterprises and families, giving play to their subjective initiative, and working together to develop production and improve people’s living standards. The so-called “two wings” are to adhere to market-oriented reform and opening up. The driving force of China’s economic development comes not only from the vitality of enterprises and families stimulated by market-oriented reform, but also from the top-level design and active promotion of economic development by the government. Therefore, the core of the “trinity plus two wings” development model is to coordinate the relationship between the government and the market.
China’s “trinity plus two wings” development model is different from that of Occident as well as Eastern European countries with transition economies. Occident overemphasizes the role of the market mechanism, ignoring the subjective initiatives of the government in the process of economic development. Eastern European countries copied the model of Occident in their economic transformation, rather than independently exploring a development path suitable for their own national conditions by giving play to the subjective initiative of their own governments, enterprises and families. Practice has proved that these two models are not suitable for China’s specific national conditions.
China’s “trinity plus two wings” development model emphasizes the subjective initiative of the government in coordinating the relationship between the government and the market. The government in China is not only the builder of the market system, but also the maintainer of the market order, and also the top-level designer and active promoter of economic development. On the one hand, since the reform and opening up, the Chinese government has established and improved the socialist market economy system, giving full play to the strengths of the market economy. For example, the government has promoted the agricultural product, labor, capital and real estate markets from scratch to continuous improvement through market-oriented reform, which has stimulated the vitality of various market players. On the other hand, the Chinese government, through its five-year national economic and social development plan, has carried out a scientific top-level design of economic development, and has stimulated local governments to actively explore and develop local economies through decentralization. For example, through forward-looking and strategic large-scale transportation infrastructure development, the central government has closely linked the vast territory with abundant resources, and created a large and medium-sized country where people can enjoy transportation and goods can flow freely. This has unleashed the huge potential of China’s super-sized market. Each local government by improving the infrastructure and investment environment to attract investment, develop the local economy.
It is a preliminary idea for us to establish China’s independent economic knowledge system to coordinate the government and the market with “trinity plus two wings” and build a new era of socialist market economics, which is far from perfect. The establishment of China’s independent economic knowledge system has a long way to go, which depends on the joint efforts of scholars to constantly improve and develop.
