At a time when the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is celebrating its 80th anniversary, "economic development outweighs everything" has now become the mainstream opinion inside the party. Ironically, the New York Times revealed on July 3 that the famous Chinese economist He Qinglian (
Economic development out-weighs everything is not only the mainstream stance inside the CCP, it can even be taken as the most important basis on which the party seeks to consolidate its legitimacy. In the tide of economic development, Chinese econo-mists have played a role as technocrats -- as they only pay attention to issues such as the possible economic effects of China's entry into the WTO, how to systematize the security market, how to hasten marketization and how to catch up with the economic systems of advanced Western countries. While overall macro-economic analyses are emphasized, mainstream Chinese economists ignore explorations of fundamental economic activities.
Both government officials and intellectuals, on the other hand, attach great importance to He, mainly because she has paid particular attention to the social effects of economic development (eg, social resources distribution) and the invisible hand behind the development process (eg, politics-business collusion and the so-called underground economy). More importantly, she has found many cases to support her points of view. Her fame corresponds to her capacity to be controversial.
Academics in Chinese economic circles believe that she has gone beyond her role, arguing that an economist should discuss economic issues objectively and not launch emotional attacks. She responds to her critics, however, with an intellectual's concern about public affairs, as well as human concerns, saying that economic researchers should not stay locked in their ivory towers, viewing the world solely from the point of view of their data.
He's works are in fact widely read among non-economic intellectuals because of her unique, partly-academic, partly-journalistic writing style. Her much-debated, but extremely popular book, entitled The Pitfalls of Modernization (
Generally speaking, her thinking concentrates on several spheres. First, all the economic problems in contemporary China are deeply rooted in non-economic spheres, though they occur in the economic sphere. To support this argument, she has included various examples in her book, such as the deterioration of the "market-oriented economy," the so-called "enclosure movement" (圈地運動, the corrupt transfer of state assets to well-connected individuals), manipulation of the underground economy by gangsters, and the large scale "rent-seeking" (尋租) activity in which interest groups re-allocate social resources. To some degree, her masterpiece is similar to Disintegrating KMT-State Capitalism (解構黨國資本主義,) written by six Taipei Society (澄社) members in 1991, as, although they reflect different approaches, they share the same purpose of articulating concerns about society.
Observations of the social effects of economic development are what make He different. The social groups she is concerned about are mainly lower class, or even "marginalized groups" such as prostitutes, laborers and others. Few Chinese scholars study these groups, despite their large numbers. Moreover, He has compared China's modernization path with the experiences of other nations. She warns that the Chinese government should "be careful not to repeat the Brazilian experience." To speed up its economic development, Brazil has adopted a policy to "catch up with and overtake the advanced world" (趕超), which has weakened its domestic economic health while causing high unemployment and a huge income gap between rich and poor. Will China become the next Brazil? Only time will tell.
But He is now far away from the land she loves. Perhaps for Beijing, economic development also outweighs all criticism. Could this be another pitfall of China's modernization?
Hsu Tung-ming is a freelance writer based in Beijing.
Translated by Eddy Chang
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