Talk with officials about China's reform

Author: Wang Dongjing
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-01-01
Features: "Talking with Officials" series. As initially planned, the series was supposed to consist of 8 books. Six years have passed, and 7 books have been published successively, including "Talking about Western Economics," "Talking about Chinese Economy," "Talking about Economic Policies," "Talking about Famous Works of Economics," "Talking about the History of Western Economics," "Talking about Modern Finance," and "Talking about Finance and Taxation." However, "Talking about Chinese Reform" is the toughest nut to crack in the series and was left for the very end. In fact, the reforms China has implemented are not just about changing concepts and habits, but most importantly, about changing rules and systems. Looking back at the history of China's reforms, we have shifted from a planned economy to a market economy, from a unified state-owned economy to a mixed economy with multiple ownerships, and from a single distribution based on labor contribution to a distribution based on the contribution of production factors. According to economists, this is called institutional change. When discussing China's institutional change, this book explores two threads: one is the political system, and the other is the economic system. However, considering that the previous books have already reviewed the latter, this book focuses more on the government system. The government system remains a broad topic, not only difficult but also extremely complex. Here, we will take the "cadre system" as the focus of our discussion. Moreover, the author has coined a term, "official reform," to describe the reform of the cadre system. For the Chinese economy that has now joined the WTO, this book undoubtedly holds significant reference value.