Wang Mengkui Wencun (Volumes 1-6)

Author: Wang Mengkui
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2001-10-01
Features: "Wang Mengkui's Collected Works" (published by China Economic Publishing House) includes articles written from early 1979 to the last article published in December 2000. The time span is a full 22 years. These 22 years were a critical historical period for China's economic transformation and social reform. Wang Mengkui moved from his forties to his sixties, spending his most valuable years. In the Preface, the author states, "Reform and opening up and modernization construction were the main themes of national development during these 22 years. My writings directly or indirectly served this overall goal of national development. They embody my heart and soul, and they also my hopes for the country's development." His patriotic sentiments overflow from the words. Indeed, "Collected Works" deeply marks the footsteps of an economist walking alongside China's reform era, blending his unique theoretical contributions to promote transformative changes, establish a market economy system, and drive national development and social progress. Wang Mengkui has long served as a professor and doctoral supervisor at Peking University, but he is not entirely the same as a "scholarly" economist. This is closely related to his working environment. From early 1979 to the present, for more than 20 years, he has been engaged in national economic development strategy and economic policy research in central research departments, participating in the drafting of some important documents of the Party and the state. This working environment inevitably left a distinct "policy" imprint on his economic theories. In his own words, "Our primary service is the government decision-making departments." This "policy economics" is, without a doubt, a prominent feature of "Collected Works." Studying policies from an economic perspective to serve government decision-making differs from general economic research. Wang Mengkui has deeply realized through years of practice: "Good decisions can yield good results, but a wrong or immature decision, once implemented, can cause losses, and correcting such policy mistakes may require paying a heavy price." What is particularly commendable is that during his 20-year academic career, as an economist, Wang Mengkui, whether in lengthy monographs or short essays; whether in research reports or academic correspondence; whether in debate articles or general theoretical works, has always stood at the height of the times, kept pace with progress, and actively promoted the renewal of people's ideas and the transformation of China's economic system. Only from this perspective can we truly recognize the special position of "Collected Works" in the treasure trove of economics during China's reform era. Economic policy has two aspects: on one hand, it guides economic operations in practice; on the other hand, it becomes the object of economic theory research. Wang Mengkui believed that by studying the current economic policies and their implementation results, or by researching the socioeconomic consequences of economic policies, one could discover the objective laws of economic development and elevate them to theory, thereby enriching socialist political economy. Many chapters in "Collected Works" are theoretical outcomes of such economic policy research. For example, "An Important Issue in the Reform of Enterprise Leadership Systems—An Examination of the One-Man System" (later developed into the monograph "On the Factory Manager Responsibility System"), "My Views on Shareholding Economy," "Several Issues on Inflation Control," "On the Adjustment of Industrial Structure," "Western Development and China's Modernization," and so on, all combine a clear "policy orientation" with profound theoretical depth. They not only provided a scientific basis for the state to formulate economic development strategies at the time but also enriched China's socialist political economy.