Chinese Scholars View the World (Economy of the World Volume)

Author: Wang Jisi, Chief Editor; Zhang Yuyan, Subvolume Editor
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2007-01-01
Features: Compilation and writing are not within the same creative category. At first glance, writing is more difficult than compilation. The Shuowen dictionary defines "compile" as "arranging bamboo slips." The word "arrange" seems easy, but it also has its difficulties. First, deciding what content to arrange or, more precisely, selecting articles based on certain criteria and compiling them into a book is a challenging task for the compiler. Especially in the field of world economy in China, research is very active, and excellent works are frequently published. Selecting the best from the best is even harder, making the choice of articles a matter of great hesitation. Second, the division of labor in economics is becoming increasingly specialized. As a compiler, it is difficult for him to have a comprehensive understanding of every detail. Even some details within his own field of expertise may fall outside his area of research or concern. This also increases the difficulty of editing. Third, the communication between the compiler and the reader is very subtle. A good compiler rarely expresses himself directly. The inclination or information he wants to convey to the readers is mainly achieved through the selected articles and the structural arrangement of these articles. In this sense, the success or failure of a compiled work depends not only on the compiler but also on the reader's understanding. Of course, this does not mean that the compiler is exempting himself from responsibility, because the compiler's perspective and construction ability are the most decisive factors. With this in mind, when Wang Jisi, the chief editor of the China Scholars Look at the World series, invited me to serve as the subvolume editor, I was quite hesitant. Later, I indeed felt that compiling such a series of books was a good thing for enhancing mutual understanding between China and the world; also, because I am relatively familiar with or colleagues with both the chief editor and the subvolume editors in academia, I was also willing to work together with everyone in this team to achieve this great endeavor. In the end, I decided to take on the task and not stay on the sidelines. After promising to compile the book, I never underestimated its difficulty, fearing that I might not be able to handle it. After a period of deliberation, planning, reading, selecting, and weighing, the book was finally completed. Although I did not feel the same sense of "two lines took three years to write, one line of poetry made me shed two tears" as Jia Dao, I still want to use this "preface" to share some thoughts on compiling this book. Since it is a collection of articles, the selection must be based on certain criteria in advance. My criteria are roughly as follows: First, the time frame. The articles selected for this book are all from the past ten years, with a focus on the past three years, and were published in Chinese. This is not to say that there are no excellent works outside of ten years, but according to the overall consideration of the series, the subvolumes should mainly select articles published after the "9/11" incident to reflect the new views of Chinese scholars on the world economy. However, during the editing process, I found that the major trends in the world or regional economy had long been emerging before "9/11." Some situations had already been discussed in depth in Chinese scholars' articles at that time (for example, Gu Shuqing showed great confidence in Southeast Asia emerging from the crisis and taking off again during the Asian financial crisis), and using a "one-size-fits-all" approach to select everything would contradict our original intention of comprehensively and appropriately reflecting the views of Chinese scholars on the world economy. Moreover, the past ten years are also a period of transition from the past to the future and across centuries. In view of this, I set the upper limit of the selected works at ten years. The other meaning of the time frame is the "timeliness" of the issues discussed. The main body of the selected articles discusses the trends of the international economy at the turn of the century. The reason for this is at least that "the present" or "the foreseeable future" is more worthy of attention. Second, the spatial span. With an open attitude, China is closely linked with major economic regions or economies around the world. Therefore, the economic issues discussed in the selected papers cover North America, Western Europe, Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, and other regions, hoping to reflect the completeness of Chinese scholars' thinking and perspective on the world economy in terms of scope, and strive to fully reflect the research breadth of Chinese scholars in recent years as "seeing thousands of miles." For this purpose, I have a separate section on "Countries and Regions" and included six articles to highlight the spatial span. The other meaning of the spatial span is the richness of the topics discussed in the selected articles. In terms of the world economy, the main topics include international trade, finance, energy, environment, global governance, and more generally, regional integration and economic globalization. Although not every topic is discussed in a dedicated article (for example, Gao Haihong discusses Asian currency cooperation), almost every article touches on these topics to some extent. I am trying to use this cross-cutting of topics to some extent to make this book cover the main focal points of global economic activities. Inclusiveness is the third criterion. Here, inclusiveness mainly refers to the composition of the authors and the sources of the articles. In addition to ensuring the diversity of research subjects, this volume also makes a special effort to make the authors' backgrounds as "complex" as possible, incorporating various perspectives. Most of the more than twenty articles in this volume are written by famous scholars in China, of whom about half are from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and the other half are professors of economics in universities, experts from financial institutions, researchers from government research institutions, and a few scholar-officials. I believe that such a composition of authors can better represent a wider range of views, and their perspectives and positions can largely reflect the overall description and judgment of Chinese scholars on the world economy. The main reason for selecting ten articles from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences is that it holds a unique position in the field of international studies. In addition to having a number of important scholars, its research institutes are also the most comprehensive in China. The research fields of its eight institutes of international studies almost cover all issues related to the world economy. Obviously, the age composition of the scholars is also a factor. The authors of this book range in age from their thirties (such as Yu Wanli, who discusses the international political economy of transnational corporations) to nearly seventy. It must be admitted that the width of the age span is closely related to inclusiveness. From the perspective of sources, the articles included in this volume are mainly from three journals: International Economic Review, Journal of World Economy, and Journal of World Economics and Politics. The main reason for concentrating on these journals is that they are relatively representative. Fourth, the narrative or research methods. Overall, the world economy is a branch of economics, primarily using economic analytical tools. Modern economics has developed rapidly, and theories such as game theory, econometrics, information economics, new growth theory, and neoclassical political economy have become widely accepted theoretical foundations and analytical tools for economists. Especially today, economic analysis often involves relatively sophisticated mathematical language, with strong theoretical and technical characteristics that are far beyond the reach of ordinary readers with a little effort. Considering that the readers of this book may not be familiar with them, and also to ensure that the narrative style of this volume is coordinated with the other seven volumes of the series, I had to reluctantly reject some works that were very profound but also had beautiful mathematical or econometric analysis. While maintaining professionalism, I tried to avoid complex mathematical derivations and econometric analysis as much as possible, so that each article would have a strong readability. Loyal to the original text is the fifth criterion. Overall, in addition to adjusting the format according to the requirements of the series and making minor corrections to obvious omissions in the articles, I have almost completely preserved the original form of each article without any additions or deletions. This is partly out of respect for the authors, and also to allow the text of this volume to genuinely reflect the thought process of Chinese scholars in understanding the world economy over the past decade, thereby giving the book a stronger sense of history. From today's perspective, some of the views in the original articles may not be entirely correct, and some of the inferences and predictions made at the time have also been refuted by subsequent developments. Presenting "errors" and "mistakes" in the book exactly as they are does not, in my opinion, harm the reputation of the authors. This is not only because no one is perfect, but also because of the spirit of seeking truth from facts. More importantly, in a certain sense, the history of science is nothing more than the history of the mistakes made by the capable. Whether correct or incorrect, this book strives to show the world that there are a group of sincere scholars who have seriously thought about and written about the world economy on Chinese soil. This may be the real meaning. The last criterion is the focus on China. Although the theme of this volume is Chinese scholars looking at the world, they are looking at the world through the lens of China, in other words, when they look at the world, they can only think about and must think about China. In a certain sense, for the Chinese, the world only has meaning when it is connected with China. Consciously collecting international studies articles involving China naturally brings some editorial challenges, such as, what kind of logic should be used to arrange the chapters. To highlight the focus on China, I have a separate section on "China and the World." However, with too many articles involving China, it is obviously not possible to include them all in this section. Facing this dilemma, I had to make some technical adjustments, placing articles related to globalization (such as Zhu Min's discussion on global imbalances and their impact on China) in the "Global Perspective" section, and placing articles that focus on development paths and have stronger theoretical strength (such as He Bingmeng and others discussing the issue of neoliberalism) in the "Ideas and Trends" section. Although I am fully aware that this may cause some damage to the logic of the entire book, it was an unavoidable measure. Looking back at the entire compilation process, the selection of content and the design of the author composition were the aspects I paid the most attention to. The achievements of Chinese scholars in the field of world economy research are vast, and my work is likely to be incomplete, and it is inevitable that I will miss some excellent works. Helping others is a good deed, and bearing the blame for others can be easily forgiven, but if my editing is inappropriate and misleads a broad readership or "affects" the authors themselves, that is something I am unwilling to see from the bottom of my heart. Here, I cannot help but recall the standard used by Confucius to evaluate the Shao music: "It is perfectly good, and it is also perfectly beautiful" (Ba Yi). This standard is truly beyond my reach. If my colleagues and readers can generally accept this book, as an editor, I will be satisfied.