Peking University Economics Professor Rare Warning: Towards “Common Poverty” | Common Prosperity | Three Distributions | Market Economy

[Epoch Times September 3, 2021](Epoch Times reporter Zhang Yujie’s comprehensive report) The CCP’s senior officials mentioned “common prosperity” again in late August and emphasized the “three distributions.” Mainland economists rarely published an article on September 1 stating that if the government intervenes more and more and adopts a planned economy, it will lead to “common poverty.”

An article titled “Market Economy and Common Prosperity” by Zhang Weiying, professor of economics at Peking University, was published on the “Economic 50 Forum” website.

In his article, he first affirmed the market economy, saying, “It can be seen from history that the greatest force against the market economy is the privileged class and the vested interests.” “The facts of historical development prove that only the market economy can promote technological progress, and So that new technologies can be commercialized quickly and benefit the general public.”

Next, Zhang Weiying discusses entrepreneurial activities for a long time. He said: “The best way to increase the income of working-class people is to allow entrepreneurs to move more freely and market competition is fiercer, not the other way around! Eliminating entrepreneurs, most Chinese people will return to abject poverty.”

He also said: “We must understand that the money for poverty alleviation is given by the government or charities in the form of funds, and is essentially created by entrepreneurs. What the government and charities can do is to transfer wealth from one group of people to another group. It is impossible to make things out of nothing. It is the entrepreneurs who create wealth that the government and charities have money to use for poverty alleviation…. If the entrepreneurs are not motivated to create wealth, the government will have no money to transfer payments, and charity It has become water without a source.”

“If you don’t even accept “distribution according to work”, the economy will be impossible to develop. Everyone can only live poorly.” Zhang Weiying said.

He finally said bluntly: “The planned economy was designed by a small number of intellectuals and then imposed on the society by power from top to bottom, so someone must defend it and defend it. Unlike a market economy, it is not designed by intellectuals, but from Spontaneous from bottom to top…people living in the planned economy system criticize the planned economy for taking political and even legal risks…”

“If we lose faith in the market and introduce more and more government interventions, China can only move towards common poverty. Don’t forget that the original intention of the planned economy back then was to benefit the poor, but as a result, more and more were created. The poor people make the destiny of the poor people more tragic than in the past.” He said.

Since the beginning of this year, the CCP has mentioned “common prosperity” many times. The meeting of the Central Committee of Finance and Economics of the Communist Party of China on August 17 emphasized the “three distributions”, that is, “the distribution of social resources and social wealth by high-income groups on a voluntary basis through charitable public welfare methods such as raising, donations, and funding.”

In the following week, Tencent announced that it would invest 50 billion yuan (RMB, the same below) to launch the “Special Project for Common Wealth”; when Pinduoduo announced its second quarter financial report, it announced the investment of 10 billion yuan for the “10 billion agricultural research project”.

In addition, in the two weeks ending August 31, the term “common prosperity” appeared in the performance reports of at least 73 listed companies.

Bloomberg News quoted analysis as saying that the Chinese government’s proposal of “common prosperity”, Zhang Weiying’s article conveys a very rare cautious attitude; the outside world is worried about the Chinese government’s strong supervision of various industries, and speculates whether China will go back.

Editor in charge: Sun Yun #