By: Guan FengXiang
Editor’s Note: Jiang Ping(江平), former president of the China University of Political Science and Law, resigned because of his pro-student position in the events leading up and subsequent to the June 4, 1989 massacre. He was highly respected in academic circles and was one of the main creators of Chinese civil and commercial law. He passed away in late 2023.
Wu Jinglian（吴敬琏) is a preeminent economist in the People’s Republic of China, primarily specializing in Chinese economic-reform policy.
In the last part of 2023 and into 2024 I wrote a short article and submitted it to Yibao [Chinese]. The title was “I Watch the Final Call of Jiang Ping”s and Wu Jinglian’s‘Last Scream.’” [Jiang was legal scholar who recently passed, a university president and member of China’s nominal legislative branch. Qu is longtime scholar and participant in Chinese economic reform. It not only mourned the scholar and teacher Jiang Ping, but also paid tribute to the two men’s appeal for a law-based economy. On January 9, this theme actually became the title of an editorial in Shanghai’s Yicai, entitled “An Economy Based on Law is the Best Market Economy.” But how does one define “best”? Of course such an idea is worthy of praise, but in my opinion, a market economy has its own rules of development, and so can be understood as being at different stages and levels. The most important thing is whether it is a true market economy or a false one, i.e. whether it qualifies as a genuine market economy. Isn’t the focus of our debate with Western countries at its essence the question of a genuine market economy versus a counterfeit one?
BEGINNING TO WAKE UP, AND LOOKING FORWARD TO MORE OF THE SAME
The editorial surprised me, since it means that a state-run media company has dared to raise this “law-based economy” at such a high level and put the issue so bluntly. Was it inspired by Jiang and Wu? Or was it a special directive from the senior management?
Source: https://www.yibao.net/2024/02/20/thinking-about-jiang-ping-and-wu-jinglians-last-scream/