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中国共产主义实践得失背后的基本经济原理

Jul 5, 2021 Nancy Qian

发自埃文斯顿—在庆祝中国共产党成立100周年大会上, 中国国家主席习近平在现场发表的一个重点突出党在推动中国实现今日成就（包括其经济崛起）中所扮演作用的讲话中指出：“一百年来，中国共产党团结带领中国人民……书写了中华民族几千年历史上最恢宏的史诗。”但中国共产党管理经济的记录实际上是好坏参半的，而即便是认识到这一点的那些人也常常忽略了一点，那就是它的成功和失败其实源自于相同的基本经济原理。

习近平说得对，在中国共产党的领导下，中国实现了从一个“生产力相对落后的”世界最贫穷国家到坐拥全球第二大经济体的中等收入国家的“历史性飞跃”。但他没提到的是这一记录其实也存在着严重的污点，比如导致人类历史上最大饥荒的大跃进（1958~1962年）以及致使人口危机不断升级的数十年严苛计划生育法令。

中国共产党有效调动资源的能力使其能够提供大规模公共产品以推动发展。其中最值得留意的是它从1950年代初就开始大笔投资于公共卫生和教育。中国借此持续实现了有史以来最快的出生预期寿命增长，从1949年的35~40岁到如今的77.3岁。学校入学率也急剧上升，小学入学率从20%拉高到接近全民普及，中学就读率则从6%提升到约88%，识字率也从1949年的20%上升到了今天的97%。

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Nancy Qian urges the US to reach out to China’s poor, offers a new perspective on the Great Chinese Famine, and highlights necessary changes in economic research.

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Dallas Weaver, Ph.D. Jul 11, 2021

You forgot to mention the "Cultural Revolution" and the re-education of most of the scientists, which did major damage. In 1984 when I visited all the scientists were either very young or very old with a whole generation missing. At that time I was observing the biological scientist involved in aquaculture, where all the senior scientists spent years physically working on farms as common labor. The only academics that were immune from the Cultural Revolutions' damages were the nuclear scientists doing work relevant to weapons. They were doing excellent work which I cited in my Ph.D. thesis long ago.

This destruction of their non-weapons STEM areas resulted in massive technical mistakes like repeating all the well-known design errors in their massive shrimp aquaculture expansion in 84 that totally failed in about 1986. We are now repeating that mistake with our version of the Chinese Cultural Revolution with our "WOKE" emphasis on DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) for faculty positions in the STEM areas. When having a good DEI statement is more important than being technically competent in the area you will fail. I have seen top people be rejected because they didn't spend a huge amount of their lives in activist DEI and didn't have victim group points. They were born white or Asian males, which clearly makes their scientific knowledge suspect. This whole US version of the "Chinese Cultural Revolution" will have a similar outcome as the WOKE administrators of our major universities are now blocking faculty in the STEM areas from hiring on merit and ability.
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Elizabeth Pula Jul 5, 2021

Excellent article and very reasonable. Yes, the distinction lies in real critical definitions of poverty and growth. I could have used "rests", but "lies" is where a lot of those
critical definitions really define any one thing, especially at the level of any at all, anywhere, and anyhow. The Chinese nation and culture has never been a nation or culture that promotes or supports poverty.
- Edward Lane Jul 11, 2021
  
  ...unlike the U.S. where monetary policy does exactly that.
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