Roll Over Vladimir Tell Mao Zedong the News: neither Lenin nor the "Great Helmsman" would recognize the face of Communism today, which is China, the only nation of any substance still under at least the label of a "People's Dictatorship." The one place old Joe Stalin did not believe a worker's party could succeed. Go figure.
Nearly three decades ago, no single Western economist could have predicted that China's economy would grow at the fastest rate in the world over the following 25 years.
At that time the preconditions set as necessary in standard Western economic textbooks - a well-established market, private property rights and effective rule of law - were not present.
But overall progress has been made along the years, even in the first half of 2003 when the country was hit by the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).
A group of economists, politics experts and law experts gathered late October in China's flagship business municipality of Shanghai to seek an answer to what Westerners have hailed the "China miracle".
Mainstream economics in the West categorizes the Chinese economy as a "changing socialist economy." This definition was called into question by Chinese scholars. Shi Zhengfu, an economic professor with the Shanghai-based prestigious Fudan University, said what has been produced in China is probably not a change from one social and economic system to another, nor "transitional' to capitalism in Westerners" view, but an "evolution to an unknown world."
Mainstream economics in the West categorizes the Chinese economy as a "changing socialist economy." This definition was called into question by Chinese scholars. Shi Zhengfu, an economic professor with the Shanghai-based prestigious Fudan University, said what has been produced in China is probably not a change from one social and economic system to another, nor "transitional" to capitalism in Westerners' view, but an "evolution to an unknown world."
"This situation provides an epoch-making opportunity for the creation of China's own economics," said Shi, who is director of the New Political and Economic Center of the Fudan University.
His view was echoed by a string of senior Chinese economic experts attending the seminar on "Marching to New Politics and Economics" held in Fudan.
Go ahead, it won't bite; read the rest of the story in the People's Daily...
