China ‘must recapture reformist mood’ to safeguard its economic miracle
Having watched the decades-long transformation unfold, veteran economist Zhang Fan warns of economic challenges ahead in his new book
“Reform” is a buzzword – if not the hottest word – in China in 2018, a year when its leadership has sung a hymn to late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping for his open-door policy only for overseas scepticism to skyrocket over its future direction.
But Zhang Fan sees it differently. He grew up through one period of chaos after another – including the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution – before taking part in the design of some market-oriented restructuring schemes in the 1980s and closely examining institutional changes since 1990s. In his view, it is a time to reflect on past attempts at reform and find the momentum for renewed efforts.
“Why were there very significant reforms in its initial stage, then it turned stagnant or was even pushed back?” asked Zhang, a professor of economics at Peking University’s national school of development – which he co-founded in 1994 with five other prominent economists, including structural economics pioneer Justin Yifu Lin and free market advocate Zhang Weiying.
The 67-year-old Zhang attributed the country’s four-decade economic miracle to its institutional changes.
“The biggest one was the introduction of a market into a previously government-controlled economy,” he told the South China Morning Post. “It was truly uneasy.”
