The Paper reporter Teng Han
On February 27, the famous economist Li Yining passed away at the age of 92.
Li Yining served as vice chairman of the Democratic League Central Committee, deputy director of the Financial and Economic Committee of the National People's Congress, deputy director of the Legal Committee, and deputy director of the Economic Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. He is also the winner of the "Pioneer of Reform" medal and an active advocate of economic system reform.
He has taught at Peking University for a long time. He is a senior professor of philosophy and social sciences at Peking University, the founding dean and honorary dean of Guanghua School of Management.
Li Yining, whose ancestral home is Yizheng, Jiangsu, was born in Nanjing in November 1930.
He graduated from the Economics Department of Peking University in 1955.
After graduation, he stayed in the school to work, and served as a data clerk, teaching assistant, lecturer, associate professor, professor, doctoral supervisor, dean of the Department of Economics and Management of Peking University, and dean of Guanghua School of Management of Peking University.
Later, he served as director of the Department of Social Sciences of Peking University and honorary dean of Guanghua School of Management of Peking University.
Li Yining is one of the earliest scholars in my country who put forward the theory of shareholding system reform.
He put forward the disequilibrium theory of China's economic development, and conducted a theoretical discussion on "transition", which had a profound impact on the reform and development of China's economy.
In terms of developing the private economy, Li Yining also put forward many theoretical ideas.
During his tenure as deputy director of the Law Committee of the National People's Congress, he also presided over the drafting of the Securities Law and the Securities Investment Fund Law.
Li Yining's research fields include: management system and management philosophy, socialist economic theory and practice, national economic management, socialist political economy, macroeconomics, comparative economic history, western economics, China's macroeconomic issues, macroeconomic micro-foundations, etc.
Li Yining's major works include: "System·Objective·People: Challenges Faced by Economics", "Thinking of China's Economic Reform", "Unbalanced Chinese Economy", "China's Economic Reform and Shareholding System", "Sharehold System and Modern Market Economy", "Economics "The Ethical Issues of Transformation and Development", "Beyond the Market and Beyond the Government—On the Role of Moral Power in the Economy" "The Origin of Capitalism—A Study of Comparative Economic History" "Roman-Byzantine Economic History" "On the Private Economy" "Industrialization" and Institutional Adjustment—A Study of Western European Economic History, etc.
Due to his outstanding contributions in economics and other academic fields, Li Yining has won the "Sun Yefang Economics Award", "National Young and Middle-aged Expert Certificate for Outstanding Contribution", "Golden Triangle" Award, and the first prize for scientific research achievements of the State Education Commission.
"As a scholar, I always have the idea of rectifying my heart, keeping my family in order, and improving people's lives. This is the motivation I have persisted to this day." He once said.
"Li shares" and "Li non-equilibrium"
Li Yining was one of the earliest scholars in China who put forward the theory of shareholding system reform, and he publicized this proposition many times, so he was called "Li Shareholding".
Li Yining's first formal proposal on the joint-stock system can be traced back to the summer of 1980. At that time, Wan Li, then Vice Premier of the State Council, presided over the National Labor and Employment Conference.
Li Yining proposed at this meeting that joint-stock enterprises can be established to solve the employment problem.
Joint-stock enterprises are fund-raising from the private sector, and they can absorb more workers without investing a penny from the state.
In the days that followed, Li Yining kept running around giving speeches and writing articles to promote the joint-stock system.
On April 26, 1986, Li Yining proposed ownership reform at Peking University’s Symposium commemorating the May Fourth Movement: “I am going to talk about 19 issues today. The first issue, the failure of China’s reforms, may be caused by price reforms. Failure; but the success of China's reform must be the success of ownership reform." In September of the same year, Li Yining published the article "Contemplation of my country's Ownership Reform" in the "People's Daily", continuing to speak out for the shareholding reform of state-owned enterprises.
Li Yining proposed the shareholding system against the background of China's marketization process since the late 1970s. At that time, a hundred schools of thought were contending, and Li Yining was the main representative of the theory of ownership reform.
When talking about the title of "Liguo", Li Yining said, "In the early 1980s, scholars who advocated and advocated the joint-stock system included Feng Lanrui, Zhao Lukuan, and Hu Zhiren, and later Yu Guangyuan, Tong Dalin, Jiang Yiwei, Wang Jue, and Dong Furen. I am the 'initiator of the shareholding system', which is not true. If there is a nickname, I think it should be 'Li Feiequance'."
"Disequilibrium" is an economic theory.
In the 19th century, the French economist Leon Walras put forward the assumption that under a perfect market and a sensitive price system, the total amount of excess demand and excess supply in the market must be equal, which is called "Walras equilibrium".
"Non-equilibrium" refers to the equilibrium achieved under the condition of imperfect market and insensitive price system.
Li Yining is an early domestic economist who conducted systematic research on disequilibrium theory.
In 1990, his monograph "Unbalanced Chinese Economy" came out, and it was reprinted several times in the following decades. It was called "one of the ten most important books affecting China's economic system reform". It is the work that best represents his academic views on China's economy.
In this work, Li Yining put forward two different theories of economic disequilibrium, which laid the foundation for the theory of ownership reform. He believed that the disequilibrium in a developed and mature market economy belongs to the first type of disequilibrium, while in the traditional Under the dual-track socialist economic system, because enterprises have not got rid of their status as appendages of state administrative agencies, this kind of imbalance belongs to the second type of imbalance.
The primary mission of economic reform is to establish a new type of economic operation system and reshape independent commodity producers with full vitality, independent management and self-responsibility for profits and losses, investment and management autonomy, and corresponding investment and management risks. , thus transitioning from the second type of imbalance to the first type of imbalance.
In addition, Li Yining is also an expert in economic history, and has done quite in-depth research on the origin of capitalism. After graduating in 1955, Li Yining stayed in the reference room of the Department of Economics of Peking University until 1962 when he took the lecture for the first time and gave a lecture on "Foreign Capitalism". Economic History", the first class is "The Transition from Western European Feudalism to Capitalism", and has been studying this aspect for many years, for example, in 1999 published "Beyond the Market and Beyond the Government - On the Role of Moral Power in the Economy" ", in 2003 published the book "The Origin of Capitalism - A Study of Comparative Economic History".
The "third distribution" proposed in the early years, participated in the promotion of "36 articles of non-public economy"
Hot words such as "the third distribution" that are hotly discussed today were proposed by Li Yining in the early years.
In 1992, Li Yining first proposed "three forces affecting income distribution" in his article "On the Economic Development Path of Common Prosperity", which was further explained in the book "Share System and Market Economy" published in 1994.
He said that income should not only be distributed for the first time by the market and factors of production, but that the government should strengthen regulation and guide the "three distributions" of charities, through which the problem of income distribution can be solved.
Behind this is actually Li Yining's concern for private enterprises and the private economy.
During his tenure as a member of the Standing Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, he participated in the promotion of the "36 Articles of Non-public Economy", and proposed that "China's private enterprises must carry out long-term structural adjustments, and must continue to innovate in systems, technologies and brands."
"After I joined the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, I paid great attention to the development of the private economy." Li Yining once said in an interview with the media, "At that time, private enterprises were in an unfair position." The leader of the special group for the development of the public sector of the economy, led the research team to Liaoning, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangdong and other places for investigation, "found that the private economy has encountered many obstacles in terms of access, financing, taxation, land use, and foreign trade." Li Yining said that the research report of the research team put forward suggestions such as relaxing the market access of the non-public sector of the economy, broadening financing channels, and increasing fiscal, tax and financial support for the non-public sector of the economy, and reported it to the State Council.
More than a year later, in February 2005, the State Council formulated the "36 Articles of Non-public Economy", requiring encouragement, support and guidance for the development of the non-public economy.
In 2017, Li Yining emphasized in the article "China's Development Needs to Promote Excellent Entrepreneurship" to create a good social atmosphere for enterprises and entrepreneurs to innovate and start businesses. They are mutually reinforcing, complementary, and indispensable. Only by perfecting the system construction and creating a social atmosphere of respect for entrepreneurs can the enthusiasm and initiative of entrepreneurs be stimulated."
Stereotypes must change
Li Yining once said that from the National People's Congress to the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the main line of his concern is reform. "Participating in reform and promoting China's modern transformation is the mission of our generation."
2018 marks the 40th anniversary of reform and opening up, and Li Yining's book "China's Economy Since Reform and Opening Up: 1978-2018" was published in due course.
According to the official website of Guanghua School of Management, Peking University, the book is a collection of 40 representative papers written by Li Yining from the 40 years of China's reform and opening up to the present. and challenges, China's agricultural and industrial reforms, as well as insights into education and management that are closely related to economic development.
These articles are Li Yining's incisive conclusions on the various development periods of the Chinese economy, and the essence of his continuous thinking and research on the Chinese economy for 40 years since the reform and opening up.
Writing poems is also a hobby of Li Yining. From his poems, we can see the mental journey of a reformer.
For example, when he first put forward the idea of using the "shareholding system" to collect social funds to set up enterprises and solve employment problems, it was not adopted and was questioned. He wrote, "The Sui Dynasty did not follow the laws of the Qin and Han Dynasties, and the people of the Ming Dynasty did not dress up as people of the Song Dynasty. .Statistics should be changed eventually, and I will leave it to my children and grandchildren to comment on the good and the bad.” In 1981, he wrote a poem, “Climb to the small pavilion and look at the front river. ", expressing the idea of gradual reform, reducing intervention, and regulating the economy with the "invisible hand", which also became the keynote of his academic research in the following decades.
On December 18, 2018, the Party Central Committee and the State Council awarded Li Yining the title of "Pioneer of Reform" and awarded him the "Pioneer of Reform" medal, calling him an "active advocate of economic system reform."
When receiving this award, Li Yining said: "As a scholar, I always have the idea of rectifying my heart, keeping my family together, and improving people's lives. This is my motivation to persist."