Wen Yang: Interpreting Chongqing with English readers

Wen Yang: Interpreting Chongqing with English readers Chongqing, a southwest inland city 1,500 kilometers away from the east coast of China, includes 3,20…

Wenyang: Interpret Chongqing with English readers Chongqing, a southwestern inland city 1,500 kilometers away from the east coast of China, is a megacity with an urban and rural population of 32 million. This city has attracted widespread attention internationally due to several miraculous economic indicators in recent years: first, in 2008, when major economies around the world were struggling in the quagmire of the financial crisis, and China's GDP growth fell sharply to 9%, Chongqing's GDP growth reached an astonishing 14.3%, import and export volume increased by 28%, and actual utilization of foreign capital increased by 151%; second, when China's economy faced a difficult structure due to a sharp decline in exports. When adjusting to the challenge, Chongqing handed over the report card in advance: domestic demand: domestic consumption accounts for 57% of GDP, domestic investment accounts for 62% of GDP; external demand: net exports accounted for GDP by export minus import amount - 19%; corresponding to China's national average of 49%, 42% and 9%, the advantages are impressive. Experts and scholars from China and foreign countries have come to Chongqing one after another. In addition to these incredible economic indicators, they have seen more things. Its "Five Chongqing" construction (Livable Chongqing, Smooth Chongqing, Green Chongqing, Safe Chongqing and Healthy Chongqing) Chongqing), its "singing the red and fighting the evil", its "Ten Measures for People's Livelihood", "narrowing the three gaps"...; people have seen that what supports the strong economic performance of this economic center in western China is not one or two special advantages, but a complete set of things, a comprehensive system. As a result, the term “Chongqing Model” spread like wildfire. Many people believe that the "Chongqing Model" provides answers to China's problems, points out the path and inspires hope. A reporter from the New York Times called Chongqing “a model for China’s future cities.” However, in a city whose population equals that of the entirety of Oceania, nothing is simple. How to understand the "Chongqing Model" and how to explain the success of this economy have become hot topics in academic circles and public opinion circles. According to the standards prevailing in the West, there must be something wrong with this model. Big government, socialism, authoritarianism, rule by man, and red are incompatible with the small government, market economy, freedom, democracy, and rule of law advocated by liberalism. Since the concept of liberal market economy still occupies the moral and value high ground, any model that is inconsistent with it cannot be without problems. Even if there are no problems on the surface, there must be problems internally; even if there are no problems now, there will definitely be problems in the future. Critics have found some arguments to prove that this model has problems now and in the future. It is not difficult, but it does not seem to make much sense. It is like facing a high-speed train. It is correct to say that the design of this train is not ideal and that it will be retired sooner or later. However, these assertions do not affect its current high-speed progress, so they do not affect the current benefits it brings to all passengers. As far as I can see with my own eyes, the construction of the "Five Chongqings" has actual performance. The two most intuitive constructions: "Forest Chongqing" and "Livable Chongqing" are indeed worthy of their reputation. Seeing the lush green trees and gardens everywhere in Chongqing's new urban area, you can imagine that if the current development model continues unchanged for ten or twenty years, there will be no artificial landscape that cannot be created. Regardless of the dangers and sequelae of big government, strongman politics, people over law, and the potential meaning of red culture and red aristocracy in today's Chinese politics, if the "Chongqing Model" has indeed created an economic development situation in which "the country advances and the people advance" and "the poor become rich, and the rich get richer", then it is actually trying to solve some fundamental problems that neither traditional capitalism nor traditional socialism can solve well. When I heard from Chongqing Mayor Huang Qifan that the Chongqing Municipal Government can use various measures to accurately control the Gini coefficient, which measures the gap between rich and poor, at a certain value and adjust it to two decimal places; my theoretical knowledge told me that this is the so-called "scientific socialism" in the minds of countless people. If capitalism and socialism back then were more or less not scientific enough, not precise enough, too indulgent, and too extreme, which led to various social disasters, then today's "Chongqing Model" may at least try to strengthen the scientific nature and controllability of these two doctrines. In any case, it is always a direction worth trying to put aside the philosophical and moral debates about capitalism and socialism, directly face the problems of its mechanisms and technology, and use new knowledge and means to improve them. In my opinion, this is exactly what people in Chongqing are doing.