On July 30, the People's Daily published an article in Zhongyin, pointing out that "public ownership as the mainstay" is the consistent thinking and policy of the central authorities, which solved the question of whether the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China wanted to abolish "public ownership as the mainstay" and dispelled the misunderstandings and misgivings of the broad masses of the people.
The attitude of the central authorities is clear and consistent. However, on the issue of "public ownership as the mainstay," there are still some people who have a confused understanding. For example, some people say, "state-owned enterprises and private enterprises are important subjects of the national economy, and their functions are very prominent, and they are indispensable and irreplaceable." This is a specious view. Regardless of whether the commentators are aware of it or not, the objective effect can only be to turn "public ownership as the mainstay" into a confused account, and then imperceptibly dissolve the dominant position of public ownership in the confusion.
It takes a lot of space to analyze this confused account, so let's talk about my personal opinion that is a bit of a scholarly taste.
The first confusing account confuses the "economic subject" and the "legal subject".
The term "subject of the national economy" itself is very debatable. An economic entity that conducts certain economic activities is an economic entity. Since economic activities run through the entire economic process of production, exchange, distribution, and consumption, each link of the economic process will form an economic subject. However, a static "economic agent" does not make sense. Economic agents will inevitably enter into economic relations and become dynamic economic agents. Economic relations are made up of subjects, contents, and objects. An economic subject is an entity that consciously and actively carries out economic activities, the content is the mutual rights and obligations, and the object is the object to which the content is directed.
An important prerequisite for the formation of economic relations is the subjectivity of such relations. The main body that conducts economic activities in a certain way always has to have certain economic ties and always exist in certain social and economic relations. Whenever these subjects carry out economic activities and participate in economic relations, they are regulated by the law, form legal relations, and thus become legal subjects. To become a legal subject, it is necessary to obtain legal qualifications. For example, according to the regulations, the building requires the design drawings of the design institute with first-class design qualifications. If you are a design institute with a second-level design qualification, you cannot enter the design legal relationship, and therefore cannot become a legal subject.
State-owned enterprises have obtained general legal status and have obtained the qualifications of legal subjects by virtue of the stipulation that "public ownership is the mainstay." When state-owned enterprises participate in real economic relations and are regulated by law, they form a relationship of rights and obligations with their counterparts.
At present, there are six types of legal entities on the mainland: the state, state organs, social organizations, individual industrial and commercial households, rural contractors, and individual citizens. When a state issues treasury bonds and makes international loans, it becomes a legal subject; When the state organ carries out the collection of taxes and the mortgage of the creditor's rights for late fees, it also becomes the subject of law; Social organizations are the most common subjects of law. Social organizations directly carry out economic activities in their own name and are responsible for the consequences of their activities. Individually-owned businesses that carry out production and business activities with their own or their family's means of production or business; Rural contracted business households are rural households engaged in agricultural production and business activities within rural collective organizations in accordance with the provisions of rural contracted business contracts...... All of these are also subjects of law.
Entities engaged in economic activities can only be divided into economic entities and legal entities. Its subject qualification is established through the participation of both parties in specific economic and legal relations. The national economy is a macroscopic and comprehensive concept, and there is no specific subject problem in itself. If state-owned enterprises and private enterprises are both "subjects of the national economy," then there is no need to divide enterprises according to the nature of ownership in the constitution. In fact, this has become the reason for not dividing enterprises according to the nature of ownership, or for abolishing the reference to "public ownership as the main body."
It should be made clear that state-owned enterprises and private enterprises are the subjects regulated by law, and the title and nature of the ownership of the enterprises cannot change, the relationship between rights and obligations, and the legal status cannot change. If it changes, it is illegal. The current constitution is classified by ownership. Although the Interim Regulations on Private Enterprises were repealed in 2018, the term "private economy and other non-public economies" stipulated in the Constitution is still valid. There is no term "private enterprise" in the Constitution. The term is vague and cannot be defined.
The second confusion is to confuse the "entity itself" and the "proportion between entities".
The "main body" of "public ownership as the main body" stipulated in mainland law obviously does not refer to the enterprise entity itself, but to the "status of the main body", that is, the proportion of the public economy in the public-owned economy, the private economy, the individual economy, and the foreign-funded economy. This specific gravity is called the "main body" and refers to the "main part". This is where the question of "leading role" arises. It should be considered that, judging from the content of the person who proposed the main body of the national economy, the "main body of the national economy" does not refer to the "status of the main body", but to the enterprise entity. What is puzzling is that "economic subject" has been accurately defined in terms of its connotation and extension, which is sufficient, so why create a strange term for "national economic subject"?
Strictly speaking, the emergence of the problem of the operation of the national economy and its formulation as a major social problem came after the transition from the liberal market economy to monopoly, especially the state monopoly. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, the liberal market economy had completely lost its self-discipline, and the entire social economy had to rely on other laws to maintain it, and its overall operation could not but rely on the state and the law. That is to say, the socio-economic development has reached such a point that without the economic functions of the state and the laws regulating it, the national economy will immediately collapse.
The operation of the national economy refers to the interdependent and mutually restrictive industrial sectors and economic links, which realize the social and economic operation through certain procedures, ways and means. The national economy does not run naturally. Its operation elements include operation objectives, operation processes, operation mechanisms, operation rules and operation situations. Due to the different social forms, the operating factors of the capitalist national economy and the socialist national economy have different connotations.
Of particular importance is the operational mechanism and the operational situation. The core of the operating mechanism is the economic institutional mechanism. Whether it is public ownership or private ownership is the decisive basis for the formation of the operating mechanism; Its operating mechanism is to maximize profits or maximize the income of workers; Its operating form is microeconomic or includes macroeconomic, meso-economic and other economic forms; The way to achieve it is planned or market, macroeconomic regulation and control plus market, and so on. The operational situation refers to the operating status and development trend of the national economy. The operation situation can not only be understood as the state, but also includes the qualitative state, that is, the operation quality state. This is what I pointed out in the 90s of the last century. Judging from the general trend, the national economy is transitioning from a low-level qualitative state to a high-quality state.
The operation of the national economy determines the main objectives, main aspects, and main processes of specific economic relations, plays a leading and restraining role in specific economic relations, and is in a core position.
The main body is the main body in the specific economic relationship, and the macro nature of the national economy determines that it is not a specific economic relationship, so there is no subject problem. From this point of view, the new term "main body of the national economy" is not new, but rather confusing.
As for "taking public ownership as the mainstay," there must be a precise explanation and explanation, but we still don't have one, or even a "positive list." Under the situation of increasing control and monopoly of foreign enterprises and foreign capital, and surrounded by the vast sea of private enterprises, it is absolutely impossible to have a "positive list". State-owned enterprises are about 20% in Western countries and about 25% in capitalist Russia, what should be our socialism with Chinese characteristics? How many state-owned enterprises can be called "as the main body" and play a leading role? All of these issues should be clear.
United States is accustomed to using "positive lists" and even instigating "color revolutions", and there are also "positive lists". "Methods of Nonviolent Action", 3 categories and 40 sub-categories, a total of 198 articles. I once added an article for the United States in one of the arguments, that is, "the sound of the east strikes the west." I wrote that, as far as I can see, the "color revolution" that took place in Kazakhstan this time used the tactic of "striking the west from the east". First, in remote towns, gas prices were raised to induce residents to erupt in protests in order to paralyze their minds and divert their attention; Then, in distant Almaty, riots quickly spread throughout the country. The "Tibet independence" riots and "Xinjiang independence" riots instigated by hostile forces on the mainland, as well as the recent Hong Kong riots, also adopted the tactic of "attacking the west from the east."
We don't seem to have a preference for a "positive list". There should be a "positive list" of "public ownership as the main body".
The third confusion is the confusion between "nature" and "function".
Commentators say that state-owned enterprises and private enterprises "have prominent functions and roles, and both are indispensable and irreplaceable." The existence of anything depends on its nature, that is, qualitatively prescriptive. The difference between a bucket and a toilet lies fundamentally in the nature, the nature is different, and the function and function cannot be the same. The nature of the bucket determines that its function is to store water, and its role is to meet people's needs for water; The nature of the toilet determines that its function is to discharge water and meet people's needs for toilet hygiene.
In the same way, the socialist nature of public ownership determines that its function is to raise social productive forces in a rational, coordinated, and optimal manner, and its role is to meet the growing needs of the masses of the people in their material and cultural life. The capitalist nature of private ownership determines that its function is to obtain the highest surplus value through exploitation, and its role is to satisfy the needs of the capitalists for the multiplication of capital and its domination. Here, there are no specific matters such as taxes, investments, the ratio of the number of businesses, jobs, etc. These specific matters are the normal state of social and economic operation and are inherent in the social economy, and cannot be reduced to "function" and "role".
The law stipulates that the dominant position of public ownership is first and foremost based on the people's nature, advancedness, and superiority of public ownership. Private enterprise, private economy, cannot be of such nature.
Private entrepreneurs, some "scholars" and leading cadres are good at memorizing the "5678" and "digital classics" of private enterprises. They believe that the function and role of the private economy, summed up by "5678", are the most down-to-earth, easy to understand, and easiest to remember and disseminate. "5678" refers to the fact that the contribution rate of private enterprises to the country's fiscal tax revenue exceeds 50%; The investment in fixed assets and current assets from private enterprises, as well as the gross domestic product and direct foreign investment of enterprises, exceeded 60%; High-tech private enterprises account for more than 70% of the total number of enterprises; More than 80 per cent of urban jobs are created and provided. This is the basis for commentators to say that "all functions and roles are prominent, and they are all indispensable and irreplaceable."
The smoke of the October Revolution had not yet dissipated, and by the spring of 1918 the Soviets had nationalized banks, large enterprises and all land, and the Regulations on Workers' Supervision had been enacted. Measures were taken for a "direct transition" to socialism. The workers and peasants are now masters of their own affairs, their hearts are filled with unprecedented happiness, the corrupt social relations of capitalism have been swept away, and the development of the social productive forces has been unprecedentedly high. Is private enterprise and private economy "indispensable and irreplaceable"? No, but withdrawn, replaced.
Then, the private enterprises and the private economy in the contemporary mainland cannot be regarded as "indispensable and irreplaceable" forever. If the obstacles to the implementation of the "Chinese-style modernization" of putting the people first and achieving common prosperity are removed, then the state-owned enterprises and collectively-owned enterprises will far exceed the "5678" in terms of tax payment, investment, the ratio of the number of enterprises, and the number of jobs. Of course, I am not advocating the abolition of private enterprises and the private economy now, but we must still adhere to the "two unwavering" principles for now. In my opinion, the two kinds of enterprises and the two economies have different natures, and their functions and roles cannot be described as four aspects: tax payment, investment, ratio of the number of enterprises, and jobs.
Recently, an entrepreneur once again argued that "communism can be achieved in our generation", aiming at the high level of technological progress that can liberate the labor force. In any case, the rapid development of high and new science in the world has pushed socialization to a higher degree and stage, and the direct requirement for the socialization of capital, production, and labor is to practice socialism and change the state of private ownership.
In short, we should be sober in policy, theory, and practice with "public ownership as the mainstay." In terms of policy, it is "for the main body", but in theory and practice, is it "for the main body"? If theoretically and practically it is not "for the main body", then how to implement the "for the main body" in policy? There is only a bottom line for the development of public ownership, and there is no upper limit, and the bottom line is to "be the main body." Breaking through the bottom line and not being the main body is going to be the wrong road, and it is changing the banner.
August 1, 2024