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People & Points
Print Edition> People & Points
UPDATED: January 21, 2008 NO.4 JAN.24, 2008
Top Economists End Decade-Long Spat
After a 10-year suspension of face-to-face talks, economist adversaries Li Yining (left) and Wu Jinglian, two of the most respected men in their field in China, held a direct dialogue on January 12
 
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After a 10-year suspension of face-to-face talks, economist  adversaries Li Yining (left) and Wu Jinglian, two of the most respected men in their field in China, held a direct dialogue on January 12. The meeting, part of a high-profile forum marking the 30th anniversary of the initiation of China's reform and opening-up policy, was lauded as a signal of the academic community's strong will to tackle theoretical challenges ahead together.

Li and Wu, both 77 years old, first clashed on the orientations of China's reform in the late 1980s, when Li prioritized restructuring of state-owned enterprises while Wu proposed the introduction of a market-based pricing mechanism as the primary task.

Their differences became known to the public in 2001. At that time, the country's fledgling stock market, which was launched with the aim of facilitating joint-stock reorganization of state-owned enterprises, ran bullish, but a series of disclosures of insider trading and price manipulation repeatedly snuffed out investor confidence.

Wu started the war by describing the stock market as a big casino and said that it was abnormal for the public in general to participate in stock speculation. The criticism was fiercely rebuked by Li and several other eminent economists who alleged Wu had failed to update his planned economy-dominant mindset.

Though China's $4.2 trillion stock market rose to be the world's best-performing one in 2007 after years of regulation, Wu's stand seemed to have changed little. During the January 12 meeting, when Li listed the joint-stock transformation of state-owned enterprises and ensuing rapid development of the stock market as one of the major achievements for China over the past three decades, Wu contended that he disagreed with the judgment.

Despite their academic disparities, Li and Wu in fact have something in common. Both of them are natives of eastern Jiangsu Province and studied in the same high school for three years. They are also both vice chairmen of the Economic Committee of the 10th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the country's top advisory body.

More importantly, as Li pointed out in an earlier lecture, he and Wu share the same belief that the country must persevere in the ongoing reform path to accomplish modernization.

"Academic differences between economists are in the interest of the public."

Li Yining, Dean Emeritus of Guanghua School of Management, Peking University

"Economists must persist in independent thinking. Under the consensus of pushing forward reform and establishing a market economy based on the rule of law, we should be open to academic debates."

Wu Jinglian, researcher with the Development Research Center of the State Council, a think tank of the Chinese Central Government

"The target of ‘halving the population in poverty,' one of the Millennium Development Goals that the UN has drafted for the common development of the world, is met mainly thanks to China."

Dr. Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Secretary of Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, who is also a UN Under Secretary General

"I welcomed representatives of the UK Chinese community to No.10 (Downing Street) yesterday (January 14) and was struck by the huge range of contributions Chinese people, and others with Chinese backgrounds, make to our multicultural society."

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, speaking to China's Xinhua News Agency on January 15 before his first China visit

"Anyone can now take revenge against a Baathist by filing a false lawsuit."

Abu Ali, a high-ranking official of Saddam Hussein's Baath party, felt skeptical about results of the Justice and Accountability Law recently adopted by Iraq's parliament. The law will allow thousands of middle-ranking Baath party members to apply for reinstatement to their jobs in the civil service and military, provided they were not convicted of crimes.

"Extensive evaluation of the available data has not identified any subtle hazards that might indicate food consumption risks in healthy clones of cattle, swine or goats."

U.S. Food and Drug Administration, in a final risk assessment on food from cloned animals, which was released on January 15

"The international situation created in the wake of September 11, as well as all the other terrorist attacks that have tragically marked our times, have created a pressing need for dialogue between civilizations, religions and cultures."

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, opening the First Alliance of Civilizations Forum in Madrid on January 15



 
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