The Need for Scientific Chinese Economic Research in both Theory and Practice

With the expansion of economics from a narrow study of capitalist commodity-money relations to a broad inquiry into all socioeconomic forms, the Chinese case becomes indispensable. In this chapter I argue that scientific research on China’s economy is necessary both for theory and for practice. Theoretically, the diversity of pre-capitalist societies makes general laws difficult to derive; China’s long-lasting and highly specific feudal economy therefore offers crucial evidence for broad-sense economics. Practically, a century of “renewal” and “reform” shows that policies built on surface impressions misfire when the underlying socioeconomic structure is misunderstood. China’s landlord economy, with seemingly “free” transfer of land and labor, has repeatedly produced theoretical confusion by mimicking capitalist prerequisites while remaining fundamentally feudal. Hence, only a systematic and rigorous analysis of China’s economic essence can guide meaningful reform and correct the habitual separation of practical measures from socioeconomic reality. This, I maintain, is the proper starting point of Chinese economic research.