Scientific Foundations and Methods of Research on Chinese Economy

The foregoing discussion may be taken as a preliminary account of the scientific foundations for research on the Chinese economy; yet to study it seriously, we must proceed beyond such obvious statements. In this chapter I first clarify three bodies of knowledge that must be grasped: economics, economic history, and Chinese economic history. I argue that capitalist economics can illuminate China only in a limited sense and that what China most needs is a critical and historically minded economics, rather than an ahistorical “popular” economics. I then propose three methods implied by these foundations: comparative research, comprehensive research, and progressive research. Comparison is necessary because we still lack categories adequate to define China in its own terms; comprehensiveness is required to avoid empty abstractions about “the whole”; and progressiveness is indispensable for a transitional society in which feudal and capitalist elements coexist, constrain, and transform one another. Only by combining these methods can research approach the true nature and movement of China’s economy.