China's Logic

The Balance Development

Lixing Zou

• Publisher: WSPC
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9789813223431
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Development Economics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

-->

The law of balance is not just a motivating power but also serves the purpose of development. How did human society develop in a balanced manner in history? How is China's Modernization impacted by the law of equilibrium? How does the law of balance affect China's economic and trade relations with other countries?

This book attempts to answer these questions and more. It applies the balance law methodology to systematically analyze major factors influencing the sustainable development of the Chinese economy and society, and to discuss the balanced way of thinking, market credit, innovation energy and international collaboration that boost sustainable development. While the theoretical system of socialism with Chinese characteristics needs a balanced development perspective, solving the problem of imbalance requires a balanced approach as well as a balanced interaction between man, nature and society, which is the key factor for economic development in the 21st century.

-->
--> Contents:

• On the Path to Balance:
  • The Balance History of Human Development
  • The Balance Practice in China's Modernization
  • The Modern Theory of Economic Equilibrium
  • China's Road to Balanced Economic Development
• The Balance Market:
  • The Law of Equilibrium in Market Credit
  • Change in Credit Conditions and Perfection of Policies
  • Market Uncertainty and Financial Risk
  • Interaction between the Government and the Market
  • China's Land Reform
  • Innovation Balance and Manufacture of China
• The Balance Diplomacy for the Opening Up:
  • Mutual Trust and Cooperation in Globalization
  • The History and Prospects of China's Foreign Trade
  • Changes in International Situation and the Countermeasures
  • Strengthening Asian–African–Latin American Cooperation
  • The Underlying Reasons for the Trade Issues of the US and China

-->
--> Readership: Students, researchers and the public who are interested to understand the factors influencing sustainable development of the Chinese economy. -->
Keywords:China's Economy;Balance Law Methodogy;Sustainable Development;Balanced Market;Balanced Diplomacy;Balance DevelopmentReview: Key Features:

• The book pays particular attention to the way of thinking and mechanism innovation from a global and in-depth perspective, and puts forward some new ideas, views and measures, worth reading by economic workers, management personnel, university teachers and students, as well as various walks of life

Part I

On the Path to Balance

Under the law of equilibrium, the development of human society, international economic theories and practices, and China’s modernization process show a tendency towards balance. This is because the world we live in is in dynamic equilibrium and all things are interrelated, act as checks on each other and are subject to the law of equilibrium.

The world history of globalization shows that human society follows a path to balanced development characterized by “the shift from oneness to diversity and from diversity to an organic whole”.

Since the mid-18th century, there have been heated debates among economic theorists and practitioners over the relationship between public and private ownership and that between market competition and government intervention, and two schools of thoughts have emerged accordingly. Roughly speaking, development in the late 18th and 19th centuries was mainly driven by private ownership and market competition; the 20th century saw a bigger role of government intervention and public ownership; a tide of mixed economy is rising with the advent of the 21st century. A mixed economy is one where private and public ownership coexist, and the market and the government both play their due roles. This trend is the result of historical and social developments under the law of equilibrium.

China’s modern history has lasted for about two centuries. The 1st century following the First Opium War was marked by national salvation. In the New Democratic Revolution, the CPC drew valuable lessons from previous democratic revolutions and integrated Marxism–Leninism with China’s realities. As a result, Mao Zedong Thought was created, the “three big mountains” — imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat-capitalism were overthrown, and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) was founded. More than 60 years have passed since the founding of the PRC. Today’s China, the world’s second largest economy, has reached a new stage in terms of comprehensive national strength, people’s living standards and international influence. However, the task of building socialism with Chinese characteristics is yet to be accomplished in a satisfactory way. China’s economic and social development is unbalanced and unsustainable. In the first 30 years following the founding of the PRC, political movements occurred one after another for some time and there was a “Great Leap Forward” achieved based on planning in the form of mass campaign with politics at the core. Its purpose was to attain the ideal of communism, but haste makes waste. In the second 30 years, launching of the policy of reform and opening up, the role of the market was once again overemphasized, and there was a market-based campaign encouraging all members of society to pursue wealth. Its purpose was to build a moderately prosperous society in all respects, but the result was a crisis in faith and trust, and the absence of leading values such as confidence, responsibility and vision. Lessons in the two aspects are both bitter. In the next 30 years, holistic approach and overall balance should remain the focus and soul of economic work. Under the new normal, China needs to adopt a balanced approach to economic growth and seek innovation-driven sustainable development. Speed should give way to quality, productivity to continuity and efficiency to sustainability. The system of theories about socialism with Chinese characteristics includes not only the primary stage of socialism, the Party’s basic line and the three-step development strategy but also the thought on balanced development. Chen Yun’s economic thinking on overall balance is a perfect example of following and applying the law of equilibrium.

Historical inertia and patterns have a significant influence on how society works and on the global modernization process. At present, the human society is entering the stage of globalization on a deeper level featuring the interaction between man and nature and between man and society. Many new problems have come up and commands our close attention, such as economic globalization vs. cultural diversity, the drive towards social equity vs. wide wealth gap, global integration vs. governance diversity, etc. We should take the initiative to discuss the balance mechanism of society. Adapting to social changes and trends, keeping up with the time, incorporating different cultures while maintaining one’s own characteristics, building the constructive capacity for communicating with other people and nations, interacting with the nature and people in an appropriate manner, being brave to explore new grounds, and pursuing shared development are the basic conditions and driving forces for sustainable development amid globalization for both mankind and China.

Chapter 1

The Balance History of Human Development

How did human society develop in a balanced manner in history? What is the impact on the present and the future? History is a mirror. The deeper you look into the past, the farther you will be able to see into the future. Much of today’s complicated international situation can be attributed to historical factors. When humans lived on hunting and gathering, there was a “primitive globalization”. In the agricultural age, communication between people existed mainly along several separate lines. Modern globalization did not start until Columbus discovered the new continent. And it then went through periods respectively featured by colonial trade, steam engine, electric motor, automation, finance and information technology. Entering the 21st century, globalization deepened, mankind faced exacerbating shared difficulties such as climate change and shortage of resources, and the conflict between economic globalization and cultural diversity intensified. This chapter analyzes how human society moved from one single source to pluralism and then to integration, exploring the law behind the historical balance and its implications for the present.

Global modernization rests on the basis of history. Looking through the human history, we can see roughly seven stages: (1) anthropoid stage (2 million years ago) when man walked on two legs; (2) ape-man stage (1.8–0.3 million years ago) when man started making simple tools; (3) homo sapiens stage (300,000–40,000 years ago) when man had some intelligence to improve their living standards; (4) ancient stage of hunting and gathering (40,000–12,000 years ago); (5) middle ancient state (12,000–5,000 years ago) when man produced food; (6) ancestor stage (5,000 years ago–the invention of steam engine) of written civilizations; (7) modern human age (the first Industrial Revolution–till now) with modern industrial techniques. Corresponding to human evolution, the human society followed a pattern of “unity, separation, unity”, moving from one source to pluralism and then to integration. Ever since the creation of mankind by Mother Nature, our ancestors for the sake of survival were required to share the same mind, form groups to fight against the harsh conditions and to reproduce. During the Stone Age, man made stone tools and were more capable of coping with harsh conditions and became more productive. People moved to different places around the world, established different groups and cultures of diversity, and developed along separate lines. In the Bronze Age,¹ man created writing systems and adopted agriculture. The discovery of the new continent in 1492, in particular, accelerated the pace of integration. Today, we are going through in-depth globalization and some new features are worth paying close attention.

I.Primitive Integration: Integration for Survival

Humans, as well as all other species, are a result of nature and its laws. According to history and paleoanthropology, around 3.75 million years ago, in Africa, the Great Rift Valley in East Africa and today’s Ethiopia in particular, the climate was agreeable and man started to walk on two legs. Walking on two legs set free the two hands of the anthropoids and enabled them to grab food and hold it in hand while walking fast. This gave them an advantage in the competition for survival and offered them a chance to evolve toward modern humans.² However, during the evolution of anthropoids toward modern humans, they gathered in a small area, collected food and fought against beasts as a team. Working together and the early form of integration played a crucial role in the birth of human society, for only by doing so were they able to survive and thrive.³ Therefore, the direct predecessor of human, which was included in the category of human rather than apes, is called handy, literary meaning “able man”. Primitive integration and joint efforts are the true origins of human society.

About 2 million years ago, primitive handy knew to some extent how to hunt collectively, how to use animal bones and trees, how to sharpen a piece of stone and how to use these simple tools to hunt, dig tubers, fell plants, smash food and cut off rotten meat. Thus, they had ample food supply. Superior to plants and animals, primitive man knew how to use tools to collect food and thus obtained more and varied foods. This was a precondition of human history and a milestone on the way toward civilization.

About 1.6 million and 300,000 years ago, handy matured in its later period and is known among historians as workman.⁴ Later-stage handy was larger and more intelligent than its predecessor, with 40% larger cranial capacity.⁵ They could use and control fire for heating and keeping dangerous animals off; more importantly, they could use language for communication, which is especially superior to animals, marking their progress towards homo sapiens.

Primitive homo sapiens lived around 300,000–125,000 years ago. They launched the first globalization process of mankind. When hunting, they chased collectible food from the North to the Middle East and then some continued west to reach today’s Europe and became Neanderthals as we call them today, while some others turned east to reach today’s Siberia and Asia, and became what is known to us today as Denisovans. In 1856, traces of ancient humans were discovered in the Neanderthal River Valley of Germany and named the discovered type of humans as the Neanderthals. In 1911, Marcellin Boule, a French paleontologist, published the first scientific description of Neanderthal species: they had shifted from a caricature of caveman to a remarkably sophisticated species; they built tools, made jewelry, were probably stronger than us and maybe just as smart as us. They were homo sapiens of the later stage, i.e. around 150,000–40,000 years ago, which was the time of the latest Ice Age. The Earth cooled off greatly about 150,000 years ago and the ice top covered vast areas, making it suitable for walking and migrating. On the tundra-covered Eurasian continent, many mammals stored large amounts of fat to defend themselves against the harsh coldness during the long Ice Age, and humans at that time thus had sufficient prey and could spare more time to study the nature and make tools.⁶ Humans in this period were highly skilled at tool-making, invented 60 large tools including knife, chisel, drill and spearhead. They could build shelters, were good at hunting, enjoyed higher living standards and became more reproductive. As a result, the population surged and they expanded with faster steps either intentionally or unintentionally in the face of climate change and pressure for survival. They moved while hunting and continued with global expansion.

Entering the Neolithic Age (40,000–12,000 years ago), men invented bow and arrow, and became more efficient in hunting and also more reproductive. They were quite “modern” actually. They enjoyed arts, had ambitions, had religion, public forums and political practices. Also, they were similar to us in terms of intelligence and physical power. Since it was still Ice Age then (around 10,600–8,000 years ago, temperature was volatile, and ice gradually melted, and the Ice Age gradually ended), they continued to explore new areas, and scattered around the world, building new homes here and there, basically forming the world order today.

Figure 1.1 shows the process of how human evolution spread. Generally, the earliest humans were in Africa and moved to other places later as evolution continued. By the Ice Age, especially in the Neolithic Age, migration accelerated, basically forming our world order today. This process can be regarded as a kind of globalization.

The Ice Age, especially the Neolithic Age, was a great time for human development. “In this age, at all places inhabited by man, the culture shared the same basic elements. All men lived on hunting and gathering, used similar techniques, ate similar foods and had similar levels of material culture. And, based on the information available to us, they had similar religious rituals”.⁷ Therefore, in a sense, we can say this was a time of primitive globalization. Primitive globalization evolved with the interactions between man and nature.

Figure 1.1.Human Society: From One Source to Pluralism

II.Historic Separation: Development along Multiple Lines

As man spread out around the world, different species, races and societies were formed and the human society developed along separate lines over a prolonged process. On the ancient Earth, each tribe constituted a separate traditional society, each tradition equaled one unique way of life, and each way of life represented one civilization.

1.Species Formed in Migration

Before the Neolithic Age, man lived mainly on gathering or hunting. Such a way of life means that man at that time must continuously try to find vegetarian food, or, as hunters, must migrate along with its prey. For survival and development, man migrated to different places around the world, tapped into every inch of livable land, adapted to local climate, settled down at various regions, and adopted with different species.

History shows that there were generally three branches of man: ancient African man, ancient Asian man and ancient European man (Heidelberg man). According to archaeological findings, the first and the third started to differ significantly as early as in the Middle Pleistocene (Paleolithic Age). Evolution may have been more complicated in the region where China is located. Man here was neither the African branch (homo sapiens) nor Heidelberg, rather they combined the features of East Asian, European and African man of the middle Pleistocene era.

About 500,000 years ago, ancient Indian man emerged on the subcontinent of India.⁸ Between 1926 and 1930, archaeologists found over 40 pieces of bones of a Peking man in a cave of Zhouk...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword
• Preface: Sustainable Development from a Balanced Way of Thinking
• About the Author
• Introduction: General Balance
• Part I
• Part II
• Part III
• Epilogue
• Index