August 31st, the 10th UCERC Saloon and the 2nd Seminar on “Business Ethics Declaration of Chinese Entrepreneurs” was held in Beijing.

 Joined in the seminar were Professor YAO Zhongqiu(Qiufeng), President of Unirule Institute of Economics; Professor GAO Chaoqun, Researcher of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; Mr. MING Xu, Researcher at Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies of Peking University; Professor FENG Xingyuan, Director of UCERC; Mr. TANG Dajie, Secretary General of Institute of Chinese Enterprises ; and Mr. NIU Zhengqian, Vice President of China Association of Pharmaceutical Commerce.

Professor YAO firstly introduced the goal, framework, content and a set of principles regarding the research on “Business Ethics Declaration of Chinese Entrepreneurs”. He pointed out that this Declaration aimed to speak on behalf of Chinese entrepreneurs and reveal the sense of ethics and principles of Chinese entrepreneurs that underpinned the rapid development of China’s economy for the last three decades. He explained that the Declaration set to summarize the rich content of ethics and its historical significance, and then propose a range of ethical rules for Chinese Junzi(gentleman) entrepreneurs. Professor YAO also emphasized the open form of drafting of this Declaration which encompassed the participation of entrepreneurs and the public. This form also facilitated the communication between the research team and the entrepreneurs.

Professor GAO Chaoqun illustrated the value of this research from three perspectives. Firstly, he thought there’s an urgent need to showcase the mental and spiritual dilemma faced by entrepreneurs. Secondly, this Declaration was a declaration to the public, which could act as a solution to the fuzzy image of the entrepreneur group. By doing so, the lack of entrepreneurs’ image in public participation could be amended. Lastly, he thought it was important to find a clear positioning of Chinese entrepreneurs in the global context in order to be more specific in undertaking the research.

Mr. MING Xu provided supportive argument to the research by referring to the Historical Records, the history of Ming Dynasty, and the concepts concerning Junzi entrepreneurs in the Confucian and Daoist thinking. He thought it was a valuable research as the Declaration restored the basic concepts of entrepreneurs as gentlemen in the traditional Chinese cultural contexts.

Professor FENG Xingyuan spoke from an economic point of view, an Austrian School perspective, to be specific. He added to the discussion insights from the perspective of spontaneous order. He also proposed that the Declaration should be announced with supplementary resources from Hayek, Kirzner, and Shumpeter. In addition, Professor FENG Xingyuan also approved the role of entrepreneurs as the driving force of the market. He mentioned that problems of managerial staff should not be overstated in regard of labor safety issues as well.