Slowing Growth Expands Adjusting Space, Environment Protection Prior To Economic Development
-----Chinese Macroeconomic Analysis Report for the 2nd Quarter of the Year

News conference on “Chinese Macroeconomic Analysis Report for the 2nd Quarter of the Year” was held by Unirule Institute of Economics on July 18th, 2013. During the conference, Prof. Zhang Shuguang made a detailed analysis of the second quarter of Chinese macroeconomics. He pointed out that in the first half of this year, GDP grew 7.6% (7.5% in the 2nd quarter), industrial added value increased by 9.3%, CPI rose by 2.4% (2.7% in June), all of which continued the falling trend, which is good for economic adjustment and transition. In June, when a liquidity crisis happened, the central bank measures properly, which is conductive to the use of short-term fluctuations in the market for the long-term stable development of finance and economy. The environment crisis is imminent, directly endangering people’s lives. A change of mindset is needed to make environment protection prior to economic development.   

 

Zhang Shuguang
Chairman of Academic Committee, Unirule Institute of Economics

Highlights

Sheng Hong: The Name of Unirule is very suitable

When Unirule was created, we were not aware of the classical usage of “Unirule”, just using “Unirule” as a short version of “rules between Heaven and Earth”. It sounded suitable, and was consistent with our passion for institutional economics and concern with institutional change. Afterwards in The Book of Songs , we found the poem “ Tian Sheng Zheng Min, You Wu You Ze ”, which means “People are created by God, and naturally there would be things and rules”. That is suitable for our understanding of institutions: in human society, institutions would be generated naturally, and they are the spontaneous order.

Later, in The Book of Changes we found the sentence “Qi an Yuan Yong Jiu, Nai Jian Tian Ze ”, in which we first found the classical usage of “Unirule” as a whole word. As Mr. Nan Huaijin explained, the sentence means that Heaven and Earth generated rules, never demandingreturn, which was precisely our definition of Unirule and very close to our ambition.

After reading more literature, we found that this sentence is a classical one, commented and discussed by ancient scholars of past ages. In Song Dynasty, Yu Yan said, “Unirule is natural law” and “the natural law has no mind”. Yang Jian said “Unirule means God's activity, and human activity is not Unirule”. That is to say, there exist the ways of Heaven, which are beyond the wisdom of human beings. Only by trials and errors, can human beings understand Unirule and follow the way of Heaven.

Nevertheless, people should not give up exploring “Unirule”, not only because of curiosity of human beings, but also because in that kind of society where the ways of Heaven are followed by people as possible as they can, everyone will feel happier and the whole society will be more prosperous. To comply with the ways of Heaven is the origin of Chinese civilization. Exploring “Unirule” becomes their everlasting task, for only it is beyond the wisdom of human beings. So, Unirule Institute of Economics researches institutions and cultures, which is a modern continuation of this ancient and perpetual cause.

Furthermore, since Unirule is the rules beyond human beings' wisdom, the reality of human society is always flawed, and the individuals within the political structure are facing limitations. To overcome this problem, we should first acknowledge the infinity of Unirule as well as the limitation of secular government and the specific political figures. Then we should explore an institutional structure to hamper the secular government and the specific political figures and amplify the virtue of each society member. This kind of approach is constitutionalism.

It is generally believed that constitutionalism originated in the West and plays an important role in Christian tradition. If not complying with the “Justice of God”, the secular government has no legitimacy. Similarly, the ways of Heaven and Unirule have given us spiritual resource of constitutionalism. The emperor was regarded as an official, who should be guided and constrained by the ways of Heaven. Therefore, there should be someone who has a deeper understanding of the ways of Heaven than other individuals and groups, which is called “the Heaven shows the signs, and sages transform them into rules.” Understanding the ways of Heaven through inspiration by nature, cultural traditions are formed. The group who bears the tradition, as Mr. Yu Yingshi said, is recognized as representative of the tradition of ways of Heaven since 4 century B.C. by the political groups gradually.

Accordingly, the name of Unirule also contains constitutionalism. After the Culture Revolution, the structure of integration of politics and God has collapsed. The government appeared to be more secular, and also the political figures return to be ordinary persons The ideal political structure should be a set of constitutionalist principles. To the whole society, it contains basic principles concluded from successes and failures of thousands of years, including principles of protecting human rights and property rights. In the political area, it is the constraint to the defects of the secular government and political figures, as well as the encouragement for people to promote social justice and prosperity. However, it is not easy to explore the set of constitutional principles, as it looks like to explore the ways of Heaven, for it is necessary to absorb and digest varied kinds of spiritual resources at all times and in all countries.

Of course, the culture elites are also ordinary people, so there should be ways of Heaven to explore the ways of Heaven. Those are rules of freedom of expression and civilized debate. It can't be denied that heroes appeared in history, which precisely happened as a result of following the rules. Thus, Unirule Institute of Economics could not regard what we say is the ways of Heaven only because our name is Unirule, and should try our best to maintain the rules of freedom of expression and civilized debate, promoting the constitutional consensus with various cultural elites.

Based on this, Unirule will try its best to rebuild social moral value and let the social and political fields benefit from it. We hope that the secular government and political figures should acknowledge that they are also ordinary people, and accept the constitutional principles which are far beyond the interests of individuals and groups. What we would like is that as Xun Zi's saying, improving politics when in the government, while improving morality when in countryside. We would like to tell society and government what we regard as constitutional principles through our papers, books, and reports; while to tell the public what kinds of moral value we persue through our essays and mcro-blogs.

Take a look at the past twenty years, what we have done and will do can be summed up in one word ”Unirule”.

 China-Review and FT-Chinese frist publish

Sheng Hong
Director of Unirule Institute of Economics

Current Events

Mr. Tang Jiqiang gave a speech on “Trapezoid Financing Mode of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises”

Figures’ Talk No.1 in the southwest area was held by Unirule Institute of Economics in Huanhuali, Chengdu on July 6th, 2013. The main speaker of the meeting was Mr. Tang Jiqiang, director of Chengdu Development Planning Bureau of New District. We also invited Mr. Feng Xingyuan, Vice-director of Unirule, Mr. Liu Ying, Vice-President of The China-Europe International Management Center (CEIMC) and Mr. Zhang Shizhong, Professor at School of Management in the Southwestern University of Finance and Economics. Mr. Zhang Chi, an anchor in Sichuan TV channel of Finance and Economics, hosted the meeting. There were about one hundred people attending this meeting, and Mr. Tang Jiqiang stated that the small and medium sized enterprises have a supporting role in promoting the increase of GDP and innovation activities.

Scientific Thinking and Extension of Morality: Prof. Mao Yushi's Academic Thinking Training No.4

Prof. Mao Yushi's Academic Thinking Training No.4 was held in Dalian on July 13th and 14th, 2013. Teachers this time were Mr. Mao Yushi, Honorary President of Unirule, Mr. Qin Hui, Professor of the History Department at Tsinghua University and Mr. Zhao Nong, Vice-President of Academic Committee of Unirule. There were 35 students attending the meeting. The theme of the course was scientific thinking and extension of morality by Prof. Mao Yushi. During the training, Prof. Qin Hui gave a speech on “Human Rights and Welfare”.

Bottan Visited Unirule for Project Cooperation

Mr. Gustavo L. Bottan , the founder of American Asian Ventures, LLC , visited Unirule for project cooperation. American Asian Ventures, LLC was created by several MIT graduates, building relationship “bridges” between the US/Europe and China through education and sustainability projects. The aim of Mr. Bottan's visit was to pursue cooperation in terms of water affairs and shale gas exploitation. Prof. Sheng Hong, Director of Unirule, and Prof. Feng Xingyuan, Vice-Director of Unirule, warmly received him. Both sides were looking forward to in-depth communication and cooperation in the future.

The Study Road of the Netherlands Visited Unirule

Members of the Study Road of the Netherlands and Dr. Jin Zhenbao of China University of Politics and Law visited Unirule on August 9th, 2013. Prof. Qiu Feng, President of Unirule, received them. Dr. Jin introduced the Study Road of Netherlands and his friendship with Prof. Qiu Feng. Mr. Zhang Lin, Fellow of Unirule, introduced Unirule, its academic research, conception and spirits. Further, Prof. Qiu Feng gave a speech on Chinese history and the Confucian culture. Both sides also discussed issues on official corruption, the relationship between Unirule and the government, etc.

Unirule-Dawu Forum No.1: Challenges and Countermeasures of Private Enterprises' Living Environment

Unirule-Dawu Forum No.1 was held by Unirule Institute of Economics and Hebei Dawu Group at the hotel of Dawu Holiday Village on August 8th and 9th, 2013. Experts attending this meeting included Mr. Sun Dawu, the founder and chief supervisor of Dawu Group, Mr. Hu Deping, member of The Standing Committee of the CPPCC, Mr. Bao Yujun, President of China Private Economy Research Institute, Mr. Chen Youxi and Mr. Li Zhuang, famous lawyers, Mr. Mao Yushi, Honorary President of Unirule as well as Mr. Zhang Shuguang, Chairman of the Academic Committee of Unirule. The meeting was held by Mr. Liu Ping, the manager of Dawu Group, and Mr. Gao Yan, Vice-President of Unirule. Experts expressed their opinions on how to protect private entrepreneurs and their rights, macroeconomic development, labor surplus value and constitutionalism in the Dawu Group.

Civil Finance and Private Entrepreneurs' Living Environment in China : Analysis of the Zheng Chengjie Case

Seminar on “Civil Finance and Private Entrepreneurs' Living Environment in China : Analysis of the Zheng Chengjie Case” was held by Unirule in Beijing on August 13th, 2013. Experts and scholars from economic fields, famous lawyers and entrepreneurs, writers and media reporters attended this meeting.

In this meeting, experts discussed the Zeng Chengjie Case, and then analyzed the system environment and living condition of private enterprises, the target and path of financial system reform in China and the expectations and prospects for a healthy development of private enterprises.

News

Mr. Hu Baosen Presents His Calligraphy to Unirule

With the concern and support by people from all walks of life, the twentieth anniversary celebration of Unirule has been successfully concluded. This celebration was a celebration of thought, also a celebration of friendship. Though there were also friends absent, many of them sent their blessings and gifts. Acknowledgement of the calligraphy received by Mr. Hu Baosen, president of Henan Jianye Group Co., Ltd, and a pot of butterfly orchid received by Mr. Zhang Jie, the manager of Xinyu Wenjie Business Consulting Company.

Prof. Mao Yushi was invited to attend the Summit Forum “Private Economy and Industry Development 2013”

The Summit Forum “Private Economy and Industry Development 2013” was held in Foshan on August 5th, 2013. Prof. Mao Yushi gave a speech on “Structural Adjustment of the Current Private Enterprises ”

Welcome to Unirule's Taobao Shop

After the twentieth anniversary celebration of Unirule, Unirule's Taobao Shop has been formally opened on August 17th, 2013. Unirule's Taobao Shop is an equal and open platform. Facing the vast marketplace of ideas, we further widen the channels, show our efforts and achievements to more people and let them understand our research.

Welcome to Unirule's Taobao Shop: http://unirule.taobao.com

If you want to access it by your cell phone, please scan QR code:

The Twentieth Anniversary Celebration of Unirule

The Rule of Law and Constitutionalism

Sheng Hong: What is constitutionalism? It is to limit the public power, which, in fact, is very critical to anti-corruption. Anti-corruption is supported by the people, so I think people will not object to combat corruption through constitutional reform. The other definition of constitutionalism is that everyone's right should be protected effectively and equally. Thus, people will not o bject t he protect ion of their own rights.

Zhang Qianfan: Reform is certainly not merely a scientific question or a pure information problem, but a human issue . If there isn't a constitutional environment and any improvement of the political and legal environment, our economic reform will continue along the twisting direction and finally lead to unwanted result s . In a word, without constitutionalism, the reform is nothing.

Xu Jilin : Constitutionalism not only limits the powers of public authority, but also balances powers with in the society. T he various political powers from the government to the civil area can compete and interact under the framework of constitutional system. Under such conditions, China can have a hopeful future.

Chen Zhiwu: Some people say that the constitutional reform will always lead to the fall of the regime, which remind s me of the story of Erhu player Abing. Looking at Abing 's life is likely to cause following logic al mistake. As the famous Erhu player Abing is blind, anyone who wanted to play the Erhu well, would have to get blind first. We know this is an absurd conclusion. In the same way, concluding that the constitutional reform will always lead to the fall of the regime is wrong and absurd.

Li Zhuang: The crime that Bo Xilai committed to the China 's reform and opening, economical development, legal construction and lawyers' system is many times bigger than Liu Zhijun's. It is also a heavy blow to private enterprises, as well as the system of advocacy.

Sun Dawu: We will go a road of constitutionalism in the future, but it will be a long one. The society should be enlightened rather than liberated hastily. We need to establish a modern democracy system of checks and balances. Just as Nelson Mandla said, “We struggle for liberation not to oppose some group or go as a tribal fight, but to oppose an oppressive system.”

Wang Jianxun: Can socialism and constitutionalism be combined together? In my opinion, they are incompatible. Because constitutionalism lays stress on separation of powers and checks and balances, but socialism emphasizes centralization, no matter on areas like public ownership, the planned economy or the absolute leadership of the party.

Development and Reform

Mao Yushi: The reform is successful, but people who contribute to the reform are baffled and people who blocked the reform are protected. I hope this kind of situation will not emerge again in the future, enabling us to continue the reform more smoothly.

Wu Jinglian: Coase said very sincerely that “The biggest obstacle and obstruction encountered during the further development of China 's economy and improvement of market system is that the lack of marketplace of ideas from economy to education and from law to politics.” What Unirule had done in those years is to provide a platform for the scholars to discuss, thus help establishing and developing the marketplace of ideas. Unirule organized open and free discussions, provided i deological achievements and contributed to the reform and opening.

Xu Zhangrun: The achievement of modern China resulted from the Westernization movement, the late Qing law reform, the Republic of China's government reform and the hard struggles of the last 35 years. The modern China and the modern order are all in this, especially in the “Culture China-National Country” and “Political China-Democratical Country”. All in all, people need to struggle persistently.

Wei Sen: The most important reform in present China is no longer promoting marketization, but to push forward the government's internal power balance, modern democracy and political construction. The focal point of controversy is whether we can establish a modern government with budget democracy.

Wang Guoxiang: We should use marginal analysis method of modern economics to study the relationship between the individual and the group in China ‘s socialist market economy to provide the theoretical foundation for building China's market economy system and establishing individual interests value system as well as the system of constitutionalism and democracy.

Ren Zhiqiang: Only by opening our minds, letting more people debate in multiple ways and establishing a market of ideas, we can find a real reform road.

Xu Youyu: Every step of reform and opening is moving forward by getting rid of the interference from the left. The frustration with the reform and opening resulted from left thoughts and left intervention. At present, the choice between adhering to the direction of modernization and globalization and allowing left thoughts to spread is a sharp problem lying in front of us.

Institution, Culture and Governance

Huang Chunxing: Institution is a set of living rules coming from the folk. If the system is complete, the government will not make many policies. Culture is defined as following the rules. In fact, institution and culture let people build their own road and walk along it.

Wang Yan: It is believed that academic exists in the folk, thus keeping its vigorous vitality. Reading extensively the academic history of China for two thousands years, Mr. Zhang Taiyan thought that the flourishing of the academy was a bottom-up development and it declined and fell from top to bottom.

Globalization and China

Zhang Weiying: For the future of mankind and the future of the Chinese, I hope we can follow the universal values conforming to the human nature. Only by doing this, we can build a better world.

Qin Hui: Considering China 's reform, especially within the context of globalization, globalization will further expand and deepen. Globalization requires us to have universal minimum standards of human rights. If there are no universal minimum standards of human rights, globalization will be terminated. If the globalization is not terminated, then we will see “Bad money drives out good”.

Unirule of 20 Years

Mao Yushi: Unirule has passed through the rough road for twenty years. During the reform, our country has gone through the change from planned economy to market economy, from public owned economy to a more diversified economy in terms of ownership. This change has not finished yet. Unirule will make efforts to promote the change.

Zhang Shuguang: We should build a platform of freedom of thinking and freedom of expression, letting more people, especially scholars in academics, express their ideas freely. This is very important. That academics exist within the folk means that the education in school is progressing in aspects of academic. Unirule is just doing that kind of thing.

Sheng Hong: Unirule is the ways of Heaven, and the ways of Heaven are justice. Just as Confucius said “Ge zheng xing ming”, which means knowing one's own boundary and respecting the boundary of others' rights, then all parts of the society can build a happy society.

Qiu Feng: We hope to reach deep into the entrepreneurial groups, change their voice into a system design and bring it into the public sphere, participating in the process of law-making and decision-making.

Feng Xingyuan: Unirule is the experimental field of constitutionalism. Buchanan mentioned in his book Constitutional Economics Exploration that the constitutional ethics, the constitutional thought, the constitutional attitude and the constitutional behavior facilitate a constitutional order in the society. That is what our society lacks but needs, which also needs us to promote it.

Upcoming Events

Notice of Soliciting Papers for China Institutional Economics Annual Conference 2013

The 13th China Institutional Economics Annual Conference will be held in Southwest University of Political Science and Law on 16th and 17th November 2013, jointly organized by the organizing committee of China Institutional Economics Annual Conference and the School of Economics of Southwest University of Political Science and Law. Unirule now solicits papers both at home and abroad. Authors of selected papers will be invited to attend the seminar as representatives.

Deadline: Oct. 20th, 2013
Tel.: 15223378931 (Prof. Lei Guoxiong) 13508383975 (Prof. Chen Yili)
E-mail: cimonlei@163.com ； mailto:yilibest@yahoo.com.cn

2013 Unirule Education Forum

Unirule Education Forum of 2013 will be held on November, aiming at improving the quality of tertiary education in China . We will explore the reasons in system condition and humanistic spirit atmosphere for the quality problems of tertiary education. Furthermore, a series of problems about running, financing, managing and evaluating the quality of tertiary education will be discussed.

Unirule Biweekly Symposiums
Unirule’s Biweekly Symposiums are known in China and throughout the world for their long history of open and in-depth discussions and exchanges of ideas in economics and other social sciences. Over 470 sessions have been held and over 15,000 scholars, policy makers, and students, as well as countless readers on the web, have directly and indirectly, and participated in the Biweekly Symposium for close to 20 years.

Biweekly Symposiums begin at 2 p.m. every other Friday and are free and open to the public.

Schedule
Biweekly Symposium No. 485: September 13th, 2013
Biweekly Symposium No. 486: September 27th, 2013

Previous Biweekly Symposiums

Biweekly Symposium No. 478

Time: June 7th, 2013
Topic: From Theory to Contract: the Change of China's Modern Nation Concept
Lecturer: Lei Yi
Commentators: Gao Quanxi, Wang Jianxu, Ma Jianyin, Zhao Nong

Prof. Lei pointed out that changes of the society start from changes of nations. How to understand the concept of nation is very important for modern China. He introduced the thoughts from St.Augustine to Locke and Rousseau and said that all these thoughts have one common point, which is that the government should respect the rights of the people. It means that the legitimacy of a government should be founded on the rights of the people. But according to the traditional perspective, the center of the dynasty was the emperor and the emperor represented the nation. Not until the reform movement of 1898, Liang Qichao started to introduce the checks and balance to China. Then he analyzed the trend of anti-constitutionalism in recent China. He said that the government tried to make people confusing the government with the nation, and confusing the Party with the nation, so that people thought that the Party could represent the interest of the whole nation. Prof. Lei advocated that scholars and students should find out the proper concept of nation, then there will be more people to applaud constitutionalism.

Biweekly Symposium No. 479

Time: June 7th, 2013
Topic: China's social trends of thought and international standards
Lecturer: Yang Fan
Commentators: Zhu Jingwen, Cao Siyuan, Chen Ziming, Li Weidong

Prof Yang’s main idea is that it is very simple to divide people into the Left and Right according to their different political proposition. In his mind, there are all kinds of political appeals in China. Now there are a lot of people protesting and even attacking Prof. Mao Yushi. He thought it is really a bad social trend that people with different ideas can’t engage in calm debate and that there is no social consensus. In his view, extremists will lead to abruption of the society and the top leaders of the Party can’t use the extremists as a tool to make chaos, as this is very dangerous. He also advocated that the Left and the Right should reach a consensus and scholars, officials and people should learn from Prof. Mao’s peaceful and reasonable attitude.

Editor: Wang Sheng
Lead Editor: Liu Qian
Revisor: Hannah Luftensteiner