The Cato Institute's
conference, "China as a Global Economic Power:
Market Reforms in the New Millennium," began
with opening remarks by Cato president Ed Crane and
Xie Xide, director or Fudan University's Center for
American Studies. Following their brief comments, Wu
Jie, vice minister of China's State Commission for
Restructuring the Economic System, spoke about his
country's Social Security system.(text of remarks) He
reported that it is plagued by administrative
problems and that coverage is far from universal.
Moreover, he stated that the system will run into
demographic problems in the next century as the
worker-to-retiree ratio continues to shrink.
During the first panel discussion, "China's
Place in the Global Trading Order," William A.
Niskanen, chairman of the Cato Institute, maintained
that the United States would benefit if China were
admitted to the World Trade Organization and granted
unconditional most favored nation status. Ted Galen
Carpenter, vice president for defense and foreign
policy studies at Cato, argued that if China is
denied MFN status, it will be for social and
political, not economic, reasons. Such a course, he
maintained, would be a mistake, as would adopting a
military policy of "containment" against
China.
Participants on
the second panel considered the future of China's
market economy. Barry Naughton of the University of
California at San Diego commended China for its
privatization efforts but argued that the process
should move more quickly. James
A. Dorn, vice president for academic affairs at
the Cato Institute and conference organizer, warned
against half-way reforms (text
of remarks). "What China needs is not market
socialism but market liberalism. In the long run,
market socialism, like central planning, is bound to
fail." Yeung Wai Hong, publisher of Next
magazine, maintained that China would do well to
follow Hong Kong's example and adopt unilateral
free-trade policies.
Following the second panel, Wang Daohan, former
mayor of Shanghai, delivered the luncheon address. He
predicted that if economic liberalization continues,
China's GDP will exceed that of the United States by
early next century.
The final panel of the day
discussed Hong Kong's future. Joseph Y. W. Pang,
executive director of the Bank of East Asia, argued
that a "one country, two systems" policy
that would allow Hong Kong to maintain its current
institutional framework must be adopted. William McGurn, senior
editor of the Far Eastern Economic Review, reported
that while there is income disparity in Hong Kong,
there is little envy. He argued that the reason is
that people who have become wealthy have done so
through hard work not through favors from the state (audio clip). If,
however, China attempts to stringently regulate Hong
Kong's economy, that will likely change. James Gwartney, coauthor
of Economic Freedom of the World 1975-1995, stated
that by his measure Hong Kong ranks number one in the
world in economic freedom (audio clip). As a
result, in the last 30 years it has gone from being a
very poor country to one of the richest.
In the evening Fudan University held an Open Forum
for students and conference participants. David Boaz
of the Cato Institute; Roberto Salinas-León of CISLE
in Mexico City; José Pinera of the Cato Institute
and International Center for Pension Reform; Richard
Y. C. Wong of the Hong Kong Centre for Economic
Research; and Zhang Shuguang of the Unirule Institute
of Economics in China discussed the roles their
organizations play and entertained questions from the
crowd. More than 150 students from Fudan University
attended the event.
Links for June 16, 1997
China's Economic System:
Market Socialism or Market Taoism? (remarks)
China's Social Security
System (remarks)
Audio clip of James
Gwartney
Audio clip of William
McGurn
Schedule of Speakers · Home · Speaker Bios
