Scholars discussed the necessity of establishing China’s development economics and the future development of the country’s economy, at the 3rd International Conference on China Development Theory and the concurrent 15th Annual Conference of China Development Economics, which were convened in Beijing on July 3.

China’s development economics

China created a development miracle that is peerless in human history, and has laid a unique and rich theoretical and practical foundation to promote the theoretical innovation of development economics, and for building the country’s development economics, said Liu Yuanchun, vice president of Renmin University of China (RUC). Exploring the general laws and economic logic of China’s development experience is an important mission and responsibility for economists, especially development economists.

Liu Shouying, dean of the School of Economics at RUC, said that China’s development miracle and the ever more eye-catching economic development achievements on the horizon will help theoretical and empirical research results, based on Chinese experience and Chinese stories, to play an increasingly important role in the mainstream theories of development economics. Ultimately, this will lead the construction of development economics as a discipline.

“We must earnestly explore the mystery behind the success of China’s economic development, sum up the successful experience, and systematize it to form development economics with Chinese characteristics,” said Guo Xibao, head of the development economics research branch of the China Association for the Study of International Economics.

To promote the high-quality development of China’s economy, it is necessary to study actual problems related to China’s economic development, and elevate practical experience to economic theory, Guo suggested.

China’s economic development process is consistent with the basic logic of development economics, noted Ye Chusheng, deputy head of the development economics research branch of the China Association for the Study of International Economics.

Theoretical innovation needed

In the new stage of development, however, as China is striving to achieve the second centenary goal, development economics’ existing theoretical system has yet to provide a theory for such practical exploration—development economics theories have so far focused on low-income countries’ development or how to eliminate poverty and become richer, Ye noted.

This also means that China’s new stage of economic development provides good opportunities for the new field of development economics, which has important theoretical and practical significance to opening a new chapter in development economics, Ye said.

Huang Weiping, a professor at the School of Economics at RUC, observed that as China has eradicated absolute poverty, research on China’s future development still has a long way to go. It requires joint efforts from all scholars.Jiang Xiaojuan, dean of the School of Public Policy and Management at Tsinghua University, said that it is necessary to speed up the construction of the new development paradigm of “dual circulation” that allows the domestic and overseas markets to reinforce each other, with the domestic market as the mainstay.

The momentum of traditional globalization is weakening, and digital globalization is strongly advancing. In this context, a higher level of external circulation can promote the healthy formation, efficient operation, and sustainable advancement of the country’s new development paradigm.

“As such, we must constantly boost a higher level of opening up,” Jiang noted.

Most experts interpreting China’s economic miracle have focused on the sources of such rapid growth, but Liu Shouying cautioned that economic growth is only a part of economic performance, and economic performance is actually the “average rates of change” of economic growth and contraction. Data after the 1950s show that for most countries, economic growth itself is a process full of volatility or even contraction, and the impact of economic “shrinkage” on the long-term performance of economic development is more important than that of economic growth.