Analysis of Western economic thought in Chiang Kai-shek's "Chinese economic teaching"

O. Borokh
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O. Borokh: Institute of China and contemporary Asia, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

Journal of the New Economic Association, 2024, vol. 64, issue 3, 190-215

Abstract: The paper examines Chiang Kai-shek's book "Chinese Economic Teaching" in the context of the history of Chinese economic thought of the 1940s. The need for state participation in the economy for ensuring people's livelihood was substantiated by comparisons of Chinese thought with Western economic science. The popularity of the English translation, which interpreted the contents of the book as a reflection of the "fascist" and "feudal" aspirations of the Chinese leader, long prevented its objective assessment. Based on the study of the primary source, the main directions for comparing the economic ideas of China and the West were identified: an emphasis on the whole or on the individual, human wants or rationality as the starting point for constructing a theory. Criticism of Marxism and Western liberalism was supplemented by indicating that the criteria of Chinese economic teaching correspond to Western searches in the field of welfare economics (Veblen, Ward, Hobson), capable of going beyond the theory of value and the profit-seeking. It is demonstrated that Chiang Kai-shek's book became part of the search for a way to construct Chinese economic science taking into account national specifics and cultural traditions. Contemporary efforts to build "economics with Chinese characteristics" confirm that the use of traditional terminology makes difficult to internationalize Chinese economic ideas.

Keywords: Chiang Kai-shek; Chinese economic thought; national tradition; people's livelihood; Western economics; liberalism; Marxism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A13 B2 B31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nea:journl:y:2024:i:64:p:190-215

DOI: 10.31737/22212264_2024_3_190-215

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