oriented one. Eastern and western civilizations will once again meet on the stage of "conservation culture."

Seeking Truth From Facts

Nanfang Weekend: Many Western economists read China's policy tendency in the past five years as "left leaning." What are your comments?

Justin Yifu Lin: This attitude is based on the Western theory. Theories are supposed to help us to understand the phenomena better and promote progress. A big challenge now facing China is inequality in income distribution and social development. In other countries, all of the policies on regulating income distribution and developing social undertakings are regarded as "left" policies, so Western economists are analyzing the Chinese issue from their own perspective.

However, when inequality in income distribution, regional disparity and social development stagnation have developed into serious problems and still there are no national policies dealing with these problems, then social conflicts will begin to swell. Therefore, policies are not made to meet certain theories, but to solve problems.

Is the solving of problems therefore the guiding principle in the process of making policies?

Yes. We act in accordance with the principle of emancipating the mind, seeking truth from the facts and keeping up with the times.

After World War II, the vast majority of developing countries set down policies on development in accordance with mainstream development theories at that time. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund also recommend these policies. The result, however, is a mess.

The economic policies adopted in eastern Asian countries in the 1950s and 1960s are wrong in accordance with the mainstream theories, but these economies did very well in line with these policies.

Similarly, China's reform and opening-up policy adopted in the 1980s is under incessant criticism from Western mainstream economic theories, but China is doing well. At the same time, the countries that make transition policies based on the Washington Consensus all incur disasters.

Therefore, to emancipate the mind, we need to break up the chains of doctrines. Only in this way can we settle problems we are now facing at the present stage. This is "to seek truth from facts" in the real sense. Like driving on a freeway, sometimes we need to turn left and sometimes right, but in neither case do we deliberately lean to the left or to the right. We are just responding to the specific situations on the road, or we may bump into other vehicles and never reach the destination.

Is it fair to say that China's reform process is actually a challenge to some mainstream western economics theories?

In my opinion, it is because Western mainstream economic theories are based on the development of Western countries, instead of that in developing countries.

It is widely believed that China's economic restructuring is hampered by its government administrative system or even the political system. Do you think there is any breakthrough in General Secretary Hu's report at the 17th CPC National Congress?

As a developing country, China has a low productivity level and still various deficient systems. Therefore, the country's administrative system or even the political system needs consistent improvement. However, has any other country encountered these two thorny issues at the same time-development and transition, and still kept lasting and rapid development together with social stability? No other government has achieved this except the Chinese Government. If I am asked to grade the Chinese Government, I will give them an A. We must admit this fact.

Of course, at no time can we feel complacent, as General Secretary Hu Jintao stressed in the report. We must be aware of unexpected development. We should never be indifferent to existing problems, and have to make continuous improvement in our work in accordance with the Scientific Outlook on Development.