The Moganshan Conference, officially the Symposium for Young and Middle-aged Economic Scientists. was held in Moganshan, Deqing County, Zhejiang in September 1984, which promoted the process of China's reform and opening up.
Background At the opening ceremony of the Moganshan Conference, Wang Ruisun, editor-in-chief of the Economic Weekly, one of the organizers, mentioned the background of the conference in his speech: "This conference was held under the circumstances of the in-depth development of China's economic system reform and the very active economic scientific research." In December 1978, the third plenary session of the 11th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party made the decision to reform the economic system. At first, the focus of economic system reform was on rural areas, and only partial decentralization and profit-sharing pilot projects were carried out in cities. By 1984, rural reform had made great progress, but urban reform had not yet started in general, and the country faced the challenge of expanding from rural reform and partial enterprise pilot reform to comprehensive reform. Deng Xiaoping pointed out that "reform should be shifted from rural areas to cities." However, due to the influence of the planned economy system and ideological reasons (for example, in the campaign against spiritual pollution in 1983, some people in the Party criticized the theory of commodity economy as "spiritual pollution"), the reform was difficult to carry out.
During the Spring Festival of 1984, Deng Xiaoping inspected the south and delivered a speech on 24 February after returning to Beijing. The top leadership of the CCP decided to convene the third plenary session of the 12th CCP Central Committee in October 1984 to discuss and decide on several major issues concerning economic system reform.
At that time, the most prominent theoretical issue was the target model for the reform and opening up: whether to continue operating under a planned economy (or a variation thereof—"planned economy as the mainstay, market regulation as a supplement") or to move towards a socialist commodity economy. As early as the early 1980s, economists had proposed "socialist commodity economy" as the theoretical basis for the reform target model. For example, Xue Muqiao stated in his explanation of "Preliminary Opinions on Economic System Reform" that "the socialist economy we are now proposing is a commodity economy where public ownership of the means of production is dominant and multiple economic components coexist; this is a challenge to the dogma that has dominated for the past 30 years." However, this view was opposed by some within the Party. For instance, Yuan Mu, who participated in drafting the report for the 12th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, wrote to Hu Qiaomu, saying, "We must never summarize our economy as a commodity economy," otherwise "it will inevitably weaken the planned economy." Hu Qiaomu forwarded this letter, and thereafter the "socialist commodity economy theory" was criticized. However, by the time the "Decision on Economic System Reform" of the Third Plenary Session of the 12th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party was drafted in 1984, this crucial issue could not be avoided. Historical records show that “the drafting of this document began in June 1984. It took more than a month to come up with an outline, but this outline did not deviate from the original tone of ‘planned economy as the mainstay and market regulation as the supplement’. Hu Yaobang, the General Secretary of the CCP Central Committee at the time, was very dissatisfied with this, so he readjusted the drafting team of the document.”
In June 1984, the central leadership proposed: "What is needed now is bold exploration." Therefore, before the Third Plenary Session of the Twelfth CCP Central Committee made a decision on economic system reform, it was necessary for all sectors of society, including young and middle-aged economists, to "boldly explore" and offer suggestions to the central government. Since the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh CCP Central Committee, with the development of the ideological liberation movement, a group of young and middle-aged economists have become active. At that time, there were three main teams of economic scientists: first, young teachers and graduate students in colleges and universities; second, young research teams of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and local academies of social sciences; and third, young researchers from relevant research institutions of the central and state ministries in Beijing, as well as research organizations affiliated with relevant ministries and having a non-governmental nature (such as the " China Rural Development Problems Research Group ", abbreviated as "Agricultural Development Group"). In addition, there were many young and middle-aged people in the private sector who were concerned about reform.
These economic scientists dared to think and speak out, and put forward many valuable insights. For example, at the end of 1979, young scholars Zhu Jiaming, Wang Qishan, Weng Yongxi, and Huang Jiangnan from Beijing were received by Premier Zhao Ziyang of the State Council to listen to their opinions on reform and opening up. This was the first "dialogue between the old and the young," and the participants also included cadres of the State Council in charge of economic work. After that, the articles published by these four young people mainly included “The difficulties, decision-making choices and short-term prospects of China’s national economy at present” (published on December 2, 1980, in the No. 12 issue of the “Briefing of the First National Academic Conference of the China Future Research Association”), “Some views on the current economic situation and the adjustment of the national economy in China” (published on January 10, 1981, in the No. 1 issue of “Internal Manuscripts” edited by the editorial office of the Red Flag Magazine (total No. 47)), “Some views on the problems of several stages of China’s economic adjustment and reform” (April 1981), “A preliminary exploration of the economic development model of Guangdong Province” (August 1981), “Some views on the problems of China’s agricultural development strategy” (November 1981 issue of “Economic Research”), and “Some views on the current problems of China’s national economy” (January 1982), etc. In November 1983, an article titled "Standing on Solid Ground: An Introduction to the Research and Exploration of Four Young Comrades" was published in the magazine under the pseudonym "Xin Han". This was the first time that the media referred to them as the "Four Gentlemen".
In addition, young economists in Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi and other places were also very active. All of these provided the ideological and organizational foundation for the convening of the Moganshan Conference.
Preparation The Moganshan Conference was initiated by young and middle-aged economists, hosted by news organizations and local research institutions, and attended and supported by personnel from the central and state departments. The central topic was "Urban economic system reform". The name "Academic Symposium of Young and Middle-aged Economic Scientists" and the meeting place Moganshan were initially proposed in February 1984 by Zhu Jiaming of the State Council's Technical Economic Research Center, Liu Youcheng of the Zhejiang Provincial Economic Research Center, Huang Jiangnan of the Institute of Industrial Economics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and Sun Haohui in Hangzhou, Zhejiang. After returning to Beijing, Zhu Jiaming and Huang Jiangnan discussed and obtained support from Zhang Gang of the Economic Weekly and Wang Qishan of the Rural Policy Research Office of the Secretariat of the CCP Central Committee. The Rural Policy Research Office of the Secretariat of the CCP Central Committee supported the conference funding.
One day in early summer of 1984, Zhu Jiaming, Huang Jiangnan, and Zhang Gang went to the Institute of Economics of Nankai University in Tianjin for academic exchange and met with graduate students. Researchers Li Luoli, Du Xia, Jin Yanshi, Chang Xiuzhe and others from the institute came forward to talk. During the discussion, Zhu Jiaming and others hoped for a gathering of young and middle-aged people, which was agreed upon by the institute staff. Later, on the train back to Beijing from Tianjin, Zhu Jiaming and others formed a clearer idea and drafted materials on holding a "Conference of Young Economic Scientists".
At that time, it was difficult for young and middle-aged economists to organize this national academic conference. Therefore, it was organized by central news organizations and local research institutions. The Economic Daily, Economic Weekly, China National Radio, World Economic Herald, China Youth Daily, China Youth, China Village and Town Industry Information News, Economic Efficiency News, Zhejiang Academy of Social Sciences, Zhejiang Economic Research Center and other units participated as co-organizers.
The meeting established a preparatory working group. The group leader was Zhang Gang, the deputy group leaders were Xu Jingan ( State Commission for Restructuring the Economic System) and Huang Jiangnan, and the members were Lu Jian ( Office of the Central Leading Group for Financial and Economic Affairs ), Zhou Qiren ( Research Group on Rural Development Issues in China ), Gao Shangang (Economic Daily ), Cui Weide (China Youth Magazine ), Lu Weiwei (China Youth Daily), Zhu Xingqing ( World Economic Herald ), Zhou Ping (China National Radio), Liu Youcheng, Wang Xiaolu (Chinese Social Sciences Magazine), Sun Xiangjian ( State Economic Commission Finance and Trade Bureau), Hu Shiying (Self-Study Magazine), Zhou Xiaochuan ( Tsinghua University ), and Lu Mai ( Beijing Economic College ).
On June 12, 1984, the Economic Daily, under the leadership of its editor-in-chief An Gang and deputy editor-in-chief Ding Wang, published a message entitled “This newspaper and five other units will hold a symposium on economics for young and middle-aged people, and widely solicit papers and invite selected people to attend as official representatives”, stating that “a symposium on economics for young and middle-aged people will be held in Zhejiang Province in early September. The central topic of discussion is the major theoretical and practical issues in China’s economic system reform. Starting from mid-September, papers will be widely solicited from young and middle-aged economic scientists across the country. Selected papers will be invited to attend the meeting as official representatives.” This call for papers was “selecting people based on their papers”, and it was proposed that “relationships, academic qualifications, professional titles, professions, and reputations should not be considered.” From June 12 to August 15, the conference organizing committee received more than 1,300 papers from all over the country. The authors of the papers included both professional researchers and amateur researchers working at the grassroots level.