Thoughts On The Path Of Economic Development Of Transitional Econmies

Among the 28 transitional economies, China and Poland have opted for different paths that have their distinct features. This paper makes a comparative study of the objective model, path selection, performance of operation, common difficult problems and future development trend of China and Poland.First of all, the paper details the essential differences between the paths taken by China and Poland:(1) The transitional objectives are diametrically opposed: Economically, Poland has abandoned the road to socialism and opted for market economy; China has persisted in the socialist road with distinct Chinese characteristics and boldly tried a socialist market economic system. Politically, Poland advocates for "multi-party parliamentary democratic system to create a democratic, fair, free and equal society". China stresses "democratic politics of socialism with Chinese characteristics and refuses the multi-party parliamentary system characteristic of western countries."(2) The orientations of reform of the ownership system are different. Poland advocates that the first and foremost task of transition to a market economy based on private ownership is to change the ownership structure with public ownership in the dominant position and take the privatization of state-owned enterprises as the main way of the reform of the ownership system. China stresses the retaining of the dominant position of the public ownership, with the co-development of other economic sectors and advocates for the access to the market by state-owned, collective and other sectors of the economy and, through competition on an equal footing, display the leading role of state-owned enterprises and establish a modern enterprise system.(3) The ways of transition are different. Poland, in general, has adopted the drastic "Shock Therapy", without ruling out the incremental reform stage by stage and in local areas. China has, basically, opted for incremental way of transitionor a way of "groping for stone in crossing a river", meaning, "move carefully and steadily", and, according to the actual progress of reform, accelerate the pace of reform.(4) The paths of transition are different. Poland took the path heralded by political transition or a path of synchronized political and economic transition. China's political reform is relatively lagging behind economic transition. But in recent years, it has accelerated the pace of political structural reform and there are signs of further acceleration.The paper then goes on to evaluate the transitional performances of the two countries from different angles such as in the basic aspects of the national economy and the quantitative progress of marketization. It illustrates with data and facts that, although China and Poland have taken, essentially, different roads of transition, both have shown remarkable performances, excelled themselves among transitional economies. As both the biggest developing country and the biggest transitional economy, China enjoys a unique position. China has bid farewell to shortage economy and the people's living standards have reached a comfortable level. The brilliant achievements in the initial establishment of a socialist market economy have aroused worldwide attention and appreciation. Among the Eastern European countries and the former Soviet Union, Poland is the first to adopt the drastic way of transition to a market economy and it is, therefore, of typical importance. Comparing with other Eastern European countries, Poland is also the first to emerge out of the bottom to rise into the orbit of stable growth. Indices show that Poland has basically edged into the market economies, for which it has been honored as an "eagle taking off in Europe".By way of comparative study, the paper arrives at the following conclusion: It is feasible for China to take the socialist road with Chinese characteristics and establish a socialist market economy and the theory of compatibility of socialism and market economy is correct and is full of vitality. For Poland, abandoning the...