[Epoch Times June 26, 2021](Epoch Times reporter Wen Ting Hong Kong Comprehensive Report) The Chinese Communist Party recently issued a document to implement the pilot project of “Supply and Marketing Cooperatives” starting in July, and it is expected to complete the target within two years. The “Supply and Marketing Cooperative” was a product of the planned economy in the Mao era of the Communist Party of China and a symbol of the lack of materials. This approach of the CCP has aroused concerns from the outside world.
CCTV.com reported on June 24 that the China National Supply and Marketing Cooperatives, the Central Agricultural Office, the Central Bank, and the China Banking Regulatory Commission have jointly issued a document recently to deepen the comprehensive reform of supply and marketing cooperatives.
The opinion puts forward that by the end of June 2023, a number of pilot units of the “trinity” will be built with exemplary and leading roles to pave the way for the comprehensive promotion of the “trinity” in rural China.
The pilot work will officially begin next month and will last for two years. The Chinese Communist Party officially plans to select several provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) in Northeast, North, East, Central, South, Northwest, and Southwest to conduct pilot economic model of “production, supply and marketing, credit, and “three in one””.
At present, this document has been issued to supply and marketing cooperatives in various parts of China in the form of a red-head document, requiring them to implement and promote it.
Qin Peng, a commentator who has in-depth observation of China’s economy, technology, and current affairs, told The Epoch Times that the “triad” economic model proposed by the Chinese Communist Party is different from the “supply and marketing cooperative” model of the Mao Zedong era. In the past, all social resources were different. They are state-owned assets. From the General Supply and Marketing Cooperative to the towns and villages, they are all state-owned. Now there is a shareholding system, an equity system, etc., but there is no difference in essence. The government strengthens the control of social resources.
“Supply and Marketing Cooperatives” are a product of China’s planned economy period and a symbol of lack of materials. The planned economy was implemented after the establishment of the Communist Party of China in 1949. The planned economy is also known as the command economy. All resource allocation, including what to produce and how much to produce, are determined by the government, and the people live according to the materials allocated by the government.
In the era of planned economy, from 1959 to 1961, there was a three-year famine throughout China. Because there is no food to eat, the phenomenon of eating grass and bark is widespread throughout the country. Xinhua News Agency senior reporter Yang Jisheng concluded in his book “Tombstone” that from 1958 to 1962, a total of 36 million Chinese died of famine.
The main reason for the great famine was the CCP’s large-scale establishment of “people’s communes,” “cooperatives,” and “big canteens.” For the so-called goal of “catching up with the United Kingdom and surpassing the United States,” the country was smelting iron and steel. jin”. Forcing farmers to turn over almost all production materials and grains to the public.
The CCP blamed the non-existent “natural disasters” for the past three years.
The planned economy has caused China to fall into trouble. In 1979, the CCP first put forward the argument that planned economy and market economy are not contradictory.
In 1993, the CCP set out the basic framework of the “socialist market economy” system. At this point, the planned economy implemented by the Mao dynasty became history.
However, in 2012, the supply and marketing cooperative was again mentioned by the Chinese Communist Party. After the outbreak of the Sino-US trade war in 2018, the supply and marketing cooperative system was put on the agenda.
In October 2019, the All-China Federation of Supply and Marketing Cooperatives published a “Regulations on Supply and Marketing Cooperatives (Draft for Comment)” to the public, but it caused a backlash in public opinion and was criticized as “the zombie resurrection of the planned economy.”
On September 24, 2020, Xinhuanet published Xi Jinping’s speech on the work of supply and marketing cooperatives. Xi Jinping said that the supply and marketing cooperatives have a long history and demand that the supply and marketing cooperatives continue to be run well to consolidate the Communist Party’s ruling foundation in rural China.
Dr. Qin Peng, a senior economic analyst on China issues and an expert on Sino-US issues, believes that the resurrection of zombies in supply and marketing cooperatives is directly related to the current situation of China’s economy. The CCP has felt the economic and political crisis and tried to solve the problem.
Since the start of the Sino-US trade war, China’s economy has fallen sharply, foreign capital has withdrawn one after another, and supply chains have shifted to Southeast Asia and other countries. At the beginning of 2020, the CCP virus outbreak broke out in Wuhan again and spread globally. China’s economy was hit hard again. Many private enterprises, shops, and factories closed down, the number of unemployed people increased, and the purchasing power of the people dropped significantly.
Against this backdrop, the CCP has launched an economic model based on “internal circulation”. On May 23, 2020, during the two sessions of the Chinese Communist Party, Xi Jinping stated at a CPPCC meeting that “meeting domestic demand should be the starting point and end point of development… Gradually form a domestic and international double cycle that promotes each other. New development pattern”.
The “internal circulation” and “supply and marketing cooperatives” have caused concerns about whether China will return to the Mao Zedong era and implement “closed and closed doors”.
Xie Tian, a professor at the Aiken School of Business at the University of South Carolina in the United States, said that the CCP is now politically to the left, and many people say that it will restore the planned economic system and crack down on private enterprises. The General Supply and Marketing Cooperative covers 95% of the grassroots, rural areas, and towns. If the CCP regresses to a planned economy, the commodity distribution cooperative will be its most important link.
Feng Chongyi, an expert on China issues at the University of Technology Sydney, believes that the CCP has no way to go. “It’s now recreating the supply and marketing cooperative as if it has buried a zombie, which has been buried for decades, and dug it out to save the economy. One of the methods. Because there are no tricks, I think about these crooked tricks.”
As early as two years ago, in an interview with Epoch Times, Dr. Songyun Li of Economics stated that the CCP is aware that China’s economy is facing a crisis and may return to the extreme shortage of materials in the 1950s and 1960s. And the distribution of supplies, maybe there will be food stamps.”
Food stamps were the food ration certificates used during China’s planned economy from 1955 to 1993. Under the background of unified purchase and marketing, the individual survival of urban residents was completely dependent on these tickets, especially in the early 1960s when the great famine occurred. In addition to food stamps, there are meat tickets, oil tickets, egg tickets, sugar tickets, cloth tickets, coal tickets, soap tickets, furniture tickets, etc. At that time, the food stamps mainly entered the circulation field, and even had the function of currency.
Qin Peng told The Epoch Times that the CCP now uses big data to supervise the people, and all economic activities are linked to credit. Credit is actually a kind of food stamp in disguise. And this kind of credit must include both the usual international financial credit and the social credit of the CCP’s unique stability maintenance and political control. If you do not obey, say or do things that the CCP does not want to hear or see, the CCP will reduce your credit, you may not be able to buy things, or your money will be frozen.
Regarding the CCP’s re-establishment of “supply and marketing cooperatives,” many overseas Chinese recalled their personal experiences in the era of “supply and marketing cooperatives” on Twitter, and expressed anxiously, “It seems that we are really going to eat grass” and “everything is back before reform and opening up” .
Just as the CCP launched the pilot supply and marketing cooperatives, on June 18, the New Office of the CCP held a press conference. Zhai Jianglin, chief engineer of the State Bureau of Grain and Material Reserves, said that China’s food security situation is generally good, but food supply and demand are in a tight balance. status. Tight balance means that supply and demand are roughly balanced in the short term, but there is not much surplus, which does not guarantee sufficient supply at all times. @
Editor in charge: Shao Yi
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