Table Of Content29
RESEARCH
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INSTITUTE OF EAST ASIAN STUDIES
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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA • BERKELEY
CENTER FOR CHINESE STUDIES
I ·. Chen Yun and the
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1 Chinese Political
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David M. Bachman
INSTITUTE OF EAST ASIAN STUDIES
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY
The Institute of East Asian Studies was established at the University of California,
Berkeley, in the fall of 1978 to promote research and teaching on the cultures and
societies of China, Japan, and Korea. It amalgamates the following research and instruc
tional centers and programs: Center for Chinese Studies, Center for Japanese Studies,
Center for Korean Studies, Group in Asian Studies, and the East Asian National
Resource Center, funded by the Department of Education.
INSTITUTE OF EAST ASIAN STUDIES
Director: Robert A. Scalapino
Associate Director: John C. Jamieson
Assistant Director: Ernest J. Notar
Executive Committee: Joyce K. Kallgren
Herbert P. Phillips
John C. Jamieson
Irwin Scheiner
Michael C. Rogers
Chalmers Johnson
Robert Bellah
Frederic Wakeman, Jr.
CENTER FOR CHINESE STUDIES
Chair: Joyce K. Kallgren
CENTER FOR JAPANESE STUDIES
Chair: Irwin Scheiner
CENTER FOR KOREAN STUDIES
Chair: Michael C. Rogers
GROUP IN ASIAN STUDIES
Chair: Lowell Dittmer
EAST ASIAN NATIONAL RESOURCE CENTER
Chair: John C. Jamieson
Cover design by Wolfgang Lederer
Art by Sei-Kwan Sohn
Cover colophon by Shih-hsiang Chen
Chen Yun and the Chinese Political
System
A publication of the
Institute of East Asian Studies
University of California
Berkeley, California 94720
The China Research Monograph series is one of several publications series
sponsored by the Institute of East Asian Studies in conjunction with its three
constituent units-the Center for Chinese Studies, the Center for Japanese
Studies, and the Center for Korean Studies. The others include the Korea
Research Monograph series, the Japan Research Monograph series, and the
Research Papers and Policy Studies series. The Institute sponsors also a Faculty
Reprint series.
Correspondence may be sent to:
Ms. Joanne Sandstrom, Editor
Institute of East Asian Studies
University of California
Berkeley, California 94 720
29
CHINA RESEARCH MONOGRAPH
cJt
INSTITUTE OF EAST ASIAN STUDIES
ccs
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA • BERKELEY
CENTER FOR CHINESE STUDIES
Chen Yun and the
Chinese Political
System
David M. Bachman
Although the Institute of East Asian Studies is responsible for the selection and
acceptance of manuscripts in this series, responsibility for the opinions expressed
and for the accuracy of statements rests with their authors.
Copyright © 1985 by the Regents of the University of California
ISBN 0-912966-80-7
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 85-80729
Printed in the United States of America
Contents
Acknowledgements ...................................................................................... vii
Introduction ............................................................................................... viii
I. Chen Yun, 1905-1949 ............................................................................. 1
II. Chen Yun, 1949-1984 ......................................................................... 27
III. The Economic Thought of Chen Yun ................................................. 93
IV. Chen Yun and Chinese Politics ......................................................... 109
V. Chen Yun, Deng Xiaoping, and Zhao Ziyang
on China's Economic Future ............................................................... 149
Appendix ................................................................................................... 165
David M. Bachman is Assistant Professor of Politics at Princeton
University. He received his B.A. from Swarthmore College in 1975 and
the M.A. (1977) and Ph.D. (1984) from Stanford University. He has
been a Post-doctoral Fellow at the Center for Chinese Studies, Univer
sity of California, Berkeley, and acting Assistant Professor of Political
Science and Research Fellow of the Northeast Asia-United States
Forum on International Policy at Stanford University.
Acknowledgments
Many individuals have contributed to the development of this
monograph. First, I would like to thank Lowell Dittmer and Joyce
Kallgren, chairpersons of the Center for Chinese Studies, University of
California, Berkeley, for encouraging me to turn my writings on Chen
Yun into a Center monograph.
Some of the research for this monograph was undertaken at the
Center for Chinese Studies, University of California, Berkeley and the
East Asian Institute of Columbia University, two extremely congenial
places to work.
Encouragement, support, and useful comments on earlier drafts of
this work were provided by Nina Halpern, Carol Lee Hamrin, Nicholas
Lardy, Barry Naughton, and Andrew Walder. Many thanks to all of them.
A number of Chinese friends greatly contributed to my
understanding of Chen Yun.
Kenneth Lieberthal, Harry Harding, and Ann Fenwick improved this
monograph in ways too numerous to mention. Without their help, this
work would never have made it to publication.
One other person must be acknowledged; that is, of course, Chen
Yun.
Introduction
Thirty-one years of practice has proved that Comrade Chen Yun's
opinions are in conformity with China's national conditions. If we act
according to his opinions, we can do our economic work well. In the
past, we sometimes put his opinions aside and even acted contrary to
them and suffered a great deal.1
Chen Yun is one of the giants of the Chinese Communist
movement. He has been a member of the Central Committee of the
Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1931 to the present, a length of
time unmatched by any other Party member. His more than forty years
on the Politburo has been exceeded only by Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, and
Zhu De. From 1954 to 1962, Chen was the fifth-ranking member of the
Party, and one of Mao's "close comrades in arms." Since the landmark
Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee in December
1978, Chen's prestige and influence has been second only to Deng
Xiaoping's. 2
Since the People's Republic of China (PRC) was established in
1949, Chen Yun's career has been inextricably connected with economic
affairs. Until the Great Leap Forward in 1958, he was China's economic
czar. Chen was also the first top leader to champion economic reform in
China. His calls in the mid-l 950s to move away from both the Soviet
model of economic development and the then nascent Maoist model of
development have been highly influential even in recent years, when they
1 Deng Liqun, "Seriously Study Chen Yun's Economic Theories," in Foreign Broadcast
Information Service, Daily Report, China [hereafter FBIS], July 27, 1981, K-15.
2 On Chen's rank from 1954-1962, see American Consulate-General, Hong Kong,
Current Background, No. 290 (September 5, 1954), p. 24, where Chen is listed, along with
Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai, and Zhu De as Mao's close comrade in arms. The First Plenum of
the Eighth Central Committee in September 1956 formalized this ranking. See Documents of
the Eighth Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, September 1956 to April 1969, Vol.
1 (Hong Kong: Union Research Institute, 1971), pp. 103-104. After 1962, Chen lost power,
but he did not formally lose his number 5 spot until 1966. On Chen's prestige today, see
Fox Butterfield, China: Alive in the Bitter Sea (New York: Times Books, 1982), p. 219.
