“I just came back from the United States.”

In an office of the Academy of Social Sciences, Professor Gao Lei said to the two foreign journalists in front of him with a reserved attitude.

Gao Lei, who is already 60 years old, is in good spirits and well-dressed. His shiny hair is mixed with some silver threads, but he is showing an academic elite style.

In the mid-1980s, Gao Lei became famous for his proposal of the theory of international cooperation. Later, this theory was unanimously questioned by the academic and business circles, believing that the complete grafting of the economy of a country with a population of more than one billion into the world economic chain is not only not conducive to the country's economic security, but also the world economy cannot bear it. Later, some central leaders criticized this theory in internal conversations, and Gao Lei fell into a period of silence for nearly ten years.

During this period, Gao Lei's position in the Academy of Social Sciences was not affected, and his academic research and international exchanges were still smooth. Given that it was difficult to find opportunities to speak out in China, Gao Lei began to seek to express his views in international journals and international conferences, and gradually received attention, achieving the effect of "flowering in the wall and fragrance outside the wall".

By the late 1990s, Gao Lei had made a huge reputation in the international academic community. Several foreign institutions awarded him a series of titles, such as "the most influential economist in the developing country in the 20th century", "the nomination of 100 people in development economics", "the top 10 thinkers of the University of Chicago in the year", "the tenth honorary professor at Clayden University", etc.

With the title, research funds will follow. Several academic foundations in Europe and the United States have rushed to provide him with research funds to help him conduct academic research in China. While other scholars were struggling to spend money on social science funds worth tens of thousands of yuan in China, Gao Lei’s account had too much US dollars to spend.

In Chinese academic institutions, titles and funds are hard currency, especially if the title you get is awarded from abroad, which is much more valuable than any honor in China. Many research institutions hope that Gao Lei can go to them to hang a name so that they can claim that they have a level of scholars in their institutions. Dozens of domestic universities have sent Gao Lei letters to him and hired him as a visiting professor. He only needs to give lectures once a year to receive tens of thousands of yuan in visiting professor subsidies.

Gao Lei's doctoral quota has also become a hot spot, because studying for Gao Lei's doctoral degree can get high allowances from his project funds, and have the opportunity to go abroad to attend academic conferences. All the air tickets are sponsored by foreign foundations. If you attend academic conferences more often, you will be able to meet foreign academic experts. At that time, you will be easier to apply to be a visiting scholar or postdoctoral fellow or something abroad.

In short, Gao Lei today is far from comparable to yesterday. Although Gao Lei was a sensational figure in China 20 years ago, he could not escape the rustic atmosphere. He had to be careful when speaking and doing things to avoid contradicting national policies. Today, Gao Lei has been reborn and evolved into an international scholar. Opening his mouth and shutting up all the universal values ​​of neoliberalism. Everything in China is so rustic that he needs to be whipped hard...

"I attended the New Institutional Economics Annual Meeting in the United States, hosted by the University of California, and published my latest research results at the meeting. I believe that the main reason for China's economic backwardness lies in the system. Although our country had put forward the slogan of building a market economy more than ten years ago, today, our country's system still regulates the economic system. The government plays an overly important role in the economy and restricts economic development. Many government officials, including some officials with high positions, mistakenly believe that technology can determine everything, and ignores that systems are the basic conditions for technological development and innovation."

Gao Lei spoke fluently in English and talked to the two European journalists.

"Professor Gao, you said that China's system is still a regulatory economic system. Can you give us some relatively recent examples?" asked a reporter named Kantz.

"There are many examples like this." Gao Lei said, "Take the first set of major equipment promotion policies recently launched by the China Development and Reform Commission, this is a complete product of a planned economy."

"We have also heard of this policy, but we don't know the details of the policy. Professor Gao, have you personally participated in the formulation of this policy?" asked another reporter named Bernstein.

Gao Lei said: "I did not directly participate in the formulation of this policy because I had a negative attitude towards such a policy from the beginning. In order to show democracy in decision-making, the State Property Insurance Company specially sent someone to solicit my opinions. I raised ten questions, believing that this policy is completely contrary to the principle of market economy and also violates China's commitment when joining the WTO Agreement. Once such a policy is introduced, it will reverse China's reform and opening up for more than ten years and turn China's WTO accession to the WTO into vanish."

Uh..., can we not be so exaggerated? Both reporters couldn't stand it anymore. The alarmist statement was obviously our reporter's ability to be a good person. You can say this way, it's okay.

Kantz and Bernstein contacted Gao Lei through a European foundation. In name, it was an ordinary interview, but in fact, they hoped that Gao Lei would criticize the first set of policies so that European media could use the Chinese people's own opinions to question the Chinese government's policies, thereby achieving the effect of putting pressure on the Chinese government. Regarding the purpose of this interview, the foundation had already clearly stated when contacting Gao Lei that the Q&A between Gao Lei and reporters is to a certain extent acting according to the script.

Gao Lei claimed in countless academic occasions that he was a "public intellectual" and a so-called "independent scholar" and that his academic views would not be influenced by the government. This tag has won wide praise in the emerging Internet world. Countless netizens who use the word "citizen" as their avatars have become his fans. He can win hundreds of thousands of clicks and thousands of forwardings by posting a blog.

But his family knows his own affairs, and Gao Lei is very clear that his "independence" is only relative to the Chinese government. He will never dare to be independent of foreign financial owners. Instead, he must speak and do things according to the financial owner's instructions, otherwise others can give him everything and take back everything he has.

The International Foundation influences the thoughts of scholars, of course, not by administrative orders, but cleverly gives certain hints when applying for the fund. For example, if your academic viewpoint believes that the sun is round, the foundation will turn you away. On the contrary, if you think that the sun is square, you can easily win the favor of the foundation. With money, you can recruit disciples, participate in various academic seminars, and repeat the view that the sun is square at the meeting.

When more and more people in an academic circle say that the sun is square, then the "Japanese yen school" will be ridiculed as being outdated, and excellent students will not join his disciples. The "Japanese yen school" will flourish until scholars themselves believe that the sun is square, and what they see in their eyes is nothing more than illusions.

Gao Lei's undergraduate and graduate education was completed in China, and in the early 1980s, he studied very orthodox Soviet political economy, so he initially believed in planned economic theory. He proposed the theory of international cooperation, but did not deviate from the thinking model of planned economy. He emphasized that the state guides industries to connect with the international community and form an international cooperation chain. In this process, the role of the government is very important, and Gao Lei did not deny this point.

After his theory was criticized, Gao Lei tried to turn to Western theory. At this time, the Western economics community put forward the slogan of "return to Smith", that is, to return to the completely free market economy model advocated by Adam Smith, and reject all government intervention. Gao Lei wrote some articles on this aspect, which indeed received praise from Western scholars. In this case, he was out of control and devoted himself to the research of neoliberal theory. Of course, it was actually mainly to pick up the wisdom of Western scholars, and then combine some Chinese affairs to develop it.

Western scholars do not understand the affairs of developing countries, so articles studying developing countries are often easily attracting attention. In your article, you say that only 300,000 people in China can afford Coke, and Westerners feel that they have finally discovered a scholar with conscience who has revealed such a truth. If it weren't for his disclosure, everyone would have thought that Chinese people could really have enough food.

Gao Lei became famous and profitable by writing such articles. He gradually regarded the articles he wrote as real and showed off on various occasions. Some of his speeches were recorded in text and circulated on the Internet. He was always titled "Someone finally told the truth", "You must know Chinese secrets", "If you are Chinese, just turn them around", and his identity as a professor can always make some people believe it.

Some scholars have carefully studied Gao Lei's secret of success and found that as long as they dare to talk nonsense, they can become famous in today's world. So they have followed suit, one by one and said more evilly than the other. Gao Lei sometimes reads the articles published by these scholars. When he found that the views of other scholars were also consistent with him, he believed that what he said was true...

This is called Zhuang Zhou dreaming of butterflies. After dreaming about it, he can no longer figure out whether he is Zhuang Zhou or a butterfly.

Just now, Gao Lei told two Western reporters that the introduction of the first set of policies was a huge regression in reform. He did not deliberately exaggerate it, but thought so in his heart. Over the years, he has become accustomed to "discovering" signs of reform regression from any clues, and every time it is bound to be a huge regression, and if he is not careful, he will collapse completely. He has written many articles to predict the coming crisis. Although it has not been fulfilled every time, this does not prevent countless people from calling him "the most sober economist."
Chapter completed!