Today, I’ve been pondering this question: Is what’s yours truly the best?
From an economic standpoint, most Chinese people would undoubtedly agree that what’s yours is the best. Otherwise, why would we have moved away from the era of communal living?
The household responsibility system is indeed remarkable, but it also brought about a significant downside: the lack of guaranteed fairness!
The reason why most Chinese people believe that what’s theirs is the best is primarily because, during the era of communal living, order was maintained solely through spiritual motivation and class struggle. Initially, this model was successful. After several five-year plans, China did improve significantly, but the fundamental issues were not resolved. This eventually led to the Cultural Revolution, a period that remains incomprehensible to later generations. Of course, many attribute this to individual, systemic, or ideological issues. I believe it’s none of these. It’s a clear and serious issue of legal thinking. The root cause lies in the absence of legal thinking, leading to lawlessness, which rendered the societal systems of fairness and efficiency weak and ineffective.