Dong's Economic Thought

As a famous agricultural economist in the Republic of China, Dong believed that agriculture was of special importance in the process of industrialization in China, and put forward a series of plans to revitalize agriculture in China. First of all, he resolutely maintained the relations of production in the rural areas of the old society, put forward the theory of "the superiority of tenant farmers" and "the theory that China has no feudalism", opposed any form of land reform, and advocated retaining private ownership of land. Secondly, different from the conservative view of retaining the traditional relations of production mentioned above, he advocated a fundamental change in the direction of agricultural production in China, developing modern enterprise-oriented agriculture with internationalization, marketization and industrialization, producing high value-added agricultural products to import food, and gradually replacing the traditional self-sufficient food agriculture with profit-making economic agriculture. Thirdly, in view of the serious soil erosion and frequent disasters, he first put forward the idea of returning farmland to forests and grasslands in China in 1936. Fourth, in order to maintain the necessary per capita arable land, he advocated resolutely controlling the population. As a representative of physiocracy and the thought of maintaining private ownership of land in the Republic of China, his thought has important value in the history of thought. His theories of for-profit agriculture, soil and water conservation, family planning, etc. are also enlightening to today's research on agriculture, countryside and farmers. In the process of modernization characterized by industrialization, the position and role of traditional agriculture have been challenged. Dong Yisheng, who was born in agriculture, has repeatedly expounded the role of agriculture in China's modernization process, aiming at revitalizing agriculture. He was the representative of China's thought of "attaching importance to agriculture" in the Republic of China.

Dong believes that China has a comparative advantage in developing agriculture. To revitalize China's economy and establish an ideal agricultural country in East Asia, agriculture should be revitalized. In the process of understanding the role of agriculture and industry in modernization, his thoughts are inconsistent. At first, he thought that China should be based on agriculture and should not be industrialized. Then it thinks that the establishment of agricultural country and industrial country go hand in hand. Only by developing cities and industry and commerce can we save the countryside, and China must be industrialized. Then realize that agriculture has many weaknesses compared with industry, but the development of industry can not be separated from agriculture; Finally, the development strategy of "industry should keep up with people and agriculture should catch up with people" is put forward. This idea can be said to reflect the process of modern physiocratic thought from attack and confrontation to defense and counterattack.

From the end of 1923 to the spring of 1924, Dong published three series of articles-On China's Inappropriate Industrialization, On the Founding of China and On China's Inappropriate Exploitation of Rich Resources with Foreign Capital, advocating "Building the Country by Agriculture" and opposing China's industrialization. In these three series of articles, Dong opposed the development of agriculture and industry mainly from the crisis of capitalist industrial countries in the world and the comparative advantage of China in developing agriculture. He criticized the idea of "heavy industry on cheap agriculture", but adopted the method of "heavy industry on cheap agriculture" and returned to the ideological tradition of "emphasizing the capital and restraining the end" in ancient China. Its main argument is obviously not in line with the trend of modern industrialization, and it has been criticized by Yang Quan, Yun and others, but its view of opposing foreign capital to develop rich resources has been partially affirmed by Yun.

After Dong Liumei's return, he gradually realized that the development of agriculture and industrialization is not antagonistic, but has the function of promoting each other.

"Ideal Agricultural Country in East Asia" puts forward that a country can be both an agricultural country and an industrial country, and there is no contradiction between building an agricultural country and revitalizing industry. He also pointed out: "For-profit agriculture is basically the same as industry, and the only difference is the type of production. Our problem now is how to turn China's agriculture from a family-owned production enterprise that only provides a livelihood into a favorable production enterprise and turn our farmers into industrialists. " This further points out that agriculture itself should be industrialized and industrialized. In On Reviving the Countryside, Dong realized that rural relief should not be confined to rural areas, but should start with the development of urban industry and commerce. Industrial and commercial development has at least two benefits for farmers: first, it can raise the price of agricultural products; Second, it can create employment opportunities and absorb rural surplus population. And put forward the conclusion that the development of urban industry and commerce is the premise of agricultural modernization.

Dong admits that the development of industry and commerce can promote agriculture, but compared with industry, the development of agriculture has its own characteristics and weaknesses, such as inconvenient large-scale operation, relying on the weather to eat, strong seasonality, and prominent diminishing benefits. But agriculture is the foundation of industry and commerce, the source of food, and it is related to the survival of mankind, and all countries attach importance to it. China "builds the country by agriculture", and agriculture is the foundation of the country. "China's agriculture, because of its economic importance, also has a lot to do with the country's political and social order. Relieving China's uneasiness is not to revitalize agriculture and solve farmers' economy and life, but to be self-sufficient. " It is recognized that Dong's weak agriculture is particularly important to China's economic development and social stability, which must be paid attention to.

In Agriculture and National Movement, Dong criticized industrialists for not knowing and understanding the importance of agriculture, which plays a very important role in the process of national modernization: "First, we must improve people's living standards, improve people's nutrition and improve people's physique and health. This is entirely an agricultural problem. Second, we should develop industry. To develop industry, we must first have rich and excellent raw materials, and the supply of raw materials is also an agricultural matter. The importance of agriculture to the country will never be reduced by industrialization or modernization, but will only be strengthened. "

In "Industry Should Keep Up with People and Agriculture Should Catch Up with People", Dong believes that in the industrialization strategy, agriculture should not only be ignored, but also be paid special attention to and managed as a national dominant industry. In order to build an agricultural power, besides our efforts in agriculture, we also need the help of industry. Industry can catch up with people, and agriculture can catch up with people. It is not an agricultural country without construction and industry, but a country where industry is not inferior to others and agriculture is superior to others. The above thought is similar to Yang Kaidao's theory of "agricultural attack and industrial defense". It reflects the physiocrats' counterattack against heavy industry.

From the 1920s to the 1940s, Dong constantly expounded the importance of agriculture, from "China is not suitable for industrialization" to "a big agricultural country in East Asia", and then to "industry should keep up with people and agriculture should catch up with people". His understanding of the relationship between agriculture and industry is constantly changing, but the thought of the same strain is that China has comparative advantages in developing agriculture and should establish a modern agricultural power. He himself regards the development of agriculture in China as his lifelong goal. In the first half of the 20th century, many political forces, including the Kuomintang and the * * * production party, advocated some form of land reform, but Dong explicitly opposed any form of land reform. He opposed both the Kuomintang government's "rent reduction of 25%" and the * * * production party's equal share of land. In the process of opposing the policies of the two parties, the theory of "China has no feudalism" was put forward.

On sun yat-sen's land price rising and returning to the people. Dong thinks: If the land price rises for the public, should the government compensate for the land price decline? "The result of human's actual actions can not be influenced by nature or society." The quality of farmers' harvest and the amount of money made by businessmen are closely related to the cooperation between nature and social environment in addition to their own efforts. Are these extra incomes confiscated? "Thus, the fair account in the world is not clear. If you want to settle only on the land, or only at the end of its price increase, you will feel further away from fairness. " .

Regarding the propaganda of the Kuomintang government and the partial implementation of the "25% rent reduction", Dong pointed out: "People buy land only as a way of investment, and the land rent they get is only a way of interest. The government has not intervened in other kinds of high-interest investment, but it has detained the interest payment due to investors in cultivated land-this interest payment is not particularly high-and it is fair to deal with different situations. " There is no fair rent stipulated by the government, only a balanced rent determined by market supply and demand. The implementation of "reducing rent by 25%", "this is equivalent to the government controlling the land rent, and it is difficult to control the official rent, just like the interest price." "Social habits, especially economic things, have never been changed or stipulated by a law."

About private ownership of land. Dong believes that Sun Yat-sen's theory holds that the state-owned land is empty, the private ownership of land cannot be shaken and easily changed, and the harm will be even greater, and finally it will return to private ownership. "China agriculture should do a lot. We must concentrate on the use of land, thinking that the country will increase production, and we don't have to spend more energy on land distribution, which will only increase social unrest. Even if the relationship between land distribution and tenancy is not completely without drawbacks, it should be noted that after changing its system, there may be more disadvantages. It is possible to improve their relationship by economic and educational means, but it is impossible to fundamentally overthrow the private ownership of land, ban landlords and eliminate tenant farmers because of choking on food. "

On the average land distribution policy of the Chinese production party. Dong believes that it is neither possible nor fair to distribute land equally. Land is very different from other places. Population migration and life and death changes do not live together. "The gods can't distribute land equally." There are three major unfairness in the average distribution of land. -but land is just a kind of wealth, and it is unfair to distribute only the land of rural landlords evenly, but not the land, real estate, gold and silver items and domestic and foreign deposits of the urban rich; Second, those who are lazy in the countryside eat, drink and gamble, and their families are ruined, but they have to divide a few acres of land bought by hardworking people. How is this fair? Third, land is a kind of wealth. Some people can collect rent and interest by buying land and investing in tangible property. Some people take money to study art, which means investing in intangible property and earning more wages. Both increase income, there is no difference. "Land and property should be divided equally, and intangible property cannot be considered fair if it is not divided equally." It can be seen that Dong does not admit that the rural land system is a feudal exploitation system, and confuses the wealth of the urban industrial and commercial class with the land occupied by landlords, and confuses the land occupied by landlords with the growth of knowledge and skills acquired through learning.

Dong's opposition to any land reform policy is closely related to his "no feudalism in China" and "the superiority of tenant farmers", which is the ideological basis of his policy proposition.

On China's theory of no feudalism. Dong believes that modern eastern European countries are feudal societies, the land belongs to the nobility and the peasants belong to the land, so they need agrarian revolution and peasant liberation. In China, after the Qin Dynasty, land could be bought and sold freely. If you have money, you can be a local tyrant, and being a local tyrant is more common than being a scholar. Farmers, whether yeomen or sharecroppers, are noble people. Therefore, there is no agrarian revolution and peasant liberation in modern eastern European countries that happened in China two thousand years ago in China. The landlords in China are comparable to non-foreign aristocrats. "Except for a few, most of its land comes from the savings of hard-earned money, not feudal fiefs." .

Regarding the "theory of tenant farmers' superiority", Dong believes that there is no factual and theoretical basis for eliminating the tenant farmers' system to increase production. Although the situation varies from place to place with farmers, at least one thing is certain: the land cultivated by tenant farmers is usually not lower than that cultivated by yeomen. "

From 1930 to 1940, Dong's thoughts on land and tenant farmers were mainly aimed at the land policy of the ruling Kuomintang, aiming at maintaining private ownership of land and opposing any change in rural production relations. 1949 Before and after the founding of New China, Dong began to target the China * * * production party. He also wrote to Chairman Mao that he was opposed to land reform, and the letters distributed to Chairman Mao everywhere had a considerable influence. Dong's thought has been unanimously criticized by the ideological circles of New China, who thinks that Dong is a right-wing bourgeois scholar in China and a spokesman for the landlord class.

Dong's remarks against land reform, such as the unequal distribution of land and the fact that the production of yeoman farmers is not necessarily better than that of tenant farmers, were quickly proved wrong in practice by the great success of China's land reform in the early 1950s. On the other hand, Dong is opposed to changing the land system easily, and it makes sense to advocate land use. 1Since the mid-1950s, the constant changes in the land system have brought adverse consequences to agricultural production, which also proves Dong's foresight. The for-profit agriculture advocated by Dong is to oppose China's self-sufficient grain farming for thousands of years and advocate the development of high-priced agricultural products facing the international and domestic markets. As long as you make money, you are not afraid of importing grain. "The way out for agriculture in China is not to make two valleys on the land of one valley, but to make a few dollars on the land of one dollar." It is emphasized that a few yuan and cents can be paid per mu of land, not a few buckets and liters, and that it is emphasized to increase farmers' monetary income, not to increase food production. The uniqueness of his argument lies in opposing rice and wheat, taking grain as the key link, increasing farmers' income and importing grain to solve China's agricultural problems, which shows the contradiction between farmers' getting rich and national food self-sufficiency.

After long-term thinking and practice, Dong proposed a new agricultural policy to solve the rural poverty problem in China by planting high-priced crops, increasing farmers' income and importing grain. The goal of for-profit agriculture is self-sufficient grain planting agriculture. Dong believes that the most difficult and fundamental problems in China's agriculture are: on the one hand, there is a large population and little land, which is limited by land; On the other hand, crops are mainly grains and are subject to self-sufficiency. Growing food in a country with a large population and a small land not only wastes land, but also can't make full use of manpower, so we can only give up subsistence agriculture and adopt profit-making agriculture. In this way, we can overcome the above two restrictions and realize the liberation of agriculture in China.

The core of for-profit agriculture is to emphasize economic benefits, that is, "using fast and cheap transportation equipment, vast market and abundant labor force to obtain the most valuable production in the narrowest land, rather than sticking to the production of food for your own consumption." This is to enable farmers to sell a lot of valuable agricultural products, and if necessary, they would rather buy food. The country must also export a large number of valuable agricultural products and import food when necessary. ""What are valuable agricultural products? In other words, produce more valuable commodities on a certain land, such as silk, milk, fruits, vegetables, flowers, tobacco, tea, sugar cane, cotton, betel nut, ginseng, mint, chrysanthemum, lacquerware, wax and other medicinal and technological plants. The nature of such products is quite different from that of food. Grain crops occupy a large area of the ground, require less manpower, and have little harvest value on a certain ground. In a country with a vast territory and a sparse population, it is most suitable to use animal power and machinery for extensive farming. Therefore, the places that produce and export the most food in the world are Canada, Central America, Australia and Russia. In a country with a narrow land and a dense population, if we specialize in growing grain, we will not only fail to make full use of manpower, but also waste land. These countries should produce all kinds of high-priced goods as much as possible, which is the most favorable in terms of labor and economic value of harvest. An acre of such agricultural products can usually reach several acres or even dozens of acres of grain. "

Profit-making agriculture increases the uncertainty of commodity trading than subsistence agriculture. Can cash crops be sold smoothly and food be purchased safely? It involves two major issues, one is how to sell high-priced crops, and the other is how to ensure food security. In response to the first point, Dong believes that both international and domestic markets can be used. The development of domestic transportation, the development of industry and commerce, the expansion of cities and the increase of population are all conducive to the exchange and promotion of various agricultural products. The recovery of international trade after the war is also conducive to the export of agricultural products. In view of the problem that it is inevitable to import food after planting a large number of cash crops, Dong believes that importing food is not terrible, such as Brazil, Britain, Denmark and other countries are examples.

Dong believes that importing grain does not advocate giving up food self-sufficiency unconditionally, but only advocates producing high-priced commodities as much as possible and reducing the cultivation of ordinary grain crops when necessary. He advocated giving it to him when he was not busy for the time being, "asking for it." Mass production of high-priced goods in exchange for foreign food is a shortcut to solve the problem of eating for ordinary people. His proposition will not increase the seriousness of the food problem, but only solve it.

In 1944, Dong further discussed the necessity of implementing for-profit agriculture in China's national defense and agriculture.

First of all, Dong believes that agriculture needs international cooperation most, and China needs free trade most. For the sake of economic benefits, China should not cultivate grain on its precious land, but should make every effort to develop commodities that can absorb more labor, have greater production value and are not easy to import from foreign countries, so as to exchange cheap food with countries with vast territory and sparse population. China and western European countries are both conducive to free trade. If free trade is implemented, the national economy will be convenient for development and self-sufficiency, and the national economy will be bound by it. " Dong advocates free trade in agriculture, aiming at defending that there is no need to worry about importing food.

Secondly, China should develop nutritious agriculture, especially milk and fruit industries, in order to solve the health problems of China people. "The living standard of ordinary people in China is too low, and they are malnourished. Not only is there a shortage of food, but other foods are in short supply. In order to improve nutrition and living standards, we need a lot of food, and it is really difficult to be self-sufficient. As a last resort, we have to try our best to develop the most suitable and beneficial products in exchange for products with less benefits and less suitability. China must adopt this policy, so that ordinary citizens can get adequate nutrition and solve the problem of food and clothing. If it is limited to food self-sufficiency, not only will the goal be difficult to achieve, but even if it is achieved, it will give up a good opportunity, which will affect the production of other kinds of goods, but will hinder the success of real food. " Therefore, Dong especially advocated the development of animal husbandry, especially dairy industry, and put forward the slogan of "the first step of founding a country-developing dairy cows". Only by vigorously developing animal husbandry, which is both economical and nutritious, can the people of China become stronger gradually.

Third, China should develop characteristic agriculture. "Development expertise, that is, under the limitation of land area, attacks deviant winds with skills. China, which wants to be superior to the world in grain production, is by no means an opponent of North and South America and Australia, which are sparsely populated and mechanically cultivated. However, the development of specialty products can take advantage of the cheap food in these countries. China's rich labor force, the exquisite skills of farmers and the exquisite products handed down from generation to generation are all important resources of China agriculture, which indicates another favorable direction for agricultural development. " From the comparative advantage of international competition, it is pointed out that China should also develop economic agriculture. At the same time, Dong believes that when there is a contradiction between the production of commodity crops and the production of food and clothing crops, developing cash crops should be the main way to make money.

Dong's thought of developing high-priced agricultural products is the first thinker in China who systematically put forward the idea of modern agricultural industrialization and internationalization. However, he is too optimistic about relying on the international market to solve China's food problem. The country he cited is actually very different from China. As far as population is concerned, they are not big countries. Britain and Denmark have completed industrialization, and Brazil's agriculture has adapted to the world market, which China does not have. Take them for example, the problem is not so simple. The so-called soil and water conservation is to properly manage and utilize water sources and soil, so as not to let them run away, so as not to cause damage. The word "soil and water conservation" was introduced to China from the United States. In 1930s and 1940s, the United States also sent two soil and water conservation experts to China to help China survey and design. Dong was inspired by the American soil and water conservation movement. He became the first group of experts in China to study this problem systematically, and put forward the policy proposition of returning sloping farmland to forest and grassland. 1In the middle and early 1930s, a rare flood occurred in China. 193 1 The Yangtze River lost more than 2 billion yuan. 1935 The Yangtze River flood caused losses of more than 200 million yuan in Hunan Province and 500 million yuan in Hubei Province. When the Yellow River flooded, the loss in Shandong Province exceeded10.50 billion yuan. At the same time, coupled with the impact of the world economic crisis, China's rural economy has declined rapidly. Under this background, it has become an important subject of the times to explore the causes of poverty and disasters in China.

In Land Destruction and Rural Decline, Dong found through field investigation that the soil destruction of rural land is very serious, which has become the main reason for rural decline. He observed that there are three main situations of soil destruction: first, stones and sand are submerged and the soil quality becomes worse; Second, the river burst and swept away the soil; The third is that rain washes away the soil on the mountain. The fundamental causes of land destruction are the development of hillsides and the siltation of rivers and lakes. Dong warned: If we don't save it quickly, good farmland and mountains will become deserts and rocks, which will not only cause famine, but also destroy the country and species.

In "The Campaign to Preserve America's Rich Resources-May China People Awake", Dong introduced the idea that Americans use rich resources to benefit future generations, as well as the laws and policies promulgated by the US government to protect forests, wildlife and soil, hoping that China people whose resources are seriously damaged will wake up.

In his book The Danger of Natural Resources Destruction in China and Its Saving Methods, Dong pointed out that the most fundamental and permanent cause of poverty and disasters in China is the exhaustion and destruction of natural resources, not the superficial causes such as civil war, bandits, official exploitation, imperialist aggression, industrial depression and water shortage. China's agricultural development has a long history, and the depletion or destruction of agricultural-related resources such as soil forests, rivers and lakes directly leads to soil erosion and various disasters. The result of arbitrarily developing agriculture has brought three permanent hazards, namely: first, reducing fertile land; The second is to reduce favorable natural products, such as some birds, animals, fish and turtles; The third is to turn water conservancy into a flood. The reasons for the destruction of resources are: Chinese people don't know the causal relationship of nature in history, and because our ancestors once lived in the upper reaches and couldn't see the damage caused to the lower reaches. They just developed and took it away, never considering the future trouble, exhausted resources in one place, and then moved to other places (downstream), resulting in today's troubled and extremely poor situation; On the other hand, today's goal is still to make the best use of everything, focusing on development and utilization, without the awareness of preserving geographical location. He also questioned the development of the northwest at that time, thinking that the northwest had been destroyed and abandoned by our ancestors. "We went back to the kitchen and ate everything, and then went to the garbage can to look for bones."

Dong divided natural resources into minerals, aquatic animals, forests, water and soil. Mineral resources are irreplaceable resources, while livestock and poultry, aquatic products, forests, water and soil are renewable resources, and different resources should be protected differently. Soil and forest protection is particularly urgent and important. Dong proposed that returning farmland to forest and grass planting in mountainous areas is the fundamental way to save resources. The first is to restrict reclamation in mountainous areas, stop farming mounds that have been reclaimed but are not suitable for reclamation, and plant grass or trees respectively. 1944, Dong published "National Defense and Agriculture", the eleventh chapter of which was devoted to "Soil and Water Conservation and Water Conservancy". He stressed that before implementing the policy of returning farmland to forests, it is necessary to make overall planning, and put forward that returning farmland to forests should pay special attention to the resettlement of farmers. "To stop farming in mountainous areas, we must try to provide relief to people who used to live and farm so that they can find another way to make a living. The government must help farmers move and change industries, or make them obtain cultivated land and operating capital respectively. " "Stop farming land, not stop production, but change the use, and then manage forestry and animal husbandry, or need someone to do it. Some places may need to be designated as minerals, and some places may need to cultivate landscapes for people to visit, so new career opportunities can be created everywhere. "

Dong was the first scientist in China to systematically put forward the policy of returning farmland to forests and grasslands, which could not be implemented at all during the period of the National Government. At the beginning of the founding of New China, the state began to attach importance to returning farmland to forests and soil and water conservation. In the following decades, the work of returning farmland to forests and restoring vegetation in China made slow progress. In 2002, the national "Regulations on Returning Farmland to Forests" was promulgated, and a large-scale movement of returning farmland (fields) to forests (grasses) to lakes began in various places. Dong's thought has been fully implemented after more than 60 years. Dong was one of many theorists who advocated population control during the Republic of China. He has repeatedly expounded the necessity of birth control in China from the perspective of agricultural economy and society.

(a) Land issues and population control

About the use of reclaiming wasteland. In "Food and Population", Dong believes: "People in all countries can maintain a proper level of living, and each person needs about one acre (mu) and a half. At present, China's per capita arable land is only about 0.6 mu. " Therefore, we should vigorously reclaim wasteland. However, population must be controlled while reclaiming wasteland. "The wasteland in China, no matter how big it is, should be used to improve people's living standards, not for population reproduction." This view was endorsed by demographer Chen.

About expanding the farm area. Dong pointed out in Agricultural Economics: Compared with the United States, China's agricultural area is too small. If the land is evenly distributed throughout the country, the income of each farmer is only more than 20 mu, which is too small to cultivate economically. There are two ways to expand the farm, one is to reclaim land by immigrants, and the other is to develop various industries to absorb part of the agricultural population. But if the population increases at any time, reclamation and industrial development will have little effect on expanding farms. "If we want to solve the problem that farms are too small, we may have to emphasize limiting population and using land more effectively." Dong realized that the farm was too small to be solved by land reform, and the fundamental way out was to control the population.

About per capita arable land. In Why China Should Restrain Birth, Dong pointed out that China has a vast territory, rich natural resources, numerous wasteland and low population density, so it is not afraid of a large population: western regions such as Xinjiang and Tibet account for more than half of China, and these places have little future; One kind of wasteland in China is barren, which is difficult to cultivate, and the other is low-lying and easily flooded. The population density of China province 18 is close to German and Italian, and exceeds French. The population density on the ground is not as correct as cultivated land, and the per capita cultivated land in China is much lower than that in the United States and France. From the dynamic observation, the per capita arable land will be less and less. In the future, we must return some cultivated land to rivers, lakes and forests, carry out soil and water conservation, reduce the land for growing grain and increase farmers' income. In addition, the development of transportation, schools, factories and cities will occupy cultivated land after industrialization, and the proportion of people to land will become more and more unbalanced. Only by controlling the population can we maintain a certain per capita arable land.

(2) Resource protection and population control

In "Resource Conservation in National Rejuvenation", Dong analyzed the close relationship between population growth, resource destruction and social periodic turbulence. He said: the land is vast and the population is sparse, and people grow fertile fields. With the increase of population, people are forced to plant mountains and low-lying land, which on the one hand causes soil erosion, fills rivers and lakes, destroys water and soil resources and brings natural disasters. On the other hand, these poor farmers' ability to resist natural disasters is extremely weak. When they encounter natural disasters, they will inevitably be accompanied by man-made disasters, which will lead to social unrest. After a period of time, the population decreased and the society returned to calm. In this way, the destruction of natural resources is getting worse and worse, and the race and culture in China are getting worse and worse. Therefore, he proposed: "China doesn't have to have 45,000 people, but it can become the strongest country in the world with12 million people. If 20,000 to 30,000 people out of 40 million often live an inhuman life, it is better to have only120,000 people, and everyone lives a noble and satisfying life. Only in this way can a country be strong and its material and spiritual civilization progress. This does not mean that we are going to kill tens of millions of people now, but we must not let the population increase. We must seek effective and extensive methods to control fertility and limit population while protecting resources. "

(c) Economic and social problems and overpopulation

In Why China Should Restrain Birth, Dong believes that the reason why China is weak and the people are poor is because there are many people. "China has a vast territory and a large population. But most of them are too poor, which makes it difficult for all architectural cultures to develop, so we would rather sacrifice quantity and improve quality. We don't have to be afraid of too few people. The population of China will never decrease below that of a big country. China's weakness is not that there are not enough people to resist aggression, but that there are too many people because it is too poor, too weak and too stupid. It is necessary to reduce the quantity and easily improve the quality. "

Many pains and evils in China society are also caused by a large population. Dong blamed the poverty of the poor on his own super-life, but did not see or even deny the root causes of imperialism and feudal exploitation. Another important theory of Dong, "for-profit agriculture", is also closely related to the population problem, and its purpose is to solve the contradiction between China's large population and small land. Planting high-priced agricultural labor requires a lot of money, which can solve the problem of overpopulation in China from two aspects: employment and income. After the increase in income, imported food can solve the problem of eating for many people. Dong mainly discussed the necessity of understanding family planning deeply. As for the methods, he hopes that the government, that is, people in society, will not hesitate to achieve the purpose of birth control through various means, and need not worry and hesitate because of some drawbacks.