Time is right for innovative new domestic theories of economics to emerge in China

The status of the academic field of economics is partially dependent on the national economic power of the country it comes from. But theoretical economic innovation can be a major driver of economic power, even when done decades before a country rises. Look at the role that Adam Smith's works came to play in the UK in the 19th century, Friedrich List's in the economic rise of Germany, or the ideas of the Hamiltonian "National System" in the US in the 20th century. These experiences show that if a country doesn't innovate in economic theory, but instead blindly copies existing theories from other countries, it won't be able to innovate economically or rise nationally. Just because China isn't yet the world's largest economy doesn't mean that there isn't a need to develop domestic economic theories. The contradictions between theory and practice serve as the fundamental driving force for theoretical innovation, and each great economist is the product of a particular era. When existing economic theories can't provide scientific explanations for the particular economic phenomena and problems of their day, economists have to respond to this glaring need by creating new theories. Today the global economic and political landscape is undergoing major changes. Uncertainties persist in the economic development of advanced capitalist markets while, against the backdrop of China's deepened reforms and opening up, the country's economic transformation is expected to bear fruitful outcomes. I believe this poses severe challenges to the two main schools of economic theories. Mainstream Western economics has not only failed to fully explain China's economic path and model, but also faces difficulties in contributing much to bringing Western developed countries out of economic downturns, instead swinging between Keynesianism and neoliberalism in the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis. Historical experience has shown that no matter whether Keynesianism, neoliberalism or a hybrid of both is practiced, none of them can solve the innate contradictions inherent in capitalism, or periodic financial and economic crises resulting from these contradictions, or the unbalanced global development and ecological crises. Further, serious drawbacks also exist in traditional political economic theories. Such theories can't explain properly why China has chosen to continue the policy of keeping public ownership as the mainstay of the economy and allowing diverse forms of ownership to develop side by side, nor can they explain the relationship between socialist public ownership and the market economy. This indicates that it is time for new masters of economics to emerge, and they will not come from those who cling to mainstream Western economics or traditional political economy, but from those who develop what's useful in these two schools of economics and discard what is useless. China is ready for such economists.