China's economic reform has significantly slowed since the start of this century, due partly to spreading and deep-rooted corruption in the world's No 2 economy, says Wu Jinglian, one of the mainland's most famous and liberal economists.
Wu, 82, told the South China Morning Post in an exclusive interview that the government should not fear economic and political reforms, which, he believed, could strengthen China and make it more effective in the face of rising global uncertainty.
'When people feel comfortable, usually they don't want to have any change,' said Wu. 'But change can only make you better.'
In the late 1990s, most state-owned enterprises (SOEs) reported huge losses, forcing the government to reform, Wu said. In particular, in 1998 when Zhu Rongji was appointed premier, it was considered the most dangerous time for many SOEs to survive, he said.
Thanks to Zhu's strong efforts to push forward economic reform, China's economy was in fine health at the start of the 21st century, Wu said. But he warned that the broad economy now faced serious systemic risks.
Wu, a key economic adviser to late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping, who started the country's opening-up economic reform in the late 1970s, blamed snowballing corruption, particularly among so-called special interest groups, excessive money supply and 'internal debt', such as with local government, for the growing economic risk in the country.