Wei Xinghua (; October 1925 – 6 December 2019) was a Chinese economist and educator. He specialized in the study of capital and contributed to the "sinicization" of Marxist

political economy Political economy is the study of how Macroeconomics, economic systems (e.g. Marketplace, markets and Economy, national economies) and Politics, political systems (e.g. law, Institution, institutions, government) are linked. Widely studied ph ...

. He served as professor and chair of the Department of Economics of

Renmin University of China The Renmin University of China (RUC; ) is a national key public research university in Beijing, China. The university is affiliated to the Ministry of Education, and co-funded by the Ministry and the Beijing Municipal People's Government. RUC ...

and was awarded the national honorary title of "People's Educator" in 2019.

Biography

Wei was born October 1925 into a peasant family in

Wutai County Wutai County () is a county under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Xinzhou, in the northeast of Shanxi Province, China, bordering Hebei province to the east. It is named after Mount Wutai, which is located within its borders. It ...

Shanxi Shanxi (; ; formerly romanised as Shansi) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the North China region. The capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-lev ...

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...

, and grew up during the

Second Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific Th ...

. He joined the underground Communist movement in 1946 and became a member of the

Chinese Communist Party The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victoriou ...

a year later. He and two colleagues were once arrested by the

Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Tai ...

government, but were released due to lack of evidence. He subsequently fled to

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

, whereas his two colleagues were later rearrested and executed. Wei studied at North China University (later renamed as

). Upon graduating from Renmin University's graduate program in economics in 1952, he stayed at the university as a faculty member. He later became professor and chair of Renmin University's economics department. He specialized in the study of capital and was credited for his contributions to the "sinicization of Marxist

". In 1986, he advocated giving enterprises more freedom to determine their own objectives, which won the support of many other economists. Wei published more than 40 books and over 1000 research papers and other articles. He was the chief editor of the textbook ''Principles of Political Economy'' (政治经济学原理), one of the most widely used textbooks in China. He proposed influential theories regarding the commodity economy and multiple elements of

productivity Productivity is the efficiency of production of goods or services expressed by some measure. Measurements of productivity are often expressed as a ratio of an aggregate output to a single input or an aggregate input used in a production proces ...

. He was twice awarded the

Sun Yefang Sun Yefang (; 24 October 1908 – 22 February 1983) was a pioneering Chinese economist. Biography Sun was born in Wuxi County (now Wuxi), Jiangsu, on 24 October 1908. His elder brother (1895–1980) was a politician in the government of th ...

Economics Prize for Outstanding Research Papers. Although Chinese media often described him as an "authority" or "master" in economics, he rejected such accolades and proclaimed that China did not have any world-class "authority" or "master" in economics. During the celebrations for the

70th anniversary of the People's Republic of China The 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China () was observed with a series of ceremonial events including a grand military parade as its spotlight to celebrate National Day of the People's Republic of China that took ...

, President

Xi Jinping Xi Jinping ( ; ; ; born 15 June 1953) is a Chinese politician who has served as the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), and thus as the paramount leader of China, s ...

awarded Wei the of "People's Educator" on 29 September 2019, although Wei was unable to attend the award ceremony due to poor health. Wei died on 6 December 2019 in Beijing, aged 94.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wei, Xinghua 1925 births 2019 deaths Economists from Shanxi Political economists Academic staff of Renmin University of China Educators from Shanxi Renmin University of China alumni People from Xinzhou Textbook writers