Title

Reforms of Taxation and Government Budget System in Late Imperial China: Liang Qichao’s views Revisited

Author

Cheng-chung Lai

Genre

Article  

Pages

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Language

Chinese

Key words

Chinese Taxation and Government Budget System, Late Imperial China, Liang Qichao

Abstract

    Liang Qichao intellectual and political writings have been widely studied, but his ideas on taxation/budget reforms are still insufficiently understood. Between 1896 and 1913 he published 17 articles on the problems of taxation and budget reforms, some are comments on the Imperial government’s policies, sometimes he offered new proposals. After the 1912 Revolution, his writings shifted to defend his own policies

especially when he was the Minister of Finance (1917). Based on these 17 texts, the present study intends to reevaluate Liang’s ideas of taxation and budget reforms and explains why the failure of his policies seems inevitable.