A country’s economic system is a complex economic system. Under the market economy, the market system plays a very important role in this system. The report of the 19th CPC National Congress emphasizes that building a modern economic system is the urgent requirement of crossing the border and the strategic goal ofChina's development. In this process, we must focus on building a market system that meets the requirements of a modern economic system. Unification, openness, and fair competition are the basic requirements of a modern economic system for the market system. To build of a modern economic system we need to ensure unification, openness, and fair competition of the market system at the legal level.

(I) A modern economic system is an economic system that meets the requirements of building a modern and powerful socialist country in an all-round way. It is a complex system that requires coordination and unification of all links, all levels and in all fields of the national economy

The report of the 19th CPC National Congress put forward the building of a well-off society and the start of a new journey to build a modern socialist country in an all-round way. The strategic arrangement for the development of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era is to transition from building a well-off society in an all-round way to basically realizing modernization, and then to build a modern and powerful socialist country in an all-round way. To achieve this grand goal, we must firmly grasp economic construction as the core and build an economic system commensurate with the requirements of achieving this goal, that is, a modern economic system.

A modern economic system is an organic whole composed of the inter-connected links, levels and fields of social economic activities, including such seven aspects as the industrial system of innovation leading with cooperative development, a unified and open market system with orderly competition, an income distribution system reflecting efficiency and promoting fairness, an urban-rural regional development system highlighting advantages and coordinated interaction, a resource-saving and environmentally-friendly green development system, a comprehensive and open system with diversification, balance, security and high efficiency, as well as an economic system giving full play to the role of the market and giving better play to the role of the government. It can be seen that these seven aspects relate to the production, exchange, distribution and consumption links, international, domestic, government, market, industrial, regional and enterprise levels, as well as the real economy, the virtual economy, technological innovation, environmental protection and other fields of the national economy. It can be said that a modern economic system is a complex economic system which involves the coordination and unification of all links, levels and fields of national economic activities.

From the perspective of system theory, a modern economic system as a complex economic system can be described from five aspects: growth momentum of the system, factor structure, operating mechanism, system environment and development goal. Looking from the perspective of the growth momentum of the system, a modern economic system takes innovation as the driving force of economic growth. The source of economic growth is to rely on innovation to drive the improvement of total factor productivity, and to promote the development of industrial systems and regional systems with the rise of total factor productivity. From the perspective of factor structure of the system, a modern economic system is characterized by the gathering and dominance of high-end factors, and its labour force, capital, technology and other factors of production, as well as various industries, regions, urban and rural subsystems show structural coordination. From the perspective of the operating mechanism of the system, a modern economic system has a mature market-oriented system capable of highly efficient allocation of resources, with fair competition and vitality of all kinds of market entities within the system and scientific and moderate macro regulation of the government. From a systemic perspective, the modern economic system is fully open to all aspects. The highly uncertain international market environment requires that the economic system must also be dynamic and open, so as to be well adapted to the market environment. From the perspective of system development goals, a modern economic system emphasizes high-quality development, ensuring that the national economy develops both in an innovative and competitive way and in a green, sustainable, and socially inclusive way.

(II) A sound market economy system is the basic guarantee for the operation of a modern economic system. The construction of a modern economic system will inevitably require the construction of a unified and open market system with fair competition. Modernization and marketization are closely related. For a country, without a high level of marketization and a mature market economy system, there would be no economic modernization and modernized country in its true sense. It should be said that a modern economic system is based on a mature market economy system. The market economy system requires a developed and perfect product market and factor market, and all kinds of product markets and factor markets constitute the market system. On the whole, the mature market economy system requires the market system to have such important characteristics as being unified and sound, open to the outside world, fair competition, and be standardized and orderly. The so-called “being unified and sound” means that the market is sound in composition and unified in space, and there are no problems such as the division of administrative regions and the restriction of free flow. The so-called “fair competition” means that all kinds of economic entities are equal in the operation of the market system, and fair in terms of opportunity and procedure. The so-called “fair competition” means that all kinds of economic entities are equal in the operation of the market system, and fair in terms of opportunity and procedure. The so-called “being standardized and orderly” means that competition activities in the market system are carried out in an orderly and normative way, and there are rules in place to effectively prevent all kinds of monopolies and unfair competition. So in general, a market system that meets the requirements of a modern economic system should have the characteristics of unification, openness and fair competition. A unified and open market system with fair competition is of great significance to the construction of a modern economic system. Specifically, a unified and open market system with fair competition is conducive to the formation of a market-oriented technology innovation system that attaches importance to the protection of intellectual property rights, so as to play an active role in promoting the innovation and coordination of the industrial system. As an exchange link, the market system has the characteristics of unification, openness, and fair competition, and is also beneficial for an income distribution system as a distribution link to reflect efficiency and promote fairness. A unified and open market system with fair competition is also conducive to the flow of factors of production between urban and rural areas and between different regions, so as to maximize the comparative advantage and effective division of labour of the regions, and improve the allocation efficiency of factors, thus promoting the construction of a regional development system that highlights the advantages and coordinated interaction between urban and rural areas. A standardized and orderly market system with fair competition is conducive to avoiding unfair competition and forcing enterprises with high pollution, high energy consumption, and production methods that do not conform to environmental protection standards to withdraw from the market, and to promoting the construction of a resource-saving and environmentally-friendly green development system. The open market system has promoted the "going global" of Chinese enterprises, and is also necessary for the construction of the “Belt and Road”. It is an important connotation of the construction of a comprehensive and open system that is diversified, balanced, safe, and efficient.

Therefore, in order to build a modern economic system, efforts should be made to promote the construction of a unified and open market system with fair competition, achieve smooth market access, orderly market openness, full market competition and standardized market order, and speed up the formation of a modern market system in which enterprises operate independently and compete fairly, consumers choose their own consumption freely, and goods and factors flow freely and are equally exchanged.

(III) To promote the construction of a unified and open market system with fair competition, it is necessary to deepen the reform of the commercial system, strengthen the rule of law in the market and, in particular, constantly improve the legislation and law enforcement against unfair competition and monopoly.

Since the reform and opening up,Chinahas made great progress in building a socialist market economy system, however, there are still imperfections and immaturity in our socialist market economy system and the market system still needs to further realize unification, openness, and fair competition. For example, the property right system needs to be further improved; and the effective market-oriented allocation mechanism of factors has not been fully formed. The report to the 19th CPC National Congress pointed out that perfecting the socialist market economy system should be accelerated. The reform of the economic system must focus on perfecting the property right system and the market-oriented allocation of factors, to realize effective incentive of property rights, free flow of factors, flexible price response, fair and orderly competition, and survival of the fittest among enterprises. This requires that, in terms of perfecting the property right system, we should adhere to the basic economic system of keeping public ownership as the mainstay of the economy and allowing diverse forms of ownership to develop side by side, follow the requirements put forward by the third plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, i.e. “the state protects the property rights and legitimate interests of the economy of various forms of ownership, ensures that the economy of various forms of ownership equally use production factors, fairly and openly participate in market competition and are equally protected by law, and supervises the economy of various forms of ownership according to law”. In terms of improving the market-oriented allocation of factors, we should strengthen the efforts in the construction of the factor market and the market-oriented reform, form a perfect modern factor market system and a market-oriented factor price formation mechanism, loosen service market entry restrictions, constantly improve the market access and withdrawal mechanism of factors, so as to achieve free flow and full competition of various factors nationwide.

Regarding the construction of a modern market system, the report of the 19th CPC National Congress proposed a series of major requirements such as “comprehensively implementing the negative list system of market access, cleaning up and abolishing various regulations and practices that hinder a unified market and fair competition” and “deepening the reform of the commercial system and breaking administrative monopoly”. To actively implement these major requirements, on the one hand, we should push forward the reform of the commercial system to expand its depth and breadth from the aspects of “releasing”, “administrating” and “serving”, strive to optimize the business environment, reform the market access system, break up unreasonable rules and regulations, and improve the level of informatization, facilitation and standardization in terms of the registration management of market entities. On the other hand, the legislation and enforcement of commercial law should be further improved. In fact, in modern countries ruled by law, the adjustment of commercial systems is mainly accomplished through the formulation and implementation of commercial law. Therefore, from the point of view of building a market system that meets the requirements of a modern economic system, it is particularly important to ensure the unification, openness and fair competition of the market system through the rule of law. Among a number of related laws, the Law of the People's Republic of China Against Competition by Inappropriate Means and the Anti-monopoly Law of the People’s Republic of China are of great importance to eliminate unfair acts that hinder competition, establish fair market order and protect the legitimate interests of consumers and enterprises. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the implementation of the anti-monopoly law. It should be said that the implementation of the Law of the People's Republic of China Against Competition by Inappropriate Means and Anti-monopoly Law of the People’s Republic of China is of great significance to the construction ofChina's market system, and has also made great achievements. However, looking from the perspective of building a market system that meets the requirements of a modern economic system, we still need to continue our efforts to establish and improve relevant laws and regulations.

To strengthen the rule of law in the construction of a unified and open market system with fair competition, what is more important is the enforcement of laws and regulations, especially in the area of anti-unfair competition and anti-monopoly law enforcement. It should be stressed that several documents issued since the 18th CPC National Congress are of great significance to anti-unfair competition and anti-monopoly law enforcement, breaking administrative monopoly, and building a market system with fair competition, and thus should be conscientiously implemented. First is the issuance of Some Opinions of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on Pushing Forward the Reform of the Price Mechanism in October 2015, in which it clearly specifies strengthening market price regulation and anti-monopoly law enforcement, gradually establishing the basic position of competition policy, speeding up the establishment of a coordination mechanism for competition policy, industry, investment and other policies, implementing a fair competition review system, and promoting the construction of a unified and open market system with orderly competition. This has established the basic position of competition policy, which requires the coordination of industrial policy with competition policy to promote the gradual realization of the basic position of competition policy. Second is the release of Opinions of the State Council on Establishing Fair Competition Review System in the Construction of Market System in June 2016, in which it requires the establishment of a fair competition review system, the standardization of the government’s acts, the prevention of the introduction of policies and measures that exclude or restrict competition, and the gradual elimination and abolishment of regulations and practices that hinder a unified market and fair competition nationwide. In October 2017, Detailed Rules for the Implementation of a Fair Competition Review System (Provisional) was issued, which further clarifies and stipulates the mechanisms, procedures, standards and exceptions of fair competition review, and makes fair competition review more operable. It can be said that the implementation of a fair competition review system without discount is one of the most effective measures to overcome administrative monopoly. In the future, we must recognize the significance of these tasks from the perspective of implementing the spirit of the 19th CPC National Congress and building a modern economic system, and actively build a market system that meets the requirements of a modern economic system.

(The author Huang Qunhui is a member of the Academic Committee of Shanghai Academy)