<論説>南京政府時期の技術官僚の形成と発展 : 近代中国技術者の系譜

Abstract

南京政府時期に成立し、抗日戦争後まで中国の重工業建設を指導した「資源委員会」は従来、国家官僚資本の典型的機関と見なされてきた。しかし、委員会の構成員を個人レベルで子細に見るならば、そこに結集した主要委員は当時の中国における最高の水準を持つ少壮の鉱工業技術者を中心とするものであり、近代中国の技術者層形成に関する実例を示してくれる組織であった。資源委員会を構成した技術者たちの五四時期の思想、かれら高級技術者の母体となった中国工程師学会の動向、そしてかれらの抗日意識を概観すれば、近代中国の技術者の系譜が理解できるだろう。かれらは技術官僚(テクノクラート) と呼ぶにふさわしい存在であり、層として共有する歴史体験と価値観を持つ社会集団であった。国民党政権の大陸失陥の後、資源委員会構成員の一部は国民政府とともに台湾に移ったが、戦後台湾においても旧資源委員会構成員の指導する経済建設は受け継がれた。一方、資源委員会のかなりの部分が国民党を捨てて共産党政権に投じたのも、かれらの経済建設観が共産党のそれと符合する部分があったからだった。その意味でいえば、中国大陸にあっても、台湾にあっても旧資源委員会の遺産は「資本の社会化」、「放任的資本主義の否定」という形で継承されたのだった。

The National Resources Commission, which was established in 1936 and led the heavy industry development through the Nationalist era (1936-1949), has been generally regarded as a typical department managing state financial capital in Kuomintang China. However, when we study the members' list on the Commission at an individual level, we learn that the Commission consisted of, for the most part, the best technical experts at that time. A glance over their careers shows that modern China produced Chinese technical experts as well as the Chinese Communist movement. Those elite engineers began their social activities in the May Fourth Movement of 1919, as did the Chinese Communists. Under the pragmatist influence of May Fourth period, many May Fourth youth went abroad, especially to the United States, to study technology. Upon returning to China, they served the Nationalist government, which was striving for economic development in the 1930's, and they devoted themselves to the development of heavy industry to counter the increasing menace of Japan. With expert knowledge for the planning and enforcement of industrial policy, such elite engineers could be called 'technocrats'. In addition, they maintained their own opinions of the national policy, and hence, they were not simply technocrats in the narrow sense, but also modern Chinese intellecutals, who shared common historical experiences and their own points of view. This paper clarifies the character of modern Chinese engineers who constituted the Commission. I will examine their thoughts during May Fourth period, the activities of the China Engineers' Society that unified the elite engineers in the 1920's-1930's, their cautious attitudes toward Japanese aggression, and the choices they made in 1949. After a part of the Commission relocated to Taiwan with the Kuomintang in 1949 when the Nationalist Government lost the mainland, the economic reconstruction led by former National Resources Commission members was continued as a national economic policy in Taiwan. On the other hand, some members of the Commission remained on the mainland, and went into the reconstruction of Chinese industry under the Communist rule. That is they partly shared the Communist Party's ideas of economic reconstruction. To put it briefly, the legacy of the 'socialization of capital' or 'negation of laissez-faire capitalism' left by the National Resources Commission succeeded both on the mainland and in Taiwan after 1949.