ABSTRACT
This chapter summarizes such a tax concept as “no progress means retrogression” according to the habit of Chinese expressions. Certainly, the tax concept of “no progress means retrogression” is valid in a relative sense. In an absolute sense, the proportional tax system is neither progressive nor regressive. It is regressive only with respect to the requirements of vertical equity. The tax system where the rich pay a greater portion of their income than the poor is called the progressive system; otherwise, it is called the regressive system. In 1992, after ten-plus years of discussions, Deng Xiaoping’s Southern Tour speech and the 14th National Congress of the Communist Party of China finalized the reform direction from the planned economy to the market economy. The reform does not mean that planning in any sense should be repudiated; rather, the planned economy in a specific sense should be sublated.
