On the evening of May 14, 2022, the online debate competition of microeconomics class with the theme of “the advantages of price rise during the epidemic are greater than the disadvantages vs. the disadvantages are greater than the advantages” came to a successful conclusion. This debate contest was jointly organized and planned by He Wen, the faculty of the Department of International Economy and Trade and the students who take part in the class. It aimed on the one side to help students have a further understanding of the knowledge learnt in class and apply the knowledge to practice, on the other side to relieve the students’ study and life pressure during the epidemic prevention and control period, as well as to cultivate their thinking ability and language expression ability. Teachers of the course, microeconomics, Fang Houzheng, Wang Xiaofang, Liu Yuren, Wang Cong and He Wen, served as the judges of the debate, and in a total of 200 teachers and students have watched the online competition.
After the host introduced the debaters of both sides and He Wen delivered a speech at the opening ceremony, the debate competition raised the curtain.
In the statement of views session, the member of government threw two questions at the beginning: first, what has the rising prices brought to us? Second, what will we lose if prices do not rise? Subsequently, the debater elaborated it from the perspective of individual and society. After the excellent statement of the government side, the opposition side discussed the malpractice of price rise from the perspective of living cost of publics, donors' desire to donate, manufacturers' production motivation, and cited laws and corresponding examples to demonstrate the point of view.
In the refutation and inquiry session, the opposition side raised objections to the view of the government side from the perspective of public’s difficult life and criticized the irrationality of the price increase. From the perspective of the common interests of producers and consumers, the government side demonstrated that rising prices could ensure commodity circulation and material supply, and the situation of producers in the market should not be ignored.
During the free debate session, both sides were full of witticism, and the attack and defense alternated aggressively. What a fierce war of words it is! After the closing arguments of the two sides, several judges made detailed comments on the performance of the debaters and the views conveyed by debaters and explained their unique views on the debate.
After 5 judges and 178 spectators voted, the opposition side won the debate contest by a narrow margin. The best debaters are the prime minister and leader of opposition respectively. This debate competition combines the price phenomenon during the epidemic period with the relevant professional knowledge of this course. After the debate of the students and the sharing of the judges, all participants of the event have gained a lot.
Translator: ZHENG Yu
Reviewer: LIU Pengfei