Author: Liu Guoguang
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* * * And how did these sixty years come about? In the first 30 years, we started from new democracy and moved towards building socialism. After the "reform and opening up", it changed from the original socialism in China to "Socialism with Chinese characteristics".
1, from new democracy to socialism
According to Mao Zedong's new-democratic theory, after the victory of the new-democratic revolution, a new-democratic country should be established and a new-democratic society should be built for a long time. When conditions are ripe, we will turn from a new democratic society to a socialist society.
In Mao Zedong's new-democratic theory, there is another argument that "two revolutionary stages must be linked", and a stage cannot be inserted between the new-democratic revolution and the socialist revolution. This can be understood as the socialist revolution began as soon as the new-democratic revolution ended.
The evolution of the actual situation is: after the victory of the new-democratic revolution in the whole country and the completion of the land reform, due to the class division in rural areas and the development of contradictions between the urban bourgeoisie and the working class, after three years of recovery, the general line of transition from the founding of the people's Republic to socialism was put forward. By 1956, the socialist transformation was basically completed and the socialist society was declared. This is "the deepest and greatest social change in the history of China, and it is the foundation of all the future progress and development of our country". [ 1]
After the socialist transformation was basically completed, the socialist construction continued from 1957 to 1978, and made brilliant achievements in tortuous development. At the same time, because of the excessive demands on production relations and productivity, many mistakes beyond the stage have been made. The main performance is the pursuit of excessive and pure ownership structure and centralized planned economy, ignoring the necessity of non-public ownership economy and market economy under the condition of underdeveloped productivity. In other words, I didn't realize that socialism in China was still in the "primary stage".
2. The primary stage of socialism and Socialism with Chinese characteristics.
On the primary stage of socialism, Mao Zedong once talked about it in "Talking about Reading Soviet Political Economy Textbooks" and other places. He said that "socialism is divided into two stages, underdeveloped socialism and developed socialism"; He also said, "China has a large population, a weak foundation and a backward economy. I don't think it will take 100 years to make the productivity develop greatly and catch up with and surpass the advanced capitalist countries in the world. " [2] The "primary stage" was first put forward in the official document of our party, Resolution on Historical Issues of the Sixth Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee 198 1. The resolution says, "Our socialist system is still in the primary stage" [3]. This is developed from Mao Zedong's above assertion.
Later, at the 12th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 1982, Deng Xiaoping further inherited Mao Zedong's tradition of combining Marxism with China's reality according to China's national conditions, and announced for the first time that he would "go his own way and build socialism with China characteristics", [4] which pushed China's socialist construction to a new stage. The political report system of the 13th National Congress of the Communist Party of China clarified the connotation of "primary stage" and the basic line of "building Socialism with Chinese characteristics", that is, taking economic construction as the center, adhering to the four principles, persisting in reform and opening up, and unifying one center and two basic points with the practice of building Socialism with Chinese characteristics. [5]
1997 The political report of the 15th National Congress of the Communist Party of China comprehensively expounded the characteristics of the primary stage of socialism and the basic line of "Socialism with Chinese characteristics", and put forward the basic goals and policies for building Socialism with Chinese characteristics's economy, politics and culture. The report clearly pointed out that public ownership as the main body and the simultaneous development of various economic components are a basic economic system in the primary stage of socialism in China; To build a socialist economy with China characteristics is to develop a market economy under socialist conditions. [6] In this way, the outline, framework and connotation of the primary stage of socialism and Socialism with Chinese characteristics are clearly outlined.
After a series of documents of our party clearly pointed out and expounded the road of building Socialism with Chinese characteristics, and made remarkable achievements on this road for many years, there are still people in our ideological circle who discuss "what is socialism and how to build socialism" as an unsolved problem. Some people put forward various concepts and slogans of "socialism", such as "democratic socialism", "people's socialism", "constitutional socialism" and "market socialism", and tried their best to get into the "Socialism with Chinese characteristics" led by our Party. For example, "Socialism with Chinese characteristics, which we have practiced in recent years, is democratic socialism" and "Socialism with Chinese characteristics is people's socialism". These so-called "socialism" do not mention the four cardinal principles and ignore the socialist basic economic system with public ownership as the main body, which is totally incompatible with Socialism with Chinese characteristics. These "isms" are openly clamoring in our public media, which shows that we are truly open to "freedom of speech".
3. Is there a return to new democracy in Socialism with Chinese characteristics?
On the issue of China's development path, there is a saying recently that "Socialism with Chinese characteristics" means "returning to new democracy" and that the implementation of new democracy was successful before "1949" seized power. After seizing power, he abandoned new democracy and hastily built socialism, resulting in a fiasco. After 1978, he returned to the idea of building new democracy, and his success attracted worldwide attention. He also said, "This can be used to sum up the experience of the Republic of China in the past 60 years." [7] The author knows nothing about the essence of the transition from new democracy to socialism, completely negates the achievements of socialist revolution and construction in the first 30 years, and deliberately improves the success of the last 30 years to the return of new democracy. There are too many loopholes in these statements, so I don't want to analyze them in detail here. But we should pay attention to what he said: "Socialism with Chinese characteristics evolved from the primary stage of socialism, which is actually the return and development of new democracy." [8] This passage is specious, confusing and needs to be distinguished.
It should be said that the original intention of putting forward the "primary stage of socialism" in the resolution of the Sixth Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee is to correct the excessive demands in the socialist revolution and construction in the past, and to require one university, two universities and three purities to surpass the historical development stage in the ownership structure. After the "reform and opening up", in the name of "primary stage", these practices that are not suitable for the development of productive forces have been gradually corrected. The core or foundation of the "primary stage" theory is the coexistence and development of various ownership systems with public ownership as the main body, in which allowing the existence and development of private capital management is the key. As far as this article is concerned, the "primary stage of socialism" is indeed interlinked with the policy of "new democratic society".
1949, the Second Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee and the "* * * One Program" formulated before the founding of the People's Republic of China all stipulate that the "new democratic society" established after the victory of the revolution is a socio-economic form in which five economic components, including private capitalism, coexist, and point out that the enthusiasm of urban and rural capitalism should be used as long as possible to help develop social productive forces. Socialist transformation was inevitable at that time. However, due to the hasty and excessive transformation, private capital management completely disappeared from the late 1950s, and gradually resumed development after the loosening of policies in the early 1980s, and now it has become an integral part of Socialism with Chinese characteristics's economic structure. The theory of the primary stage of socialism provides the theoretical premise and basis for this change. In a sense, this change is indeed retrogressive, and some policies similar to new democracy have been implemented, especially the policy of treating private capital. However, we can't regard this necessary retreat in the reform as a return to new democracy, because the essence of the reform itself is the self-improvement of the socialist system, which was carried out on the basis of the socialist system established in the first 30 years, instead of overthrowing the socialist system established in the first 30 years and returning to the "new democratic society" once envisaged in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic.
4. Differences in policies towards non-public economy between the two periods.
Even in the field of private capital and non-public economy, the policies in the new period are different from those in the past "new democratic period". In short, according to the decision of the Second Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee and the "* * * same program", [9] in the "new democratic period", the policy of "using, restricting, transforming" and "controlling capital" was implemented for the private capital economy, encouraging and supporting private capital to operate businesses that are beneficial to the national economy and people's livelihood, while the lifeline of the national economy and businesses that can manipulate people's livelihood are all managed by the state, and private enterprises are also encouraged. These are all for the development of productive forces and the transition to socialism. Therefore, the general trend of economic development at that time was that the proportion of non-public economy such as private capital in the national economy gradually decreased, while the proportion of public economy gradually increased. This is also the natural destination of the new democratic economy.
The policy towards the non-public sector of the economy in the new period is quite different from that in the past "new democratic period". In a word, the current policy can be summarized as the six-character policy of "encouraging, supporting and guiding" in the period of new democracy without "restricting" and "controlling capital". Moreover, according to the "Document No.3 issued by the State Council in 2005", private capital is allowed to enter monopoly industries and other areas that are related to the lifeline of the national economy. It is not stipulated that private capital will develop into state capitalism, but state-owned enterprises are allowed to take demutualization and privatization as the reform goals. In a word, the policy of cracking down on the non-public economy in the new period is much looser than that in the new democratic period, and even somewhat opposite. Since the reform and opening up, private capital management has not only increased rapidly in absolute quantity, but also jumped all the way against the general trend of decline in the period of new democracy. This trend continues, and many people are worried that it will affect the dominant position of public ownership. There are reasons for the low starting point of the non-public economy in the early stage of reform, the background of class situation changes since the reform, the consideration of policy and strategy, and so on, which will not be discussed in this paper for the time being. In a word, there is no denying that the current policy is very different from that in the "new democratic period". At the same time, it should be said that the current policy towards the non-public economy cannot be separated from the premise of the socialist basic economic system with public ownership as the main body, and we should always consider adhering to the general direction of socialism. Unswervingly "encourage, support and guide" the development of the non-public economy, and we must not forget the word "guide". We should adjust policies in a timely manner according to the changes in specific conditions to promote the healthy development of the non-public economy. Therefore, it is totally untenable to say that Socialism with Chinese characteristics in the primary stage is the return of new democracy.
5. The Socialism with Chinese characteristics model in the world economic crisis.
With the strengthening of China's national strength and its participation in the globalization process, Socialism with Chinese characteristics has also stepped onto the world stage and become a hot topic as a model. Various parties have different interpretations of the China model. Personally, I think the core of Socialism with Chinese characteristics model is to allow the existence of capitalist factors and socialist factors, but at the same time adhere to the main position and development direction of socialism.
This is also the key to understand China's special performance in this world economic crisis. Why didn't the former Soviet Union, the first socialist country and China before the reform and opening up, get involved in the vortex of capitalist economic crisis in the past? It is because the Soviet Union and China only had socialism at that time, and there was no capitalist factor! Therefore, it is not disturbed by the cyclical economic crisis of capitalism. Why does the current world economic crisis involve China and bring unprecedented difficulties to China? In addition to falling too deeply into the export-oriented economy, it is mainly due to the deepening marketization and privatization of its own internal economy, which makes a large number of capitalist factors breed and the economic laws of capitalism also have an impact. Why did China perform quite well in this world economic crisis, outshining others, and was admired and praised by some capitalist countries? It is precisely because China made use of the ability of the socialist system, concentrated the national strength to do great things and adjusted the economy in a planned way. I analyzed this in another article, so I won't go into details.
Some people mistakenly call or distort Socialism with Chinese characteristics as a capitalist model, or even "capitalism under the leadership of the * * * Production Party", and allow capitalist factors to exist in the China model. I think this is groundless. Only by adhering to the distinctive socialist model, especially the socialist factors in this chess game, can China stand firm in the world economic crisis and better cope with it. We must adhere to Socialism with Chinese characteristics, adhere to the common development of multi-ownership economy with public ownership as the main body, adhere to the market-oriented reform under the guidance of national macro-plan, adhere to distribution according to work as the main body, pay more attention to social equity, and use the basic principles of socialism to oppose the privatization, marketization, liberalization and polarization of capitalism, so as to limit the role of capitalist countries and the laws of capitalist market economy to a certain extent. Only in this way can we not be disturbed by the laws of the capitalist economic cycle and maintain the socialist characteristics of China!