Deng Xiaoping Theory (Chinese:邓小平理论;pinyin:Dèng Xiǎopíng Lǐlùn), also known asDengism,[1][2] is the series of political and economic ideologies first developed by Chinese leaderDeng Xiaoping.[3]: 1500 The theory does not rejectMarxism–Leninism orMaoism, but instead claims to be an adaptation of them to the existing socioeconomic conditions of China.[4][5]
Thepolitical report of the14th CCP National Congress of the introduced the concept of "Comrade Deng Xiaoping's Theory of Building Socialism with Chinese Characteristics". It also retained the terms "theory of socialism with Chinese characteristics," "path of socialism with Chinese characteristics," "cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics," and "great banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics". In February 1997, afterDeng Xiaoping's death. In his eulogy, Jiang Zemin reiterated that Deng Xiaoping was the "founder of the theory of building socialism with Chinese characteristics," continued to use the term "Deng Xiaoping's theory of building socialism with Chinese characteristics." Jiang redefined the, emphasizing that it "is the guiding ideology of the Chinese Communist Party and the spiritual pillar of the Chinese nation", explicitly designating "Deng Xiaoping's theory of building socialism with Chinese characteristics" as the Party's guiding ideology. The15th CCP National Congress began using the term "Deng Xiaoping Theory" and enshrined it as the Party's guiding ideology in theParty Constitution.[9]
In 1992, the report of the 14th CCP National Congress summarized the main contents of Deng Xiaoping Theory into nine points:[10]
"On the path of socialist development, we emphasize following our own path, not treating books as dogma, not copying foreign models, taking Marxism as our guide, taking practice as the sole criterion for testing truth, emancipating our minds, seeking truth from facts, respecting the pioneering spirit of the masses, and building socialism with Chinese characteristics."
"On the issue of the stages of socialist development, it made the scientific conclusion that China is still in the primary stage of socialism, emphasizing that this is a very long historical stage of at least a hundred years, and that all policies and guidelines must be based on this basic national condition and cannot be divorced from reality or exceed the stage."
"On the fundamental task of socialism, it points out that the essence of socialism is to liberate and develop productive forces, eliminate exploitation, eliminate polarization, and ultimately achieve common prosperity. It emphasizes that the principal contradiction in Chinese society at the present stage is the contradiction between the people's growing material and cultural needs and the backward social production. Therefore, developing productive forces must be given top priority, with economic construction as the central task, to promote comprehensive social progress. Ultimately, the judgment of the merits and demerits of all aspects of work should be based on whether it is conducive to developing the productive forces of socialist society, whether it is conducive to enhancing the comprehensive national strength of the socialist state, and whether it is conducive to improving the people's living standards. Science and technology are the primary productive forces, and economic construction must rely on scientific and technological progress and the improvement of the quality of the workforce."
"On the issue of the driving force of socialist development, it is emphasized that reform is also a revolution, a liberation of productive forces, and an inevitable path to China's modernization; stagnation and rigidity lead nowhere. The goal of economic system reform is to establish and improve a socialist market economy system based on upholding public ownership and distribution according to work as the mainstay, supplemented by other economic components and distribution methods. The goal of political system reform is to develop socialist democracy, with the improvement of the people's congress system and the system of multi-party cooperation and political consultation under the leadership of the Communist Party as its main components. In line with economic and political reforms and development, socialist spiritual civilization is being built with the goal of cultivating individuals who are 'idealistic, moral, cultured, and disciplined.'"
"On the issue of external conditions for socialist construction, it was pointed out that peace and development are the two major themes of the contemporary world, and that an independent and peaceful foreign policy must be upheld to strive for a favorable international environment for China's modernization. It was emphasized that opening up to the outside world is indispensable for reform and development, and that all advanced achievements of civilization created by countries around the world, including developed capitalist countries, should be absorbed and utilized to develop socialism; isolation can only lead to backwardness."
"On the issue of political guarantees for socialist construction, it is emphasized that we must adhere to the socialist road, uphold the people's democratic dictatorship, uphold the leadership of the Communist Party of China, and adhere to Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought. These four basic principles are the foundation of the nation, the guarantee for the healthy development of reform and opening up and modernization, and have gained new contemporary meaning from reform and opening up and modernization."
"Regarding the strategic steps of socialist construction, it was proposed that modernization be achieved in three steps. In the long process of modernization, opportunities should be seized to strive for several stages of relatively rapid development and high efficiency, advancing to a new level every few years.Poverty is not socialism, and simultaneous prosperity is impossible; therefore, it is necessary to allow and encourage some regions and some people to get rich first, so as to drive more and more regions and people to gradually achievecommon prosperity."
"On the issue of the leading force and the forces relied upon in socialism, it is emphasized that the Communist Party, as the vanguard of the working class, is the core of leadership in the socialist cause. The Party must adapt to the needs of reform and opening up and modernization, continuously improve and strengthen its leadership over all aspects of work, and improve and strengthen its own construction. The Party's conduct and its ties with the masses are matters of life and death for the Party. It must rely on the broad masses of workers, peasants, and intellectuals ; it must rely on the unity of all nationalities; and it must rely on the broadest united front of all socialist laborers, patriots who support socialism, and patriots who support the reunification of the motherland. The people's army, led by the Party, is the defender of the socialist motherland and an important force in building socialism."
On the issue of national reunification, the creative concept of "one country, two systems" was put forward. Under the premise of one China, the mainland adheres to the socialist system, while Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan maintain their original capitalist systems unchanged for a long period of time. The great cause of peaceful reunification of the motherland is advanced in accordance with this principle."
Although Deng Xiaoping Theory advocates reforming the purely public ownership of production relations to integrate private ownership, transforming the highly centralized planned economy into a market economy, and ultimately aiming to liberate and develop productive forces, it also emphasizes that public ownership of production relations and Marxism-guided ideology must maintain a dominant position from the outset. Furthermore, Deng Xiaoping Theory insists on upholding the Four Cardinal Principles to ensure the country does not peacefully evolve into capitalism and opposes bourgeois liberalization and its ideology.[10]
Drawing inspiration from Lenin'sNew Economic Policy,[11] Deng's theory encouraged the construction of socialism within China by having it develop"Chinese characteristics",[12] which was guided by China's economic reform policy with the goal of self-improvement and the development of a socialist system. His theory did not suggest improvement or development of China's closed economic system, but rather, overthrowing the existing economic system for a more open one.[13]
Deng saw domestic stability as an important factor in economic development - "In China, the overriding need is for stability. Without a stable environment, we can accomplish nothing and may even lose what we have gained". He added that "stability is the basic premise for reform and development. Without stability nothing can be achieved".[14] During thereform and opening up, Deng criticized those he deemed as the ideologues of the Cultural Revolution for seeking "poor socialism" and "poor communism" and believing that communism was a "spiritual thing".[15] In 1979, Deng stated, "Socialism cannot endure if it remains poor. If we want to uphold Marxism and socialism in the international class struggle, we have to demonstrate that the Marxist system of thought is superior to all others, and that the socialist system is superior to capitalism".[16]
China largely owes its economic growth to Deng Xiaoping's emphasis on economic production, under thetheory of the productive forces – a subset of 20th centuryMarxist theory. In the view of Deng, the task faced by the leadership of China was twofold: (i) promoting modernization of the Chinese economy, and (ii) preserving the ideological unity of theChinese Communist Party (CCP) and its control of the difficult reforms required by modernization.[17] Deng believed that "only by constantly developing the productive forces can a country gradually become strong and prosperous, with a rising standard of living."[18]
Deng argued that due to the isolation of China in the international order of the time and an extremely underdeveloped economy, in order for China to achieve socialism and to bridge the gap between China and Western capitalism, China would have to borrow certain market elements and aspects ofcapitalism into its economy.[19] However, he also suggested that its usage would have to be state-controlled. These borrowed principles, in Deng's mind, allowed a more liberal interpretation of China's modernization into a socialist state. This includes marketing characteristics such as planning, production, and distribution that could be interpreted as socialism.[20] Modernization efforts were generalized by the concept of theFour Modernizations, set forth byZhou Enlai in 1963 and continued byHua Guofeng after 1976, to improve agriculture, industry, national defense, and science and technology in China.[21] Dengists still believe that public ownership of land, banks, raw materials, and strategic central industries is necessary so that a democratically elected government can allocate them for the benefit of the country as a whole; but at the same time, private ownership is allowed and encouraged in industries of finished goods and services.[22][23][24] According to the Dengist theory, private owners in those industries are not abourgeoisie, because in accordance with Marxist theory, the bourgeois owns land and raw materials. In Dengist theory, private company owners are called civil run enterprises.[25]
In 1992, fourteen years after Deng had become China's leader, he embarked on a tour of southern China (南巡).[28] During this trip he uttered his famous phrase: "Open up" (开放). "Open up" would be the foundation for China's economic development up until the present day.[citation needed]
Deng Xiaoping Theory downplays the Maoist focus onclass struggle on the basis that that struggle would become an obstacle to China's economic development.[30] It maintains that it upholds communism, the dictatorship of the proletariat, leadership of the Communist Party, Marxism–Leninism, and Mao Zedong Thought.[30] Under this view, upholding Mao Zedong Thought does not mean blindly imitating Mao's actions without much deviation as seen in the government ofHua Guofeng, and that doing so would "contradict Mao Zedong Thought".[31]
The Deng Xiaoping theory played a crucial role in transforming China from its previouslystate-ownedcommand economy to asocialist market economy, which resulted in a rapid increase in economic growth within the country, known as the "Chinese economic miracle".[33]
It has increased the Chinese GDP growth rate to over 8% per year for thirty years and China now has the second largest economy by nominal GDP in the world. Due to the influence of Dengism, Vietnam and Laos have also adopted similar beliefs and policies, allowing Laos to increase its real GDP growth rate to 8.3%.[34]
Having served as the CCP's major policy guide since the Third Plenum of the 11th CCP National Congress in 1978, the theory was entrenched into the Communist Party's Constitution as a guiding ideology in 1997, and was also subsequently written into theConstitution of the People's Republic of China:
Since the Third Plenum of the 11th CPC Central Committee, the Chinese Communists, represented mainly by Comrade Deng Xiaoping, have summed up both the positive and negative experiences gained since the founding of New China, implemented the principle of emancipating the mind and seeking truth from facts, shifted the focus of the Party's work to economic development, introduced reform and opening, ushered in a new period for the development of the socialist cause, gradually formed the line, principles, and policies on building socialism with Chinese characteristics, expounded the basic issues concerning building, consolidating, and developing socialism in China, and created Deng Xiaoping Theory. Deng Xiaoping Theory is a product of the integration of the basic theory of Marxism–Leninism with the practice of modern China and the characteristics of the present era, the inheritance and development of Mao Zedong Thought under new historical conditions, a new stage of the development of Marxism in China, Marxism of modern China, and the crystallization of the collective wisdom of the CPC, guiding the cause of China's socialist modernization steadily forward.[37]
^Huang, Yibing, ed. (2020).An Ideological History of the Communist Party of China. Qian Zheng, Guoyou Wu, Xuemei Ding, Li Sun, Shelly Bryant (1st English ed.). Montreal, Quebec: Royal Collins.ISBN978-1-4878-0425-1.OCLC1165409653.
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