| Socialism with Chinese characteristics | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simplified Chinese | 中国特色社会主义 | ||||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 中國特色社會主義 | ||||||||||||||
| Hanyu Pinyin | Zhōngguó tèsè shèhuìzhǔyì | ||||||||||||||
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Socialism with Chinese characteristics (Chinese:中国特色社会主义;pinyin:Zhōngguó tèsè shèhuìzhǔyì;Mandarin pronunciation:[ʈʂʊ́ŋ.kwǒ tʰɤ̂.sɤ̂ ʂɤ̂.xwêɪ.ʈʂù.î] ⓘ) is a set of political theories and policies of theChinese Communist Party (CCP) that are seen by their proponents as representing aSinicization of Marxism.
The term was first established byDeng Xiaoping in 1982 and was largely associated with Deng's overall program of adopting elements ofmarket economics as a means to foster growth usingforeign direct investment and to increase productivity (especially in the countryside where 80% of China's population lived) while the CCP retained both its formal commitment to achievecommunism and its monopoly on political power.[1] In the party's official narrative, socialism with Chinese characteristics is Marxism adapted to Chinese conditions and a product ofscientific socialism. The theory stipulated that China was in theprimary stage of socialism due to its relatively low level ofmaterial wealth and needed to engage ineconomic growth before it pursued a moreegalitarian form ofsocialism, which in turn would lead to acommunist society described inMarxist orthodoxy.[2]
Socialism with Chinese characteristics consists of apath, atheoretical system, asystem, and aculture. The path outlines the policies guiding the CCP. The theoretical system consists ofDeng Xiaoping Theory,Three Represents (Jiang Zemin),Scientific Outlook on Development (Hu Jintao), andXi Jinping Thought. According to CCP doctrine, Xi Jinping Thought is considered to represent Marxist–Leninist policies suited for China's present condition while Deng Xiaoping Theory was considered relevant for the period when it was formulated. The system outlines the political system of China.
The term was first used by Chinese leaderDeng Xiaoping on 1 September 1982 in the opening speech of the12th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party.[3] Deng said "We must integrate the universal truth of Marxism with the concrete realities of China, and blaze a path of our own and build Socialism with Chinese Characteristics".[4] The19th Party National Congress in 2017 declared that China and the CCP entered a "new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics" in 2012, which it said was both consistent with and significantly different from the past nearly 40 years ofreform and opening up.[5]
According to theState Council Information Office (SCIO), socialism with Chinese characteristics is "premised on the fact that China is in the primary stage of socialism" and that all reform initiatives and aspects of China's work should be taken in that context.[6] The SCIO states that the "overall approach to building socialism with Chinese characteristics" is to "promote economic, political, cultural, social and ecological progress" with "economic development as its central pillar".[7] It also states the overall goal of socialism with Chinese characteristics is "socialist modernization and thegreat rejuvenation of the Chinese nation".[8]
Article 1 of the country'sconstitution states, "Leadership of the Communist Party of China is the defining feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics."[9][10] According to official explanations, socialism with Chinese characteristics consists of a "path", a "theoretical system", a "system", and a "culture":[4]
The concept of aprimary stage of socialism was conceived before thePeople's Republic of China introducedeconomic reforms.[14] In the early 1950s, economistsYu Guangyuan,Xue Muqiao andSun Yefang raised the question ofsocialist transformation in which China's economy of lowproductive force was in a transitional period, a position whichMao Zedong, theChairman of the Chinese Communist Party, endorsed briefly until 1957. When discussing the necessity of commodity relations at the 1stZhengzhou Conference (2–10 November 1958), for example, Mao said that China was in the "initial stage of socialism".[14] However, Mao never elaborated on the idea and his successors were left to do this.[14]
Some have called our road "Social Capitalism", others "State Capitalism", and yet others "Technocratic Capitalism". These are all completely wrong. We respond that socialism with Chinese characteristics issocialism, by which we mean that despite reform we adhere to thesocialist road – our road, our theory, our system, and the goals we set out at the18th National Party Congress. ... Socialism with Chinese characteristics is the dialectical unity of the theoretical logic of scientific socialism and the historical logic of China's social development. It'sscientific socialism rooted in Chinese realities, reflecting the will of Chinese people, and adapted to the requirements of China and its circumstances.
On 5 May 1978, the article "Putting into Effect the Socialist Principle of Distribution According to Work" (贯彻执行按劳分配的社会主义原则) elaborated on the idea that China was still at the first stage of reaching acommunist society[16] and that it had not become a truly socialist society.[16] The article was written by members in theState Council's Political Research Office led by economist Yu Guangyuan on the orders of Deng Xiaoping so as to "criticize and repudiate" the beliefs of thecommunist left.[17] After reading it, Deng himself authored a brief memo saying that it was "well-written, and shows that the nature of distribution by labor is notcapitalist, but socialist [...] [and] to implement this principle, many things are to be done, and many institutions to be revived. In all, this is to give incentives for us to do better".[18] The term reappeared at the 6th plenum of the11th Central Committee on 27 June 1981 in the document "Resolution on Certain Questions in the History of our Party since the Founding of the PRC".[19]Hu Yaobang, theCCP General Secretary, used the term in his report to the 12th National Congress on 1 September 1982.[19] It was not until the "Resolution Concerning the Guiding Principle in Building Socialist Spiritual Civilization" at the 6th plenum of the12th Central Committee that the term was used in the defense of the economic reforms which were being introduced.[19]
At the13th National Congress, acting General SecretaryZhao Ziyang on behalf of the 12th Central Committee delivered the report "Advance Along the Road of Socialism with Chinese characteristics".[20] He wrote that China was a socialist society, but that socialism in China was in its primary stage,[20] a Chinese peculiarity which was due to the undeveloped state of the country's productive forces.[20] During this phase of development, Zhao recommended introducing a planned commodity economy on the basis ofpublic ownership.[20] The main failure of the communist right according to Zhao was that they failed to acknowledge that China could reach socialism by bypassing capitalism. The main failure of the communist left was that they held the "utopian position" that China could bypass the primary stage of socialism in which the productive forces are to be modernized.[21]
On 5 October 1987, Yu Guangyuan, a major author of the concept, published an article entitled "Economy in the Initial Stage of Socialism" and speculated that this historical stage will last for two decades and perhaps much longer.[22] This represents, says Ian Wilson, "a severe blight on the expectations raised during the early 70s, when the old eight-grade wage scale was being compressed to only three levels and a more even distributive system was assumed to be an important national goal". On 25 October, Zhao further expounded on the concept of theprimary stage of socialism and said that the party line was to follow "One Center, Two Basic Points"—the central focus of the Chinese state was economic development, but that this should occur simultaneously through centralized political control (i.e. theFour Cardinal Principles) and upholding the policy of reform and opening up.[19]
General SecretaryJiang Zemin further elaborated on the concept ten years later, first during a speech to the CCPCentral Party School on 29 May 1997 and again in his report to the15th National Congress on 12 September.[19] According to Jiang, the 3rd plenum of the 11th Central Committee correctly analyzed and formulated a scientifically correct program for the problems facing China and socialism.[19] In Jiang's words, the primary stage of socialism was an "undeveloped stage".[19] The fundamental task of socialism is to develop the productive forces, therefore the main aim during the primary stage should be the further development of the national productive forces.[19] The primary contradiction in Chinese society during the primary stage of socialism is "the growing material and cultural needs of the people and the backwardness of production".[19] This contradiction will remain until China has completed the process of primary stage of socialism—and because of it—economic development should remain the party's main focus during this stage.[19]
Jiang elaborated on three points to develop the primary stage of socialism.[23] The first—to develop a socialist economy with Chinese characteristics—meant developing the economy by emancipating and modernizing the forces of production while developing amarket economy.[23] The second—building socialist politics with Chinese characteristics—meant "managing state affairs according to the law", developing socialist democracy under the party and making the "people the masters of the country".[23] The third point—building socialist culture with Chinese characteristics—meant turning Marxism into the guide to train the people so as to give them "high ideals, moral integrity, a good education, and a strong sense of discipline, and developing a national scientific, and popular socialist culture geared to the needs of modernization, of the world, and of the future".[23]
When asked about how long the primary stage of socialism would last, Zhao replied "[i]t will be at least 100 years [...] [before] socialist modernization will have been in the most part accomplished".[24] Thestate constitution states that "China will be in the primary stage of socialism for a long time to come".[25] As with Zhao, Jiang believed that it would take at least 100 years to reach a more advanced stage.[19]
What is socialism and what is Marxism? We were not quite clear about this in the past. Marxism attaches utmost importance to developing the productive forces. We have said that socialism is the primary stage of communism and that at the advanced stage the principle offrom each according to his ability and to each according to his needs will be applied. This calls for highly developed productive forces and an overwhelming abundance of material wealth. Therefore, the fundamental task for the socialist stage is to develop the productive forces. The superiority of the socialist system is demonstrated, in the final analysis, by faster and greater development of those forces than under the capitalist system. As they develop, the people's material and cultural life will constantly improve. One of our shortcomings after the founding of thePeople's Republic was that we didn't pay enough attention to developing the productive forces. Socialism means eliminating poverty. Pauperism is not socialism, still less communism.
Deng Xiaoping, the architect of theChinese economic reforms, did not believe that the market economy was synonymous with capitalism or thatplanning was synonymous with socialism.[27] During his southern tour, he said that "planning and market forces are not the essential difference between socialism and capitalism. A planned economy is not the definition of socialism, because there is planning under capitalism; the market economy happens under socialism, too. Planning and market forces are both ways of controlling economic activity".[27]
In the 1980s, it became evident to Chinese economists that the Marxist theory of thelaw of value—understood as the expression of thelabor theory of value—could not serve as the basis of China's pricing system.[28] They concluded that Marx never intended his theory of law of value to work "as an expression of 'concretized labor time'".[28] Marx's notion of "prices of production" was meaningless to theSoviet-styled planned economies since price formations were according to Marx established by markets.[29] Soviet planners had used the law of value as a basis to rationalize prices in the planned economy.[30] According to Soviet sources, prices were "planned with an eye to the [...] basic requirements of the law of value".[30] However, the primary fault with the Soviet interpretation was that they tried to calibrate prices without acompetitive market since according to Marx competitive markets allowed for anequilibrium ofprofit rates which led to an increase in theprices of production.[31] The rejection of the Soviet interpretation of the law of value led to the acceptance of the idea that China was still in the primary stage of socialism.[30] The basic argument was that conditions envisaged by Marx for reaching thesocialist stage of development did not yet exist in China.[30]
Mao said that the imposition of "progressiverelations of production" would revolutionize production.[32] His successor's rejection of this view according toA. James Gregor has thwarted the ideological continuity ofMaoism—officially Mao Zedong Thought.[32]Classical Marxism had argued that asocialist revolution would only take place in advancedcapitalist societies and its success would signal the transition from a capitalistcommodity-based economy to a "product economy" in which goods would be distributed for people's need and not for profit.[32] If because of a lack of a coherent explanation in the chance of failure this revolution did not occur, the revolutionaries would be forced to take over the responsibilities of thebourgeoisie.[32] Chinese communists are thus looking for a new Marxist theory of development.[32] CCP theorist Luo Rongqu recognized that the founders ofMarxism had never "formulated any systematic theory on the development of the non-Western world" and said that the CCP should "establish their own synthesized theoretical framework to study the problem of modern development".[33] According to A. James Gregor, the implication of this stance is that "Chinese Marxism is currently in a state of profound theoretical discontinuity".[34]
According to academics Xinru Ma and David C. Kang, socialism with Chinese characteristics is restricted to China itself and focuses on China's own ideology and practices.[35]: 181 Ma and Kang write that in its foreign relations with otherGlobal South countries, China does not attempt to export the ideology of Socialism with Chinese characteristics.[35]: 181
The Chinese government's understanding ofprivate ownership is claimed to be rooted in classical Marxism.[36] According to party theorists, since China adopted state ownership when it was asemi-feudal andsemi-colonial country, it is claimed to be in the primary stage of socialism.[36] Because of this, certain policies and system characteristics—such as commodity production for the market, the existence of aprivate sector and the reliance of theprofit motive in enterprise management—were changed.[36] These changes were allowed as long as they improved productivity and modernized themeans of production, thus furthering the development of socialism.[36]
The CCP still considers private ownership to be non-socialist.[37] However, according to party theorists, the existence and growth of private ownership does not necessarily undermine socialism or promote capitalism in China.[37] They argue thatKarl Marx andFriedrich Engels never proposed the immediate abolishment of private ownership.[37] According to Engels' bookPrinciples of Communism, theproletariat can only abolish private ownership when the necessary conditions have been met.[37] In the phase before the abolishment of private ownership, Engels proposed progressive taxation, high inheritance taxes and compulsory bond purchases to restrict private property, while using the competitive powers of state-owned enterprises to expand thepublic sector.[37] Marx and Engels proposed similar measures inThe Communist Manifesto with regard to advanced countries, but since China was economically undeveloped, party theorists called for flexibility regarding the party's handling of private property.[37] According to party theorist Liu Shuiyuan, theNew Economic Policy program initiated by Soviet authorities in the aftermath of thewar communism program is a good example of flexibility by socialist authorities.[37]
Party theorist Li Xuai said that private ownership inevitably involvedcapitalist exploitation.[37] However, Li regards private property and exploitation as necessary in the primary stage of socialism, stating that capitalism in its primary stage uses remnants of the old society to build itself.[37] Sun Liancheng and Lin Huiyong said that Marx and Engels—in their interpretation ofThe Communist Manifesto—criticized private ownership when it was owned solely by the bourgeoisie, but not individual ownership in which everyone owns the means of production, hence this cannot be exploited by others.[38] Individual ownership is considered consistent with socialism, since Marx wrote that apost-capitalist society would entail the rebuilding of "associated social individual ownership".[39]
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